Modern Vespa

So I was putting the clutch basket back on the shaft of my 160 GS, with a new Woodruff key in place on the shaft, with the slot facing upward when... "Clink."

Can't find it with a magnet, didn't come out after draining the oil.

Will it find its way harmlessly to the magnetic drain plug, or is this the start of a new adventure... ?

I await your incisive and well reasoned comments.

- Eric

Damn, I knew what you were going to say from the title alone.
Keep fishing with the magnet. It has worked for me in the past.
Perhaps a string tied to a small magnet so you can fish it around in there.
Good luck!

Any specific hiding place where you've found one in the past?

I'm curious whether they tend to gravitate anywhere in particular.

Thanks,

- Eric

yup! worked for me too... although without draining the oil

Eric, I have done it too If you have sears flexible wand magnet or similar tilt the scooter by placing a 2x4 under the clutch side center stand foot, so the scooter engine is tilting towards you.

Insert your wand through the oil filler hole and fish. Same for the drain plug i bet you a pint it's out in a jiffy

They tend to drop right next to the drain plug, really.

Cheers

In my case there was no oil in the gearbox and I simply put the magnet down the same hole it fell into in hopes the magnet would follow the same path the woodruff key took. It was surprisingly painless.

Got it!

I drove around most of the morning trying to find a magnetic pickup tool that was small and flexible - No Go.

Bought a pack of tiny 1/4" rare earth (very strong) magnets from Radio Shack.

Went through a lot of ideas for fastening them, finally shrunk them inside of a piece of heat-shrink tubing, found it was a bit too floppy, pushed a piece of 12ga solid copper house wiring through it, with the end stripped, so as to fit through the shrunk section.

Fished around for somewhere over twenty minutes and found it toward the left hand side of the oil filler hole.

That little "Click" when it connected with the magnet was a nice sound.

Whew.

- Eric

ps: Anyone know what the clutch nut torque is supposed to be?
(GS 160, 14mm nut, NOT the castellated variety)
I can't find it anywhere.

Thats ingenuity at it's finest, well done.

Nice job Eric.

torque clutch nut to 5.5 kgm your a smart bloke, i will let you convert


Pounds-force feet (lbs-ft) = kg-m x 7.233
Newton metres (Nm) = kg-m x 9.804

Cheers

Thanks, Jim.

Forty foot pounds?

That seems like a lot. I looked up standard torques for M8 fasteners and torqued it to about 28 foot pounds, which one reference recommends for "12.9" fasteners. A more detailed reference recommends 23.5 ft/lb, with an absolute max. of 31.5, assuming 10mm of thread length, which I think is a bit more than there is there. I may be a bit gun-shy because of my experience with BMW centrifugal advance units, which are bolted to the end of the camshaft in a similar manner, and need to be tightened "just so," lest the stub be sheared off, necessitating a total teardown to replace the cam.

Do I need to take it apart? I will if you think so.

- Eric

Hi Eric, I know what you mean i just finished a complete top end of my R1100GS. M8 makes you paranoid At least piaggio don't use + 90.

I also did my Lambretta Li clutch last week and that was 6.9 kg-m = 50 lbs/ft

BOLT TORQUE CALCULATOR = Only needed for crap bolts bought at home depot.

So you are good to go mate.

Cheers

Hey, Jim -

I was re-re-re-editing just before you posted.
I added the actual links for the torque info sites.
The detailed one asks about type of material, thread pitch, thread contact, and loading - pretty cool reference if you ever need it.

By the way, one day, sooner or later, I'm gonna be up there in God's country and I'll look you up.

Hey - just thought of this - you got any Vespa script headset key blanks?
I've only got one - makes me nervous.

- Eric