Modern Vespa

Starting a new thread here to focus on clutch portion of this thread, and hopefully get fresh eyes....
Tire dismount and possible clutch noise
So in follow up, I put back in the original clutch and here's what happened. I put the gear box in second, rotated a few times through a compression cycle, and then strapped down the clutch lever and moved through one cycle on the kickstart. The clutch was immediately disengaged. I then began to rotate the rear wheel. At first it rotated okay but with a small steady ticking sound, not the same sound I heard at coasting. That sound quickly but gradually went away and the wheel became increasingly difficult to rotate, eventually to the resistance I was seeing with the bgm clutch installed, and exhibiting the same noise I first started with, which seems to be in the lower end of the case, not in the clutch area. I did manual rotating this for a few minutes.
Pulled the cover back off, pulled the orig clutch back out, inspected, nothing strange. Though, and not sure it's related, I noticed that while in neutral if i turn the hub the Cush gear stays in place, if turn the Cush gear the hub will rotate.
Something related to disengaging the clutch is causing resistance in the rear wheel. I can't imagine this is normal but does anyone feel like testing this?

Hey Wire.. I may be a little slow right now, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what's going on.. I'm sorry man, I'm not sure if I'm tired or what.. but I'm not sure I follow..

So.. is the "problem" you're having that when you pull the clutch lever in and disengage the clutch, it's difficult to turn the wheel by hand?

If so, this isn't a problem.. it's just how it is.. the wet clutch will still have drag and give resistance even with the lever pulled all the way in.. That's why it's much easier to push a bike in Neutral than it is to push it in gear with the clutch pulled in..

As for funny noises.. that's hard to say.. they all make noises with and without the clutch pulled in.. gear teeth meshing together, flyweel spinning around. it's all relatively noisy..

When it's all put together and running.. with the new clutch.. and you're riding the bike... what is the exact problem? (I'm sorry to make you do it again.. if you don't want to I understand.. I'm just trying to understand what the problem is.. is it just the noise? does it shift badly? does the clutch slip under power? when you're in neutral does the bike move? when you're in gear and you have the clutch lever pulled does the bike move? (you don't need to answer all of those.. they're just examples)

Sorry if I'm just missing it... (could very well be)

no worries vader...understood, i have jumped around a bit. the 'problem' as you've stated it is correct, and exactly what I started to wonder yesterday is whether I was making something out of nothing. In two previous old vespas I've not noticed such a noise while coasting in gear, so maybe in a paranoid way 5 weeks out from CBR maybe i am overly concerned. and, i have never had reason to test the mobility of the rear wheel when in gear so had nothing to compare against. it was never so much that it was a funny noise as much as the unexpected resistance of trying to turn the wheel. the noise itself was not horrible, it just seemed odd that i could not turn the wheel by hand when the clutch was disengaged. the unexpected noise led me to try to diagnose something. there was never any problem riding in terms of clutch operation, it was smooth, clean, not jumping, not slipping, not creeping, and not noisy best i could tell. it was only when i decided to kill the engine at 50mph that i noticed a noise different than what I've heard before on other scoots.

Hey Wire, I'm a little bit thrown by the description as well. And not sure if a video would help either? As far as noises go, a stethescope might be useful or failing that, I sometimes use a screwdriver with my ear against the handle and the blade against the case. It's useful for getting a closer location on a noise.

One thing I did read the other day on Scooterotica was this below. I notice you do say the BGM is 0.3mm taller than the original, I wonder if it is touching somewhere you haven't noticed yet... Jack is using the clutch cover spacer. I am assuming here that the MMW Superstrong and BGM Superstrong are in fact the same thing.

Is everything OK with a "stock" clutch?

So...just rounded out 140 miles after putting it all back together. She's way better than it was, nothing I would consider abnormal now. Given the comparison, what I was feeling last week was definately not normal. Something was binding up or making contact. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what fixed the problem, but it could be either or all of the following g three things:
- disassembled the bgm clutch, oiled the corks overnight, and a little grease on the spacer. Corks looked spotty dry when I pulled it apart and it had been running in the oiled engine for at least 100 miles. I would not suggest taking bgm's 'plug and play' line so literally.
- removed a small amount of extra material in the cover, not because It looked suspect, just because.
- took it apart twice and put it back together.

So...on to the next find. Thanks all for chipping in

Pretty much goes for any performance stuff.. there's always something that needs to be modified.. some small, and some "plug/play" are a boatload of work...

I'm glad it sorted itself out, or you sorted it out.. that's good news Wire!