Modern Vespa

My friend's 79 P200E is now officially registered and ready to ride.

One feature that bugs me is that the KS pedal travels farther before it engages than any other I have which gives a short drive and doesn't really spin the motor over as I'd like. Kind of makes it harder to start sometimes with a series of short kicks. When warm, it will fire right up with one good kick but it can be annoying when cold or especially if it gets wet in there.

The quadrant is the correct one for the P and in perfect shape and the splines are oriented correctly. The drive gear, spring and the tree are new. I replaced them thinking it was wear but that is not the case. The bumpers are new.

It seems as if the gear is dropping off the ramp on the quadrant and onto the tree late. Are there bad quadrants?

This bike was found in Pawtucket, RI and it is clear than the motor had been done over at some point not too many miles ago. Maybe at Java Speed ?

Maybe you engaged the quadrant with the tree further along in the travel, by pushing down on the lever a lot to get the cases to close? Not sure if that is possible. When the lever is fully "up" does it look low?

a T5 uses a different quadrant. I wonder if one was installed accidentally?

When the quadrant is parked the gear is pulled up against the spring by the ramp and is disengaged. It is as if the ramp is too long and the travel is too far before the gear engages.

How does it differ? The spline orientation is correct for the pedal location. The difference between the LF and P quad, for instance, only seems to be the spline orientation so that's not the issue.

The T5 quadrant is same as a Rally. On a P/PX engine would have the angle of the kickstart closer to the ground. I would say a worn cog or the small spring's gone soft…

New spring, cog and gear tree did not solve problem.