Long time since

So it has been super long since my last posting. Almost 2 years to the date. I realized I never even wrapped up the blog I just got so excited about the project being done I didnt come back to the blog.
I Enjoyed riding the Vespa round town and to work for a few times and learned that I enjoyed the restoration even more so than it being done. I still had some little custom things I wanted to do like a spare gas tank I was welding up and I was planning on casting some runners for the floor boards, but ended up liking them as they were.

But now with a second kid on the way and little time on my hands I am choosing to let someone else take the reigns on it.
All that is left to do is hook up the head and tail lights and put the horn casting and front fender on. I am putting it up for sale on Scoot.net (you can see the posting here http://scoot.net/classifieds/forsale.html?id=28583.) The post has all the details of the bike.

Hopefully someone else will get as much as I have gotten out of owning restoring and riding it.
feel free to contact me if you have any questions. (theother@jdgraham.net)

Crank Setback

So in putting on the flywheel I torqued on the nut to the flywheel and the threaded fly side of the crank broke off. I couldn't figure it out for a sec or two I just looked at it like what happened then I took the run out the socket and it still had the crank end in it. So now I am set back a bit trying to get it all figured out. I hadn't even gone 2 miles on the crank so back it goes to American Scooter Center. I just not a new one in but I need to put a new bearing on the crank. I am happen to have found one at a bearing shop in town for 5 bucks vs the 68 they ask for at the scooterworks or other places. So it is all part of the process I guess.
I just want to have some summer riding time before it is back to the garage for winter. I should get it ridable soon but i have said that before

Jets

Fixing my jetting situation has been a nightmare and let me tell you that one of three things is happening
1. No one knows what to do.
2. No one wants to tell me what to do.
3. They all want me to spend stacks of cash

so i have had to do a lot of research
needless to say it is getting there. But not after a ton of time.


some things for me to reference.
http://www.smellofdeath.com/lloydy/jetting.htm
http://www.mypage.tsn.cc/rdd/TT/contents/CARB/dellorto/dellorto_3_1.html

Oring and spring

Here is the difference between the bike shifting like a proper pig and shifting like butter. I had to change it out. The thicker spring is a racing spring in the back axel that controls shifting the spring on the left is the stock spring.

The o ring on the left is worn and is causing the cases to leak a bit of oil. The o ring and the spring were the reason I tore down the engine. Had to get it right or else it was not safe.

Wiring

So I still haven't gotten all the electrics working but I have al the wiring done. I had to make an extension on the back cabling for the taillight. (seen above) I am going to have to get the motor back in and running before I can do the wiring work since the bike doesnt have a battery. But if feels like I am getting close.

Timing

So before I tore it down I went through the process of setting the timing. It was interesting. The whole process can be seen HERE But basically you have to find Top Dead Center (TDC)(where the piston stops to return down) You can stick something into the spark plug hole to see where the piston goes and comes back and you can mark the degrees it travels then find the midpoint and that is TDC. Each size top end has a degree Before TDC measurement (my polini 130 is 16 Degrees BTDC) where you have to turn your stator plate back. I used a timing strobe gun to check the measurement and then adjust. Good times.

It felt good

So I got back into the motor today and it was actually enjoyable, I thought it was going to be a real chore but it was good. It finally felt like I knew what the junk was going on and it looked like I knew what I was doing. Minus the whole scene where my friend brandon was over to help my take the motor out of the body, since doing it myself last time was not so fun. So we take out the mounting bolts and in all of my excitement I forgot to disconnect the cables and to drain the oil. Dang to excited. But in about 1 hour I had it down to this.

Put your left fender in put your left fender out.

So after some time with a hammer and dolly I have gotten the dents out of the shape of a truck bumper and more into the shape of a vespa.

Back on the Horse

So I got back on PK today for the first time since my accident. It was a bit scary. I got the clutch working however so it ran well. I am having to run it with the choke out and I need to tighten the gearing cables a bit tighter. I am so tempted to take it to a local dealer to get it timed just right and get things tightened, I have tried my best to tighten things the best I can. I am thinking about driving it to school to finish the body work and then taking it in after that. It was fun but a bit scary taking it out on the road for the first real time. I still have some electrical issues to work out but overall it it looking on the up and up.
I will post some pictures of the body work part two soon.

From Before

Here are some images Holly took before the "incident".

Die hard vespa

So I have had to take a break from working on PK but I saw this and had to post it.
This is die hard. Great tattoo. (for those who have never ridden a vespa on the left grip is the gear shift and this is exactly what is there on the shifter)

Small problem... big set back.

So I am a little down about the whole project today. I have learned lot through this and I am still learning about myself and what I need to become. So in the ongoing metaphor of PK as my internal rebuild that I have been going through for the past year...I have hit a major setback. As you can see in the photo something went wrong. I Took it out into the street and started it up and depressed the clutch and when i selected the gear (normally you would slowly let out the clutch lever and it would slide into gear) I didnt even release any pressure off of the clutch lever and it jumped into gear. The clutch would not disengage and the brake could only slow it down and not stop it from crashing into the back of my friends truck.
This comes at a time for me personally where I am having to deal with alot of internal situations that I originally got PK to work along side of the things I was fixing in myself. I however ended up concentrating more on PK than myself. So I think I dervered this in some round about way and I am learning that my personal restoration is not going to be in my timing but Gods and that it will be humbling at parts and triumphant at times but I cant give up. I tried to set deadlines and expectations that I now know are crippling. Anyhow I am going to take some time away from the vespa, and get the focus back where it should be and when the time is right I will finish PK. This is really tough for me however. It is all I can think about sometimes is getting it finished and getting it our of looking so painful. But if I start on it now I will get obsessed with it again and I will have not put into practice what I am learning.

First Kick

So here is some much awaited video.
Here is the first kick after a long rebuild. I have been working on this since August of last year. I took it around the block and man does it scream.

I still have some work left to do (cable adjustments, floor rails, taillight, and minor electric work)

Sneak Peek

So here it almost done. It doesnt have the cowl covers on or grips or a proper taillight or the floorboards on...but this is how it is looking. When it is all done I will take some proper portraits not in the garage.

Back together

So here is the carburetor all back together. With a new choke cable, which after taking these images I tried to install and it is in my sophomoric opinion to tight so I put the old one back on. That is an easy install that can be done without removing the carburetor in its entirety if I need to redo it.

In all Glory

This is where the gas line comes in. I would say the filter is a little dirty. (i also say this because I had to fish out paint chips and calcium deposits from the inside.)
Here is the bowl off with the float assembly in view with one of the jets at its side.
Float assembly removed and all jets out, get to cleaning out all the green gunk.
So I think this is the smallest piece I have had to get down to in this whole project.


So here the carb is broken down into all of its parts. Including the choke cable assembly the float, bowl, o rings, filters, and all jets and bolts. Now to put it back together.

Fuel tap and carb out.

Here it is in all of its glory out of the bike. I had to fix the fuel tap and peck cock while I had the tank out and things all undone. That was just taking it apart and making some cleaning happen. Lucky the fuel tap assembly is ok that would have been another 25 bucks. It is a little hard to get to while riding however to change from on to reserve since it is at the bottom of the gas tank under the seat.
I ended up making my own fuel tap wrench saving 16 bucks. So here are images of that below.




Now that I have the carb out I need to research a bit on which screw does what in terms of tuning. These are the only two adjustments on the outside of the carb that I can find.

The carburetor adventure

So here is an image of where the carb sits in a small frame. Everything is designed to the T and in there tight. So tight that to remove the carburetor you have to remove the seat and the gas tank and be sitting on the bike to have it go up far enough into the frame for you to remove or tighten the hose clamps. So I am taking it out and apart to clean it all out. In all of my excitement I cleaned out what I could see and thought that i didnt want to mess with it right now I just needed to see it run. I should have done this while I had it out the first time. I am learning about expected deadlines of the self imposed nature.

Cables need to be banished

I am having more trouble with brake cables than I would have figured. First there is this little bear of a piece. While trying to install the cable through it. The cotter pin decides to throw in the towel and give up the ghost. It being 9pm on sunday. I make a cotter pin out of a bobby pin, which works fantastic with some filling and bending.
Then installing this was such a beast since I realized after taking this picture that I had to put the pin in place while it was on the bike. So I made TWO cotter pins out of bobby pins since I had to cut the first one off.

Motor Matters

So here is the finished motor on the bench and installed. I am super excited to kick it over. Its heavier than I remember. It is funny I have been moving it around in parts for so long. I used to pick the frame up by the seat area with one hand but now that everything is coming back together, I had just forgotten how heavy it was.