Modern Vespa

Hi all, I just rebuilt a motor on an autolube scooter and seem to have developed an oil leak in my carb. I had left the autolube untouched in the bottom of the carb box, as you don't need to remove it to drop the engine, but it somehow developed a leak anyway. In addition to collecting on the bottom of the carb box it's getting into the air filter as can be seen below:



There appeared to be a little bit of oil on the inside of the nut which the blue arrow points to on this pic:



Not sure that is the problem, but just in case I went ahead and pulled the autolube mechanism (as can be seen in the picture) so that I could get a wrench on that nut, which is otherwise inaccessible. I can turn it with a 10mm wrench, but it seems really unhappy about being moved. When something doesn't like to be turned....well, I tend to seek advice.

Any thoughts on the likely source of the leak, and whether I should continue turning that nut? And am I missing something bigger -- like my cylinder isn't getting lubed? Your help is greatly appreciated.

Also, there were two gaskets on the bottom of the autolube device (see pic below). Is this normal? My Haynes Manual doesn't acknowledge the existence of a gasket at all, and I've always left the autolube alone in the past. Thanks for your help!!

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So hey, I think I got at least some insight over at Modern Buddy and the old Scooter Central site, it might be the oil check valve, and if so it looks like the solution is a new carb box. http://www.modernbuddy.com/forum/topic18565.html, http://www.scootercentral.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=17908. But that may be limited to 2009 stella scooters, which this ain't.

I hope you didn't bend the tube. You should loosen that nut to first remove the steel tube and then pull the cover. Then inspect the seat that should seal inside the pump cover for any damage.


I wonder if your carb gasket has the extra little autolube hole lower left? Wrong nonautolube gasket caused a similar problem here 2 stroke oil leak '74 super - carb/airbox gaskets? .

Great ideas, I'll check -- and if it is missing the autolube hole, thank all that I didn't seize!

If your gaskets are missing the hole, it's a simple matter to punch one in, just do it neatly and in the right place.

So it looks like my gasket was OK. I had become a little suspicious of my oil check valve and took it out to see if I could see light when the ball bearing was in place (I could not). Right now I've got the box on a crate next to the scoot with the autolube assembled and the oil hooked up to see if this was the leak. No leaks yet, but I'm going to give it a bit.

I'm a little paranoid that I put in the nylon retainer for the oil check valve too far down when I reinstalled, it just sort of slipped down there, and it looks a little deeper than (my utterly unreliable memory from when I took it apart) and a few pics I've seen online -- does the picture below look right to anyone? Man, I wish there was a way of checking if your autolube is working well other than "see if the engine seizes...."

I've had my check valve apart to fix a slow drip (which is a rare problem) and you don't need to worry about how far down it goes because there's a counterbore in there to keep it at the correct position, just push it in until it stops.

This is not likely your problem.