Modern Vespa

So I pull the front cowl and stuff off my 400 today after getting all the stuff to mount my Stebel horn. While I'm trying to find a good spot I notice some white grease near the top nut on the steering column and I think - cool! I don't have the "no grease" issue... Then I see that I can see the bearings and my heart sunk. Shouldn't outta be able to see those.... Damn! Hard to see from these photos but I'd swear the top nut looks cocked like it's not even tight. Views from the left, right and below the handlebars from the top through the gap in the cowl. Opinions? Looks like it's back to the shop. The last time in they found my back tire was out of round and replaced it (2 weeks to get the tire). Some of you may remember my first impressions post and I mentioned that it felt like my front end "rocked" - like slightly to and fro. I also mentioned that it seemed to pull to the right when stopping. I bet this is the cause. Also someone mentioned in a thread about they bought a cracked up MP3 and they weren't impressed with the welds. I agree - some of them look pretty crappy and there's already evidence of rust in some of the major frame joins. Hmmmm. Opinions?
Regards,
Jon












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No, unfortunately that does NOT look too promising....
To the dealer ASAP!

That definitely needs sorting. Luckily the centre (handle-bar) steering bearing has no potentially distructive axial load, so just re-setting the bearing should do the trick.

After they clean and repack the bearing of course... quite a lot of crap in it I can see. Jim - what's your opinion on the effect of this on the bike's handling? What kind of QC would let something like this by?
Thanks!
Jon

It would certainly affect handling in some way - depends on how far out the seating is. Definitely bad QA at the factory - I wouldn't expect a dealer to pick it up at PDI either, the sort of 'round the block' test ride they might do probably wouldn't show it.

Would it kill them to use a sealed bearing there? That is just super chintzy IMO. I wonder if you could source a bearing to replace that one?

Tonight, I was fitting a music cable for my autocom. I was threading the cable down the hole where the other cables go from the right hand side handle.
Down the hole using a flashlight, I could see the steering head bearing. The ball race could be seen. The ball bearings looked wet with grease. I don't think they should be exposed like this. I have my first service on Saturday so I will get the shop to check it out then.
Is this normal?

Sounds like the same thing. Be interesting to hear what they say...
Jon