Modern Vespa

Went to my favorite pay and spray wash after dinner and tried to de-funk the old Hantavirus Riva. I hope the maintenance guys can find it in their hearts to forgive me.

So much mud, so many weeds, typical grip of unhappy spiders. At least it looks slightly less icky and maybe my skin won't be itchy from touching it.

Now I can actually see what I need to order for it.

For not having run in probably close to two decades, I'm surprised by the tank.

Borescope showed surface rust and a little debris in the bottom of the tank (the fuel cap gasket had perished, so there was a bit of water), which was a pleasant surprise compared to the crap I've dealt with lately. Looks like an acetone flush, a rinse and an EvapoRust treatment to me.

The fuel tap is wrecked. One of the two diaphragms was torn off the center pin and the seals had melted.

The auxiliary tap wasn't much better. Had to lever it open, scrub off the surface rust and dismantle it. The bits are currently soaking in EvapoRust. It's stamped Made In America, unlike the current Irwin offerings, so maybe it'll come around.

I have family obligations this afternoon, so maybe I'll dig up a heat gun this evening and see if I can get the intake off the carb.

Crazy thing; the carb venturi faces the front of the scoot, while the air box is located behind the carb. The intake tube does a 180° to get to the carb inlet, then the air is subjected to another 180° turn to enter the crankcase. Probably good for torque, but definitely unsuitable for revs.

Nice work!
(Dave is giving you side eye.)

Facts. Dave is due.

I was supposed to lead a club ride this morning out to Whitewater Draw near Douglas. The club does this annually to see the Sandhill Cranes that winter there. The only respondents were over in Tombstone. The Draw is local to them, but it's about 120 mile ride for me to go see a bunch of cranes.

If I'm gonna ride that far to see a big bird, it'll be to see this one.

So this morning was home chores and sneaking scooter stuff on the side. Tomorrow is repairing the cooling system and lower bodywork on howardr 's Burgman 650, a run by the office to check on a malfunctioning IDF CRAC and meet with the department head on some project stuff. If I have free time, I want to go to the shop and work on the scoot that's still clogging the lift due to parts delays.

We spotted this flying down the coast - it was an unexpected pleasure, and a smaller plane was escorting it.

[quote="az_slynch"]


If I'm gonna ride that far to see a big bird, it'll be to see this one.

That would be awesome to fly up alongside and get some aerial pics.

Man, I'm envious! You just don't get to see massive warbirds in flight that often.

I really wanted to attend the landing, but aside from nabbing the LXV, last week was a shit show. I settled for watching it online. I'm going to try to run up and see it before they dismantle it for transport. I'll be following the move to PASM closely too!

Rob, I'm a bit surprised you hadn't pulled that off.

It was one of those time that my wife is looking out the window and says "come quick and look! What is that?". It was literally flying down the coastline at about 500 to 1000 feet high.

I didn't even know it it came down! I live under a rock when it comes to news. We do get our share of cool warbirds here. Sometimes they do an impromptu buzz job at my airport. One of the tops was an A-26 going full tilt boogie about 50 ft off the deck. I stepped back when I saw how close the wingtips were getting!🤣

Semi-coincidentally, video showed up in my feed this afternoon. My grandfather was a naval test pilot, then flew PBY's in the Navy during WW2, so flying boats always get my attention.

?si=03U7TjO1OJmXZaTW

That could fit a gaggle of scoots in it!

This holds a gaggle of mopeds.

Sit it on a boat and you're half-way there.

Major Hollywood Holt vibes.

Put a kit on ALL those bitches!

Hahahahaha!

If I check my parts cache, I'm pretty sure I have most of the bits needed to fix them. As for kits, not sure I have enough to go around. Treatland would probably love more money from me.

That's not even all the Grandes. My buddy wanted one and somehow just kept accumulating them.

The one I care about is in tubs and I'll load it up tonight after work: an Italjet Pack-A-Way. Yes, I have a kit for it. And a Morini MO2 to make the kit worthwhile.

That qualifies as a moped rally!

needs more hipsters.

Hipsters are out of frame, discussing relative authenticity of local coffee houses and bands you've never heard of, all while passing a doob around.

A truckload of broken mopeds is totally rally material.

Put in new skin on the vespa, the best part is i can use my friend shop and all his tools

Now i have to somehow put things back in order, till next time, have a nice day to you all and cheer

Ebeth!

Hi. Great to hear from you!

Yellow looks great and your wife's Vespa colors are awesome.

What are you gonna do with the one you just stripped?

In today's episode of Why the DellOrto SI Isn't The Devil's Work, Because There Are Far Worse Things..., we should like to present this bit of diabolical startup enrichment nonsense.

I originally picked up an Amazon petcock for the Riva 80. I suppose the reason is that I wanted to light $15 afire. The petcock is vaguely similar to the item displayed and could be made to work after a fashion, but it would likely leak due to a weak spring before the diaphragm had a chance to let go.

I did some hunting and found a similar old shelf stock petcock by the OEM vendor. If you check the picture below, you'll find it on the middle. What I initially overlooked is the two vacuum barbs on the front cover, but I don't believe it will be a problem.

I expect that some of you have seem a vacuum-operated petcock before. They typically have three ports: a fuel inlet, a fuel outlet and a vacuum connection. The original vacuum petcock has three connections for vacuum. There is a reason for this.

The carburetor has a vacuum-operated choke assembly on it. The choke gets its vacuum signal from the carburetor venturi, by way of the petcock. Control of the choke circuit is handled by a bimetallic vacuum valve bolted to the cylinder. As the cylinder warms up, the valve closes off vacuum to the choke assembly, this deactivating it. I'm including a pic from the manual to help comprehend it.

So, why don't I just move the extra vacuum gubbins over to the new tap? Simples, I have no intention of keeping any of that crap. The tiny 13mm Mikuni carb isn't going to play nice with the Polini exhaust I've been saving for this scoot. The funpark waterslide intake is going too. I'll try the case-induction reeds for now, but the carb will at least be a DellOrto PHVA 17.5mm and I'll work out a more direct inlet path with a Polini filter and and angled intake tube.

We're not even gonna discuss the two separate ignition control circuits for "Start" and "Run" states...

Have you hugged your SI carb today?

Tanks for everything.

Since I'm cleaning the Indian tank for a ham bet and the Riva's tank to see if I can get a sign of life out of that scoot, why not go for the Big Nasty?

The plan was to put wheels back on the Pamplona this morning, install the bigger intake manifold that matched the big valve head and fit the bigger carb. That plan went south when I found the setup was about 15mm longer than the stock carb and manifold, so the accelerator pump fouls on the engine mount. I need a new plan for that setup.

Since I had time and was waiting for a delivery, out came the Dio and out came it's tank.

Today the hockey season ended for my son. It went well, I'd say.

His team won it all. AHF Champions. During the season he led the league in assists and his goal for the season was to score 1 goal, he had 0 last season. He ended the year with 16! As a defenseman.

What a blast. He now gets to walk into his home rink and have a banner he helped raise be there for ever. So proud of him and his teammates.

Awesome! Please pass along my congratulations!

Thanks, I shall send it along.

Congratulations to your son! Great job !!!

I love it, you've always shown what a good dad you are despite all the challenges, and now it's time for your payback. Congrats to YOU and your champion son as well of course! He couldn't have done it without you.

Ordered a new top end for a 61 Allstate that wouldn't start, ( compression test was just over 50, and theres a gouge in the cylinder). I decided to leave the carb box in place so I wouldn't have to mess with the fuel line or the air baffle.

Ouch! Any idea what caused the gouge?

Another Lammy followed me home...

Riverside! Very cool!

What's the plan?

Still need to do some triage. The motor is frozen up, though the rear wheel turns. Coincidentally, it came with a spare motor, so between the two, I should be able to pull something together.

As to the rest of it, it's already been resprayed once and is missing the cowls and rear footboards, so I think it's going to get a full teardown and respray. I'm going to stick with the original baby blue color and keep it relatively OG looking, even if the mechanicals will get updates across the board.

I didn't have a chance to do more than drag it into the workshop before we headed out to happy hour, so I'll get a better idea of the state of things tomorrow.

Motor will wind up being something zippy. Maybe another iteration of the Quattrini 210, maybe something more. Time and budget will tell on that front, but it's not going to be anything insane. No Casa 265 or Chiselspeed for me.

I originally wanted to have it turned around by Lammy Jammy (I did the deal for it a few months ago, but am just now getting around to taking posession), but somehow it got to be late February while I wasn't paying attention, so that's probably not going to happen.

Its not terrible but I somehow missed it when i had the motor open. Not sue how it happened, the scoot sat for while before i got it

What the heck?

Not sure if someone had put sealer in this tank at one time, it if it's just strata of gunk peeling up and coming loose.

Acetone loosened it up, but it's clearly the SuperClean doing the heavy lifting.

SAS

Scooter Acquisition Syndrome... I too suffer the affliction. Sadly overdosing is the only cure.

Seriously, cool get!

Thanks! These cold as hell rinks definitely do a number on my joints. Worth it though! I'll be going to his beer league games when I'm 80 too.

Congrats to the groms!
What are the best chirps you've heard from the wee littles?

Last weekend I opened the engine of my new project, a Serveta 150 Special … seems to have spent some time in a swamp