Modern Vespa

A sandwich bag over the magnets should protect fully cured paint, not sure about fresh paint. Will find out 🫣

Good luck!

Raining? I needed some of that here to put out the fire. It's 75, clear and calm today.

Really digging your Cushman badge! Look how nice those scoots are behaving while you pamper that Lammy.

I used to have that exact same brake kit on my lammy. It worked quite well. I ended up having to use some real thin shims to get the caliper to center a bit better over the rotor though. I ended up removing it simply because i wanted a gold colored Casa Performance kit. I tried selling my old disc brake kit for something like $200 at a local scooter swap meet a few years ago. Everyone thought it was an excellent deal, but no one stepped up to buy it. It's now currently sitting on my shelf waiting for a distant future scooter project that i have in mind.

Lee Lux sold it to me this year at Lammy Jammy for $100 after he bent the fork of the bike it was on. The only thing I don't like is that it doesn't take a four-piston caliper (at least not without a conversion bracket I can't seem to source), but the kit itself seems to be good quality.

I'll report back once I get a chance to put it to the test.

Meanwhile, depending on which version of UPS I choose to trust, my new cases are either still on SIP's loading dock or arriving tomorrow. A true Schroedinger's Package.

$100 is a smokin deal! You'll like the 2 pot caliper just find. It's been a while, but from what i remember, my lammy's brake was MUCH stronger than the Grimica disc on my PX.

I've gotten spoiled by the 4 pot on the BooBadge. It'd probably let me do stoppies if I had the skillz and the will.

What I'm pretty sure of is that it'll be so much better than the front drum that I won't complain either way.

Call me crazy but the stock grimica (stock stella swap) front brake setup I have on one scooter is the best front brake I've ever felt on a scooter ever. And I built another one from scratch using the crimaz master, sip caliper, and it dosnt bite nearly as hard. Better than drum obviously, but the Stella brake bites like a tiger on steroids. It's awesome.

First, a confession: I've never honed one of my own cylinders. Paying a professional to clean up a cylinder always seemed to be worth it. They had more experience with the tools and technique and I didn't have to buy any tools for the job.

That mindset pivoted slightly when I was working on refurbishing the Aermacchi's autolube pump. To get it working smoothly, I needed to clean up some dessicated oil from the pump bore. So, I got a 320-grit Brush Research hone and some cheap 2T. The result wasn't bad and the pump still fit together properly. After doing the deed, I found an NOS pump, so I had the price of mind of a good spare.

For the Minarelli, I did buy a few more Brush Research hones: one to try on the crust in one of the fork legs and a tiny 7mm one to clean the bores for the cylinder studs. The cylinder itself looked good enough to try honing, so I said, "Why not?"

Amazon lost the first delivery on Halloween. I waited a week before cancelling and re-ordering the hone and BRM hone oil. Yes, I was a chump and bought their "special" oil. I also opted for a 240-grit hone so I could make a few more passes when testing technique.

It seems to have worked decently and the bore looks good. There is a bit of stuff where the piston had been stuck, though.

This is where I submit my work for peer review. Thoughts?

I was starting to look for oversized piston kits, but if this passes muster, I'll run it as it sits.

I think it looks great - nice job!

Agree it looks good w/ QC and I also just used to have it done pro here @ 15 or 20 dollars a pop for same reasons as you until the local independent autoparts store/machine shop gave up & closed down. Now I have a decent drill motor hone and have done it myself OK but still miss their better equipment w/ accurate measurement and consideration of roundness, bore taper etc, and their precise crosshatch finish.

The Pros can do it better than the 'Joes'.

So, rule of thumb is .004" ring gap for each 1" of bore. The Minarelli's stock bore is is 45mm, or 1.772". According to the rule of thumb, the target gap is .007", allowing .008" for high heat and high revs.

So, I measured the new standard rings in the freshly-honed bore. Out of the box, one ring measured a .012" gap and the other measured a .015" gap.

So, at least a 1st overbore is in the cards.

At least I got to practice honing a cylinder!

Finally got around to it…

Today I…went into the garage…I'm in a long work stint, first born has rearranged the herd into some semblance of order. Recent moped find has a spot too. Thanks dude!!

My firstborn is full grown, but still not large enough to manhandle scooters around. She's only 5' 3" and like 100lbs.

Lucky for her, I manhandle my own scooters. Last night, I almost finished the disc brake installation. I wound up having to use a different headset switch, which then meant a lot of electrical reverse-engineering (and one issue, which is that the horn only works on the "headlight off" position of the 3-way switch, but finally got it all back together other than the horncast, which'll happen tonight.

Related: anyone know a way to re-assemble the lambretta switch? I seriously can't figure it out and all I can find searching is things like "I fiddled with it a bit as usual to get it back together" and most searches are just to replacing the unit, not assembling the switch itself.

This all means I can get back to the GL's motor, whose new cases *also* arrived yesterday.

Is it the Li or GP switch? Since you mentioned 3 way, then i'm guessing Li? Do you have any pics of it?


EDIT: i can juuuust barely see the switch in your pic, and it's an Li.

Yes, it's an LI Series3. The switch I had on it was more rounded than the one I'm using right now, but the same trapezoidal shape.

You can see there's a little brass roller that is supposed to move back and forth to close the circuits when the toggle shifts. For added fun, you can't get it lined up and then put the switch down on top of it that I've found, as there's no good way to hold the switch on top of a freakin' cylinder while you lower the cover onto it, and the cover blocks any attempt to hold it from the outside.

It's spring-loaded to maintain pressure and I've probably spent at least two hours trying to figure out how to get it back together. Serious #FML here.

I can see the conundrum you got going. Here's a pic of my S3 Li switch. You can easily see the difference.

So today started out great; clear sky, cool temp and no wind. Jumped in the plane and headed up to another airport to pick up a friend and then hit some hotsprings in the northern part of Death Valley. One way dirt strip with a short walk to the pools. After picking up my friend, we get over Bakersfield when he starts getting airsick and wants to land, doh!! WTF, it's so smooth I could've fallen asleep. We land and get a bite to eat at the restaurant. The food sucked. He's thinking of renting a car to get home. I told him to get back in the plane and I'll take him home. Off we go. Dropped him off and flew home.

What a bummer. I half expected to see Petrus and Charming already soaking in one of the pools! So all I have is a pic looking towards Santa Barbara Airport and one of Lake Cachuma.

P.S This guy is a pilot too. I don't know what the airsick crap was all about. 🤷🏼

Ahhhh hot springs! Safe bet we´d be in a pool

Yesterday we went up to the local spring. Unfortunately ccccóld but we were still temped. Only témpted as we were on foot and it is a good half hour back. No towels either so dripping wet into the clothes for a walk down the mountain... nope. We may take the car up and dip coming week.

what was your elevation at the time?

We were up at 9500 and had to get down t0 387! I took my time so the engine didn't get shock cooled. He later told me the sausage he ate from McDonald's made him sick. 🤣 Foiled by sausage, who would've thought.

It's Bakersfield, man. It's an armpit.

The bodged Sprint Veloce is finally alive and kicking. Had to change both the L.T. coil and the H.T. coil. First time I get to have both failing at the same time. H.T. coil was made by SWISS so that would be normal considering their quality but I wouldn't expect the L.T. coil to die too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTQTZSvhhlY

387' is still still pretty darn high up...when getting dropped out of a plane

Parachute? Or that too low?

It's the perfect altitude when you fall into empty cardboard boxes! I thought you guys knew that. 😜

I've always done my drops into cardboard boxes from 375' and always felt like it's was missing something. Now I know!

Anything from McDonalds will make you sick - he should have known better. Well, maybe not the coffee, they make pretty good coffee.

Thanks to the heads up from whodatschrome, got one of those Trail Tech TTO tachometers at ½ off. Comes with 6 feet of wire, which is perfect for a PX/Stella. Extra wire I ordered was unnecessary. Fishing the wire was, for me, a lot of work. Required taking a lot of stuff apart and then putting it all back together. End result was a pretty sanitary installation, though.

Unlike the Koso Proton garbage I tried earlier this year, the Trail Tech seems to work as advertised. RPM readings are pretty close to what I was getting using the gearing calculators. With 22/68 primary and 35 tooth 4th, showing about 9400 rpm (with a whiff of splutter) @ 45 mph in 2nd, 8900 rpm @ 61 mph in 3rd, and 7900 rpm @ 71 mph in 4th (all speeds gps).

In possibly related news, after a couple of hours of bombing around at sustained rpms over 8500, my flywheel is coming loose from its hub again. Further investigation will have to wait a few days, but it looks like my attempt at re-riveting failed. Next move probably will be to tap the hub and use flathead screws countersunk into the flywheel with copious quantities of red Loctite.[/img]

Kowalski,

If you have the external pickup flywheel, I know "Mike Heytens" on the stella owners fb page was selling one. He didnt post it but told me in a chat.

I think I have some Stella ignition bits, too, if you want/need me to look for anything.

Thanks. Could be a good option. Should be able to do a postmortem tomorrow. Rivets seem to have sheared again. Need to figure out why that has happened twice now. Mechanical interference? Too much powah? Also need to see what's left of my stator after another round of rivet bits rattling around inside there. Still working, but last time it got a little beat up, and probably a little more beat up now.

Ditto.

Every Mod is a Shorter fuse to the dynamite.

Moving along to the next big bus panel.
Sandblasting rust out of the sliding door track. Making up and welding in fiddly bits that join repair panels together. Grinding down ugly plug welds that didn't get done when the panels got replaced. Likely we hit the road and went camping before the welds were even cold.

Btw, the recent painting I did looks way better in the sun than under gazillion watt work lights.

Also went to the welding store and got a full tank of Argomix. I was running on fumes. Did a big messy tool, parts and materials sort. Onward!

Orwell, your bus adventures have inspired me to start looking for a project hauler of my own.

Not a VW, more likely an old Jeep Grand Wagoneer. I don't need (or even particularly want) it to be too pretty, as it'll be used for hauling dogs, scooters, and other dirty, messy things. I just need mechanically sound and relatively simple, which the old full-size jeeps tend to be.

Sounds like a good plan. Much easier to find decent parts and work on. There are absolutely no practical reasons to try to make a VW bus roadworthy. Like an underpowered Lambretta on 4 wheels.

Yeah, it seems like I can probably find a running jeep for under $5k, watching YouTube videos of maintenance tasks, I haven't seen anything that is be afraid to take on, and since it'll frequently be hauling dogs, I don't care about much on the interior other than AC and working power windows so they can stick their heads out.

Imm really enjoying seeing Your progress Orwell. Great work and I appreciate your attention to detail and the perseverance to get the job done properly.

Bringing back memories of cruising in my brothers 70 Westfalia, and in my own '61 Type 1 ragtop. My Bug was orange, similar to what You have.

Keep on Bussin!!