Modern Vespa

I finally finished editing the upper shock mount relocation video.

It's not my best work, the video, not the fabrication, but hopefully conveys the project adequately.

How does it compare to your other one?

Sucks that it's binding…

Any leads on what's happening?

Does it spin free without the cables fed through the headset? Too many cables/wires passing through the headset?

I got the binding sorted. I think the lower race may not be fully seated front-to-back by a couple millimeters. I'll explore that theory today.

It's either different or the same, depending on the values of "it" and "other one."

I had to tension my tapered steering bearing after the races settled from initial use. The alleged top nut was NOT locking as advertised. Luckily there were enough remaining threads exposed so I added a top ring nut and haven't had any problems since.

Back up plan?

More like "next project"

I assumed it would seat itself from riding, but doesn't seem to be doing so. Or I haven't ridden it enough, but either way, it's still not right.

I'm going to try and get it seated better in situ by levering the race against the stop.

Assuming that doesn't work, when I drop the fork I'll go ahead and add a lock ring just so I don't have to do it again.

So I pulled the headset enough to get a proper wrench on the fork nut and tightened it down as tight as I could, then worked the fork back and forth and it eventually loosened up some.

Tightened again and repeated. After the third round of tightening, it didn't loosen up any, so I adjusted it back to normal.

Took it for a test ride and there were a couple moments where it felt a little squirrelly, but those were just the pavement being uneven.

I think I can finally declare this problem solved.

Now, I can get back to normal problems, like the electrical, which I'm still not happy with.

hmmm...this is giving me ideas for my next project

You could build that from parts on hand!

They are on "his shelf".

Continued small progress over the weekend, slowed by the fact that I had a really good time on Saturday night, which meant that I didn't feel like doing much of anything yesterday.

I started working out the details of the redesigned wiring harness which, unlike "fetch," is going to be a thing.

There are two material changes in the new design. Rather than bonding together two sections of wire bundle inside the headset, I'm going to just run a single continuous piece, then cut an opening in the sheathing where it's in the headset and extract the wires I need from the bundle. The rest of them will just flow through unimpeded to the switch.

Done this way, I wind up with only two connectors up in the headset for the turn signal blinkers and I'll locate them up by the headlight where I split things and thus keeping the speedo area clear.

No real progress due to getting ready for ROM, plus having a job and a life, but I did get one thing done...

(Rob, I took your tip about spraying the decal with clearcoat and it made a huge difference in how tough the stickers are as a result. Thanks for that!)

I'm still struggling hard with Covid (Day 9 and counting), but I did manage to do one little thing to the Smallstate.

On a related note, How the f--- do people keep the engine door on? The latch on mine just won't quit vibrating loose, so I don't trust it for a second at this point. I'm thinking about replacing the latch with a quick-release pin, which will be a little messy to implement, but 100% worth it if it solves the problem.

Here's one of my favorite smallie mods … this guy fabbed some Dzus fasteners for the doors. Super clean solution.

I have aseen a battery door lock done... I'd think it would work a charm on the engine door too?

https://www.scooterwest.com/small-frame-cowling-lock-1310905-lock.html

That's a great idea. Those are old school. We might have the makings for that but I think a stainless camloc would be the bees knees. I'll dig around then post a pic.

A lock is the easiest…

Yeah...the lock seems to be the winner. I was thinking of a quick release pin to avoid drilling the door, but it'll require adding something to the frame, whereas the lock probably does not.

I should have solved this problem before paint, but whaddyagonnadomirite?

my quickie solution

take a huge wide rubber band, like the one that holds your broccoli together from the supermarket (you do eat your broccoli, don't you?).

wrap it between the half circle portion of the latch and the base of the latch, double it as many times as it takes

it will hold the latch from vibrating loose and make it a bit stiffer

ask greasy for a pic if you need one, I bet my rubber band is still on the orange one

it works surprisingly well

I have the perfect "with covid" project for you, C'man.

Mod the original lever.
Drill and tap for an M3 screw as in the below video.

I did this on mine, but I added a 1mm nylon washer under both levers.
Makes for better tension adjustment and protects the paint.

Tension adjust as at 7:00 in the video and use blue loctite.

&t=241s

nice video!!

Problem with the lock is… it's a lock.
Which means you're gonna need to carry another key. Which to me is an unnecessary PITA.

I already did *exactly* this when I re-fitted the latch! Maybe I just need to get the tension sorted out.

Since it's already drilled and tapped, that should be easy. Agreed. Which is why I was thinking a quick-release pin. Positive holding, so it can't come off even if it comes off, but no tools or keys needed when I'm on the side of the road with it.

How about you take Rob's Camloc, cut off the head and thread the shaft. Then loctite it into your existing threaded latch handle bit.

ooh...another interesting idea.

SoCal also sent me a good example which is pretty close to what I was thinking:

https://www.quik-latch.com/black-anodized-mini-quik-latch.html

Once I feel up to dragging myself out to the workshop, I'll start to explore my options in more detail.

Kitted vibration will undo that screw without loctite.
That missing bumper on the left will also add to vibration.

If you throw in nylon washers and tension it I can't imagine any more issues.

Yeah, the missing bumper is really annoying since I should have an entire spare set somewhere. I'll get that taken care of.

For the latch itself, assuming it'll stay put, I'll still only be halfway happy versus something that positively attaches the panel to the frame like the latch I linked above.

With that, the whole thing would have to rip apart before I lost the panel--entirely possible given the surface area of the panel, but maybe I'd get over the worrying after it held steady for a while.

Two updates, having finally felt up to spending a few minutes in the workshop.

First, I reworked the engine door latch to hold the door tighter to the frame, then added a ring of inner tube between the door and the catch. That has tightened it up a LOT. I also added the missing buffer on the top left corner. Seems much better now.

And last weekend while searching for a replacement front brake caliper, I went a little overboard and just ordered a new front brake.

It's from Dexter Racing via SIP and has a number of things I like, such as using a "standard" 82mm radial caliper and having the anti-dive built in. Really good quality CnC work, too.

There are still some things I didn't like, some of them pretty significant. They had to modify the caliper, shaving it down on the inside to get clearance between the wheel hub and the brake. That wouldn't be a big deal but (and this is kind've a big "but") they had to plug the bleeder hole in the caliper. They provide a banjo bolt with a built-in bleeder, which is acceptable. What's less acceptable is that they used a grub screw to plug the bleeder hole, and the grub screw leaks terribly.

Now lucky for me, I happened to have a spare RPM caliper (don't ask) that I could steal the bleeder screw off of, so that fixed the leak, but then I had to cut the screw off to clear the disc, so it's no longer usable as a bleeder.

Finally, a couple of the studs were a tiny bit off-true which made getting the wheel back on with a SIP rim a bit tricky since the nut is a structural component, fitting tightly into the rim. With a stock rim, this wouldn't be an issue, but it took some fiddling (i.e. beating with a deadblow hammer) and trying a different lug nut (SIP vs. FA Italia) to get the SIP rims installed.

And for all those cringing looking at the brake line, I've already ordere a correct length one that will let me route it directly up from the caliper rather than looping it under and around the swingarm.

Oh, and I installed the column lock. One of those last little details, but I'll still feel better knowing it'll at least be annoying to drag away if someone decides to steal it.

What happened to the old caliper set?

For sale?

It certainly could be. You want the anti-dive, too, or just the hub?

PM me if that sounds good. I'm thinking like $350 for both pieces plus shipping is fair.

It didn't *need* replacement, I just didn't feel like dealing with the caliper and your brain does strange things when you're sick.

I put a few miles on the new unit and it works great. Not a huge difference from the old setup, but I also wasn't thrashing it, just going out to get dog treats.

The door stayed attached for the whole trip, and I had a dude at a stop light take my picture, so maybe I'll show up on someone's Insta.

The aftermarket Wilwood brake calipers that i installed on the rear of my jeep CJ7 have a grub screw (i can't remember the size) on each side. Did you try wrapping the threads with teflon tape?

And i wouldn't worry too much about the banjo bleeder bolt. Aesthetically it doesn't looks that great, but it will function just fine. Pretty much most every KTM for the past 20 plus years have the same bleeder banjo bolt on their hydraulic clutch.

And i wouldn't hesitate for one second to drill and tap a hole that puts a bleeder bolt in a more appropriate position.

I didn't try teflon tape, but it was leaking pretty damn bad. I wouldn't have trusted tape not to fail at some point.

I'm not worried about the banjo other than it made bleeding a bit of a PITA. It's trivially easy to remove the caliper, which is part of the appeal.

I had already been contemplating relocating the bleeder around to the end of the caliper. Still may, just not sure exactly what that looks like from an execution perspective.

Can I buy a two-part unit that drops into a "regular" tapped hole? or do I need to figure out drilling the seat for the tip of the bleeder? More investigation required on that one.

* to seal the hole, use the grub screw and add a small stainless ball bearing.
The bearing will seal off the hole, and the grub screw will serve to pressure/ hold it in place.
Shorten the grub tip if u need more threads.
Stick with a small bearing as it will allow more thread bite of the screw.

The piece of equipment itself looks nice!

Good to know about the ball bearing. When the new brake line and banjo arrive, I'll test it out since I'll need to bleed brakes anyway at that point.

PM'd you CM…!

Not a very elegant solution but didn't want to modify original small door.

I thought about doing something like that, but hadn't gotten there yet.