Modern Vespa

According to the fine Wiki on how to reload the kickstarter spring, it mentioned that the bushings should be cleaned and greased. Right now mine struggles returning back up once pushed down and I'm guessing a little lube will help.

Q1: Any recommended grease or any will be fine?

Q2: Should anything else be lubricated, for example the spring itself?

I've also noticed that every now and then, I can hear the kickstarter half gear thing sometimes touch the plastic fan inside. If I move the kickstarter a bit, it goes away for a while. Haven't looked to closely to figure out why that is.

Thanks

Not sure if this is the official/correct way:

After I thoroughly cleaned and degreased the variator cover (and the various kick start bits that sit inside it), I used a spray-on type lithium grease on the spring, gears/sprockets/pawls. Works beautifully.

You certainly don't want anything that's runny or spatters when you use the kickstart mechanism, as the belt/pulley surfaces need to remain free of the greasy stuff.

Bear in mind it can get quite warm in there too, so you don't want anything that runs when it gets warm.

If everything is working properly, the kickstarter lever should retract and the pawls shouldn't touch the pulley washer thingy (the word escapes me). Try giving everything a very good clean and lube so that it runs smoothly, and see if that fixes it.

If not, you might want to look at the spring/gear mechanism so that it's setup tight - it should have enough tension on it to retract away after use.

I would recommend trying to lube the bushing with a spray lube before removing the kick start arm to clean/lube it. It is almost impossible to reload the spring without a special tool and even with the tool it can be a struggle.

This wiki article has a description of the tool I made to load the kick start spring on an ET4. Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Specialty Tools

-Craig

Oh yes, I'm all too familiar with dealing with the kickstart spring rewind.

Here is a video that might help as well as a tool from Scooterwest. I have not tried this tool yet....avoiding that spring as much as I can.

Right now waiting on a new front caliper. Discovered one of the cylinder seals busted and made a nice mess as I was checking the brake pads.

Blimey - well, better safe than sorry. Not sure if they tend to weep a bit beforehand, or do they just let go suddenly?

I've literally just had a whole new front brake setup (disc, caliper, hose and mater cylinder). So much safer knowing it's all tickerty boo for years to come. 👍

When I started riding this Spring, I noted that the front brake lever had more travel than it used to. The brake fluid glass did look a tad low but didn't think much of it. Soon as I manually compressed the pads, fluid gushed out. Didn't see any evidence that it was leaking prior than that. Only indication was that the front brake didn't feel right and thought I'd better check the pads.

It does have over 20K miles on it and 20 years old so I guess....

Depending on your original part number, some Piaggio calipers have been superseded.

You might need a washer/shim to help the caliper clear the disc (unless mine was usually out of spec, which is always possible).

Brake discussion continued here...

Thanks!