Modern Vespa

Been outta town for about ten days. Got back Wed and had time last night to get back under the P. The split pin is just knackered beyond belief now. I tried to cut it with a dremel and just made a mess of one end (see red arrow in pic below). I can get a decent grip on the end with the green arrow, so there's still hope...



Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have probably spent the better part of 3 hours working at this split pin. Really... just ridiculous.

Another view:


Just for grins... I think it may have been leaking oil for a few years before I got it... 8)




Again, if you guys have any Split Pin ideas I am all ears...

TIA

Looking at the last photo I think a knackered cotter pin is the least of your worries. Good luck

Tell me if I'm wrong, but it looks like in this case, your axle has a hole drilled for a cm or so into its end, so that the center portion of the cotter pin is visible inside the hole when you look straight down on the axle (as in your middle photo).
[I note this because some axles are solid, without this hole].

Why not use a drill bit just a thousandth or two smaller than the center hole in the axle to drill through (and obliterate) the center portion of the cotter pin, thus allowing you to poke the remaining bits out with a hooked instrument of your own device?

Since the cotter pin is made of very soft steel, and the axle is made of hard steel, there is only the most minimal chance of bollocksing it up.

Good luck!

- Eric

hang on, in your 2nd pic, seems the problem with your overly reluctant splitpin is obvious. Can you try wrenching on the nut and get it to move a tad so that the splitpin isn't wedged against the axle end?

Been there already Senkun, good eye though...

this really shouldn't be THIS hard.

Thanks. I think that is the option of last resort... but I suppose we are there at this point. My worry was always if I have a go at the center of the pin it may end up with two stuck halves and just double my problem.

Question: If I did manage to split the pin in the center, how much damage would I do to the axle by taking a breaker bar to the nut and just trying to muscle it off?

exactly. get a long wrench, closed end on one side, open ended on the other. thread a nut just flush onto a hub bolt, then put the closed end of that wrench onto it. a big wrench, like 7/8 or similar. brace the hub with the open end of the wrench onto the case arm.

get a bigass 1/2 inch socket wrench, or whatever tool you can generate enough torque to tighten that axle bolt enough to get daylight on both sides of the cotter pin and the hole in the axle. then just pluck that fucker out.

edit: the axle nut backed out against the cotter pin. that's the problem, as well as the key to the solution.

Eloquently put. This is the clearest pic I've seen of a cotter pin doing it's job, keeping the nut from backing out and losing your wheel on the highway.

As mentioned above I tried to move the nut with no luck, but not by the method you mention above... I'll give it a shot when I get back to the house this afternoon. Thanks.

if an engine is out of the bike, it's the only method that works. but it works every time. still, the least aggravating method is to deal with that nut as a matter of course before undoing the rear brake cable and removing the engine from the bike.

Success. Finally.

Socket wrench still wouldn't budge the nut, soI had to get a breaker bar to get enough umph on it. But once turned you could see the split pin was bound up like a bread tie right as it entered the axle.

It still wouldn't come out. I took the dremel (carbide cutting bit) and sliced the bastage in half. Then I got the better half and she hammered with a punch while I pulled...

I swear I heard a small chorus of angels when it popped out.

Senkun, Aaron, MDchanic... Thanks!