Modern Vespa

Just spent the last three days trying to diagnose why my brand new fuel tap wouldn't close to shut off the flow of fuel to the carb. With the help of some guys on the net, and a phone conversation with Max at Motorsport, all is well now.

My Rally has an American spec fuel tap lever (the black plastic one) and the new fuel tap is a Euro Spec. This means that the positions are all different, and when you add the variable of fuel level while testing, it really had me confused.

For the record, American fuel taps were: Up = reserve, straight out = off, and down = on. Euro fuel taps are up = off, straight out = on, and down = reserve.

Thanks to all who helped me figure out I'm not crazy. Earned my Fuel Tap Merit Badge this week!

because of fuel tap irregularities like this, i often like to put gas in my tank, and test all the positions on the tap BEFORE putting it back into the bike.

Anyways, glad it's sorted for you! What's the next hurdle to get this thing all sorted?

Eric, I think it's good to go now, as far as the motor is concerned. By the way, I did remove the tank to do just what you said, test all the settings on the fuel tap. It was the thing that finally made the lightbulb go on. The one thing that's necessary in doing it was to fill the tank to a level that would also show when reserve was working...duh.

I will be putting new tires/tubes, cables and brakes on the bike, and it should be good. I'm sure I'll be reading about cable adjusting in the near future.