Modern Vespa

I mentioned this scoot in the ongoing thread: Today, I.... but I thought I would start a separate one. Anyhow, so I picked up 1980 P200e today. Probably the nicest one I have ever seen. Big bonus was not having to drive the usual 2 hours one way as it was a 1/2 mile away. My son and I walked over, pumped up the tires and pushed it back home (that will never happen again!). I gave it a quick wash and gave a quick once over. I have spark! Gas tank was drained but has some white dust in it, The fuel selector is stuck and I know I'll break it if I screw with it. The fuel line is hard as a rock and lastly, the 20/20 carb needs a deep clean. It is soaking now and I'll get back to it in the morning after chores. My first question: This carb jet set up as follows: 50/120 idle jet and the jet stack is 118/BE3/160. Does this make any sense to anyone that has a P200 with this carb? Also, does anyone recognize these cowl protectors? Here's some pics:

that's a reasonable jetting for p200 with 20.20.

looking great. that chrome shines hard - it's making it hard to take a photo!

Thanks for the reply. I think the main was replaced as I also found a 109 in the spares. Speaking of spares, pics of contents of the front box.

The selector I'd figured I would most certainly break if I force it. And a pic of the cowl protectors from the back.

Some last pics for now. As I was messing with the carb, and my son asked - "what's the black pipe looking thing in the front box"? Turned out to be a original hand pump. And the cool little thing works as you remove the hose from one end of the pump and install it on the other end.

109->118 sounds like an upjet for a SIP road or a SITO, what kind of exhaust is on there? I think 109 sounds more like stock for the 20.20, but i knew the 118 would be likely safe. The 20.20 will take a smaller main than the 24.24 for the same engine / hardware.

My '81 P200E came with a 112 in stock config. I changed to a 118 when I fitted a SIP Road 2 and the plug looked fine.

I'm at 2600ft. ASL, so YMMV.

Pretty sure it's a totally stock machine right down to the exhaust. I'll take a better look tomorrow.

That's an amazing looking bike right there! Congrats on a great acquisition!

Be very careful with that fuel tap. They are unobtanium and that one, other than being frozen up, looks to be in excellent condition (just like the rest of the bike).

Looks like you pulled that scoot out of a time capsule. Great story on how you got it. Love the hand pump too.

Such a lovely bike! If you remove the plastic housing on your fuel tap lever, you will find a keyed steel rod poking out that you can safely work on to try loosening up the tap.

Mercado has the stainless conversion plate if you'd prefer to use a traditional one piece metal lever rod and put the fragile plastic one on the shelf. https://www.scootermercato.com/Scooter-Parts/Fuel-Taps-and-Parts/FUELCONV

That's the plan. No way I am going to even try using the plastic tap. I'll flush out the fuel tank and try to work the on the petcock as you mentioned. finish the clean up on the carb and get it fired up. Then come up with a list for Scooter Mercato.

Pure blind luck on my part. The older Gentleman owner was such a great guy. He and I talked Vespas for an hour the first time I looked at it. He had a GS 160, a GL, and a few others in his late teen/20s when he grew up in Germany. He had a lot of great stories. This scoot was a gift from his co-workers when he retired in 1987 in the USA because they knew he loved Vespas . He had received it in 1987 with 63 miles on it and it had been sitting in a garage of one of the co-worker's relatives. So he put most of the 2700 miles on it just putting around on the weekends. But in the last ten years he was barely riding it and would just take it around the block every few months. But it's been a few years since it was started at all. Hopefully the seals will last through the Summer and Fall. Meanwhile, I just want to get it running and have no other plans at this point of doing anything else unless necessary.

I can't think of a better person for this fine scooter to go to. You've sold off some gems and always try to help people, so the universal scooter karma, or scooter gods (take your pick) were smiling down upon you for this to materialize.

I'm excited to hear it's first start up for you!

Oh my, thank you, I'm blushing here. The 77 Rally, the 66 Sprint and 74 Super were road ready when sold and all went to good homes. It wasn't a noble thing to do, I just did not want any distractions when my wife was going thru multiple treatments for her health. And I have to thank you as well, Qascooter for the thread on your scooter "Ruby". It got me fired up to jump back into ownership again and it's threads like yours that keep me going.

Did not get much done today. Now that I retired, I am the full time gardener, mechanic for 6 vehicles, butler, home maintainer, cleaner, full time cook and bottle washer. I did get time to take the carb out of the soak, gave it a good clean and assembled. Did not install it on the scoot as I am going to pull the tank, install new lines and see if the petcock wants to be rebuilt. Hopefully get it started, access what parts I need and get an order in with David @ SM.

Removed the tanks - Oil side is all good, even the line, but I'll replace anyway. The gas tank is a bit messy but no rust. The petcock vent tube is split bad, no saving it. I removed the US fuel selector and put it in a box on the self. Even with a new petcock working smooth, I'm sure I would break it. Making out a long list for Scooter Mercato. If anyone is holding a 24/24 carby, let me know. I may go it that direction instead of the 20/20.

Put in my first Scooter Mercato order for this scoot. I'm sure it wont be the last.

Understatement of the century! I know it wasn't going to be cheap doing my two builds but didn't expect things to escalate to such a level.😁 At least you don't need to paint. Looking forward to following along.

You're right about the paint - it is getting a good clean and polish. No more than that, so it frees me up to concentrate on getting it running right.

A Mark 1 in that condition! what a great find, that would be worth over £3k in the UK; P2s are very hard to find over here now in that condition, most have rotted away. Congrats.

Another question for those you know: What is the ignition timing for this scoot? There was an EPA sticker that I think said 18 degrees BTDC, but someone in the past marked off for 23 degrees. Unfortunately, the sticker that had the info on it was destroyed when the inspection stickers were removed. Also, there was a reference to min 98 octane rm gasoline - what is that supposed to mean? I have always run regular gas in these scoots. Am I wrong here?

The 200s with the 20/20 carbs were added to meet emissions IIRC. Sadly not for any performance reasons. Top speed is definitely lower because of that (real world testing). My notes show the main jet was a 98, so real big jump to the 118 that's in there now. Probably runs super rich!

I'd put timing to 23* and put a 24/24 on it and make it like a true P200 for sanity/reliabilities sake.

Looking around for a 24/24, but for now the 20/20 is set up as 50/120 idle, 160 AC, BE3 mixer and a 109 main that I found in my stash. It also came with a 96 main, that I thought may be a wee bit small even for the 20 carb.