Modern Vespa

And tires! Can just rip around the farm on rims!

Got the bike back to my shop today.

Tore apart the carb and found some surprises!
First it's a 20.20 carb not the stock 20.16

It's missing the lid to box rubber, missing the rubber for the fuel line and the rubber for the idle screw.

Filter in the fuel bowl is smashed and has plenty of room for debris to get into the jets. Bunch of grime in the bottom of the bowl too. Gonna give it a good clean tomorrow.

The jetting…. Is a mystery. Nothing on the jets at all. What would be a stock jetting for a 20.20 carb in a VNB2 motor? We'll start there.

Here's some pics!

The jetting for the 20/20 on the P125X is likely pretty close. Someone check my math.

Here is an older post on that Chinese "Dellorib" carb. Sorry, that just cracks me up.

honeng chain dellorto carb

Gotta be something around that. However I'm sure the PX is a wildly different beast than the VNB. So it's probably way rich which might be the issue we're having. Probably stock PX125 jetting in there which I assume is wrong for an older machine.

Had to idle it ridiculously high just to start it and keep it running. Choke out and it wouldn't start at all.

Ed, my old Honda sensei used to say "90% of all carburetor problems are electrical". The wad of goo in the bowl not withstanding, have you set the timing? If I'm not mistaken, your friend's scoot had some kind of plastic/fiberglass flywheel, no? Wonder what's underneath?

Dang. He got Dellortd'd.

Speedo's only matter if you're worried about going too fast.

I cleaned and sorted the fuel flow from tank to engine, cand was still having a hard time starting.

Replaced the plug, and it helped for a bit. Then I replaced the condenser and points. That was more help. Then static timed it - and all was good except the lights. 45mph tucked with a tailwind - hell of a ride with the front spring as it was.

Dinked with lights blowing and finally said, screw it, and bought a Vape AC static ignition and never looked back. Lights consistent since.

Every time Chris and I would go out and race our Allstate's I'd always think of this song

Oh no worries! I'm just thinking out loud and drooling like a kid in the candy store window. I'm stoked you got your friend a sweet Allstate! True good friend indeed

Mine was missing the blanking plate, and the PO was pissed cause it got swiped when it was in storage. I couldn't find one so I put a speedo in it

Anyone know of a spark plug equivalent to the Champion L10?

They don't seem to exist. Not sure what the NGK equivalent would be for the stock VNB 125 motor.

B7HS NGK, or B8HS.....

https://www.scootermercato.com/Scooter-Parts/Spark-Plugs/2-B7HS

Thanks!

Turns out, carbs come with the stock jetting.

Should have friggin assumed that since the Polini carb I bought for my Vino came with the jets. So why wouldn't a Vespa one too. Derp.

Years ago I was on a vacation with a fairly new pickup truck (still under warranty) and it just died while I was driving along. Got it towed to the nearest dealer and was pretty upset about having my vacation ruined as I was on my way to see an old friend I hadn't visited in a decade or so to help him wire his bike he was building.

They ended up loaning me a ford fiesta and it was several days before they could get the truck fixed so had to extend the vacation. I called some family to let them know I would be late getting back so they wouldn't worry and my brother was asking me how I liked the Fiesta?

I told my brother I liked it alright except for the speedometer only went to 85 miles per hour and so I had no idea how fast I was going...

LOL!

My first car was an old Oldsmobile with an 85 MPH speedometer. I drove it from Dallas to New Mexico (and back) a few times and would estimate speed by timing the mile markers. It topped out just over a hundred with my heel propped on the gas pedal.

Mine was an 89 Plymouth horizon. The poor man's Rabbit. Speedo also only went to 85. And I could only get it there going downhill. Pretty sure my Vespa has more horsepower then that car did.

'66 Chrysler Newport, 440, dual 4 bbl rochester carbs, 37 gallon tank and she needed every drop.

A friend of mine had one of those. He always said it was named for the shipyard where it was built.

My first car was an '82 Renault Fuego. New to me in 1993.

Been trying to update the wiring cables and brakes on the '62 lately. Had an issue where the front brake felt gummed up. So we removed the wheel to check and the old brake shoe was cracked and the spring didn't spring. Replaced them and I stepped out to get kids food. Come back and my friend had hammered the new brake shoe on… breaking the one shoe.
Then the dang brake wouldn't brake with a new cable. Just kept sticking. Walked away after removing the old wiring harness which was in rough shape.
Woke up yesterday thinking hmmmm I wonder if the screw on the brake lever is too tight. Gotta be kidding me. It was that simple the whole time.
He got a rough introduction into the 1 step forward 3 steps back of Vespa repairs. One of the screws that hold the brake switch in snapped into half when removing. Cut a slot into it to remove and nope. Metal just bent. So we gotta drill that out now.

Your last post makes me feel better. I'm new to working on Vespas and it has been exactly how you describe. It's the little unexpected things that stop you in your tacks. A couple weeks ago, I was all ready to go for a first ride when I stripped a wheel hub stud, then found that another 2 were iffy. It took awhile to sort out.

I've been working on these beasts pretty regularly for over ten years now and still get caught by stuff like this from time to time.

I usually no longer make the "break the brake" type mistakes, but whatever steel they used for many of the mechanical parts, e.g. rim studs, was apparently sourced from local cheese makers. Ditto the screws and bolts. they love to shear off when you least can recover from it.

You get used to it, or at least get better at, recovering from these issues over time, though.

Kind of how it goes working on the old and unusual. The stuff not in books…dealing with the stripped, stuck, rusty or snapped off. A whole how-to book could be written on this subject with a description of the all the tools and liquids as well as the range of techniques from delicate finesse to ignorant brute force. Heating, beating, cussing, busting, drinking and how to bust a blood blister under your fingernail without getting gangrene.

Would be great for working on any old-ass crate or any vehicle that spends more than 2 winters on the road in the northeast.

Wait until you crack the front swing arm trying to remove the brake pin! My wife said my language was so bad she had a flashback to my Navy days.

The dyi fix for a subungual hematoma (blood blister under your finger nail) is to drill a hole in the nail. Exacto blade or dremel works. Feels sooo good after you relieve the pressure.

Oh man, I feel your pain! I've found I just need to work real slow and not try too hard cause something is gonna snap if I do. The brake switch is interesting, as well as the brake itself. The same pin for both brake shoes. Finesse is the key.

I kept the original harness. All the wires seemed OK when I checked them with a meter. Cleaned up the brake switch, and the brake light connections. Broke off both brake wires and put new crimped ends on them.

I never really tried too hard with the points to keep the lights working and I went with Electronic Ignition, Vape, 12VAC and it's been working great. But that was it's own project :O

You guys will get it sorted, no doubt!

MMMMM Mongo beat on with hammer, Mongo broke no understand why a part that needs to move can't be beat on.

^^^^^

Back at this one. The wiring harness was giving me fits. Probably because we ran the cables first. Either way I could not get the harness to exit the tunnel up front. Spent hours trying. Nothing worked. Gave up and walked away for a few weeks. Came back today and reversed what I was doing and ran the harness from the front to the back instead. Couple of push and pulls and it finally popped through!

Ran into a few issues of course. One the old light only had 2 wires. No ground wire. New harness has 3, Yellow,Blue and Black for ground. All 3 will not fit through the tiny ass brake light tube. So I'm just gonna ground that line to one of the glovebox cowl bolts. The ground wire is long enough to reach oddly enough because the next issue is…

Unfortunate. thats reeeeeeally short, not only the wires but the sheathing too

I'm glad I got the solder splicers at least when I needed to run the Ac/Dc converter on mine. Also saved the sheathing off of his original harness so I can make up the difference so alls not lost!

Was gonna splice em tonight but my back hurts from running the harness earlier. Leaning like this / sucks. Sitting down sucks too. One day my back will get fixed. Hopefully before I'm dead!

I need help from the wiring gurus.

Got this loom from Mercato. The diagram that came with it is hard to decipher and if I use the 62 Allstate wiring diagram I'm even more lost as this loom has way more wires than that diagram.
I got as far as the Green wire to the horn since that one is obvious but I'm struggling with the rest.

Here's some pictures!

Here's the junction box hook up too

So I was a little off on what that hook up in the junction box was. And got a new correct switch but still no lights at all. Can anyone help me out here? All wires have continuity so no breaks or anything. All grounds appear to be excellent.

Off the stator we have a double yellow, black (not red like I thought), white and blue.

From the harness we have a double
yellow, red, green and a double blue.

It's time to check for around 6v ac voltage with that mutimeter while the motor is running.
Start at the junction box and check all wires except red wire since that wire is for kill switch. May need to separate the wire before checking but even with connected you should get something. If no voltage stator problem.
If you have voltage, start checking switches. Brake switch blue wire check for voltage then go to brake light and check with brake pressed. Check wires at handlebar switch coming from junction box...yellow and green wires. Then check volts to the wires from switch to components... horn, headlight and rear light.

Let's is know where the volts stop. I'm guessing bad grounds or bad wires/connections of you get power from stator to junction box.

Btw, Allststates had a cheaper, different wiring loom then a vespa to save sears cost.

Perfect instructions. Thanks! Will tackle that tomorrow or Monday and will report back.

Took way more than a tomorrow to get back to this but we're working on it today.

Checked voltage at the light and junction. Less than 2v on all wires aside from red which is the ground.

How on earth do we test the stator? Or coils? It's something in there that's the issue…

Red as a ground? That's really odd!

As for checking stator, look up a garage manual or service manual and see what voltage AC is on this model coming out of stator. Garage manuals for my 1959 Allstate has troubleshooting and AC voltage checks with numbers.

Update on this one, as of tomorrow I will be taking ownership of this bike. My friend has no interest in it, been at my house since he got it and he just has no desire so he offered it to me.

I already put my sip road 2 on it and will have a few jets (95-100), the stock one was 94 so adding a few for the pipe and in case I get a better air filter.

Will need to rewire the stator. The wires at the junction box are weak as sin.