Modern Vespa

More poor life choices.

if you had any more room and time I would've convinced you that we could break down a bike and Tetris it up into the car! heck yeah. if that doesn't pan out, maybe we can meet half way? I'm up for a little road trip before the weather gets too hot.

looks out at the bikes... yup, that checks out...

While my buddy and I have broken down a Honda Elite to get it in an old Corolla sedan, he kinda loves his Tesla and probably wouldn't have been down with it. Wouldn't be the first time I've met a dude in a seedy truck stop to arrange a broken scooter transfer between Japanese-branded light trucks.

Should it come to this, there will be a transfer of small unmarked bills for gas and meals, plus a transfer of local libations to ensure Kajiit's beer fridge stays stocked for some time.

So what is the purpose of this thing?

That's your crankcase breather. Supposed to catch oil. Vents to the air box instead of atmosphere.

you see that makes total sense, but the translation in the manual makes zero sense

oh, there's a ton of that. notably in the earlier ET4/2 and GT manuals. at times it's quite comical.

the "tapa de decantacion" hardly makes any more sense, and Italian and Spanish are far closer than English and Italian.

I think I saved it (the glove box).


https://youtu.be/0xL293gO1SI

Last edited by sdjohn on Tue, 28 Feb 2023 22:06:54 +0000; edited 1 time

Seems like it wouldn't load - so I included the URL now. I was pretty geeked that it worked.

I'm committed now.

Ready for new. Now on to the parts order.

I dropped the piston on the concrete while trying to put the circlip back in. I see no damage and I wasn't planning to use it now anyway. Should I worry about it as a spare? Or just clean it up and store it with the piston anyway?

You've made a sacrifice to the gods of speed. They will look kindly upon you.

Should I toss the piston then?

here's what I have in my baskets so far. what am I missing?

I have a belt and an air filter, along with the base gasket, head gasket, and chain tensioner gasket from the malossi kit.

Rollers. Fuel and vacuum lines. Intake manifold.

I dunno about the valve tools. It's pretty easy with the engine out.

I have rollers, forgot to mention that.

Fuel line is in there and I was figuring vacuum line from the auto parts store locally.

Greasy thought the manifolds looked ok but they are cheap insurance to go new.

Yeah maybe I can skip the valve adjuster tools but I figured it would be good for later when it's in the frame. But then again I can buy them later....

What would you do on the piston, is it too questionable?

toss that mess in the blue bin. I'll throw a clean low mileage one in your box on the shelf.

for the feeler gauges I swear by these

don't bother with the adjuster tools, they're a waste of time. I have them and only use the inserts for buddy/honda valves.

same with the T-handle oil filter tool. just use channel locks. or buy filters with the hex on them.

everything else there looks good.

it's unlikely you'll need an exhaust gasket, they're not exactly wear items but it's always a good idea to have one on hand.

if you can wait on the hardware, I'll throw some in your "to go box"

throw a crank nut on there and an extra sump o-ring.

Crank nut = fly side? Probably need the flywheel tool also if so.

On the piston it was my instinct that you don't want to find the crack you missed by running at WOT on the freeway. The herd agrees. It is now retired.

It's the same nut, but I meant transmission side. Buy two.

should you need to pull the flywheel, you already have the tool— it's the same as P

Awesome!

I'm a cheap guy, but when I need a tool that I'll use more than once, I'll buy. However, the clutch tool can be made easily, do a search on how. The valve adjustment tool are good in certain situations on some machines, but you don't need them on the ET. Ditto on the filter tool, a strap/channel wrench works fine. The scissors jack will be extremely helpful, you will wonder how you got by so long without one. Shop around, deals come up all the time on those. On the feeler gauges Greasy put up - that is a definite buy. I wish I knew they existed before. I just bought a set.

I bought the feeler gauges already too now.

Anyone care to post up links to their favorite scissors jacks? This one is probably good but options are nice.

Thanks for the tips guys. I made the main order from scooterpartsco which will allow me to get through most of it. Anything I missed can be had on the ScooterWest order which I can pick up locally to avoid paying shipping on the jack.

BTW between all your suggestions I probably saved $100 or more avoiding buying things that didn't need to be bought.

For the head cleanup - I was going to pull the cam out and rockers so that I could make sure all the oil passages are clear after the goo is removed from the outside of the head. Is this a good plan? I will mark which one is which.

Also - do they make baby valve spring compressors for our engines? I don't need them out for this job but was just curious.

Harbor Freight has motorcycle lifts which are cheap and have frequent sales and coupons. I just gave one away.

No space to store one, I used to have one long ago. The little scissor jack is where it's at for storage reasons. Plus it's better for the chock the front wheel lift the center to get access to the valves.

Pill bottles for the small parts. Not to hard to disassemble and clean, but take note of part orientation when disassembling the decompression mechanism.

Get one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Orion-Motor-Tech-Compressor-Motorcycle/dp/B08FZWQGF2/

assembly lube for when i put it back together - lobes, rockers, rocker shaft?

Always a good plan.

I think it's about 20 years since I built a 4 stroke engine. Last one was a Ford 200 cubic inch inline 6 for a Falcon.

And now the cherry on top - same day ship out from scooterpartsco. Awesome. One of the little bushings for the cylinder head was out of stock, but I think I can get them out of the head.

buy once, cry once

also, yes they do make small valve spring compressors, let me know if you ever want to borrow mine.

Parts washing day is always exciting

Tumble on low heat to dry.

You are a brave man. If I even parked those parts NEAR the washer/dryer, it would be the dog house for me - a nd I don't even have a dog. Maybe she would let be move into the garage for a week.