Modern Vespa

I feel very seen right now...

if I can get a straight up "what in the holy hell" or an audible laugh, it's worth the packing job!

What a coincidence! That's how I pick my shirt in the morning.

In less joyful news, I split open the white Stella's motor to fix what I expected was going to be a bad clutch side seal and discovered much, much worse...a crack in the case.

I don't know how I missed it when I did the rebuild, but it explains why the metal seal was spinning loose, even though the seat wasn't damaged.

I guess I'm going to try and weld it up unless I have a spare set of Stella cases in the dragon's hoard. I think I might, but I'm not certain.

The one bright side is that I didn't just screw up the fly side seal installation, so at least I can stop beating myself up over having potentially gotten that wrong.

Oof

"Oof" was not the word I used, although there was an "f" in it.

fubar?

Did it include "uck"?





Lemme guess: fire truck?

Something like that, yeah.

In our today's roundtrip we visited a war museum dedicated to the two Balkan wars. Initially it was the summer house of a rich family during the 1900s but later played a significant part as the place were a treaty was signed for the surrender of Thessaloniki from the Ottomans back to the Greeks. The estate was also used by Germans as an army hospital during WWII. Funny thing is that they used medical equipment made in the US...

X-ray machine, blood storage fridge, dentist's chair with foot operated dental drill...

Was looking at pictures from Sturgis. Didn't notice any scooters....

Cable shenanigans is the order of the day.
I had to go full Fred Flinstone!:-/
(OK…I had some front brake, but it was VNB brake… which I'd figure is only Barney Rubble-like assistance … so yeah, full Fred Flinstone!)

My woes continue, throttle still randomly sticks at wide open. so not the carb, not the cable inner, thinking it may be the oil pump, guess it could be the housing. I'll have to park it till I get my garage back, I miss my garage...

It's interesting to roll off going into a corner and bike is like, "not today wuss!"

They're there. They're just out in front of the pack because they don't have to spend all day dick measuring before they can ride.

Cases are welded. I ground out the crack and laid down a bead both top and bottom, then ground down the inside of the crack case and skimmed it with JBWeld to fill any pinhole leaks.

After I get it rebuilt, assuming it holds pressure after I put some miles on it, I'll declare success. For now, though, it's going to be sitting in the workshop waiting to get buttoned back up until I have time to turn a wrench.

Look carefully, they ARE there!



From my new favorite thread. My possible Sturgis Rally 'costume'.

When it happened to me I didn't have any prior warning, so didn't realise it was the cable similar to yours. I thought I'd pull the clutch and let it out again and see if it slowed the racing engine. Not a good experiment in a corner. I still have bitumen on the top of the headset next to the speedo!

Fred Flintstone lol

Totally sympathize with that.

Once broke a clutch cable on my way to take a chemistry final, so no turning back… every stop light necessitated dismounting the bike, and a running push to drop it into first gear. Fred Flintstone for the win lol.

The trombone is really the *chef's kiss* of the whole ensemble. Four stars!

VW bus ball joint boot repair kit: 1 old Vespa inner tube, a syringe and a tub of grease from the early 90's.

Ball joints are in good shape and old enough to be German VW. Aftermarket joints are horrible as are replacement boots, which often split a few miles after installing them. It's not that I'm cheap…we'll actually I am. And lazy. Busting that joint out of the steering knuckle is actual work.

Had my first gear cable loosen off today, lost 4th and had a hell of a time getting to first , so I just limped along in 2nd and 3rd.

Started assembling another Italian engine, while waiting on parts for the other Italian engine and machine work on the Japanese engine and yet another Italian engine...

From my experience, that rubber isn't going to like the grease very much. And you're right, the replacement lubed-for-life ball joints suck. The original vintage SAAB joints were adjustable and had zerk fittings.

Today I blundered into a conversation with a random stranger whilst out shopping… turns out he knows a bunch of guys I used to slum around the punk scene with… more importantly, he owns a P200 and a 100 Sport (unprecedented in my town), and is good friends with my first (and one of few) scooter buddy, long estranged to me. I gave dude my number and asked him to pass it on to our mutual friend.

I'd love to hear from dude; he's the one what showed me how to drop an engine and split cases way back when:

Split cases/bottom end holocaust/ CATASTROPHIC FAILURE

mmmmrrrppphhh... thanks for the timely reminder that I still have to rebuild the CV's on that BMW rear end. *shudders*

You will be living up to your name at least. CV's are another aftermarket part that don't seem to last very long, at least for VW. Ignore the photos from 30 year old manuals that say "throw these in the garbage". Clean 'em up, slap on some new boots and fresh grease and yer all set.

Good stuff. When I blunder into rando conversations about scooters its usually just someone asking about my "moped".

Instead of working on my Allstate project i've been investing a few $$$$ into my looong term Lambretta engine rebuild project. While perusing through SIP's website for a LTH clutch i came across some major bling and pressed "play". The parts arrived yesterday and i quickly got to work installing Casa Performance billet fork links on my Lammy yesterday. CP just released them to the public not too long ago. As soon as i saw them i knew i had to have them! I don't know exactly how much performance it will add, but it makes the scooter at least 10mph faster when it's standing still. But in all seriousness, the CP links makes removing the front rim VERY easy. Plus it really compliments the rest of the bling that's currently on my fork.

I bet it was cheap....and no calories, too. Looks great.

After five wonderful years together, Boltie, the upper shock mounting bolt on my Sprint apparently decided she was sick of me and my constant scooter infidelity and decided to start seeing other scooters.

I found this out when she ghosted me mid-ride. It started shuddering when braking and generally being super-bouncy to ride, and when I took a look, she was gone.

I can't say I have any hard feelings toward Boltie (that's what I called her), but it's still tough to just get ghosted like that after five wonderful years together.

So let this be a warning to all of you. Don't assume that *your* Boltie will just be there if your don't show her some attention and maybe a little special "wrench time," if you know what I mean.

Boltie, if you're reading this, I may not have said it enough while you were here, but it's not the same riding without you, and I'm missing you now that you're gone.

*Boltie McBoltface has left the room.*

I actually forgot how much attention vintage scooters attract. I've found that foreign expats are the least likely to annoy me. They never call it a moped, they never call it "cute", and they just generally tend to "get it" more.

I remember this Sikh guy that worked at the mini mart in my old hood was positively beside himself when I rolled up on my Bajaj.

I'm going to miss Boltie. At least until her replacement arrives.

In the meantime, I determined that the white Stella's cases are beyond repair. Too much play in the bearing after the repair, so I began the process of transferring all the internals into a state set of Stella cases I had lying around. That process is mostly complete, but I didn't have time to actually close the cases and get to the pressure test.

Who knows. Maybe I'll finally be able to get the white Stella listed and sold. Only took me almost 18 months.

While I am not ready to start the ET3 build thread yet... I had occasion to pull the used ET3 lump I snagged out of Canada and throw it on Ray's stand. It's probaby been 10 years since I built a smallie engine and it was fun poking around. Ray's stand is pretty perfect and glad to have one in the garage.

(I think I may actually do the VBC resto before the VMB. It's not as exciting of a project, but it deserves to see the road and has been in the storage shed too long.)

I managed to sneak out to the workshop long enough to finish the parts transplant on the white Stella motor today. Got it buttoned up, only to discover that the kickstart return spring had slipped... So I re-split the cases, fixed the spring, and realized the gasket had torn. So pull out another gasket (my last, I'm pretty sure), got it all back together, go to pressure test... And had a leak at the cylinder base. I still have to fix that, but I was just happy that everything was tight inside the cases.

Assuming no more surprises,I should be running in the stand tonight or tomorrow and back in the bike by the weekend.

I snuck out to the workshop before calls started and the Stella motor passed its pressure test this morning.

Next up, assemble it enough to run on the stand, then back into the bike.

Okay...White Stella is more-or-less done. There are a couple weird little things to fix, like the neutral light is activates the low fuel indicator. And the rear hub is scraping on the brake plate.

I took it out for an initial test ride and the carb was kind enough to get clogged with something. Not entirely surprising considering the tank was bone dry before I put gas in it today.

Swapped the main from a 94 to a 98 because it felt a little thin on the top end and cleaned the carb and all seems to be well. I'm running premix for now, because I'm not convinced the oil pump is primed yet, but I'll tackle that next.

All-in-all, it's really quite smooth and quiet. Very unlike the rest of my herd. Not nearly the rev's I'm used to, nor the power, but I'd forgotten what a respectable little neighborhood cruiser a stock-ish 150 is.

Heck, the electric start even works (as well it should after I spent an entire evening to get the clutch safety cutout fixed).

As Roy Kent would say, "Fuuuugh."

Getting the firewood logs in can be messy.smacked into a tree with my 2003 pickup. Bet I can fix it tho. Blinker still works great!

That'll hammer right out and just add a little character to the old scratch closer to the tailgate.

I don't think that dent will go anywhere probably. Might be fun to try. But I already ordered the $30 replacement tail light assy. Damn these are cheap.

Anyhow, it will match these dents from landscaping on the farm and a gash by the right rear door, where I drove into it with a tractor front grapple

Went out to the workshop this afternoon to find I'd left the Stella's fuel tap on...and found out the hard way the float needle needs replacement.

Easy fix, but annoying that I could have done it last night when I cleaned the carb. After clearing the flooding (and cleaning the floor), it started and ran well until the front brake decided to not fully release, so add that to the list...

^^^
Been there on the flooded garage. Mmmmmrph.


I broke off a site glass (well previous owner did) in the vbc tank. Used a small chisel to cut a groove and then chase it around until I could safely break it out without damaging the threads.

The og all metal autolube tanks are the devils business. Just straight fuckery top to bottom.