Modern Vespa

Hi everyone.

Lola - my lovely silver ET4 was attacked on Sunday night, appears that some chavs tried to take her away, but failed. However, they did succeed in managing to ruin the steering so that now, if any weight is on the front and one turns the handlebars the front wheel doesn't turn with it. It's fine if there's no load on the front though.

Am I right in assuming this will be an easy fix - by tightening a couple of bolts on the steering column somewhere?

Thank you in advance!

Adam

they've probably twisted the handlebars hard in an attempt to break the steering lock, and in doing so have loosened the locknut that holds the handlebars in place.

to access the locknut, you need to remove the handlebar covers. directly below the handlebars you'll see two rings on a threaded column. the locknut is the one on top, the adjuster (the bit that you want to tighten) is directly below. you won't need to loosen the locknut by the sound of it since they have kindly done it for you. you want to tighten the adjuster (using a spanner or drift) enough so that there is no free play in the steering, but not so tight that the steering doesn't move freely. don't tighten the crap out of it - you want to leave it so that it will 'give' in the event of a crash, and so that the next chavs that come along and try to steal your scooter will do what they've done this time rather than breaking the steering lock. once you've set the adjuster, then tighten down the locknut - again taking care not to tighten it excessively.

Yep, what she said. If you have a torque wrench I think you tighten it to about 45Nm but I'm not exactly certain. I'll check my Haynes manual for you when I get home unless someone beats me to it.

ETA: I'm just thinking most folk don't have that tool, but as Genie says, you don't need an exact value - just make sure it does the job without being mega crushed on.

*Don't* adjust the locking rings for the steering bearings!
*Do* tighten up the pinch-bolt that clamps the handlebars to the steering column. It needs to be tight enough that the front wheel always moves with the bars, but not so tight that the steering lock can be broken by bashing the bars.