Modern Vespa

though the orange bastard had seized ..... nope ..... it gave out a god awful metal grinding scream n then died doing 40ish up hill as I went from 3rd to 4th .... when I did a tiny kick it was as if the rings had done one .....
pulled head off (ooeer) n nowt its like new .... bores smooth n pistons clean .... took off clutch cover n span flywheel n all good there so not woodruff .... didnt have me fly puller so havnt checked behind there yet ....

did put it back together n fired it up n after a couple of farts it just about ticks on full chat

so before I split it any ideas anyone? cheerz

when you were in at the clutch... did you look at / feel around behind for the retaining ring and backplate? Kind of sounds a bit like what happened when my cosa 2 bust out its backside. Looked fine from the front, but if you rooted around the side and behind it became obvious

Shift cross come unscrewed from selector?

cruciform? dont it tighten as it goes

no didnt get behind the clutch as didnt have the time n needed me tool ..... only had 2hrs before they shut me works factory n needed the wheel on to put it back in the corner

thanx peeps ..... i mean frog n voodoo .... but i still dont know what it was .... pulled the clutch n thats cool so put that back ....
pulled flywheel to check timing as me mate said it was worth checking as its easy to do .... ok ....
havent been inside but it runs n seems to run ok .... had a ride round the factory n it does the do ..... didnt go out as it was pissing it down .....

so im still lost n dont want that noise again..... so still looking for ideas so if you know scooters and wanna part with ya knowledge ill be grateful

is it just me, or does anyone else think 'uh oh' when they see a thread started by Bitsa titled 'ideas'?

Ha ha, once again Rob comes up w/ a great response!

While it didn't even try to answer the specific question asked, I don't think Bitz minds & probably got a good chuckle as well. Me, I just made sure there were no children or sensitive ladies looking over my shoulder when I clicked it. Always up for one of his 'ideas' but sadly this time he was looking for, not offering.

So here's one idea: Bitz, forgot to ask if you've checked your gear oil for any metal debris.

I just had an experience similar to his on my tired old Cosa, but more like scraping than grinding & motor stopped VERY quickly. I had just replaced a well worn stock cylinder w/ one freshly rebored to first over, new first over rings(plenty of ring gap) but a rather sketchy used first over piston.

Similar inspection to what he's done revealed only a small speck of aluminum on the cylinder wall(so looks like I probably had a 'minor' seize) and also discovered that my Cosa was running a P200 clutch(first time I ever needed to look & clutch does perform fine so far). I smoothed the piston a bit more where the aluminum was in the cylinder, scraped/sanded the aluminum spec out of the cylinder & it now seems to run fine like Bitz's does now, but meantime I'll be looking for a new piston(out of stock when I replaced the cylinder) before I leave the neighborhood on it.


Bonus: Found that my axle nut, while not loose, wasn't tight either.

Good luck, Bitz - Hope it makes it home OK when the weather clears. Such a beauty scoot and you've put in a lot of work & cash. PLEASE don't find an expensive problem!

I've been meaning to ask about this - how could it "not be tight" if the cotter pin was still in place and complete? Seems to me the torque spec has a range of safe tightness around it, such that some nut movement within the range allowable by a cotter pin should still be well within the "tight enough"/safe zone. Is this not true?

(sorry bitza for brief hijack)

youd think so frogman but regular checking is needed

So true!.. hahaha..

i did get me gear oil out but went n left it at home so i didnt check the oil .... was gonna but now that work has become me garage its getting hard to do stuff .... although its alot warmer n undercover .... toasty ....
me heads like a sieve

next on me list if drain oil n filter it for metal then if i hit gold so to speak ill be splitting


didnt realise 'ideas' for a title would warn people off ... though ' had to rip me head off after screaming' would definitely