Modern Vespa

Hello hello hello scooterists!

Please help to prevent more self inflicted dents appearing on my cranium.......

A friend of mine (honestly) bought a 2004 Vespa ET2 last year which had been left behind a house for 3 or 4 years.

It didn't (still doesn't) run, no keys and generally full of muck and rubbish. She asked me to get it sorted for her so she could cruise the mean streets of our town in a stylish yet clean way.

After a good clean it looks very presentable, and I've bought a few tasteful dress up parts, new tyres, sorted new ignition and seat locks and keys and it's all basically ready to rock & roll yet......

It won't start.

At all.

Not even with the dreaded ether

I've had the carb off and cleaned it out about 7 times. I've replaced the fuel pump for what I believe to be a good used part (though honestly it still doesn't seem to get enough fuel into the carb).

It seems to have decent compression but as I said, I even tried to start it by spraying start ya bastard down the spark plug hole but still not a sniff!

Compression seems decent enough when you put your thumb over the spark plug hole & crank it (which it does very nicely).

Any ideas about how to get it started?

Are you getting spark?

I'm getting a good spark with a brand new plug. I can't understand why I get nothing even when introducing an explosive medium to a good spark.

The plug doesn't seem to be wet with fuel though even after minutes of cranking.

I was told yesterday that it was the crank seal but how do I tell which one?

Would that be your diagnosis without rebuilding the engine?

I would test the fuel tap first if you suspect there might be an issue there. Remove the fuel line from the carb; virtually nothing should come out, save maybe a tiny bit of fuel. If fuel starts flowing, your fuel tap is bad and you're flooding the carb (though I doubt that since you say your plug is dry). If nothing comes out, try removing the vacuum line from the carb and suck on the tube; you should see fuel come out of the fuel line. If you get no fuel by doing that, your tap is bad and needs to be replaced.

Hopefully someone more mechanically inclined can give some other suggestions if your fuel tap checks out. I just went through this issue with my ET2 and I'm far from an expert but pinpointing the faulty fuel tap solved my issue.

You test the seals with a leak down tester here is a link on how to build one: http://49ccscoot.proboards.com/thread/506/make-2t-leak-tester-ways. The reason the seals could be giving you trouble is because they seal off the case with is where you get your primary compression from. A bad seal will affect vacuum and make it so that the fuel doesn't get to the carb. It will also affect the mixture going to the cylinder. The way to visually inspect the seals is to pull the variator and everything behind it until you get to the seals. On the Stator side you do the same. This isn't difficult it just takes time. When you have it to that point and you see oil then it is probably leaking. I have had bad seals before and it made the scoot a non starter. You also can have a leak at the base gasket. Once a gain a leak down test and soapy water will help you find these things.