Modern Vespa

Hey all,

So I am having difficulty changing gears on my px. Newly built engine. Gear stack was assembled properly and shimmed correctly. New cables. All adjusted.

Bike fires and switches to first. However the gear shift takes a lot of force to change to second and third, and has a hard time shifting back up the gears and has a hard time finding neutral. I honestly have no idea what is wrong. The batwing moves freely upon inspection but once mounted to the engine and i am trying to change gears, it doesnt do well.

I am not confident with the gear changes. I have inspected everything. I even enlisted a friend who is a scooter mechanic to review everything and reassemble and the result is the same.

What are we missing? any insight is appreciated.

Thank you.

N

What sort of shape are the ears on the clutch plates? And are there wear grooves in the clutch basket fingers?

sounds like you've got something bound up. either a cable outer is jammed or out of the ferrule, or adjuster. maybe the shifter box is all jankified?

try playing with the slack in the cables and see what that yields.

question: is this action while rolling/riding or are you moving the shifter while it's just sitting there to check for the action?

The ears on the plates seemed fine. Nothing remarkable that stood out.

I don't know if anything is bound up. Cables are new. Adjusters are new. Cables sheathes are new. Cables are tight. The shifter is tight. Tighter than my p200 that shifts like a dream.

It's tough to switch while riding. It's not smooth at all. It's easier when sitting and i try changing the gears while pressing down on the kickstart lever—-but even that is not smooth.

Could the selector box need refurbishing?
Could a gear be in the wrong orientation? Even thou i triple checked?

I'm stumped.

Loosen the cable tension and see how that goes.

How loose? In a normal situation, the cables should be taught then adjusted with the adjusters.this is what I've done snd still nothing.

So how mosse should I go?

Check your gear tube. Sometimes they crack at the cutouts and get hard to turn inside the handlebar…

Clutch cable needs adjustment

The handle should have maybe 4mm of free play. Not saying this is your issue. Easy to rule out, though.
Clutch lever should have the same mm or so of soft pull (clutch lever spring tension), before the hard pull (pin hitting the clutch plate).

Pulled the outers out of their adjuster sockets at the selector box while working on the engine recently. They here left sitting on the edges, tightening the cables. Shifted like crap.