Modern Vespa

Due to the many mods I made, and a desire to build a tight motor, I used shims from McMaster car on some of my shafts (also to assure alignment).

If u need to go there, have a look in their catalog. They have a ton of sizes.

* of course it's 20 units in a bag when you only need one…

I'm hoping that going with Piaggio parts will solve the problem, but if not, I will end up shimming it or otherwise finding a way to make it fit.

Success!

Piaggio kickstart gear and quadrant arrived last night from Scooter Mercato. Faster than expected. Thanks Dave!

Dry fit the case halves together and no more noise or inference between the kickstart gear and the primary. Some dimensional differences on the Piaggio quadrant on the blocky wedged tooth that holds the cog away from the primary. The quadrant shaft is also a tighter fit in the flyside case half.

So now I just have to goop it up and bolt it together. Yay!

awesome.

Sweet!

Looking forward to the first start video any day now

Lol. It's -4 here this morning. Riding season and even first start season seem ages away.

It's NEVER too cold for First Start Season.

Glad it worked out! And i second what CM said, never too cold for a first start!

Finally got the case buttoned up. Everything turns smoothly. Couldn't resist slapping on the cylinder and carb just to see what it looked like.

I guess I should measure transfers now although that info is probably published somewhere.

Do I need to chamfer the ports? They feel pretty smooth to me. Finishing on the Malossi kit seems quite good.

If its the aluminum kit, i dont think you need to chamfer. If its cast iron, you do. Someone else who is more knowledgable should chime in though. I didnt chamfer any of my aluminum kits, all the ports were smooth. But the 2 cast iron kits ive ran i DID chamfer, as they were kind of rough.

I'm with DonJon. I've never chamfered an aluminum jug, but I do usually look at them just to make sure.

I'd be worried about chipping the Nikasil.

If its like the Malossi kit I'm using in my build, the ports should already be chamfered. Just give them a feel to be sure there are no sharp edges.

I'm surprised. You've never raised an exhaust on an aluminium cylinder? Easy peasy... usually takes much friction and heat to chip the nicasil. The kind of friction and heat you might find on a too-lean setup at full throttle!

I'm not saying I've never done it (I just used sanding drums rather than a grinding bit), but I was still nervous about it.

That's what I figured. I've chamfered ports with a small file. This won't need it.

This is what I got for port to top of cylinder measurements.

Coincidentally, I measured my port heights Sunday night and got 44.2 TR and 30.4 EX, so within the margin of measurement/manufacturing error.

Wondering about which clutch springs to put in when assembling the VMC clutch. There are heavy and lights springs. Alternate them? This is my first cosa style clutch.

Start with the light springs. If the clutch slips, replace a couple springs with the heavy ones.

Repeat until slipping stops or you discover you need to upgrade your clutch.

The goal is to have enough stiffness to carry the power, but not kill your hand (more than necessary) holding the clutch lever.

Ok, thanks.

My VMC came with 3 sets of springs: soft (said to be good to 20 hp), hard (35 hp), and extra hard (45 hp). I estimate I am at about 17 hp, and 10 softs seem to be standing up to that ok. For your build, I would use 5 of the softs and 5 of the hards.

For my two VMC clutches i did half soft half medium. The pull is just fine, dosnt seem any different than a stock clutch pull. I've had no issues with clutch slipping, and i do lots of clutch dumping/wheelies/dicking around.

Best approach.

You really don't want harder springs if you do not need them. Go 100% standard at first.

Harder the springs, more load on the clutch side crank bearing.

Just noticed that I have 3 sets of springs; light, medium heavy and extra heavy.
I will do 1/2 and 1/2 light and medium. Thanks.

Next up: timings and squish.

Ok, I'll try the lightest first and see how that goes. It will be awhile before I actually take it for a ride.

Realizing that port map measurements are always different than caliper measurements. I know, just the tip of the caliper on the port ramp. I really hate cheap digital calipers. They are all over place. I will have to measure again.

Looks like a a .8-1.0-ish spacer is giving me piston a little bit over flush with cylinder deck. I hate this part.

Even the best calipers are only good to .001. I've noticed if you tighten up the top two screws to take out any slack but still slide, you get more consistent accuracy even with the cheap ones. A little play in the slide makes a big difference.

Thanks. They are fiddly. I'm thinking I should just set the piston like .5 mm below the deck. That would give me a squish of 1.4mm. Check where the ports come out with the degree wheel and the squish with solder.

I was absolutely baffled by the written instructions for the VMC clutch.

Luckily, I found a video that explained it quite well that I'm posting for the good of the order, though I suspect I have more trouble understanding than most.

?si=oN0kXv9EAoEE1ZAl

My VMC did not have a one-sided cork. All the corks had "cork" on both sides. I did not see it at first, but the instructions did address this, stating the corks are interchangeable and it is ok for the retaining ring to be in contact with the "cork" on the final cork.

Thank you!

Not sure about these numbers.

Measuring with calipers with the tip just inside the ports gives me a larger number than measuring a pencil rubbing of the ports, which makes sense.

T=46.53
E=33.4


The piston measures 1.5 mm above the cylinder deck (no gasket)

Did the metal (non-friction) plates come in different thicknesses? I have 2 2mm and 2 1.5mm metal plates. All my corks were also 2 sided.

I can't measure them now but what I got is consistent with your instruction sheet—1 thicker steel and 3 thinner steels.

Here is what I'm getting for timings:

2 foot spacers: 1mm+.3mm

1 .5mm head spacer gives the following:

Squish=1.2mm. I measure the head depth at .9mm

If anyone has time to take a look at my numbers, it would be appreciated.

These are the numbers inside the port, which is the correct way to measure. Much lower more like the 2016 sport.

Lots of packer choices. How do you want to ride it? And what exhaust/carb?

Long distance reliable touring is my goal. Probably average cruising speed of 100-110 kph. Power to spare for short hops on the interstate without getting run over. Prefer mountain climbing over flat and fast. Want to look at scenery and not gauges.

PHBH 30
SR3

Still trying to wrap my head around cylinder timings. I am indeed running the new Malossi 210 sport with a 60 mm crank, so the 1.5mm piston sticking out of the barrel is right on.

So my options for juggling spacers and shims is basically:

Big fat spacer at the head or…

Split the difference.

Just to recap:
Malossi VR-1 reed case
Mazz 60mm bell crank
Malossi reed block with Dell PHBH 30
SIP Road 3

Goal is reliable tourer.

Option 1: No foot spacer, big-ass head spacer like 2mm or a bit less. I get:

E=177.2
T= 120.57
BD=27.2

Raising the barrel 1.3 mm gives me this:

E=182.2
T=127.1
BD=27.6

I'm open to suggestions for timings as I only have a rough understanding of how they work.

Thanks!