Modern Vespa

So I took a week of vacation, and I'm finally getting around to assembling the parts from my crashed '61 onto this '58 frame that Voodoo sent me. Pulled it outta storage yesterday.

The engine is a 5-port LML. I salvaged the old harness when I stripped the '61 for parts. The ignition end of the wiring seems to be color coded correctly, as I just verified spark, albeit with a little help from MJrally.

All us guys in the Pac NW need to get together for a light blue Allstate ride! Amerivespa is in Portland this summer. Can you have this assembled in a few months Mac?

😁 I'm gonna say most likely yes ⤵️

https://youtube.com/shorts/7N4e-JaKncI?si=xKCwf-R4G1WHVisH

Although I gotta say, I'd be embarrassed to park this bucket of bolts next to your magnum opus lol

that video is hilarious! It doesn't matter what sort of shape any of the allstates are in, just as long as it's running.

It was more hilarious when I lost my exhaust on I-84 lol.

Yeah I'm totally down. You gonna come down for Mayday this year?

These weird cable tubes are continuing to confound me. Looks like this frame doesn't accept the cable outer/inner setup I'm accustomed to. Instead it appears to employ a steel tube mounted to the frame that functions as the outer. I'm concerned this'll wear out the inner pretty quickly. Anyone have any experience dealing with this?

That first tube behind the horn cast is the shift cable tubes. Makes running them an absolute breeze. All you gotta worry about is pushing them behind the metal plate just above the end of that tube.

And the rear brake only uses an outer where it exits the frame in the back. There's a rubber accordion that takes up some of the exposed cable where it comes out of your picture and meets the brake pedal.

Almost all my bikes have these tubes, 1951-1958. They work. It's just earlier design. no problems at all but i think you are looking for one.

At least on my project scooters, i found the easiest way to clean out the tubes is to wait for a warm/hot day outside and use a zero degree pressure washer tip and blast out as much crud as possible out of it (going both directions). Then follow up with a blow gun to get the water out. Since it's hot outside the rest of the moisture evaporates in an hour.

Thanks for scoop on the cable tubes, y'all.

Cables are run, harness is pulled. Electronics are mounted under the left cowl. I was set to install the engine/forks/headset on Saturday, but my Mercedes suffered a catastrophic head gasket failure, so my priorities rapidly changed in the short term
Been wrenching on it the last… 5 days? Something like that…