Modern Vespa

Update:

Today the P was delivered to the Paint Shop! I hand sanded everything with 150 grit twice and then with 220 grit twice. If I never see a piece of sandpaper again it will be too soon!
I met with the manager and went over things like masking off the VIN number and brass cowl contacts. I had everything else already masked off for them. I didn't want to take any chances on having something not masked and dealing with that. I ended up buying a new horn cast from Scooter Mercato along with a new wiring harness. I am actually having both the original horn cast painted white and the new horn cast painted white with the green/white/Red Stripes. So If I ever want to go back to all white all I would need to do is repaint the cowls white.

As for the color scheme?

I have settled on a more subtle Italian Flag Color scheme. It's not as "In Your Face" as the Neapolitan version. See pics I found for inspiration below.
The left cowl will be Red, the right cowl will be green and the horn cast will have 1/2" wide stripes. Everything else is white. As for the color white, I am leaning on a shade of white very similar to the one used on Scooter West's P200 restoration videos. Its more of an ivory white as compared to a bright white. The paint will be base coat/clear coat. The epoxy primer should be applied in the next week. The painter is planning on have it completed by the 1st or 2nd week in March!

Time to tear apart the engine next!

Parts to be used on the engine build include:
*VMC Stelvio 177 Top End
*Mazucchelli Stroked and cut crank (60mm stroke, conrod 105 mm, pin 15mm, valve timing: 138 deg/6 deg post TDC)
*Malossi Gear Kit 23/64
*SIP Road 2.0 Sport Exhaust
Stay Tuned!

Hec


Italian Theme 2.0 Front

Italian Theme 2.0 Rear

Body Shop Drop Off 1

Body Shop Drop Off 2

Body Shop Drop Off 3

Wow, nice and clean. Looks pretty straight too. Stripping to bare metal is no fun.

Don't forget fork, hubs and wheels.

Yup! I have everything to rebuild the fork. New front and rear shock, bushings, Malossi Brake pads, bearings and seals, brake hubs, and fork already powder coated.

I thought I'd take care of that after the engine. I have all the parts for the engine rebuild. I think things should move quickly now.

I also have an SIP Rev Counter digital Speedo to install with fast flow tap with low fuel indication and cylinder head temp sensor. Oh yeah the oil tank will be rebuilt with new seals etc..


Hec

Last edited by Hec In Omaha on Wed, 08 Feb 2023 00:27:48 +0000; edited 1 time

Check out the two-part rattle cans when you're ready to paint it all. SoCal put me on to them for my GL and they make smaller jobs like that super convenient.

I'll keep that in mind if I need to paint small parts that didn't get painted at the body shop or powder coated.

Hec

I have been using Preval spray canisters to prime my scooter as I have struggled to set up my paint gun properly. It has worked surprisingly well even for primer. I have also used it with urethane enamel. I would almost use it for top coat, at least for something small like a scooter. It's great for small parts and you can use paints that cannot be packaged in a 2k rattlecan format (like urethane). I also use ordinary rattle can for small parts if I only need 1k paint.

SoCal put me onto Spraymax two-part rattlecans.

You can get two-part epoxy and urethane in rattle cans. It has the activator in a sub-compartment that you punch in and it mixes together.

I used it for the fork and other running gear on my GL and they worked great. I went ahead and just bought a small can of black when I did the VBB because of cost, but that was the only reason.

All,

Here are two potential colors of white I'm thinking of going with. RAL 1013 Pearl White or Biancospino 715.

I snagged the pics from https://www.vespafarben.de/suchfilter/vespa-weiss/

I'm really not after a bright white. No metallic or pearl paint either.

Tonight I am going to go through my box of rubber grommets and parts pulled of the P during disassembly and see what I need to replace. I know some rubber parts are in decent shape. Should I just bite the bullet and order a complete rubber kit from Scooter West or piece meal it?

Hec


RAL 1013 Pearl White

Biancospino 715

Good to know you can get them in urethane now.

buy a complete kit. even if you use some of it it'll be worth it's weight for the one thing you forgot/messed up installing/didn't know you needed.

Tonight I disassembled the engine to include knocking out all bearings. One thing I noticed is the circlip that secures the oil pump injector gear is missing the two little holes for the snap ring pliers. Has anyone seen that before? Other than that it went really smoothly! Didn't break anything!

Hec


Circlip


Last edited by Hec In Omaha on Sat, 11 Feb 2023 12:46:31 +0000; edited 1 time

Not broken, it was like that on older models…

Yeah, normal.

A lot of smaller circlips have just hooks which seems enough for pliers to spread them apart.

Common on a lot of older motorbikes too.

Thanks guys. I struggled to figure out how the circlip could wear or break the little holes off so symmetrically. My snap ring pliers did open it up for removal no problem. Should I replace it with a new style one with holes?
Next on the list is replacing the motor mount and rear shock mount bushings in the engine case. After that I will install the Malossi 23/64 gear kit in the Cush drive. 👍

Hec

Not sure I see the need to replace that circlip with ones with holes.

I wouldn't see it as an upgrade.

If you got the circlip out without mauling it, I would just reuse it.

I didn't bugger the circlip up.

So far I have given the engine cases a deep clean. I scrubbed them down with a degreaser and then ran them through my ultrasonic parts cleaner for good measure. I also ran the internal engine parts through the ultrasonic parts cleaner (kick start quadrant gear and spring, and oil injection gears and drive shaft).
I also removed the rear shock bushing. Boy was that bushing hard as a rock! I still need to build a puller for the replacing the motor mount bushings using all-thread and a pipe spacer. Having the right tools is invaluable! That will be tomorrows project.

Hec


Circlip

Pulling rear shock bushing using piston wrist pin puller.

Rear shock bushing sleeve out

Rear shock bushing removed next to replacement rubber bushing

Rotary Pad

Cleaning

Pretty clean!

Very clean! Those look nice!

Using the wrist pin puller to get that rear shock sleeve out was an excellent idea! I'll definitely be doing that next time.

Robot showed that in a video, it works awesome.

Yes Robot covered the rear shock removal/installation using the piston wrist pin remover. His videos are great!

The install of the rear shock bushing was a snap too.
I did get the rear engine mount bushings out. I used a 24" piece of 1-12" sch40 steel pipe, 36" long piece of 3/8" all-thread, various washers and nuts. It came out no problem.

Hec


Rear shock bushing sleeve install

Rear motor mount bushing removal/install tool. Per Robot's Vid

Engine mount bushing puller.

The bushings are in! Now it's on to the Cush drive and Malossi 23/64 up gear kit.

Hec


Bushings in!

Today I completely disassembled the Cush drive. I drilled out the rivets with a 7/64" drill bit. The rivets easily pushed out and the two plates didn't even get bent I removed the circlip and removed the input shaft bearing by gently tapping on the shaft with a brass hammer while holding the bearing in my left hand. I barely tapped it and the bearing slid off the shaft! Then I ran the parts being reused through the ultrasonic cleaner.

Unfortunately SIP sent me the wrong input shaft bearing in their engine bearing replacement package. All the other bearings match up except this one. The one they sent is larger in I.D. and O.D. So I will be visiting our local bearing house tomorrow over lunch. Darn

Hec


Rivets drilled out

Mostly dissembled

Fully dissembled

Wrong input shaft bearing sent by SIP. Bottom one. Parts are clean!

SIP Bearing Label

Update:

The new input shaft bearing arrived and it is now installed. I heated up bearing housing with a heat gun and the bearing dropped right in. I installed the new Malossi springs and straight cut gear. The Malossi springs are wound of larger diameter steel than the OEM springs. I got the backing plates in position to have the rivets peened over. I used strips of duct tape over the rivet heads just to hold them from falling out. A couple of small clamps to hold the backing plates tight. Tomorrow I'll peen the rivets at work where we have a large industrial vise with an anvil on it.
I have an order for a gear set spacer 3rd oversize. It's a SIP 2.50mm spacer. This should give me the 0.15mm required minimum clearance. I was surprised I had to go straight to the 3rd oversize spacer as the motor only has about 5,600 miles on it.

Hec


Malossi Springs and Straight Cut Gear in

Input shaft bearing in

Ready for peening of rivets

Clamped and ready for peening of rivets

Update:
Well that was easy! The rivets peened nicely!

Next is to install the new bearings in the engine cases in preparation for assembly. I'm trying to get something done no matter how small each day.

Hec


Couple of rivets left to peen

Done!

Done Done!

Looking good Hec!

That's what I try to do - every time I go to the garage I spend 5 or 10 minutes on something. Next thing you know it's almost done!

Ditto! I go into the workshop to spend 5 or 10 minutes on something, and two hours later, I'm 5 or 10 minutes closer to completion!

Good call putting all the rivets through and taping them down first. I just did this for the first time a couple weeks ago as well and I half peened one, fully peened the one opposite to it, then realized I needed to scoot the plates a fraction to get some of the other rivets to line up and it was a pita.

Sometimes I really don't want to do any work on stuff, especially if it's complicated and there is a chance of messing it up. I tell myself to just give it a half hour and usually I get sucked in.

Update:

Tonight we are blessed with freezing rain. So no going out for ash Wed Services since everything is being closed or cancelled. This freed up my evening and allowed me to get some things done. I installed the two needle bearings in the flywheel side engine case. So I heated up the case to 300F for 15 mins in the oven. I had two wood blocks on a piece of cardboard ready. Gotta protect the kitchen counter top or I'll be in big trouble with the Wifey! I also had gloves, hammer, and bearing drift ready. I lightly greased the bearings while waiting for the case to heat up. The crankshaft bearing dropped right into its bore with no hammering required. The axle bearing dropped in 3/4 of the way and only needed a slight tap to drive it home. After that I installed the crankshaft bearing race on the Mazzucchelli crank using the SIP crankshaft installation tool and a 1.0MM spacer. Worked slick.
Next is installing clutch side bearings.

Hec


Flywheel side bearing install

Bearings in!

Crankshaft bearing

Axle bearing

Crankshaft bearing race install set up

Crankshaft bearing race up against 1.0MM spacer

Done!

So I'm ready to install the two bearings in the clutch side case. I just realized that I screwed up by installing the new engine mount bushings and rear shock bushing first. I should of waited till all the case bearings on the clutch side were already installed since my plan was to use the oven to heat the cases for bearing installation.
I don't know if the rubber bushings will survive 300F degrees in the oven when I heat up the case. I still have the old bushing's and will do a test by putting them in the oven alone and see what the heat does to them. In addition, the bearings are currently in my -20F Degree freezer to help with the installation.

So here is my plan. All this being done while the case is still mounted to my engine stand. My hope is that the bearings will just drop in.

1. If the oven heat doesn't mess up the old bushings, I will use the oven like I did on the left case bearings.

2. If the oven messes up the old bushings, then I will use a Heat gun to apply localized heat to the bearing bores.

3. If #2 doesn't work I will retry using a propane torch.

4. If the bearings do not just drop in, I will repeat the steps above but have the engine case supported on wood blocks and tap the bearings in using a drift.


Live and learn!

Hec

i'd just go for the heat gun to be safe. it's my usual way.

I love how you installed that sleeve on the crank using that tool. I have that tool but didn't realize I could use it for this purpose too. That tool has way more uses than just pulling in cranks!

Thanks sdjohn,

I will definitely try the heat gun first.

I wish I could take credit for coming up with the method for installing the crankshaft bearing race. I saw it in this SIP video. Go to the 6:00 minute mark to watch! I like the fact that no hammering on the crank was needed! That's definitely better for the crankshaft!
He also used the crankshaft install tool to install the axle. Ill be doing that too!

Hec

Make sure you have adapter for axle, kit I bought didn't have adapter, had to buy it in separate kit or collection of fittings.

This is how I've been doing it for years. I figured out early on that the SIP tool is basically a magic wand for anything that involves pulling a threaded shaft into something or pressing something onto a threaded shaft.

It's also super-handy for pulling the front axle into the swingarm, etc.

Update:

Success! My plan worked. Heat gun plus -20F bearings did the trick. Crankshaft cir-clip was installed first. Both bearings dropped in about 90% of the way in and only required a couple of love taps to drive them home using the bearing drifts and brass hammer.

Whew that's done.

Next up is dry fitting the axle and gear selector to make sure the Cruciform lines up with wear marks on the axle for each gear.

Hec


Bearing Drifts

Done!

Done Done!

Update:

Today I installed the axle using my SIP crankshaft installation tool to dry fit the axle before final assembly. It worked slick! BTW a new Piaggio Cruciform has been installed. Then I installed the case gasket and assembled the cases. Next was to install gear selector gasket and gear selector. Here are some pics showing gear selector and Cruciform position on the axle for each gear. I think the Cruciform is lining up nicely with the gear wear marks on the axle! What do you guys think?

I have a package of SIP gear selector shims if needed. If I install them the result will be the Cruciform moving towards first gear? Correct?

Your comments are always welcome

Hec


Axle installation set up

Case Gasket in position

Cases assembled and gear selector gasket in position

First Gear

First Gear Cruciform position

Neutral

Neutral Cruciform position

Second Gear

Second Gear Cruciform position

Third Gear

Third Gear Cruciform position

Fourth Gear

Fourth Gear Cruciform position

SIP METAL Gear Selector Shims

Question

When installing seals in the case do you use thread lock or sealant, grease, or something else?
I will be installing Malossi seals and wanted to check in and see what's the best way to install.

Hec


Malossi Axle seal