Modern Vespa

Hi Peeps! Long time no post, I have a new stable-mate….the dream scoot materialized out of nowhere! I've been longing for a Rally since I was a teen.

The story: January rains in Southern Cal caused a lot of chaos. This scoot was in a garage below street level and ended up submerged under 10 feet of water for a day or three. Owner must think it's like a car and not worthy anymore and decided to sell!

**Original Owner since '78…and only 2488 miles on the clock**

Also…I have a Motorsports receipt from July of 2020 (wasn't the world shut down??) so I know it was solid coming out of that service.

I was not the first to call but they said the rest sounded like flippers (or some of you I'm sure . I soothed her soul and told her how much I would take care of it and never sell…so we bonded and I picked it up last week.

So far am flushing the gas and oil tanks per recommendations from MJRally and SoCalGuy and will re-grease and clean everything over the next week or two. The headlight had water in it, the tank also but the rest seems good. Work keeps interfering so getting to it when I can.

Super stoked! Updates to follow

Rad find! Good on ya.

I have had a scoot underwater.(Hurricane Harvey). Strongly recommend dropping the engine and opening the cases ASAP.

If splitting cases is too heavy a lift at least pull the jug, exhaust, carb, and gear oil nuts and get some air circulating.

Thanks for that! I will pull some items off to air it out until I can open it up this weekend.

Cheers thanks !

Very very cool find and congrats!

Congrats!!!

Think about fork bearings and front brake parts in addition to the motor stuff. Looks stellar, stoked for you!

Probably going to need a bit of wiring love but it will all work out.

Absolutely nice one!

Score! Go thru it and all will be good. Congrats!

Thanks Nate!! Thanks John! Thanks Tierney and Roland! Yes to the fork bearings and other stuff, clean and regrease. Hoping electrical is ok but we shall see.

Took off the head last night and the carb. Drained yucky stuff from the oil plug. Poured Motul down into the cylinder and the intake and spun the motor a few times. Wiped down the cylinder with oil. Couldn't get the exhaust off or pull the cylinder and it was getting late. This morning squirted gear oil in and let it all drain out again.

Not off till Sunday so will monitor and do what I can.

My smallstate got waterlogged before I bought it, too. Pulling the clutch cover will give you a quick indication of the condition of the engine interior, bearings, gears, etc. and the you can go from there?

Great looking scoot.

Thanks garncarz, great tip I will try that this weekend.

That is one cool looking Rally! I'm glad it found it's way into your hands. Enjoy man!

I had to wrap up my P before I had work bench room for this one. Tonight was motor disassembly. Everything is original (bearings/seals) but I wouldn't want to use them. Top end and crank I think we can salvage. Gonna talk to Modkuo about the rest but here are some pics.

oh wow...

honestly not as bad as I thought but about what I expected.

should be a fun project!

Nice score!

One question about the headlight: were they originally CEV on US imports? I assumed they'd be enclosed GE like on later PX models.

They were all CEV on the rallys, supers, sprints and most smallies until the P showed up.77-78ish.


Also, Malcom.... love this idea for keeping the small bits sorted:

I can't take all credit for it. A friend used a muffin tin originally. I took it to the next level with the egg tin as it fit bolts better. Found 2 of them at Marshall's for cheap cheap and added a magnet in the bottom of each cup.

Surf was bad this morning, so I pressure washed the cases. Nothing to report other than my tools will be happy they're not getting dirty.

SIP order has been placed and should arrive by the time MJ has his next workbreak….then getting it all put back together will be a blast.

Meanwhile cleaning stuff and prepping the racks and other bits that will be put on.

Sorry for the chrome Bitza

crazy cool OG paint

Swoon.

Updates. It's on MJRally's bench and getting the once-over. SIP order has arrived and it's coming along. Dropped the fork, re-greased bearings, tubes, and replaced cables/outers. So OG….😍

*** yup ***

you didn't mention, but did you have to replace the wiring harness? just curious.

This is gonna be SO nice! Same color as the '76 I once had too.

Cool bike!
Wish mine had the right tank and seat.
Would that color combo be the same for '74?

I spy surfboard(s) the rally is king.

sdjohn - dude we didn't get that far and I'm hoping it is ok. The wiring is in good shape but not sure how it was affected. The waterlogged headlight still works so we will see.

V oodoo -thanks Terry I am still giddy about finding this!

WestHamKam - I think that moonlight white was available for the 74 and most years but not totally sure.

And yes hibbert, MJ has quite the quiver going on. When you are mere blocks from the Pacific Ocean and have endless breaks to choose from you need a vehicle for all conditions. It must be a thing because he has almost as many scooters as surfboards .

I've got 4 boards in my mom's garage rafters and another 4 in my garage too. Now 4 scoots and the need for a proper workbench is a looming project for me and my smallish garage.

I got the new cables routed and the headset back together with minimal fuss. Stopping here for the night. I'm not going to wake my babies by hammering out/in bearings. I'll try that tomorrow during the day and rebuild at night.

Harness is in great condition. I'm planning on cleaning the terminal ends best I can and adding some dielectric grease. Once the scoots complete I'll do some voodo prayers that the lighting works as it should. This scoot is so low miles it's pristine I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Hibbert- yea I'm up to 15 boards (some not pictured). I'll ditch 3-4 soon. Brand new Sunset Beach, HI custom is laying precariously on top of my lambretta and a cardboard box

You can check the wiring harness pretty conveniently with a multimeter on the continuity setting, especially with the headlight off.👍

You guys need one of these setups to carry boards to the beach. Lots seen last summer in Hossegor, adapted to various makes of scooter. Foam covered U-tubes fit in the ends here. Even looks like the guy fixed the floorboard with some solarez from his fiberglass repair kit

Electrical is always fun! Especially when everything is coated with a thin film of oxidation. I wasn't too worried about the integrity of the harness, just what they are connected to! Last few nights was cables and rebuilding the motor. Sip Road 3.0 was a terror to install. Gave up and ground down the swing arm holes some so the exhaust could slide to the right more. Anyone else deal with pain in the ass Road 3's?

Tonight was oil pump (surprisingly clean), all electrical contacts (electrical contact cleaner with dielectric grease), carb goodness (Socalguy, you owe me $5 when you said you get this thing would fire up with some new gas added) and giving up now on the stator. There's some rock hard black insulator all over the charging coil/grounds. Anyone know what it is? How to get it off?

I had that same issue with a SIP 2.0, I don't run the 3 though, I prefer the Polini box. That one fit perfectly.

modkuo and I did some final assembly yesterday. She's a runner!

Nice work on the engine MJ. Sounds good & pulls strong.

Heckuva score.

My scooterfriends are awesome!! Thanks bros. McGyvered the throttle cable a bit, roadside zip tied the oil line and finagled the lame replacement headlight into place. Might need to adjust shifter cables a bit but otherwise was able to ride it around the block. Will report on a longer ride soon. So stoked to be on the road with this !

Dang this Piaggio paint is Gangster. I used some of SoCalGuy's magic bag-o-tricks stuff and it's killer. Took surface rust right off. This is the first pass.

Nice save y'all!

Wow looks great good save on the paint pretty soon the flood is a distant memory and good cause to freshen things up maybe better than before.

Another electrical update, took the dremel to the epoxy and was able to chip away at it. Replaced the pickup and HT coil for safety. Rewired the stator and while it's working, there's a lot of oxidation on the coils that may or may not come back to haunt us.

Then, I couldn't for the life of me kick it over, just push start it. Replaced the flywheel and bingo. Easy kick starts. Will remagnitize the flywheel next time I'm down at scooterwest.