Modern Vespa

Today, I primed, and painted. No clear though. I'm going to wait until the swingarm gets fixed and painted, then clear it all at once.


Primed in the makeshift heat box

Fork with a couple coats

Hub looking nice!

Chris came over today! We drank coffee and BSed. And cleaned up the workspace a little. And BSed a bunch more.

Then we called GeekLion and BSed with him! I'd swear that guys like my brother, and we've never hung out in person. Just like Whodat!

Well, y'all are my brothers and sisters, so I have close ties to all of you, across the oceans or across the state.

So did we get any work done on Lucy? You betcha. We got the kinked oil line at the bottom of the new tank solved, and rerouted the headset electrical to the right side, and came up with some gameplans for the side cowl and headset.

But we mainly BSed


Old kink was in my hands. The oil line fit directly on the tank with some help of a heat gun and a fat screwdriver to stretch the hose a bit

Burrito time, while we contemplate the next move (BSing)...

When I've had lines like that which didn't want to stay un-kinked, I got some PET tubing that I could put around the hose, then heated and bent it. PET is gas-proof and will hold the bend rigid so it can't collapse.

Ohh, good to know. Thanks!

It was great catching up with you guys today! Lucy is coming along well

Today I wired up the brake switch and chased the threads for the switch. I also couldn't find the slotted bolts to mount the switch,, but found some Phillips head ones at True Value..

I soldered the wires onto the clips because that's usually where it pulls loose.




Chasing threads - M4 x .70 pitch. I pulled a screw out of B62 to get the size

The switch with the leads soldered onto the switch plates.

Ready to be installed

Installed

Today I took the swingarm over to the welder, who is a retired master welder. Hopefully he'll have it fixed up soon!

I also got a bunch of parts in, so I can start assembling here soon.

After wiring the brake switch up, I decided to check out the rest of the harness. It is wired for a battery, and we're going batteryless, and a P200 motor. So I've printed out the VLA wiring schematics, with and without battery and doing some comparisons. I've also got a new handlebar switch so that's another unknown.

My current game plan is to tie both headlight and taillight into the yellow stator wire (7 wire, only one yellow stator), and add a 12v regulator in the mix. And put 12v bulbs in of course.

I'm thinking I'll use a battery to pretend it's the stator powering things until it's all dialed in, then just plug in the yellow wire. We'll see....


First things first, warming up the coffee on the wood stove....

With and without battery schematics. I don't have a colored printer so I've gotta go old school and label the wires on the schematics

Headlight bezel. Time to find some bulbs that fit

The handlebar switch. I think I know what wires I want where....yeah right....better buy extra bulbs....

Can somebody pull off the red reflector off their GL and take a picture for me? I think I get it, but a picture would be O-so-helpful!

Thank you!


This is what I got

Minda = Indian repro crap...

Good to know! So, does anybody have a picture? What should we replace it with?

Pretty sure you are looking for this…

Thanks Jeff - Chris will see this - I put one in his ScooterMercato cart

And in other news: I got the swingarm back from the welder! Success! Now to clean up a bit more and paint.


Looks good

That'll work!

nice save on the swing arm!

Thanks Hibbert. I'm super happy about that. Now I get to clean it up, paint, and put it together!

Glad you could get it fixed. Whenever I first break something, I lose my mind. WhenI calm down, I usually figure out a solution.

A trick i use for black and white wire diagrams is to simply trace over the top of the lines with either colored pencils or ink pens. It makes it much simpler for me to follow with my eyes.

Back in my younger years I worked on radar systems on a ship. There were a few colored lines drawn across, three or four publications tracing a wire from diagram 1 to diagram 4 or 5. Crayons sharpened in a pencil sharpener works well also in a pinch.

Thanks guys - good ideas!

Everything is painted, and now curing. So I did some sanding on the front fender .

I want to paint the fender before putting the front end in obviously, but I'm not feeling it like I was a week ago...


Drying by the heater

Fork on 2nd shelf...

You can see the old cream. I like the old color

This cat was in the driveway around 6pm! I've been walking to the mailbox, down the street, around this time, in the pitch black! Maybe I'll carry a flashlight and a pipe next time...

Any cat that can cast that large of a shadow, i'd do a quick 180 and get out of dodge!

maybe add some bear spray to the flashlight and pipe arsenal. yeesh

Just give him scritches behind the ears and it'll be fiiiine...

...pet his belly.

...stuff your pockets with cat nip.

...carry a few slices of ham?

Only if it's Airbox Ham!

Sometimes it like Mutual of Omahas Wild Kingdom around here....

I would have psssp psssp'd the shit outta that kitty!

Now, all I will hear when I see your pics is Marlin Perkins the Narrator of Wild Kingdom talking…. "Here we see Scootnewb filling up for winter with fresh pasties as Scott emerges from a scooter and motions his hand in mental confirmation 'Righty tighty. Lefty Loosey.' "

/cue dramatic music

What a crack up! If you only knew how many times....

Hopefully he meant "pastries".

Lolz!

Believe it or not, we have at least one big mountain lion who walks around our neighborhood here in LA from time to time.

Six or so years ago my daughter came home after school.
"Dad, I saw a huge cat this morning, with big ears!"

Semi-domesticated coyote's have taken over the place. Used to see deer every winter before they took over.

The famous P-22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-22_(mountain_lion)

Sad new about P-22....

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/17/us/los-angeles-mountain-lion-euthanized-trnd/index.html

I know. I didn't post it because I didn't want to bring down the mood. He was and is iconic. I was living in LA the time he took a koala from the zoo for a snack.

I FINALLY got in the garage today for some much needed scooter therapy. Not that it's been rough though. We just got back from five days camping on the coast with ocean views in our home away from home motorhome ...

To make it short and sweet, I attached the swingarm and installed the spring. Lots of roller bearings and fiddling with things to get them together. I almost got the damper installed, but ran out of time. Tomorrow is another day


The Minnow, a 1997 30' Winnebago Adventurer - home away from home

Let's put all this together, shall we?

Packed bearings in one side of the shock pivot base.

Bearings packed and pivot bolt / brake clip pin is installrd

Time to pack bearings I to the fork and install the swingarm to it

There is this brass washer with cover that had a felt ring in it.

I bought a front hub felt ring and cut it to size

Voila, it worked. Now to pack with grease and install

Woohoo - swingarm is attached to the fork

I got the spring installed after a couple of attempts to compress the spring.

Lookin' good!

While I realize there are those who think me a heretic for doing so, I like to update all my bearings to modern designs. Caged needle bearings and sealed axle bearings. Much easier install, no need for grease in the hub that way and they're protected from the elements, too.

Thanks Chandler. They make caged needle bearings? And sealed axle bearings? Dangit! I would've gone that route...if I knew...

I'm just happy to find the proper axle replacement bearings. Next to around I'll hunt them down. Thanks for the insight, you heretic

I just took measurements to figure out the bearing spec's and searched for them. Found sealed/caged versions of everything. The only place I still use loose needle bearings is on the primary drive.

I could arguably have ordered from Grainger or the like, but these are doing just fine after 18 months of use.
e.g.
Front Axle:
20x47x14 sealed bearing
10mm Bore 14mm OD 12mm Width Caged needle bearings
Driveshaft:
12x32x10 sealed bearing