Modern Vespa

..but it has turned out to be a bigger frustration than my recent drive belt meltdown is, and is keeping my GTS off the road for a lot longer than it should have been while I figure out how to deal with this.

It's the special variator holding tool that allows the 17 mm center nut to be removed so that I can get that new drive belt on and go ride the bike again.

As far as I can tell, it was $41 that would have been just as well served by flushing it down the toilet.

IF I can get it's two locating tabs on the ring to go into the corresponding slots on the variator, it will not line up with the threaded engine casing so that the spacer and long holding bolt can be positioned and turned into the casing with an Allen wrench.

The tool's welded-on locating arm, in any case, must be clamped into a vice before it can be used, and the arm bent in towards the variator side before it can be used, but at least with the tool sent to me, when that is done, it effectively shortened the arm to where the pre-drilled hole for the bolt and spacer in the arm are even further out of alignment.

I was going to attempt to elongate the arm's hole (keyhole it?) so that I might be able to get that long holding bolt and spacer line up enough with the hole to work, but all I have to do that is a Dremel and some steel cutting bits, and they apparently won't touch the steel of the variator tool.

I have to wonder if a jig was even used when welding up these tools, or if they are some free-hand project hacked out in a dirt floor, back-alley 'factory' someplace?

How difficult can it be to come up with such a simple tool who's only job is to reasonably align two slots and a bolt hole four inches apart?

I take no pleasure in complaining, I don't want to cause anyone problems because of this situation, I just want my GTS back on the road with that new drive belt.

With the nearest servicing Vespa dealership about 400 miles away, something like this can be extra frustrating. If this tool was available at Harbor Freight, judging by it's looks, it would cost $5, and it would very likely function as it should.

I wonder why there aren't two arms like the one I have for my Vespa 150? It's a little fiddly to get into place, but it works.

Seems to me that the one like you have has been used successfully by many other GTS owners. Could you have got a defective one?

p.s. I use an impact wrench to get the nut off, only using the tool to hold the variator when I'm torquing the nut back on.

Original tool is different but expensive. Aftermarket tools, especially cheap ones, will always need some modifications...

+1 on the factory tool

JB, on the aftermarket, are you sure it needs to be connected to the case? maybe the arm is just supposed to engage the case for the stop like the factory piece?

Maybe buy or borrow any cheap drill with a decent metal cutting bit and elongate the hole with that?

I'm pretty sure it's intended to be bolted to the case, like my tool for the 150.

It is.
That's the tool I use (the one the OP is trying to use).
To me it looks like it isn't on quite straight, and/or the arm is bent.
Mine bends rather too easily, so I use an impact to remove the nut (with the tool installed, but less stress on it).

I have and use the 150 buzzetti tool and it's well made and very apparent in how it works.

in fact, all of the buzzetti tools I have are very decent and work correctly, so I'm kind of surprised that the 250 one sucks (that is, if it is made by buzzetti). with the caveat-- I think their leader 150 vario holder tools sucks donkey dong.

I use one of those that i bought from China. Works fine but it's a little pain to get the vario turned the right amount

This is the Buzzetti tool, and appears to be a much better tool than the one I bought from Scooterwest. When I ordered the tool that I did, I was not aware of any others of this type that would have been of higher quality, even if more expensive, so I really didn't know any better. Live and learn, I suppose.

I think that I can reasonably assume that the tool that I purchased is a very poor quality copy of the Buzzetti tool. It supposedly works in the same manner, just doesn't fit the intended bike parts properly.

Anyway, I still have to figure out how to get that variator nut off.

I don't know who made this particular tool that I bought, but it doesn't look much like the photos I've now seen of the Buzzetti version.

My variator nut removal tool looks more like something Harbor Freight might sell for $5, although if it WAS a Harbor Freight item, it would probably actually function as it was intended to, at least for a while.

I suspect that this tool is so sloppily made that there may be large variances from one to another, so that for some, it might work well, but for others, it may be so far off in it's measurements that it's literally useless. I think my example might have been made on a Monday morning by a very hung-over worker.

I wasn't trying to get by cheaply and save a few bucks when buying the tool that I did, I just wasn't aware of possibly better ones for the job. If I have to find and order a better replacement tool to get my bike repaired, I'm much more upset about the added downtime while waiting for the tool to show up on my doorstep than a few bucks. Summer's a-wastin.

I now see that the ad that I bought my tool from DOES say that it's from Buzzetti, but it certainly doesn't look like the Buzzetti tool I posted an image of one post back.

I am doing Sundays so wrong then....

I would like to mention that I have ordered Vespa items quite a few times from Scooterwest over the past year, and with this one exception, everything that I have purchased from them has been of excellent quality and always promptly shipped, and I will continue ordering Vespa maintenance and accessory items from them for as long as I own a Vespa.

Impact gun to take the nut off. Hammer and a round file untilll the tool fits well enough to torque up the nut again. I made my tool from a 1inch pipe socket with the lugs and handle welded on and it looks about as rough as that one.

So, send it back for a refund and get a better tool.

Annoying, but you'll likely use it many times, and it'll pay for itself in frustration saved.

I may send it back, but to see if there's any possible way to modify this tool to where I can yet get that nut off, I'm going to hold off on that. I need to study on this problem a bit more and get constructively creative...or something like that.

Not the best tool, though I was able to make It more or less work ok with a hammer and some filing.

I don't have a vise, with that it should have been easier to bend the variatior holder.

I have the factory tool, and it doesn't fit the 2023 model GTS. The new variator is a slightly larger diameter. I have modified my tool, bending the curved strip out to a larger radius and filing the top hole on the plate to a slot. It might have been easier to mount the variator outer half in the lathe and turn it down one of two millimeters - the wear marks show that the belt doesn't contact the outer reaches of it.

I don't have a bench vice either, but I think that I'll get one tomorrow so that I'll be able to hold it securely while I file, drill, or saw away at it until it works, or sorta works.

Use your vise to bend it. Hold off on any material removal until you really know you need to do it.

Whatever you do, don't be tempted to use the fan blades to hold the variator. they snap off surprisingly easily.

I also tried a strap wrench, but couldn't get a strong enough grip to hold against the unbolting torque.

I bought one of those from scooterwest and used when I was replacing the belt and rollers on my gts and it worked fine.

They must vary in quality then, most will work fine, a few won't work at all.

I was the unlucky one this time.

Hmmm....maybe my GTS's innards are what's out of whack and not the tool?

Probably not. Never mind.

Do these spanner wrenches work on vespas?
I use them for my 50cc chinese scooters

I don't think that one would work on the GTS 300 HPE, but I appreciate the suggestion.

no, not really.

Have you talked with Scooter West? Explain the situation and maybe they can overnight you another one and then ship this one back?

Or possible send Robot to the rescue...field trip.

I bought the same thing from scooterwest a couple years ago... no issues with mine.

I have the same one from SW. I did have to bend the arm a little bit so the hole for the bolt/spacer would be closer to the trans case.

I simply put it in a vice and whacked a couple of times with a hammer.

With this minor modification, it has worked well numerous times.

As far as the rest of my tool kit goes, I've got everything covered pretty well...

Have you got the imperial set as well?

Lol, imperial at the bottom, i missed that!

fully calibrated?

The arm of your tool appears to be bent. But, for what it's worth, it's not like mine is a perfectly squared piece of precision engineering. Put in a vice, give it a little English, don't break the weld.

Y'all need a big-assed hammer there too.....

Nice square there....either an heirloom or seen some use....

I have the ScooterWest version of the tool as well, once you get it calibrated (bent correctly) it does the job.

As some have said, get your self a Impact gun to pull the bolt off. It puts way less strain on the tool. I have used it on bikes from 2009-2021. I have had to use 2 hands when tightening. One hand pushing the center of the tool, then other working the torque wrench. Its not perfect but with a little MacGyver'ing you can get it done.

Good Luck.

Ditto. I have one,
, too. It fits.Cheap as dirt and barely usable, but it works.

Good eye. Yes to both. I still have my plastic handle one from before I inherited this one. But the old-timey tools with some history are my preferred go tos.

Robot shows how great the tool is at 37 minutes and 46 seconds in this video.

Most of the Japanese companies put two holes in the variator outer plate. These work very well there. I think some of the Vespa 150 models come with that design now, and it will work for those.