Modern Vespa

I'm glad to hear it. There's nothing worse than having to watch someone you care about suffer like that.

Well…. We ended up back in the ER twice since my last post. Looks to finally be turning the corner finally. Had all the heads of the departments and VIP access to all of them which was nice, but the worst kind of VIP to be. We see another ocularplastics doctor tomorrow which will hopefully be the end of the nonstop doctor visits!


Anywho, buttoned up the old Bear today and kicked her back over. Everything works. Speedo came right on! Definitely fried that power box when I had the wires hooked up wrong.
Good to go to start shaking down the idle. Get rid of the four stroking under 1/4 throttle.

Unseasonably warm so it'll be a good day for a ride tomorrow morning before the doc appointment.


Ready to rock.

You know what?...i'm just going to skip the thoughts and go straight for the jugular and pray for your son.




the scooter is looking rad too.

Been having issues with this piece of shit again. Did a pressure test. Did not do well.

Gotta check the clutch side seal, but gotta get the bike up off its wheel to remove that to get good access. No leaks at the cylinder head or base, fly side seal is good, carb box to case is good. I can hear it sizzling out from near the carb. Sprayed the clutch breather but honestly couldn't see so well so hence the taking the wheel off for better view.

Edit- removed wheel and sprayed soapy water all over the clutch cover and the inside side of the cylinder head and base and no bubbles. This is a bona fide mystery now.


Failure. Started at 6psi 10 mins ago.


Last edited by FridayMatinee on Thu, 27 Apr 2023 17:51:53 +0000; edited 1 time

Thanks man, still dealing with the swollen eye but he's good aside from that. We were told the swelling is typically a 2-3 day ordeal… we're at day 27 now… go big or go home eh? I just hope eventually he'll be able to open both eyes all the way. We've been stuck at 80% for almost 2 weeks now.

What an ordeal. Just catching up here. I'm glad to hear that your son is healing, even if slow. I believe he will make a full recovery.

Too bad about the air leak. It could still be the clutch seal, even if you didn't see bubbles on the cover. That can be tricky sometimes. And YES, the Allstate is looking SO RAD!

Thank you for the update. I'm guessing that the eyeball muscles aren't much different from any other muscle in the body? It might take some time for those atrophied eyeballs to get back to 100%, but the body is pretty amazing how it can heal itself...especially when you're still young.

I caught a case of the Bell's palsy two years ago, and i couldn't close my left eyelid for about a month! I had to apply ointment and tape my lid shut so that my eye wouldn't dry out and turn into a piece of eyeball jerky. It was really painful. All the squinting it caused ended up giving me some pretty good headaches for a month (both day and night). I also uncontrollably drooled and smirked most of the time. Drinking fluid from a straw was pretty much impossible since i lacked any sort of facial muscles on my left side of my face. My friends definitely had some good times making fun of me for month or so. All that was 2 years ago and i only have a very mild non noticeable smirk on the left side of my mouth...and yes, i am saying this right now with a very mild smirk.

Bummer about your son's eyes and the motor both.

Have you built a smoke tester yet? It won't help with the eyes, but it'll find the leaks that nothing else does.

Forgot to post the update, found the leak. Coming from the added meat area of the case. Sending it back to Mr. Gick to get fixed next week.

Hopefully this will be the answer to the nonsense and from here on it it'll be smooth cruisin!

Holy Moses that's wild! I can only imagine how frustrating not being able to close an eye would get pretty fast. Glad you're doing better. It's crazy how things can just pop up outta nowhere.

Got the motor dropped finally today after putzing with the 62. Made some decisions with that that I'll post over in its own thread. So I'm dropping the motor and forgot to unhook the brake and clutch cables. I'm loosening up their pinch bolts and hear scratching coming from inside the frame. Mother fudging mouse moved it already!!!

Set up a live trap with peanut butter in it to try and catch that jerk before it chews through wires. The adventures never end!

So stay tuned for an update once I get the engine back n a bit. Till then I'll be working on the 62 Allstate.

Almost ready to go back to the surgeon for this lump.

Decided to upgrade my shipping with a 40 gallon roller tote, cause carrying these things is for the birds! Also made a little bed for the engine to keep it cozy on the trip to Indiana.


Just gotta stuff the bubble wrap in now.

Also keep an eye on your Toyox branded fuel hose.. 6 months later and it shrunk 2". Going to stick with GOODYEAR rubber one from now on, that won't shrink as much or as fast as this did.


6 months old.

Lil shy of the 24" it needs to be

Yikes, good to know!

I noticed my hose shrank as well, but maybe closer to 1"?









...we are still talking about the Toyox fuel line, right?....RIGHT?!

i'd double up on those zip ties, or maybe strip apart some 14/3 Romex wire and tag team it with the zip ties. UPS/Fedex is like Honey Badger..."he don't care".

Man... just seeing all this. Best to your son.
Scoot looks ace of course... and hoping your engine gets back in quickfast!

Thanks birbs! His swelling still hasn't gone away. We see the occularplastics dr again on Friday and hopefully we'll have an answer as to why on earth it's still swollen. He feels good though so that's the main thing honestly. Hoping I get this beast dialed in and back on the road soon.

Yes, best wishes to you and your son, hoping for quick healing from this point forward. It's more important than progress on your scooters!

Oh boy, you are having a time! But good to hear things are looking up, like you said "He feels good though so that's the main thing honestly."

Order your Toyox hose twenty SIX inches next time!

Great packing job, bummer going through all this but these things happen and you know it will be fixed right. I just went thru a mystery air leak on a smallie motor, but it was just something dumb I did - easy fix once I pulled the motor & no harm done.


Leak testing smallie

Ghetto setup, piece of old innertube hose clamped over exaust

No gauge, just blow on tube.

Everything is swapped back over to this beauty.

Swapped over to an XL tank since I had it and added a sweet Nisa seat. One day I'll put the yellow film on this headlight as well. I think it looks way better.

Once it stops raining I get back to dialing in the dam carb.
Currently rocking this set up
120/BE3/125
55/160 2 Spaco turns out


The inspector gave it the all clear.

This seat is great. That is all.

Right on! Very nice. Very nice indeed!

I'm amused to know that there are at least three of us with white Riva 80s lurking in the project queue.

Was out yesterday for a while and was loving how well she was running. Only four stroking right off idle, cleared up at 1/8 throttle.

Went out today and four stroking all the way to 1/2 throttle. Kept stalling on idle too so I upped that to about 1400 rpm's and that stopped that issue. Got home from a ~20 mile ride and checked the spark plug, it's still looking rich to me. This ride had next to no time above 1/2 throttle as well.

120/BE3/125
55/160 idle mix screw kept getting adjusted and never cleaned up the four stroking, I think it's about 1.5-2 turns out.
Auto lube is hooked up.

Going to run the jets through the ultrasonic cleaner now. The BE3 looked not clear at the bottom holes.


Not as wet as it used to be but still very black. Like my cold dead soul.

Are you sure your air tight?

Idle jet seems small

Yes. Triple checked my double check. Idle drops back down from WOT in 1-2 seconds. No evidence of an air leak… there's an oil leak though.

Took the whole carb back out and put it all in the ultrasonic cleaner. Lots of debris in the float chamber.

55/160 is the "leanest" jet I've tried aside from a random 40/130 I have. That's way too lean though. Put it in and rode it down the block and it just sounded wicked lean. Currently the 55/160 sounds pig rich.
Warmed her up and then tried to tune the idle. The 55/160 ended up 1 turn out when the idle stopped rising from zero. The 40/130 is 4.5 turns out. So I should end up in the middle somewhere no?

I'm assuming the choppy riding is from the debris which is why I am cleaning the whole shebang. Will try again tomorrow when I have some more time.

Would make sense since it's a new tank that wasn't super clean. Tried to wash it out but maybe (more like obviously) didn't get it clean enough. May have to take that out and give it another good washing.

55/160 is not a rich jet. Try a richer one.

Is this the Stelvio?

I have. I'll try again though. Have the following ones available to me so I'll start at the top and work my way down.

50/120
45/120
52/140
50/140

Yes.

The 50/120 might work better. Less sure of the others. 50/100 would be my choice.
Recheck the main jet every time. 125 might still be a size over.

Why have you changed Mr. Gick's jetting he shipped with the build?

120/BE3 is not a good combination on a stop and go Stelvio, having tried everything short of Lemarxon parts on it.

Ok had her back out today, the four stroking was back down to just off zero. 1/4 throttle was clear. 55/160 idle. Rode around mostly under 1/2 throttle for about 20 miles. Took a pic of the new plug I put in before I left, see below. I had to go back to the 55/160 due to the 50/120 flooding the engine. So I went with one I knew would at least work. So new plug and off I went. Felt great until I get to about 6000 rpm or 1/2 throttle. Then it felt like it was soft seizing.

That throttle range was bang on last ride. So I'm thinking tomorrow I will wash out the tank, again, and run the carb through the ultrasonic cleaner, again, and see if that helps.

I mentioned to Ray that I honestly don't remember if I dried the tank after the first wash. Maybe there's some water in the gas causing the issue? Probably also has gunk in the jets too though. I shall see tomorrow.

Now for the plug


50/120 soaking wet. Fouled the plug.

55/160 2 turns out.

55/160 2 turns out again.

In an effort to track down what feels like soft seizing in the middle range of the throttle I went out again today. I didn't clean out the tank yet. Here's why, I took the jets out of the main stack to check for debris which I found in the BE3. Cleaned it out and tried again.

Something ain't right.

Did 1/4 throttle plug checks. I.e. kept the throttle at 1/4 for 30 or so seconds then grabbed the clutch and killed the engine and coasted to a stop…. I'm wicked lean in there. See below.

I'm a bit confused as I thought a BE4 was "richer" than a BE3? My plugs tell a different story.
Anyone know what the F is going on here? It seems any attempt to richen the mix makes it leaner. I'm thoroughly confused now.


Jetting the same as yesterday for this pic. 55/160 with a 120/BE3/125 stack. 1/4 throttle for 30 seconds the kill the engine and coast to a stop.

55/160 - 120/BE4/128

55/160 (1.75 turns out) - 120/BE4/128

50/120 (1.75 turns out) - 120/BE4/128

Atomiser won't fix a pilot jet issue. As said a few times needs a 50/100 pilot. It might even need richer.

That's what I'm not understanding. My rpm's drop right back to idle. It doesn't act lean at all. When I went richer on the jet, the plug looks leaner.
When I warm the bike up and raise the idle then close off the mix screw and open it till the rpm's stop climbing I'm 1-1.5 turns out. Which would point to being too rich no?


Although looking at the pics again *maybe* the 50/120 is a little more "toasted" than the 55/160

Adjustment starts with the mix screw fully out. 4 turns usually enough but six to be sure it can get fully rich before adjusting. Sure this could be your issue.

These are not normal carbs. The pilot jet is dominant to about 1/3 throttle. However, the main jet works from zero. Leads to much confusion with this much overlap.

Thanks I'll try it that way next! And will order richer jets. 50/100 to 50/120 which I have so I'll grab the rich jets between those two.