A Little More to the Story

As I’m coming down from my high of starting up the engine for the first time, I wanted to give some other details from that day. I thought about posting it with the video, but if you watched it you know the video had to be a standalone post. I should also mention I am for hire if you have a need someone to make absolutely absurd faces while excited about something.

So anyway, in the video you may have noticed a fire extinguisher in the background. We had a bit of a “gasoline fiasco” prior to the main event:

I have a new fuel tap on the existing fuel tank. It was suggested that I test it out over a bucket before putting it in the scooter, so I did just that. Everything seemed to be in working order, as expected since it’s new, so I loaded her up, still with a little gas in the reserves after testing it. Once in the scooter, I turned the rod to the “closed” position and gas started leaking from the tap! (We did put more gas in the tank, I can’t remember when I noticed the leaking) I thought maybe I hadn’t fit the line on there well enough, so Brendan helped me shove it on there all the way but it was still leaking! We took the tank out and held it over a bucket again to see what was going on, but this time it wouldn’t leak. So we put it back in, try again, leak. It was so weird. I ended up taking a video of it and I think it is leaking from the “teardrop” shape where the rod goes that has the two small screws in it. Maybe there is a gasket or something I can replace there? Seems weird since I bought it brand new as one piece, but maybe I’m unlucky and just bought a faulty piece?

I contacted the shop I got it from and asked if they’ve ever heard of this issue, I am waiting to hear back from them. So anyway, I had some fuel in the fuel line at that point and decided to try to start the engine with that since I was planning to run it all through the carb anyway and I was all amped up to try to start it. We waited a few minutes for any gasoline in the frame to evaporate out. It wasn’t a ton, just a few drips from trying to see where it was coming from. Brendan was worried the fumes from that were going to ignite, I told him it was highly unlikely but we got the fire extinguisher out anyway.

I feel like this was the perfect example of why I was so excited when the engine did turn over. Literally EVERY step of the way in this project I have run into an issue. Apparently even with new items. But in the end I think it’s been a good thing. Yesterday I was in my lab and another student was trying to open a new acetone container. He was struggling with it so he asked me to try (cause I am the resident “stuck knob opener” and unrelated, the token girl). Admittedly the cap was REALLY on there. I was struggling with it and he was suggesting poking a hole in the top to pour it out. This is not a good idea for a variety of reasons and I told him no, we will do it right. I told him the Vespa project has taught me to be persistent with problems because if I leave something, I will come back to it unsolved until I solve it, and everything CAN be solved. Even though this project has been slow, I’m so glad I decided to take it on myself because I don’t think I would have learned that lesson as well if I had others around to solve problems for me. And being persistent with a problem is a really valuable lesson. Eventually I got the cap off the acetone container-I removed the plastic piece so I could grip the actual cap better and got it off with my hand and a rubber glove. And I will solve the fuel tap problem and all the other problems that I will have in my future. At least with the Vespa project, anyway. 🙂

P.S. Got the clutch cable on yesterday. I have to do the gear cables and figure out why the back brake isn’t engaging and now fix the fuel tap issue and then I’m ready to ride. I need to get my motorcycle license (CA requires it for scooters), so I’m thinking of taking the class and gain some confidence there. It’s been stupidly hot so I was waiting until I wouldn’t have to stand on a blacktop for like 6 hours in 95 degrees. It’s starting to cool down so I guess I’m out of excuses…Wish me luck.

The Post That Everyone’s Been Waiting For

I thought about writing a long post about yesterday, but decided to just let the video speak for itself. I will say, I left it unedited on purpose. It’s long and awkward and shows how utterly inexperienced I am with 2-stroke engines, but I think it’s all an important part of the story. I worked on this thing for over a year on and off in my “free” time. I’ve never done anything REMOTELY like this. I’m not done, and I’ve made lots of mistakes, but this was a really really proud moment for me. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Warning: I like dropping the F bomb a lot, don’t tell my former students ;).

Ready to Rumble

Alright people, I’ve got the throttle cable done so you know what that means? I can technically turn the engine over now! I still didn’t do the clutch, which I should and I will, but I don’t actually need it in order to see if the engine will turn over. I have confirmed that the gears are in neutral so I plan on just seeing if it will turn over and letting it putt-putt in my driveway for a few minutes. By the way, my car-enthusiast friend and I watched this video, which I liked a lot since the only place I haven’t gone is in the transmission. I put Betty up on a jack and sifted the gears with my hands to get a feel for it and make sure I was in neutral.

As for the throttle cable, it was the only one I hadn’t replaced because I was told it’s best to use the same one when possible. Well, I tried, but it just wasn’t in the cards. This was the cable that was in there:

That kink at the top end wasn’t allowing the cable to engage and the bends on the carb end weren’t allowing me to pull it any tighter because the clamp wouldn’t go over it (more on that in a minute). So I took yet another trip to Vespa Motorsport (thank god I live close by) to get a new throttle cable. I brought my old one in case I needed to know the length, and guess what? It’s not a throttle cable. The guy helping me (new guy to me, didn’t catch his name!) was like, that’s the thickest throttle cable I’ve ever seen. He said a lot of these old Vespas have mismatched parts on them because in the age before ordering parts on the internet, people would use whatever they could get their hands on. Makes total sense, and the millennial in me totally didn’t even think about that. Obviously I remember life before the internet as we know it, but I was not working on Vespas back then. Anyway, got myself an actual throttle cable, here’s the difference:

I left the cable housing in place, that seems to be doing just fine. To make a long story short, I had some trouble getting the cable in place for reasons that are too hard to explain, so just know that I had to do a very frustrating task that no one will ever know the frustrations of except me. So when I finally did get it working, I was very excited!!

Lastly, I realized that my back brake cable was rubbing on the back tire because I hadn’t strung it through the little hook that holds the cables. So I had to undo the brake cable, string it through the hook, and then redo it. This is while the scooter was up on the jack, so I tested to see if the brake was actually engaging. Turns out it wasn’t. So that’s not helpful. I feel pretty sure I tested it when I did the back brake shoes forever ago, so I have no idea why it’s not working. I will need to investigate and plan on doing so when it cools down a bit cause damn, I’m sick of this heat.

 

That’s it for today. Hopefully next time I’m back I will have the engine running. I’ve got a busy week ahead of me so no promises about when that will happen. Wish me luck!

Getting Close

I’m getting close to realizing my first major goal – Turning the engine over. With that is coming a lot of self-doubt and anxiety, but I’ve been pushing through. The past two days I’ve done the following:

1. Filled the gearbox with new oil

In my last post I wrote that I couldn’t figure out how to get the oil plug out. Not news: I’m an idiot, that was not the oil plug (Thanks, Ben of Scooterhelp.com). So I revisted yesterday and found the plug is actually much more easily accessible than I originally thought. Here it is:

I had to clean off a lot of crud to see the “OLIO” label on it. So I filled up the gearbox until oil started coming out again, which is what the manual says to do. It was actually sort of satisfying, although I had bought a small syringe so it took a while.

Definitely recommend getting a larger syringe. Also, non-pro-tip, I couldn’t figure out how to open the Motul bottle and had to look up this video. Did I mention I’m studying to be an engineer…?

    2. Finished the clutch cable, then undid it

I realized that my clutch cable was twisted, so I decided to try to do things right and untwist it. This is a painfully tedious task and I actually couldn’t get it to sit 100% flat, this was the best I could do:

I’m finding that doing the cable at the engine side is actually very challenging/frustrating. I know the theory of how to do it, it’s just seriously testing my patience, especially in a hot garage while sitting on the ground.

    3. Potentially finished the gear cables, questioned myself a lot

I’m feeling like I did something wrong here. This doesn’t look to be in neutral, but I don’t really know. I showed this picture to Alex at Vespa Motorsport (aka the owner) and he said it looked good (except for my missing cable adjuster, which is another story), but I still don’t feel confident.

4. Bought and installed a new spark plug

No real story here, this just felt good cause it means I’m getting close. I also really liked the packaging:

    5. Bought and installed the gasket for the carb/air filter

Ta-da.

6. Added foam to the seat

Okay, this is my favorite bullet point. I have the seat, but I do not have the foam. I bought a cover for it a while back, which I put on the seat, but I knew I needed the foam. I haven’t looked around very hard, but I think the original foams are sort of hard to find and I anticipated buying something at the craft store and cutting it myself. Well I had a stroke of genius recently and decided that instead of buying new foam, I would cut up my crappy sleeping pad I use for camping, which I was planning on replacing. It’s quite thin and probably not a good long-term solution, but for now I think it works. I used two layers.

Somehow I didn’t get a picture of the top of the seat, but it looks alright. I sat on it and while I have sat in more comfortable seats, the springs don’t leave an imprint in the cover so I’m cool with it.

Here’s what I think I have left to do before I can turn the engine over:

• Attach the throttle cable to the carb
• Finish the clutch cable
• Put the fuel tank in place
• Fill the fuel tank with fuel
• …?

Also watching a lot of videos and psyching myself up to do it. It may not seem like a big deal to scooter-regulars, but I think I mentioned before that I’ve never even ridden a scooter so….there’s a bit of a learning curve. There’s obviously also a bit of anxiety about something not working, since I’ve put a lot of time and energy into this. Lastly, California requires a motorcycle license to drive a scooter, so I should probably get working on that.