Category Archives: Scooter Workings

Get well soon, Ruby!

Posted on July 28, 2010 by eric | 3 Comments

So in the middle of all this moving stuff, I attempted to start the Vespa (Ruby) only to find that she wouldn’t start. I would turn the key, hit the start button and nothing. The electronics were working fine, but the starter motor would not engage.

This sounds like a battery issue, however, it’s not. I got a new battery (which I needed anyway – I still had the original one from three-ish years ago), installed it and same problem.

We moved to the new place, leaving Ruby in the garage. Today, we had to clean the apartment in some vein attempt to get the security deposit back. I took the opportunity to get the scooter towed to Big People Scooters in south Seattle.

That’s where she is now. They need the master key from me – I only had a copy, which isn’t the matter. So now I have to mail them the key (Big People Scooters is about 30 miles away on the other side of Seattle, which is a very long drive due to traffic).

No idea how long it will take to get her back and even less of a clue what is wrong with her. It could be something as simple as the key. See, the master key allows you (well, someone, not me) to program stuff. The nonmaster keys allow it to start, etc. There are chips in all of them and if the nonmaster key becomes demagnetized (or whatever), it won’t work. I’m hoping this is the problem.

Anyway, I’m having another crappy riding summer. I’m basically not riding at all. Hopefully the move to Everett will at least change that a bit.

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Getting Ruby Ready for the Road (part two)

Posted on May 19, 2010 by eric | 6 Comments

We’re almost there! This past week I’ve spend a lot of time checking and rechecking things on the Vespa. I’ve never really done a lot my own maintenance on Ruby. It’s not because I didn’t want to. Most of the miles I’ve done were on Scoot 66. During that trip, the Vespa shops did the work. I felt myself competent to do it, but they had the place and the tools and usually did the work for free. Why would I refuse?

But now that I have a garage and tools, I decided to pitch into it myself. A modern Vespa is much different than an old one. Apparently, I can take apart an old engine and put it back together again and it still works (and works better!). But the new Vespas are freakishly complex. Like a new car. This thing is even electronically fuel injected!

So basically, I don’t touch the engine. However, I do touch the transmission. Ok, not the transmission. Just the belt that drives it and the rollers that do something else. I also change the brakes, which I just did. Well, the rear brakes. The front brakes were fine.

Got new tires too. The front one will last 10,000 miles easy. The rear one however, is a different story. Because of all the extra weight with the packs, the rear tire wears much faster. On Scoot 66, I was blowing through rear tires ever 2,500 miles. I’ve learned a lot since then. For instance, you need to make sure that you’re running with a higher PSI in the rear tire when you’re carrying weight. Check them daily! Also, I’ve done a lot more research on different tires and how they wear. I ran city tires across the country. This time, I’ve got a Pirelli Diablo on the rear and a Pirelli G23 on the front. Diablo means devil in Spanish.

I’ll very literally be riding like the demon that drives my dreams. That’s good to know! Thanks!

All that’s left is a test ride. I think I’ll go do that now.

—- 30 minutes later —-

Hm. Remember a week or so ago when I mentioned something about a throttle cable? Well apparently this is really an issue now.

I was riding up Aurora when all of a sudden I was unable to accelerate. The throttle was stuck and I could only go about 20mph. I knew exactly what the problem was. The 12mm nut that locks the throttle cable housing down had come loose and had lodged itself just so that it got caught, disallowing the throttle to be opened all the way. Not only that, the threads on the housing where the nut attaches and locks down were pretty well destroyed.

What to do?

There are two nuts on the housing. They are tightened down towards each other against a bracket, thus locking down the housing. With the threads all messed up, I wasn’t sure what to do. I tried to force the outside nut onto the threads, but that wasn’t working. And then I tried to force the inside nut – no deal, either.

I wanted to just rig up something with Locktite or JB Weld, but figured that would just end badly. And then I got the idea to reopen the crushed threads. How? Easy!

With wire cutters!

This actually worked. It took a few minutes, but before long, everything was right again.

I’ll probably still put some Locktite on the threads to keep things in place, but for now, all is just right.

Will she make it across the country and back? I can’t promise anything, of course, but I’m feeling pretty good about it.

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Getting Ruby Ready for the Road (part one)

Posted on May 13, 2010 by eric | Leave a comment

When preparing for an 8,000+ mile trip across the country and back, you need to be fairly prepared. That doesn’t just mean packing extra underwear and learning how to make tofu jerky. That means that your ride must be able to make it. What’s more is that you have to have faith that you won’t break down somewhere. If you’re always worrying, you won’t enjoy it.

So on Monday, I set about getting Ruby ready for the trip.

I’ll be getting new tires shortly, so I started by removing the wheels. That’s not a convenient task on a Vespa GTS, but I’ve done it a few times now and it’s actually pretty easy.

With the wheels off, it’s really easy to change the oil. So that’s what I did. What I would consider a huge design flaw is that when you drain the oil, it will flow directly onto the center stand. This is just dumb engineering. With the rear wheel off, it’s easier to get something under it. There are other ways to do this, but this is how I do it.

While the oil was draining, I decided that I would attempt a belt and roller change. I’ve never done this before, but figured that it couldn’t be too difficult. Two shop tools were needed for this. One to hold the clutch in place and another to hold the variator.

Everything came off well enough, but I had a bit of trouble figuring a few things out.

First, I’m switching from rollers to sliders. I’ve heard that the sliders last longer and improve acceleration. The former, for me, is much more important than the latter. They have to be situated just right and I wasn’t sure if I got it and left it as a “trial and error” sort of thing.

The belt had to first be fitted onto the clutch. This was accomplished by forcing the clutch plates apart, holding them and sliding the belt between them. Much trial and error took place here, but I finally got it.

With the variator and sliders in place and the clutch with belt ready to go, I slid everything where it should have been and noticed a rather large, machined collar about two inches long and an inch around. I had no idea where it went and had a mini freak out. Holy crap!

After tearing everything down, I noticed that there was a lot of play in the variator. This must have been it! And it was. The collar fit perfectly where it should go. Whew!

I buttoned everything back up, put the exhaust back on, started the engine and it worked. Revved it a bit and it seemed normal. Now, the only way I’ll find out if I did everything correctly is to get the wheels back on it. That will come this week.

Aside from the new wheels, I also have to put front and rear breaks on her. The breaks that are there now are ok, maybe even 75%, but will that last me all the way to Florida? Hard to tell. Probably, but why risk it? I’ll keep the “old” breaks for when I return.

I’ve also got to change the gear oil and figure out what to do about the throttle cable (more on that later, it’s kind of a big deal).

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Ruby’s new cigarette lighter & GPS tracking

Posted on April 3, 2010 by eric | Leave a comment

I guess technically it’s a “12v power outlet,” but they will always be known as cigarette lighters (even though the lighter part of it just isn’t there.

Originally, the plan was a good one – broad and fairly unrealistic. I didn’t exactly want an iPhone, but figured that it would be handy on the trip. What I really wanted was something that could tell loved ones and blog readers (same thing?) where I was geographically via GoogleMaps embedded in my blog. Neat idea huh?

If I was in the desert on some abandoned dirt road, you’d be able to see it in pretty much real time!

There’s a program for the iPhone that sort of allows that. However, it doesn’t work off of satellites, it works off of the 3G network. AT&T’s 3G network may cover 97% of the population, but it only covers about 10% of my trip. What’s the point?

Oh, I was planning on plugging the iPhone into the cigarette lighter. But after finding out that I was ineligible for the upgrade price and would have to pay $300 for it, I passed.

Another option presented itself. It’s called SPOT and does exactly what I want it to.

SPOT was first suggested to me after decided to take that 100 mile stretch of abandoned US 6 & 50. There’s no cell reception and nobody lives out there. I’d be very on my own. If I were to break down, nobody would know until I walked to modern US 50 (about 16 miles), flagged down a passing motorist and got a ride into the town of Delta. It could be a couple of days. SPOT, however, would not only show you were I was, but would also allow me to alert family, friend and authorities should something incredibly inconvenient happen.

That, however, costs $100 for the device and $150 a year for a “subscription.” It’s not really a bad price if I were traveling non-stop for a year, but for less than a month, it’s a cost that I simply can’t justify.

So now Ruby has a cigarette lighter in the glovebox for no real reason at all. Everything electrical that I’ll be carrying can be used/recharged at the campsite. Maybe if I break down in the middle of nowhere and need a place to charge stuff… but then, I’ll be broken down and the cigarette lighter won’t work.

Oh well. A big F.U. to Apple, AT&T’s 3G network and a big hello to staying old school when it comes to plotting, planning and tracking road trips.

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The resurrection of Whitey Will Pay!

Posted on March 31, 2010 by eric | 2 Comments

Well, it’s finally time to go about fixing the white scooter, aptly named “Whitey” (or technically, “Whitey Will Pay”). All that was left to do was install the new and correct gear selector box (quickly supplied by Scooter Mercato) and secure two case bolts with two weirdly difficult to find M7 nuts.

The nuts and bolts happened so quickly that I didn’t even have time for a picture. Besides, a photo of me bolting something is really not very interesting.

It’s certainly not as interesting as this…

These are the two selector boxes. The one on the left is the new, correct one. The one on the right is the incorrect one. Both have the same part number, so it makes it really difficult to tell which is which. What happens if you choose the wrong one? Well, that’s what happened originally and it demolished three out of four of my gears and thrashed the cruciform. That resulted in a complete tear down of the engine and got me to where I am now (in a not-so-good, but still kind of fun way).

The gear selector box went on with a bit of trial and error (I should be a pro at this by now), but after a quick bolt-on, I was ready to try to start it up.

I didn’t even bother to put the rear wheel back on it. I just wanted to see if I could get the engine running. So I tried to kick start it. And tried and tried and tried more and more and figured that I had probably flooded it or something.

According to Peter Beagle, author of I Can See By My Outfit, this is the only thing one must do when trying to start a scooter only to find that it will not start:

Whatever we know about scooters we learned from Margot [their scooter]: how to clean mufflers, decarbonize pistons, install rings, adjust brakes and clutches, and, most important of all, how to start her when she wouldn’t go, and start her again when she stalled immediately after. You take out the spark plug, wave it around, look grave, scrape carefully at it with your special spark-plug file, blow on it, and put it back in. This satisfies her that something is being done, and she usually starts. It works with most scooters.

So that’s what I did. I even looked grave. Upon putting the plug back in, I realized that the key was in the “off” position. I turned it “on” and then kicked it twice. She started right up!

It was so wonderful to hear the sound of the P200 engine again. Don’t get me wrong, I love my modern Vespa, but nothing… absolutely nothing beats the sound, smell and sight of a two stroke engine waking up and belching blue smoke all over your garage. Nothing.

I hopped on and rode around the block a few times, racing it in third, trying my best to make it jump out of gear. Nothing doing. Whatever it was that I did worked. I had to adjust the gears as there was a bit of chatter because of the looseness of the cables, but after that, she was perfect.

There’s a carb-related project that I’ll pitch into in a few days, I’m sure I’ll keep you posted on such things. But for now, Whitey is a living, breathing, real live scooter once again!

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Scooter work? Not so fast!

Posted on March 21, 2010 by eric | 2 Comments

Just when I thought I was finished with what has become my winter project, I have second guessed myself and the whole thing.

When I last wrote about this, all I needed to finish up were two M7 x 1.0 nuts to put the cases back together. Finding those wasn’t as easy as I suspected.

However, I did have a the lever in the clutch cover to fix. That was fairly easy. Even putting the cover back together was simple. I bolted it on and was good to go.

My next step was to tighten the flywheel. I ordered a flywheel holder at the same time as the case bolts and clutch plunger lever.

With the flywheel holder properly installed, tightening the flywheel nut was easy!

So here I am, a couple of M7 nuts away from having the project completed. However, one thing was bothering me. The gear selector box was the original problem with this whole thing.

The backstory is that Vespa changed selector boxes for the P series scooters (like mine) somewhere in the 80s. The big difference is where the lever is when in the 3rd gear position. In the original selector box, the lever is 1.5mm above the rim of the box. In the newer “EFL” selector boxes, the lever is flush with the rim of the box.

Here’s a picture of my old selector box. If this were the correct selector box, the screwdriver would lay flat against the rim. It does not:

And here’s one of the “new” one recently sent to me to replace the old one. Again, same problem:

Same thing.

I saw this and figured that I’d just wait to see if it would repeat its original problem: jumping out of gear in 3rd. But, as they say “insanity is repeating the same thing over and over while expecting different results.”

Here’s a picture of what the lever should look like in relation to the rim of the box…

The problem is that nobody in the states seems to carry this specific item. Three different companies make selector boxes. Most folks use the Piaggio one for Vespas and the LML one for Stellas. But for my engine, while the Piaggio one should work, it clearly does not. That leaves the third company, F.A. Italia. SIP Scooter Shop carries them, but they’re in Germany, have a $100 minimum order and very high shipping (since it’s coming from Germany).

I know that several US shops order regularly from SIP, so here’s hoping that one of them will be able to hook me up.

Until then, Whitey is out of commission.

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Learning by doing – trial and error with a Vespa P200 engine

Posted on February 27, 2010 by eric | 2 Comments

Working on this engine really is a trial and error affair. It’s not that I have no idea what I’m doing and it’s not like I don’t have decent guidance. But reading about it online or in a book, even if there are great pictures, and actually getting your hands dirty are two completely different things.

Surprisingly, I feel like I’m really getting it.

That said, “getting it” isn’t the same thing as fixing it. And while I’m getting it and really understanding how the engine works, I’m not quite there on the fixing it end.

I started by putting the new gears into the gearbox, which went well – easy enough. Same with the cruciform and plunger.

I put the gasket on the cases and was able to get the two halves of the engine back together.

So the engine was – is – back together. But there was a problem. I had tightened two of the outer case bolts too tightly, stripping them.

Not a huge big deal, though I did have to grind one of them off. Again, not a huge deal, but a bit of a set back.

Another issue I had (aside from the original gears problem) was the clutch. At first, I was thinking that it was the clutch itself, which didn’t really make a lot of sense. So I looked at the clutch cover. What I found there was that the “lever” that actuates the plunger broke. Crazy, huh?