Modern Vespa

Has anyone had a similar experience? I'm replacing the kickstart lever on an early VBB that has a fully splined quadrant. As you can see from the pics, my old one, with a larger gauge bolt for Christ's sake, was fine, but the replacement came with a narrower gauge bolt that impedes with the splines. WTF?

Unless someone says why not, I'm just going to just replace the bolt with a narrower one, but wow...

Looks all wrong even your old one looks rough, it looks badly cast. Look at SIP site for new one

I'm confused. Why are you replacing the kickstart lever if the old one "was fine"?

Are you sure you're putting it on correctly? The bolt fits in a groove on the end of the quadrant. The bolt has to be removed to put the lever on, and has to be aligned with the groove.

While correct, the new one I bought for my VNA also had this issue. The bolt was too big to fit in that channel.

I was putting it on correctly. This is a fully splined, round quadrant that needs a similar lever. The old lever was shot...lots of stripping so it had to go (it was 60 years old you know).

The original design had a securing bolt that did not impinge on the splines. The replacement came with a bolt that impinges on the splines and quadrant...you could fit the lever without the bolt but not with it. I fixed this by simply replacing the bolt with a smaller diameter one I had sitting around.

It just ticks me off that replacement kits are so poorly assembled but sold as good to go.

A recurring theme with non original parts.

Greetings:

Is the kickstart shaft notched? On all the Hondas, Yamahas and Kawasakis I've owned, as well as my 2 Vespas, you must remove the bolt altogether before sliding the lever onto the splines of the shaft coming out of the engine. The bolt then screws in along the notch in the shaft. Sorry if this sounds a bit basic, but just making sure.

I appreciate the thought...yeah, that's true for other quadrants but not this one.

Doesn't the full-splined shaft still have the circumferal groove for the bolt ?