Modern Vespa

Also, I fabricated a quick n' dirty prototype needle holder for my PWK (or any side draft carb, really) out of some scrap 1/16th-ish plywood.

I printed out the needle chart and glued it to the top piece of wood, then drilled holes for each needle. I did two layers with holes, then a base plate to keep them from falling through.

I need more m4 nuts to hold all the plates in place, and assuming it's actually useful, I'll probably re-do it in something sturdier (and which has sides and a lid), but being able to see the needles on the chart really helps me visualize which needle I should swap to for any given change.

Cool visual for sorting/finding

Just add it to that container with assorted mysterious bolts, o-rings, washers, old spark plugs, used electrical connectors, damaged carb jets, seals, screws, springs, shelf holders, small wooden items, curtain bits, damaged brass components, wire etc... one day you will work it out.

Super good!

But seeing a lot of overly rich needles… lol

Ignored the ET3 to fix the rear brake on the P. Battery was also dead so put it on the charger to see if we can revive it.

Sent it.

It did put up a bit of a fight, but it's on the road and running decently. Cooling system seems OK, even.

Had to dismantle the headlamp to fix it, only to find it had been previously screwed with. Broken plastics in the headset, but the nonsense that's there will serve for now.

Out of the shop as a rally loaner for the weekend. Hopefully it will behave itself.

Finally solved the annoying carb problems I have been dealing with for a while by tightening up the positive connection at the coil and a wonky ground on the stator.

Rode the Smallstate to meet friends for lunch and noticed that it was even louder than usual. And lean. Really lean.

After I got home, I took a look to see what was up and found that the exhaust was loose from the header.

Luckily I had a spare gasket and was able to sort it out, but what a PITA.

I need to get some of that gasket material for the next time it happens.

Brass nuts?

The whole design kind've sucks. You can only get a ball end Allen wrench into the cylinder bolts. No hex head or flange nut possible. They just put the bolts a couple millimeters too close together.

It's not much better on the exhaust header. Not enough room for anything but an Allen bolt, but at least you can get the straight end in it.

If you can change the bolts for studs . Use some kind of brass nuts and brass washers that fit. It will most likely not come undone.
Or check it more often. Uphill battle with high rpm though.

You can't swap that whole thing for a regular steel stub on the cylinder can you? Use springs and do away with the gasket? Seems to overly complicate things. Or was designed by a Lambretta enthusiast (actually I just said that twice didn't I?).

Things look suuuuuuper tight on that exhaust… hmmm must be another way. If not, I doubt you can torque those bolts down enough.

Glad the motor and rider didn't suffer.

It will get tight enough with an adequate amount of fiddling and profanity, but eventually it works its way loose.

The Allen bolts are the only ones that have enough clearance to fit in there at all, and even then, you can see where I had to dremel out the flange to even get a ball end wrench onto the righthand bolt.

Adding to the nightmare that is the engineering of this whole mess, that effectively a load-bearing bolt, too, because the exhaust is only supported by one other bolt down by the swingarm, so it's getting yanked on every time I go over a bump.

I'm thinking that the SaFis safety wire approach is the winning play. I'll have to drill holes in a couple of allen bolts for that, which will be a PITA, but worth it if it works and less permanent than tack welding the damn things in place.

Sorry, you probably get me though, I meant tight for space…

There's no room for anything… how are you suppose to fit the Allen wrench in that spot and get a decent enough grip, without snapping a tool?

Those screws need around 15nm at least.

Baffled on how the design meeting of that went…

I knew what you meant. Without Dremeling, it's basically impossible to get the righthand one tightened. It's still damn near impossible with Dremeling. I could maybe cut down an Allen wrench short enough to fit in there, but that'd be an absolute last resort.

I've done this a few times and it works fine. Some keys don't have a sharp enough bend in them to get them really short. Ball end keys are great.

I found a random 8mm Allen wrench in the workshop today and it will be getting the cutoff wheel treatment next time I have to touch those bolts.

Meanwhile, I also drilled a hole in one bolt so I can safety wire it. I broke the drill bit shortly thereafter. Maybe I need to ask Santa for a drill press this year.

It was all worthwhile, though. I took the Smallie out when I shipped Voo doo's legshield tool to SdJohn, which I think SoCal sent to me, asking with a stop at the liquor store. It buzzed along happy as could be on the highway. Screw in CHT never went above 280f doing 60-ish, which was all traffic would allow. AFR was a consistent 13.7, so I think I'm ready to declare carb victory and put the AFR back on in the shelf.

Elsewhere in the herd, I determined that what I thought were fuel delivery issues with the GL was actually a fouled plug. As usual, carb problems were electrical.

And maybe strangest of all, the first new plug I installed was DOA out of the box. That's never happened to me before. NGK let me down.

All in all, a nice late fall day messing with scoots. Neighbors suitably annoyed, many wheelies popped, and everything finished the day less broken than it started.

What more can I ask for?

After two case-splitting episodes I solved my mystifying "kickstart slightly dangles at top of travel and bounces into engagement when I hit bumps" problem on my P200. So obvious in retrospect! An aftermarket kickstart return spring had the bend that goes in the notch on the quadrant too far forward, leading to very low tension on the lever at the top of travel. I installed a piaggio spring, and man, what a beast to twist into place! But now my kickstart lever snaps to attention in proper fashion.

Titan 260cc from Zeus. Don't care for the kit but I WANT that fan cover and cowl

It's an air diffusion system

It's a pretty impressive looking cowl. Would be interesting to know what cooling effect it had. I looked at the post but didn't find many actual details on the kit. Like is it their own case? I usually find that with this type of post the responses are always 'bravo' and never what, why how and where?

I ordered some cheap exhaust manifold gaskets off amazon. Perfect fit around the exhaust opening, but will need some cutting and holes punched for actual fit.

Still, for $1 each, I can work with that next time I need one.

Prepared to be rejetting? Lol…

Just saying……

We'll see. I had a spare gasket I was able to use to get back on the road. This will be for if or when that one fails.

I'm using gasket and sealant on all areas attached to the cylinder. It's all held up so far (famous last words).

Yours might be a better situation than mine, looking back at old photos, my surfaces on an iron cylinder aren't great. Really should've flattened those properly. But 4 pressure tests later… seemed to be ok.

Looks like this would work.

A bit too modern scooter looking for my tastes.

I'm using just hi temp RTV from the cylinder to exhaust flange, then the gasket with RTV between the flange and the exhaust. Except for the two times that it's come loose, leaks haven't been an issue.

So you're saying these gaskets don't require any more modifications than a Grade A gasket would from SIP?

Also: yes.

Seriously, if I'd bothered to confirm the bolt hole measurements rather than just pulling the trigger on those, I'm sure I could find an exact match. Drinking and shopping from my phone got me close, but not exact.

I'm surprised, cause searching for an exact match gasket, balancing all variables like $.20 difference in cost, color of gasket in picture, and of course, can I get it delivered tomorrow (even tho I won't need it until the weekend), are all the things I would search through while my paying job had me on a zoom call with 15 people about an issue that could be solved by just two of them via email… for an hour…

Until I reach the pages of Amazon where no delivery dates or ratings exist and I wonder if I could get it quicker from china off aliexpress.

But I digress.

Sent money to nomadinsiam for SS180 part. My bank was most concerned but I pointed out this person was a well respected member of a very fine community of enthusiasts and it was a risk I was prepared to take. nomad did note it wasn't like sending life savings to a Nigerian prince to invest is a "solid" cryptocurrency sc(he)am(e) with guaranteed profits for life!
💸

add some copper spray on that and you'll be sealed up tighter than a bull's ass at fly time!

i sense sealing troubles in your future as you drill the holes and things don't work out perfectly.

i'd go for another shot at getting ones with the right bolt hole pattern.

He has hours of paying job "meetings" calls tomorrow - an hour in, he should have the perfect match.

Consider this purchase conceptual.

I keep doing conceptual purchases…

I think I could build another motor that doesn't work from those parts.

Not a good realm to be in…

There is entirely too much truth in this statement, conceptual purchase or not.

I will most likely go measure the bolt hole locations and re-order to be sure, even though I'm confident the ones I already have will work.

Add a sleeping pill and that is escatly what I said about my Russian mail order bride.

I hope she came with free return shipping.