Modern Vespa

Yeah, the gas tank in my Sprint decided to spring a leak a few months ago. Many welding attempts and a few explosions later, I finally fixed it.

And speaking of explosions and my Sprint, the clutch top hat decided to explode today as I was leaving the liquor store, so I got to push it the 3/4 mile or so home. Mostly uphill, of course.

I was afraid the clutch had spun loose, so I was happy to see that it was just the top hat and pressure plate. Clutch itself looked great, I just had the clutch cable too tight.

Fixed it, then had a guy turn left into my lane and almost flatten me on the test ride.

Designed this mixing cup years ago and finally got it made

Today I took a detour home from visiting family and most of a scooter just jumped into my trunk. It was inexplicable.

Fortunately just a hitchhiker headed to Seattle…

Got to talk shop with a real live scooterist, though; an elusive creature, which I've only rarely encountered in the wild.

What's that setup for mirrors over headlight about? Does it help with vibrations?

Greek made "halos" in black or chrome. Almost every Vespa here had one. Helps with vibrations, guards the headlight and you can also mount a flyscreen along with the mirrors…

Very cool.

Went to Chicago last week. No scooter wrenching, but I did have a project: my uncle's '63 Seeburg LPC-1 jukebox. I was snagging bits of time between visiting with relatives with the goal of trying to get it to play again for him.

No B-Sides though. I'll need to refurbish the TCC-1 module to get that bit working. Debating sourcing a spare unit and rebuilding it, then having a relative swap it out or just bringing better tools and rebuilding the old on on-site.

My aunt picked out the jukebox in the early '80s and along with the basement bar, this thing was quite literally the hearth of their home. It quit working just before they moved to their last home and my aunt passed shortly after from a metastasized cancer. All the work was worth it watching my uncle tear up when he was able to play one of "their" songs again.

Today, the GL got some love. I took a look at the clutch, expecting to see mushroomed clutch plates, but they were in great shape. Clutch seems a little dry overall, either from not getting ridden enough or needing extra oil. It also needs a new clutch cable, which is easy enough.

I finally got around to buying a 15' length of 1/8" steel cable at the hardware store so I can just pull the new cable through behind the old one rather than messing with trying to tape them together and having them inevitably come apart in the fork tube or tunnel. Only took me 20 years.

And as long as I was at it, I'm gave myself a present of a pinion gear clutch arm and plunger and a snakehead cap for the carb.

That's excellent work! The whole design of it is kind of trippy. "We'll just fire a 300V spike into the backend to tell it which record to play." I see nothing dangerous about this at all...

Yeah, it works but the implementation seems pretty haphazard. Looking for a pic of the record selector/player. Aside from getting the TCC-1 to provide usable voltage and getting the APU to write the selections to the TMU (memory unit), the getting the damn record unit de-gunked, realigned and cleaning/gapping the contactors so it would lift/load the record properly was a proper pain in the ass.

As a child of the transistor era, the circuit diagrams made a mockery of the reality within and the fiddliness of the electro-mechanicals was impressive.

And yet, they made thousands of them and they worked for years and years with little or no maintenance--most of them in the worst possible operating environments: all sorts of smoke and dust.

Which pusher/top hat thingy will you use with that?

That machine is fantastic!
Loved this.

It seems odd to be fixing old electronics and obsolete computer stuff when today it's just toss it out and get a better new one & so often cheaper too. But that thing is an electro-mechanical marvel that seems to be just getting into the computer age.

Lots of fond memories here myself, older machines but still magical. There were some you could operate from a console at your booth in the soda shop. Good on you for having the skills & patience to fix it, and giving your Uncle a favorite old memory back!

Want to see how they make scooter wheels?
WOMP!
WOMP!
WOMP!

I just saw this and thought it was worth sharing:

What a fantastic story AZ. And that box is crazy cool. I have a friend in Brooklyn that has a few different machines and does prop rentals with them. He's as obsessed with jukeboxes as we are with Vespas.

(His prized box is filled with rare ska and punk singles. Too damn cool.)

It's a set. The top hat is the rack and the clutch arm tip converts to a pinion gear. They basically copied the (massively superior) PK XL2 clutch arm/plunger design for the largeframe. now we know what Ned is going to be doing once he gets KITT finished up...tunes for the workshop! (He actually has a pretty bangin' sound system already, it just lacks the panache of a proper retro jukebox).

I had always assumed those jukeboxes used electro-mechanical step switches, with one for each digit. I like your friend already (Scooter wheels start a 16 minutes, for those of you who don't get mesmerized by this sort of thing)

That's some SERIOUS Safety...I dunno...17th? right there. Good to see they all have on their steel-toed safety sandals, at least.

Having done some factory work, I feel for those guys making door/cabinet pulls at the 8 minute mark. Nothing teaches you how much you want to stay in school like high-speed manufacturing work.

You haven't Not Lived until you've done jobs like spending a summer checking and adjusting voltage of micro-pototentiometers 3,000 times per day.

And those guys in the plate shop are all 100% going to die of cancer unless an industrial accident gets them first.

I need this in a headlight form factor...

https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1693654590720299383?s=20

Thought this was kinda interesting with the clear clutch cover and seeing the amount of oil getting flung around.

So anyone who hesitates to mill the cover can rest assured.

Not sure what the pink thing is doing, maybe to stop people getting their leg drilled into, but hey, it's SEA.

FedEx: when it absolutely, positively has to get stuck due to an Operational Delay.

They were like half the cost of UPS for shipping. I'm getting what I paid for, I guess.

No A+ First Rate Shipping for me.

SIP?

Can't really blame them, half of Europe is on holiday…

Yup. I'm not blaming them for FedEx sucking, though.

Sorry I meant can't really blame fedex (well you can… but)

Doesn't surprise me if they're short staffed.

But I like blaming SIP though… they really need to get more info on their products correct… lol

LOL! I'm all about laying blame where blame is due. And while SIP may have room for improvement, things are so much better than they used to be in terms of parts being available at all that I try to give them the benefit of the doubt whenever possible.

I mean, they're running entire third party supply chains for dozens of different bikes. That's pretty damn impressive and doesn't get enough recognition.

It is impressive, just the number of parts they stock. I am super glad they're around.

No way in a million years would previous builds be possible without they're catalog.

I get that every time I order from them. It shows up 2 days later usually.

And still better than DHL

Now you're just talking crazy!

I'd love to see specific part info, perhaps in the first paragraph in bold, and the very general stuff after that. And reviews on the actual item page.
But yes, they are better than most of the opposition on that score.

Not better than SCK for shipping though, somehow they seem (in my experience) to have cheaper deals.

Entrusting it to a hobo hopping a westbound train would probably be better than DHL.

Hey, easy on hobos.

Well, the hobos seem to have come through. Package showed up today with goodies to keep me busy this weekend.

The snakehead for my non-screw top PWK is 3D-printed. I'll be interested to see how it holds up over time. The pinion clutch arm/plunger I expect will be a marked improvement over the current clutch experience of my superstrong clutch. Especially, based on my Smallie experience, when holding it at lights, etc.

And it's not pictured, but I finally got a new valve stem for the GL's front wheel, having tracked down a leak in its base that I've lived with for longer than I care to admit.

They hold up much better than they look to be honest. I don't think you'll have too many issues there, although the thread on the cable adjuster is not particularly sturdy. I suggest don't wind it out very far - I'm using an in-line adjuster instead.

Which wheels do you have on your GL? I just replaced the valve stem on a Pinasco rim as it was cracked and leaking, think I got replacements from ebay at less than $10 for two rather than pay $34 for a valve and new bolts from Pinasco.

I have the pinasco split rims on the GL. I wasn't sure the size of the stem to just order it, plus wanted the new o-ring, so I paid up for the full set. It's not like I won't use a bunch of M8 hardware, after all.

I'm much more excited about the snakehead than I should be. Now that I have it, I'm thinking about how I can fab one out of aluminum, too, and may do that just on principle. Plus, it'll have an actual pulley for the bend in my curren mental model.

Tomorrow will be the GL getting the love, and I need to spend some time properly dialing in the carb for the Malossi box, but that's a lot more work when it's hot AF out, even if I know I'm leaving power on the table.

I just used my last o-ring on the Pinasco rims and am wondering if it's a standard thing carried by a bearing shop or something - probably not. Yes! An actual pulley would be a bit nicer, but really it's not that bad as is.

I wonder if you could use one of these bearings to allow the top to swivel?

I have a few CMD 3D printed ones… they're bulletproof, worked as prescribed. I had doubt before as how good could the internals be? But the cable goes it with a bit of a fight and it's fairly smooth.

I tried the super expensive mmw one for the VHSH carb, even with a brass guide and a super smooth bearing, I couldn't make it work. It's like the carb arc was just not right… maybe would work with a different cable.

I always wanted to try the AT ones. They seem a great price. Let us know if it works!

The AT is 3D printed and I'm hopeful that it'll work. Seems to have been printed assembled and while it's rough finish, it feels pretty solid for only weighing a few grams.

I've struggled with getting the throttle cable routed properly from the PWK on this motor for the ten or more years I've run one on it. A traditional right angle guide sticks up too high and hits the cowl, which invariably causes the carb to come loose from the manifold on bumps until it eventually just breaks off.

Can you use a longer rear shock spacer...something like an 1" longer? If so, it would put the cable further away from the cowl.

Today my SS180 was on the ground for the first time since at least 2019. A brother conveniently dropped by and we lifted it down, only to discover that the stand doesn't reach the ground. 4X2 blocks are doing the job.

Finally all together, and ready to test ride!