Modern Vespa

Hi, I've been searching and reading this forum for while, but I think this is my first post. I've got a GL150 that I bought in bits as an abandoned project, the motor that came with it was a freshly rebuilt MotoVespa 04m which is the Spanish GS 150 motor.

I've fitted the loom and cables and I'm now at the stage of putting the motor back in the frame. The swingarm pivot bolt that came with it has two steel washers and two copper washers, the ends of the swingarm/engine bushes have a step/lip in them, I'll try to attach a picture of this - it looks as though the copper washers should fit here between the swingarm and the frame. However I cannot force the engine into the frame with the washers in place, without the washers there's a small amount of side to side play and the thin lip would be running on the frame.

It looks as though thinner washers would work but I don't know if that's the correct thing to do. Maybe the bushes should be pressed in further, maybe the lip should be removed.

First a big welcome. Cheers.

A quick disclaimer. Motovespa has a ton of small peculiarities throughout their production range. Small little nuances in their frames and engines that are just a touch different.

IIRC an Italian GS150 is a wideframe engine and simply wouldn't fit remotely into a GL150 frame. What I suspect though is that your spanish "GS150" Is closer to just a a piston ported VBA style engine. Can you post a pic of the whole engine to confirm please?

Anyway... Are the bush/engine mounts new or are they original to the engine? If new, confirm they are correct for the engine (This may be tough: see my first comment.) If they are correct then I'd try and press them in further.

Probably French made ACMA widebody with 9" wheels.

Engine is stamped 04m and it is piston ported.

No idea if bushes are original, I'm told the engine was rebuilt 9 years ago, piston and bore still look like new. I hadn't previously noticed but when the photo is zoomed in you can see the rubber has some cracking. I'm now wondering if they should be replaced - no tears or missing bits and they feel ok with the bolt in and levered about a bit. I've changed a few bike swingarm bushes, not sure if these will be easier for not having steel on steel or harder due to the size and weight from the rest of the engine.

I think it would fit with washers around 1mm thick instead of the 2mm it came with, I've got some 1.2mm washers to try when I get the chance. This would be the easy option unless there's a reason not to.

I will stand corrected. Try spacers or a different swingarm bushing kit.

The Motovespa 150S motor I have has the same ends on the pivot tube. The thick steel washers are set flush with the tube and staked in four places as yours are. No other washers unless you need to make up space and then they should be the size of the bolt. You have to remove one of these staked washers to drive the tube out through the bushings.

Thanks for your help everyone, I think I understand it now ..... the part with the blue arrow is a large washer, the part with the yellow arrow is a tube that runs full width. The tube is staked to hold the washers in place, to change the bushes these staked bits should be ground off. The copper washers shouldn't be used, any slack should be taken up using washers that are the diameter of the bolt. So to use it as is I'd need two washers that fit the bolt that are approx 1mm thick.

What had me confused is I hadn't realised that these were two separate parts, I thought it was one piece that had been machined with a shoulder.

I need to take a better look at the bushes to decide if they need to be replaced or not.