Quick Update –

First of all, I’ve decided that titling these posts “Quick Update 4” or whatever is dumb because then I have to find what number this one is and I’m over doing that. I realized I’ve done a few very small things in the garage and decided to record them before they are forgotten. Also, I’ve been getting serious about finishing up my master’s research, so my already sparse visits to the garage are becoming less frequent.

That said, here are the few things I do have updates on:

I cleaned out the bearings and plates behind the back breaks, and replaced the o-ring and gasket.

A few notes:

A) I was told I need some kind of a paste or something for that paper gasket in the bottom right picture. I haven’t even had the chance to look up what it is, so any clues would be appreciated.

B) I feel 95% certain that I got all the dirt and sand out of the ball bearings, but I am terrified that I missed something. I actually think I have lost sleep over the thought of it. I’m thinking maybe an oil change would flush anything out that may have slipped through?

Moving on from that area, I’ve also been psyching myself up to do the electrical. I bought a battery and have not installed it yet. Here is a photo of where it will go:

The wires are messes, which is the same situation up front at the headlight. I have this sinking feeling in my stomach that I need to change out the wiring harness but I REALLLLLYYYYY don’t want to so I’ve been avoiding the whole situation all together. Maybe if I ignore it enough the wiring fairy will come by and everything will be fixed. I’m also still waiting for a few mechanical fairies to come along, but they should be here any day now.

Moving along from that area, I do have one small piece of good news. Yesterday I was able to fix my gas tank issue – You may remember that my rod was pinching in the “closed” position. All that was was the fuel tap was ever so slightly misaligned, so the rod was not pointing totally straight through the hole. Super easy fix, just used my fuel tap tool (hurray, the tool I spent $20 and thought I had retired forever!) from inside the tank and my hand holding the bottom of the tap and turned it a few degrees. I didn’t take a picture because it doesn’t look any different, but now the tank sits nicely under the seat and the fuel won’t leak when I turn it off.

Speaking of good news and the fuel tank, I also bought myself a proper knob to close the fuel tank so I didn’t have to use a zip tie anymore (I haven’t opened the split pin yet):

So for now I have a few items on my list:

1. Continue ignoring electrical and also order a few of the small screws that go in the junction box that somehow I misplaced and of course are a special size and cannot be found at a regular store.
2. Find mystery paste for the paper gasket behind the brakes.
3. Change oil to let me sleep at night?
4. Try to remove the cable adjuster that I got stuck in there a while ago while I have the back wheel off. “Try” being the key word.
5. Fix fuel tap issue
6. Finish master’s thesis

Anyone else ever put stuff on a list just so you can cross it off? Also, number 6 is actually number 1, just putting it there to remind you all I probably won’t be back again for some time. See you then.

 

Starting Up Again

I left off yesterday feeling a little down on myself with more questions than I had answers. I decided to go down to Vespa Motorsport to ask some questions and possibly find some motivation. As always, I left with new knowledge and feeling renewed. Can’t say it enough, those guys are the best. I’ll break down my questions in parts:

1. The spark – Kevin suggested checking all the wiring to make sure it’s not being shorted somewhere and that’s why I’m not getting a spark. After that, he said I could pull the flywheel off (which he told me how to do and sounds like a real headache on this model of scooter. Awesome.) and check all the connections and wires to make sure that’s all looking good. During this discussion, he also told me I should install a battery because he showed me on this wiring diagram that there is a rectifier that converts the current from AC to DC by way of the battery, so without a battery right now it’s sort of acting like a capacitor. So I will add that to the ever growing list of things that I need to buy.
2. The fuel tap – This is supposedly an “easy” fix. Basically I just need to turn the fuel tap using my fuel tap tool inside the tank and my hand on the outside until the lever is able to stick straight out of the hole. That way it won’t get pinched and I won’t need to lift the tank at all. Unfortunately I have a small amount of fuel in there so we’ll see how easy that actually is.
3. The back brakes – I was scratching my head at why my back brakes wouldn’t engage and at least now I have an answer: I bought the wrong brake shoes. Ugh. I imagine this kind of thing is like a right of passage on your first scooter (at least I hope I’m not the only one). Doing the back brake shoes was probably one of my least favorite tasks. I cracked the original shoes that were in there after struggling forever to get them out. Here are the proper shoes next to the wrong shoes:

So I actually managed to get the new-old shoes off much more easily than the first time around. I think it was because a) I’ve done it before and b) there was a lot less dirt and grime involved this time.

The benefit of having to take the shoes out again was now I got to give that plate a proper cleaning. Here is a before and after:

(sorry for the dark pictures, but you get the idea)

The other benefit of taking the shoes off was I could actually take that plate off and replace some of the seals in there. Here’s what I found behind the plate:

Sorry for the huge super gross picture. I’m not sure how to make it smaller so that’s what you get. I actually did clean off all that crap around the sides, but did not take a picture of it. Just trust me. I plan on replacing that seal around the 3 posts as well as the seal that was in the aluminum plate from the previous pictures. My question is, what else should I replace and should I go any deeper while I have this all apart?

Feels good to have made some progress and feel like I have a more clear-cut path again. Hopefully more good news next time.

Lost The Spark

First of all, I’m not even going to apologize for my absences anymore so we’re just gonna move on from that.

I took the scooter out to the yard yesterday with the intention of working on two things: Fixing the fuel tank so that the rod is not pinched in the off position (which causes it to leak), and tuning the carb so that it’s not racing so much at idle. I should mention that I took the scooter out a few weeks ago and never wrote about it, but basically I kicked it over and it turned on, let it turn off, tried kicking it over again and it wouldn’t start. I thought maybe I had flooded it because I was in the grass and the scooter was leaning to the right a little, so I decided to just let it dry out and come back later. I was definitely discouraged by it, but oh well, shit happens.

Anyway, first I worked on the fuel tank. Basically I need to lift the right side of the tank about an inch and a half so that the rod isn’t pinched while in the off position. This is problematic for a few reasons: 1. That means it will pinch while in the reserves position, which is the opposite way from the closed position. 2. I’m not even sure what I should put under the tank to lift it an inch and a half. 3. When the tank is lifted that far up, the seat doesn’t fit on very well.

Moving on from that issue, onto my next issue. I tried kicking over the engine again and guess what? Nothing. She wouldn’t turn over. Majorly disappointing. At one point I said, “I’m not having fun anymore”. I know set backs are part of the “fun”, but sometimes it’s just hard to want to come back to a project or keep going when you face them. Somehow I managed to convince myself to check if I was getting a spark and guess what, I’m not. So at least I know generally what my issue is. That means I have to take the flywheel off and check the stator underneath, which I was initially excited I did not have to do, but here we are.

So today I’m going to stop by Vespa Motorsport for some parts, namely more tools that I will spend money on and use once (more reason to do another project after this one!). Hopefully I can get the spark back, both literally and figuratively, and feel excited to get working again. I’m feeling a little down about my progress for now, but this too shall pass. It’s all part of the game.

Anyway, sorry for the depressing post, enjoy this picture of me forcing Betsy to sit on Betty in the hopes that she’ll get comfortable with it and become a scooter dog.

Brb, shopping for doggles on Amazon.

 

Edit: P.S. Just got back from Vespa Motorsport and got some great ideas about the spark, fixing the fuel tap, and the back brakes. I’ll keep you posted, as always.