Modern Vespa

Time for new tires so I am digging into this. I'm pretty mechanically inclined and I've had all manner of bikes but I'm having trouble with the rear wheel removal on this beast. The swingarm bracket is loose to the point of having about a 1/4" of movement , at the outside perimeter bolts as well as on the axle that already has had the cotter pin and axle nut removed. I don't want to pry too aggressively as it just doesn't look like that should be necessary. There seems like there's enough wiggling at this point that it should pull straight out. The bike is very clean and always garaged and only has 6500 miles…so it doesn't seem like a rust/frozen situation. Any suggestions would be appreciated…I have 3 new tires and I'd like to get the wheels into a shop tomorrow and have them put on. Thanks, Todd

The service manual has a summary around page 343 for removing the rear wheel. Be aware that this is going to be an involved processes where allot of the rear bike has to be disassembled.

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1259327/Piaggio-Mp3-500-I-E-Sport.html?page=343#manual

Lots of posts on this - it's not just MP3s!

See threads like: GTS 250 Swingarm doesn't come off

Or maybe do a search for 'remove swingarm' (though it isn't actually a swingarm...).

Also pay attention to the correct way the spacers go back on the axle, easy to mess up, how do I know

Thanks all…got it off and wheels are at the shop for new tire install. The problem ended up being a piece of plastic trim that ran along the top of the swingarm and helps support the plastic fender. It didn't appear to offer much resistance and one of the 2 little bolts was missing and the other had the head all chewed up from previous attempts with the wrong size/type of bit. It was an odd torx size…bigger than the biggest in all the little multi bit sets I had and I had to borrow a socket drive torx bit from my brother and tap it in place to get it off. Just that plastic was giving me more resistance than I'd thought and one removed it slid right off. Made it really easy to check the brake pads (of which I'd bought new ones) but they looked great and I expect even with some hard riding will make it through till winter Preventive maintenance time. On my 2016 there really isn't much that needed to come off or too many part to deal with so I'm hoping re-assembly is easy and straight forward. I didn't remove the shock…just the bottom bolt. I could see the potential for a bit of PITA when trying to stuff the new 150 into the fender area but I'm thinking I'll put the counteract balance beads in…then mount the wheel back on and THEN do the final inflation thinking that might give me tad more room to wiggle it into place.