As she doesn't have a battery, you have to run the vespa to check the electrics, and it really is a delight to kickstart her - starts everytime, first kick (though I did have a panic at one stage where she died and refused to be kicked back into life.... until i realised that I'd switched the fuel tap to "chiuso" Doh!)There was a fair amount of smoke at one stage - I had a look at the plug - yes it is a bit damp but not gunky. The recommendation for a health plug (and consequently engine) is that the insulator should be a 'chocolate brown' - I really do need to get out for a run to see how the engine settles.
So I ran her up and went through all the lights - after a quick bit of sandpaper on one corroded lightbulb terminal, and a clean up of the ingenious demountable rear panel electrical terminals, all (well nearly all) was perfect - the headlamp seems to be in alignment, and all the 'dashboard' warning lights work - perfect.
The only non-working bit was the rear brake light - operated by the foot pedal. So to get to the switch you have to drop out the foot pedal which is bolted underneath the floor pan. This was the first time that ive had to get close to the chassis.... which I have to admit, I'd been turning a bit of a blind eye to up until now. The chassis is a bit rusty. Someone at sometime in the past has done me the great favor of not messing up engine settings or original electrics...... they have however had a go at covering up some of the rust in the floor pan. And I guess, in an ideal world I would love to get my hands on the chassis sometime, and reweld new panels in, But for the time being I am trying to not think about the rust and just get it up an running. However, today I could deny it no longer.... thats pretty rusty down there. And the dreaded thought is..... is it an MOT failure? My opinion is that structurally its still
strong, and the health of the floor pan (which is not so bad up top) is passable. I really hope so because I think I need to put a hundred or so miles on the clock before I will know if I want to keep and rebuild her [ooh heres a thought! maybe I should book her in for an MOT in Aberdeen]So anyway - here are some pics with the foot pedal removed.
Needless to say, a quick clean up of the pedal switch terminals, and all the electrics are sound. I could in theory take her right now for an MOT (if only i had CBT and insurance)
2 comments:
If that's the main frame tube it looks a bit corroded. Hopefully it's a bit thicker than the Renault 4 so it's not as bad as it looks. I guess the floor pan is not going to be too important as it only has to support your "winkle pickers".
Is it possible to get advice on what the MOT inspector will be looking at? It might then be possible to concentrate only on the bits of chassis that will be inspected.
Ah, hah! Hughie here. I have to confess it's been ages since I've been on Black Spanner, the slow down in progress on the trike caused a corresponding tailing away of entries on the blog that meant I stopped dropping by. So it was just by chance that I decided to click on the link and see if anything new had emerged and there's the Ves in all her glory. Tim, I have a good friend who runs a bike repair and MOT business in Bristol so I can have a word with him about the position concerning the rusty floor pan if you like. Equally I'm sure any local bike shop that does MOT's will give you some guidance.
Anyway, I never thought I would hear myself say it having been a 'proper' biker all my life, but those darn scooters do start to grow on you........
Post a Comment