Modern Vespa

It's the dirty truth, I'm just being salty about it. Next time I'm going whole hog.

This repartee is never boaring.

good sir, I bristle at the the thought that you would find this humdrum. now state that you are heretofore sow-rry at once or receive a thrashing about the head and shoulders with 044 ulma trims!

Don't be pig-headed like that. Because while you may be thinking, "Why not? What's the wurst that can happen?" The answer is "dueling."

And while I like a good duel as much as the next person, you'd feel bad afterward for ham-mering a guy with a bad neck and I want to save you from that sort of mental anguish.

^^^
Snork 🐷


Ok…. How do you define panic?

Me: looking down as I was ready to attach the front brake cable to the brake clamp at the wheel and realizing there is no front brake actuating lever at the hub. Then, looking through the front end rebuild box and not seeing it. All while knowing without looking online at Mercato and Sip that #56865 is hard to find. Panic.

Relief?

Me: pours double, cusses, pouts for half a drink, then sees random ziplock in the big breakdown tray by the gas cans in the far corner of the garage…. Could it be?!?! Yes! "Hello #56865!" (Downs other half of drink in celebration.) Relief.

Very similar to a call I got recently from the shop putting the SS180 motor together.
Them: "I don't suppose you have the key for the flywheel do you"?
Me: "It should be in the box of bits I gave you, in a ziplock bag with key for flywheel written on it. Get Angela to have a proper look".
A while later -
Them: "You'll never guess, turns out we have a ziplock bag just like you described!"
Next visit - Me "Yours even has my handwriting on it, what a coincidence"

More from the slowest rebuild thread ever...

Had a couple of silly fuck ups that have kinda characterized the last few months of life in general. The capture nut gave me fits. For some reason there was only one orientation it would work. Every other way it would bind strangely and prevent me getting a good clamp on the steering column. In the end I marked the nut with a black sharpie to alleviate all the misery next time.

Then once that was sorted ... I realized the speedo mounting nut would not clear the top of the legshield. "Next time" came much quicker than expected... So, chassis bolt and capture nut come back off for the 217th time. *sighs* All sorted now though and looks the dogs imho!

Tylenol and some rest now... Tank is up next.


Nope

and nope

Took 4 or 5 tries to get here. smh

uh-oh kids. Tip - Mount this before you sort the steering column bolt.

...and scene.

I have a question regarding your headset bolt. Is the shaft of the bolt the same thickness through the length of the bolt or is it thinner in the middle part of the bolt, like a small frame headset bolt? So, the one on the left or the right of my photo?

TY for asking… I meant to include a note about this.

Like the one on the left.

There was much discussion about that correct bolt. The one on the right with the taper seems common after late 65 or early 66. The straight bolt was early 65 and prior. (But…. We didn't have other SS models to compare… we were basing the above off my SS and other large frame models of the same era.)

Mine came with one that looks like the one on the left, no taper. It appears to be original. The year of the bike is a 65'.

The two from the photo are spares that I picked at some point in the past.

So close….

Mark came by this morning and we helped a guy named Mike (OG owner, 1980) sort his P200 gear box and then went hard after the fiddly bits on the 180.

Only thing left is 4 cables to hook up (choke, throttle, rear brake, clutch)… and some fiddly bits to tighten up and we done.

Oil!

Gas!

Let's Geaux!!!!

That ^^^ is very pretty!

Labor Day for the maiden voyage?

just trying to gauge the action before I meet with the book maker...

Cotter!
Looks spectacular.
Testa Rosa beauty.

Gorgeous.

in the home stretch !

Looks stunning. Nice color choice by the way.👍

Love that red!

I think I will paint my 59 that color

Usual Suspects... Mark , myself, and the dogs...


Well... we had hoped to fire up the SS resto yesterday, but were initially thwarted by some throttle cable bugaloo. I had run a standard cable sans nipple, forgetting that the 27/23 carb had the throttle cable attached directly to the slide. We stole one off the Motovespa and made ready to finally reach the sweet destination of hamville.

We were getting excited and such, attached the HT cable.... but... *sad trombone* came to find we had no spark.

It was crazy ass hot and we had put in a good days work while sweating buckets.

I will start chasing the connections and what-nots this evening or tomorrow...

Preliminary thoughts: Thinking a good place to look is the junction box. Marrying a Vespatronic to a ducati style harness made for some bulky connections. Hoping something(s) are just touching that shouldn't be.

Looking so good. It will feel so good when you get it started!

Oh, that had to be a kick(start) in the nuts. Working hard toward the finish line only to get thwarted at the last minute.

You'll figure it out.

Don't forget to grab some video. We promise we won't share it with the insurance company if they try to deny subsequent claims.

Sparkles!

Yessss!!!!

Video or it didn't happen!

Nice, good job. Now squirt in some gas and give us kick kick kick kick kick POP pop pop, please ?

Drumroll ......

Almost there!

this is a long tease from a photo with spark and still missing the start video....

BN is probably riding around right now, warming up some Airbox Ham and laughing about how hard he's trolling us.

Sadly no.

I had no time to try and start her up until today. Looks like I may have a dirty carb or a fuel flow issue. Will pop over with a blast of carb cleaner but no joy otherwise.

Will try and investigate further tonight when it gets below 100 out there…

ugh on all counts there.

And you're sure it's a carb issue and not another electrical issue? Are you on OG/points or electronic ignition? I can't recall.

Well to be clear, I am the guy that got a Vespa to run backwards… so we can't rule out an timing issue… 😶 That said, I'm running a Vespatronic and I'm pretty sure I'm only plus or minus 2 or 3° out on the timing.

I'm guessing fuel flow bc I'm not smelling the flooded out engine you'd expect after kicking it over 15 or 20 times.

Well...that's easy enough to check. Hit it with a little starter fluid and if you have spark plus even minimal compression, it'll run for a few seconds.

Assuming that passes, I'd try loosening the banjo bolt or float bowl cover and see if you get fuel leakage. That'll tell you if the issue is before or inside the carb. Then keep working from there.

I'd forgotten about the four speeds of reverse. That's some quality mis-work right there.

Thanks for the comments.

This is where we are at. I was getting a few seconds of runtime with carb cleaner as a starter.

Removing the banjo I was not getting good flow from the fuel line. (Geometry on the fuel line going into the carb intake is higher up on a 27/23 than the usual suspects.) But... I did get flow if I dropped the fuel line down. Pulled tank. I think the fuel line may have had an extra inch, lucky bastard. Trimmed that back. I may try another fuel tap... But, ran ouutta daylight. (Read - ran outta cold beer). Won't be able to revisit until Friday or Saturday.

More soon(ish),

Sounds like progress, though. At least you have a good working theory.

If you have the tank out still, check the flow rate with it out of the bike. You can find tap and breather problems so fast that way, and rule them out. It's how I figured my PX cap was no good, my P200 cap was no good, and my primavera fuel disconnect was no good .

what is it time for boys....

Man I love that sound. Well done!!!

Right on!

Sounds great! Congrats!