Modern Vespa

Achievement Unlocked: Didn't Kill/Maim Myself While Screwing With The Garage Door Spring.

Had a guy lined up to do the spring tensioning, but he got sick and bailed. Looked all over town yesterday for a set of tensioning bars. Ended up going the Amazon route and a set was delivered around 5A this morning. Apparently, a metro area of about a million people isn't big enough for any non-specialty hardware stores / home improvement big boxes to stock a pair of 1/2" steel rods; it was all special order. Went and worked on the honey-do lists for my aunt and sister while the rods found their way here.

Did my homework, wore eye protection and some armored riding gloves. The job was anticlimactic because I had a healthy respect for the spring and made sure I understood the process before having at it.

Door works very nicely now; smooth and quiet. I'm calling that a W. Now back to scooter stuff!

Woot level up

*virtual high 5*
(much better than a high 4)

When we had the shop, we had roll up security grilles with drum leaf springs. The bastards, ALWAYS snapped during closing time. Next morning required 4 people to raise the roll and then about an hour to fix or replace the spring. Winding the spring was the most dangerous part...

Wait a minute, you only have one spring?! My door has two. That's not fair. I had to untention the unbroken spring the put two new ones on. I guess everything is more of a pain in the ass here in California. 😝

Two springs was definitely an option here. When I went to the local specialist last Friday to get the rod, spring and bearing, I sat down with a specialist to go over the door specs first. This was the place that did the original door install, so I figured they might have specs. After doing the math, it was determined that a single spring was suitable for the application.

Since it balanced nicely with 28 quarter-turns (7 full turns) of the spring and the motor's gearbox is a lot quieter, I think the math worked out.

I suspect the last spring wasn't quite installed properly, because it always undulated on the rod when closing. A trick I learned is to load the spring to spec, hold it with a tension bar and then tap the bar with the other bar to settle the spring. Now it winds and unwinds without looking like a disgruntled Slinky, so I think that was missed by the last guy.

I also spent an inordinate amount of time fiddling with the cable tensions so that it would lift evenly and I'm glad that seemed to have paid off.

No back to deboogering that PGO block, then fitting the big bore, big valve head and sports cam. It's one of the two projects to clear so I can get going on Dave.

I don't even want to look at my garage door springs now.

It's hard to get contractors to show up where I live, so I end up doing a lot myself. 2 weeks before Christmas I started looking for a plumber to fix our ailing heating system. Got maybes right up until 2 days before Christmas before I finally said fuck it. Bought the parts at a plumbing supply house (expansion tank, circulator pump and pressure regulator). Had it all working in a couple hours. My kids think I'm a freakin' magician…Praise dad, Bringer of Heat.

Fixing it was way less stressful than dealing with plumber bullshit…Didn't you get my message? You never got back to me…Tape musta broke on my answering machine…JFC. Freakin' knuckle dragging, mouth breathing, ass crack exposing…

how big an ultrasonic might that be?
what fits/ what doesn't?

Asking for a friend.

2L. It is on the smaller size, but it will fit a carb.
You could make an argument for going the next size up… but all the standard large frame and small frame carbs fit the 2L… So, it fits the bill.

Pro tip – I have a small mesh tea strainer that will hold jets and pins and small screws so they don't fall through the bottom of the main straining basket.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DKJBLKC5/ref=sspa_mw_detail_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9kZXRhaWwp13NParams&th=1

Somewhere in Texas, Mrs Birdsnest is having an epiphany:

Motherf&$cker. THATS WHERE my tea strainer went!

Heart emoji.
🙂

Woof

True story.

My wife still doesn't know that's where the screen mesh basket strainer went...

2nd hand shops are great for tea strainers

~1k order at 10Pollici...

It's not considered a hobby if you ride it to work once or twice a year.
It's a necessity.

Exhaust stub removal starter kit…

No mercy!

Just sayin'...

Facts!

Thats no monkey wrench, thats a Great Ape Wrench!

I have a bunch of big old pipe wrenches. Actually ancient. Never thought of using it for the stub, but it's a great idea.

I actually used them once for extending our natural gas line to the garage.

When I pick them up, I feel myself wanting to say things like , Why, I oughtta….

33° when I woke up… So I had to bring the heat even with the proper tools.

I was thinking more along the lines of addiction and or sickness when it comes to 2T scoots. It's so easy to spend thousands, not hundreds on these precious gems.

Just want to say how bitchin these crank and case splitting tools are. Even the cheap ones off Ebay work nicely. You inspired me GeekLion! Thanks for that.😁

Awesome!!

I made this new pressure tester for my Minarelli engine. It double duties for the Vespa lot when I install this fitting. I fill it with my micro bicycle pump. No more lame ass leaking, cheap blood pressure type for me.

Nice! For the Vespa, do You put this in exhaust stub?

For the Vespa I just install the barbed fitting and connect it to my block off plate over the intake with a hose. Rubber plug in the exhaust.

When my bulb wouldn't stop leaking I used a vacuum tester from work. It was great but you can't spray for leaks with it. I'm loving this new one. Shrader valve assembly and gauge off of Amazon.

I posted this on the what's cheering you up thread on the modern side, but I though it's worth putting here too. I'm almost 4 months post spinal surgery. The checkup with X-ray yesterday went so well, the operating surgeon told me he is going to skip the six month check up. So my next visit will be at the one year mark. I just have to keep up with my PT and daily walks. With any luck I'll be able to start riding again by next summer. Happy days.

Sounds like you are winning that marathon of recovery. Keep at it!!!

Tierney, I'm happy to your recovery is going well. Scootet summer here ya go!

Thanks guys. I mainly wanted to post this to encourage anyone with a somewhat similar situation - be it back, knees, shoulder problems, whatever - to get it looked at and resolved. I put it off too long (at least a year) and went from walking slowly, to having to use a walker, then a wheelchair for the last few weeks. That was just plain stupid and I only did more damage. One of the few things I did right was to set up the surgery date so the worst part of recovery would be in the cool/cold months when I would not have been as active anyway. The only other piece of advice would be that the better your health going in, will make it that much easier in recovery. For me that meant losing 30 pounds - definitely helped not having to deal with the extra weight.

Tierney--that's fantastic news about your recovery. Keep healing and taking care of yourself.

Meanwhile, I finally got myself a SIP speedo and have mostly installed it. The only thing left is to work out an exact mount point for the wheel/speed sensor. Lammy folks seem to prefer the rear wheel for it, but I don't know if my sensor lead is long enough yet, so we'll see where I end up with that.

The biggest annoyance I had was that the tach display, which you can swap between the digital and analog, was effectively set to "neither" by default, so it didn't work and caused me no end of troubleshooting pain.

It wasn't until I went in to swap it to the digital display that it popped up and started working.

And fFor future reference of anyone searching, on a DC Vape system, the recommended connection point for the tach sensor is the white AC out from the stator.

Absolutely this. I had both hips replaced in April of 2012, sat in a rehab hospital for 2 weeks miserable. Weather was so nice out and all I could do was lay in a bed. Sucked. All my other surgeries wait till November or December now.

Got the magnetic sensor fitted for the SIP speedo. That may have been the trickiest part of the install.

The tach is reading double, so I need to increase the pulse on it from 1 to 2, but overall, now that it's installed and debugged, I think I'm impressed. I'm sure I'll have more thoughts once I've put some miles on it this weekend.

Nice work on problem solving a mounting point for the Vape's sensor. I bought a SIP digital speedo for my S3 lammy last summer. I haven't installed it just yet. I'm still trying to find a good spot to mount my speedo sensor with my Casa Performance disc brake.

I think a significant portion of people running the magnetic sensor on Lammy's mount the sensor on the rear wheel. I looked at doing that, but the lead I ordered was just barely long enough, plus I didn't really see a good option for a mount point.

Moving on with the red PX rear axle replacement and last minute decision to go to a 60mm crank on a stock-ish cylinder...

Scooter Center has the jokes…

Bus project slowed down over the holidays, but picking it back up again.

Filler work is all done on the rear 1/4, but it's been too cold for primer. Removed the last of the crusty metal from around the c pillar. Furniture is all out to make room for welding from above. A bunch of simple metal parts to bend up before welding begins.

Planning a cross country road trip with the boys this summer. Something we have wanted to do for many years. This summer is the first time that things have lined up to make it possible. I have reservations and hesitations, but we are going to go for it.