Modern Vespa

oh boo.

on the 12th day of xmas my Aprilia gave to me one bowl of shitty fuel and a another tank cleaning in a pear tree.

have you gotten to "furious yellow" phase of hatred for Aprilia bodywork screws and replaced all the stainless allens with some type of phillips?

I've had Adventures in Bad Gas twice recently. First was working on Eley's Stella. Gas in the tank was a year or more old. No bueno.

Then, working on a buddy's bikes a few weeks ago, we had something similar with the bad gas. It started and ran fine for a few minutes on the stand, but eventually stalled out and just. wouldn't. start.

After a little messing around, I asked him how old the gas in the tank was. "At least a year."

Drained it out and it looked like Cocacola. Fresh gas in, started right up.

Thus endeth the lesson.

Wife finally bought me a scooter for Xmas

Surprisingly, I have not hit fastener rage yet. It helped to ditch the stupid EGR canister housing and improve accessibility to the lower Phillips fasteners on the drinker's side. I just wished they'd picked one fastener type and hadn't gotten so goofy with the interlocking over/under baloney of the panels. And the taillight wiring just makes me think they hired that engineer from Italjet.

One other laugh: Didn't pay much attention to jetting numbers when servicing it, but I noted that it was supposed to have a 36 pilot and 90 main from the factory. This one has a 50 pilot and a 92 main. Switching the pilot to a 38 as-recommended, might help the fuel economy and make dialing in the mixture a bit easier.

Idle became terrible on the smallie, did some test runs just adjusting the air mix screw, was still erratic.

Screwing the air mix and idle screws the carb started swinging… looks like the intake came loose with the screw on the inside.

Looks like the sealant did a pretty good job of holding everything together.

It's weird as there wasn't any fuel leaks anywhere to be seen.

So engine swing down and cut paper gaskets and reinstalled a bit of blue and red loctite for insurance.

Pressure leak tested, yaddy yaddy ya…

Funny thing was I pulled the plug just as a health check, not a plug chop, when dropping the engine, looked a little dark, looked at the piston top with a torch and seemed ok, looking a tad rich. Doesn't make sense with an air leak.

I was like ok. I'll put everything back together and do another 5kms and have another look. Same jetting and it was lean looking. So put in a richer main jet for another test and it's balanced back out a chocolatey brown colour… how'd you explain that fellas??

I really try to never use sealant on an intake. Someone said to me many decades ago, the sealant will make it leak. The best gasket sealant ever is only "fuel resistant". If it holds pressure on a dry gasket it will stay that way.

When lean it looses power. To compensate during cruise more throttle is held open, pulling more needle, without more airflow, richening the mixture. Just to make jetting easier, lean conditions can have rich symptoms.

Yeah I think sealant technology has upgraded since then. Silicones are amazing now.

The rtv and other sealants I've used/seen hold onto surfaces like crazy. Unfazed by crankcase pressures. You see it when opening cases. The little beads on the inside dealing with compression and fuel/2T oil are still there intact.

It's coming up to 10years messing around with Vespas in spring, the guy I used to take the PX to used Hondabond. Then I ended up using a grey high temp sealant… the stuff has done its job up to this point.

I'd assemble dry gaskets for any other bike where airtightness isn't something to aim for. Even then I use hylomar.

The loose intake I could see coming. It was pretty tight as the bolt made a ring mark on the intake, but I didn't use a torque wrench. This time I used red loctite and did it up to 11nm. Should hold. Will see in a year of riding.

Even today there is no removable gasket sealer that is fuel proof, even hondabond, specified by Honda as "resists gasoline" and "Solvent-based for easy removal".

All I'm trying to say is, just on the fuel route (manifold, reed block) if a dry gasket won't hold pressure, sealer will only fix it for a while. Eventually it will dissolve and then become loose. If it won't seal use a better gasket.

Yeah I don't think there is such a thing as fuel resistant sealant.

But with sealant, it keeps my engines nice and tight and haven't gotten a leak because of sealant that has failed, only leaks where sealant wasn't used. It's worked so far, happy with how my builds end up at the moment.

I think there's also a taboo of using it because everyone uses too much… it should literally be paper thin, because the gasket does all the work. The sealant is there to fill the scratches you can't see.

Just wanna said hii, and sorry for my unactive activity for almost a year

Hope everyone stay healty in the upcoming xmas and new year holiday

Until next year, cheer and love you all

100% agree. Everything I have used to try to seal the intake has had fuel seep through eventually causing a leak. Every single product. Every single time.

*waves excitedly*
Happy Holidays Ebeth!

So glad to see you again my friend! And what a great pic. You got PM.

Wishing you and ALL my friends here a great holiday season and all the best in the new year.

Only half the kids showed up for hockey practice tonight so they had a scrimmage.

The aircraft grade permatex sealer I use is gasoline proof. Eley tried to use gasoline to clean it off something when we rebuilt his Stella and gas had zero effect on it. I haven't found anything yet that will cut it other than time or abrasion.

It's gotta be crazy toxic and the smell will stay in your nostrils until the next day, but it absolutely works like nothing else I've ever tried.

Yup, same here.

I'm not using anything hardcore but, took my old gaskets off and the little beads are still there and rubbery.

The gasket is super hard and the sealant is still unaffected

That's the dark brown semi-clear stuff that comes with a brush in the lid?

I wouldn't call it semi-clear, but other than that, yes.

I first started buying that maybe 30 years ago. It was called Gasket Goo then. I suppose Permatex bought them out.

Sounds a bit like that "Indian Head" gasket shellac, that stuff was pretty solvent-resistant.

I think Seal-All is fuel-resistant too. I've used it to bond UNI foam to old Honda filter cages before. It contains methyl-ethyl-ketones in it and is not to be inhaled unless you want to take a write down on some brain cells. Maybe that's the base for what you're working with too?

Acetone cleans it right off, fyi

Yeah, Seal-All is good stuff. I've successfully used it to permanently fix fuel leaks in gas cans and fuel tanks. I used it on my SprintV's tank to fill pinholes in my welding.

The first time I tried, I used JBWeld, which eventually failed. The second time, I used SealAll, augmented by putting a vacuum pump on the tank to pull the SealAll into the pores, and it hasn't failed yet, at least.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm busy shopping online for counterfeit Eastern European bank notes...

don't forget the silk thread on the gasket surface.

Anyone else getting 500 errors (server fault) when trying to preview posts before submitting?

I'm seeing them on Firefox and Chrome, so I'm guessing it's not just me.

^^^

Confirm. Won't preview on Mozilla either.

PM issues happening as well. Big Boss is aware of the pm problem.

Bummer. 500 errors are the worst from a "it's my own damn fault" perspective.

Should now be fixed according the big boss.

Did some painting on the new whatever the hell you'd call this monster built in thingy.

No painters tape cause that shit sucks balls and bleeds through anyways. Old school slow and steady, listening to CCR while exploring outer space with the help of a plant. Professional style.


I've always said, hire a stoner to paint, it'll be perfect. May take a little longer but it'll be absolutely perfect.

Need to get the doors still, should be here next week or the week after. The huge cabinet on the left will be for hockey equipment. Both big cabinets will have matching metal grate fronts for venting the stinky hockey stuff.

Nice! I like the blue.

Today was scooter punch list day.

First, inspired by the recent thread on the topic, I finally installed a choke clip on in the VBB. No more putting surgical clamps on the choke lever for this guy!

It took me way longer to find a clip in my hoard than it did to install it. I still think the whole choke clip design is just idiotic.

Then, I tackled a dead tail light on the Sprint. I suspected it was in the headset, and I was not wrong. Moved the wire to a different terminal in the headset switch and all is well again there.

Then I tracked down drips coming off the GL's motor. Determined it was spitting gas out the overflow tubes at WOT, so adjusted the carb float a touch and life is well there, too.

Next up will be relocating the Smallstate's CDI outside the frame, and I'm really getting itchy to tackle its body and paint. It's a great rat bike, but I just feel like it deserves more.

My wife just asked me, "why does it smell like gasoline?"

Like...you have to ask?

In my house it's more like "Why do you smell like gasoline"?

When you finish that front end rebuild and find a leftover washer.

ah hahahaha!

gasoline is a pretty minor infraction in this household. the waft of carb dip or bad gas gets a "oh it was that kind of day"?

but frequently work boots and whole uniforms get left out on the porch...

that goes in the "extras bin"!

Yeah, I do that as well, but it usually takes a thorough shower to get rid of all of it. At the age of 10, my first job was working in a fish house. Sometimes, no matter how hard I cleaned up, I could not get rid of the stink. This was putting me in a bad place with the lovely girl I was chasing at the time. Thankfully, a wise old fisherman told me to scrub my fingernails with a little toothpaste. Worked like a charm, although my fingers then smelled like Crest.

So, basically, you used toothpaste to make your fingers not smell like fish so you could hopefully make your fingers smell like fish...got it.

Yeah, I guess so. But if 5 minutes of time, scrubbing those little fingernail crevices with a little toothpaste got me there, it was worth it.

My wife went to have Christmas Eve brunch with a girlfriend this morning.

Before she left, she hunted me down to tell me, "No riding any scooters while I'm gone. I don't want to wind up in the Emergency Room on Christmas Eve."

There's always the possibility of workshop calamity… You could still make the Urgent care for Xmas!

(Seriously, hoping you have a safe and happy holiday.)