MOT

The trouble is I cant really test the scooter without getting it on the road, and so I really do need to get an MOT.  Everything seems to run ok, except for the rear indicators.  And so while the family were watching some rubbish celebrity reality TV show, I nipped out into the garage to investigate. 
Unfortunately you cant test the lights on this scooter without starting it up, and as it was late in the cold evening I decided that I would just have to wait till the next morning to see if my scratching-the-paint-off-the-side-panel-spring-clips solution had done the trick in restoring an electrical circuit to the rear indicators. 
It did :-)
So there I was - with a bike as good as it was going to get ready for an MOT.  What to do?
The sun was out, but the forecast for a few days time is for snow! so now seemed like an ideal time to get the bike out on the road to an MOT center.
Gransport had told me previously that they used Vale Onslow for all their scooter MOTs.  Now Vale Onslow is apparently legendary in the classic motorcycle world.  I had certainly known of his shop on the Stratford road since i first came to Birmingham 30 years ago - but the building is a tip now - surely they werent still going?
I was keen to get MOT'd by someone who knew oldish Vespas - by comparison to new scooters, my PX would never stand up to the same scrutiny - not because it is unroadworthy, but because that is how they are - not as tight and sharp as a modern machine - fact of life.  And so I phoned Vale Onslow to enquire about an MOT.
"Bring it now if you want" said a quite disinterested and offhand old chap
Gulp "what now??!   er give me an hour"  I was a little off balance - i hadnt really stealed myself for going off straight away (today?)
So with - and i have to admit it - a shake in my knees (I was really quite anxious) I went and got a little tool kit together - just in case.   What would you take on a maiden voyage after a complete rebuild?  I took;
3 x combination spanners (8mm, 10mm, 13mm)
1 x small adjustable spanner
1 x pair long nosed pliers
1 x long flat screwdriver
1 x long posidrive screwdriver
all wrapped up in 3 new pieces of rag
I thought this might cover the basic slipped cable or carb adjustment - any failure bigger than that could be sorted by throwing the whole thing in the nearest skip and getting a bus home.
I did do a final tightening of front and rear brake cables and the clutch cable, then suitably togged up in my ski jacket and ski gloves (it might be sunny , but its blimmin chilly), I donned - for the first time in action - my bright orange crash helmet - remember that? the helmet I bought 6 months ago when I thought I was going to be riding it for the summer - before I looked underneath the floorpan.

As anxious as I was in preparing to go - once in the saddle and driving out the end of our road - I felt great.  I was relaxed and in control and it all felt so natural.  The scooter ran like a dream, idles gently, pulls hard and cruises effortlessly.  The riding position is really comfortable and despite my rear view mirrors vibrating beyond use, I wasnt at all anxious about the road or traffic.  I think there is a bit more adjustment to be done in the gearchange cables - or maybe it was just my inexperience that made me incorrectly select neutral a couple of times.

It was maybe a half hour run over to Vale Onslows MOT workshop (though I did choose a slightly long route to avoid the city center) and the MOT process turned out to be a delightful experience.
The workshop was comfortably grubby and cluttered.  There was no clear bench space and only just enough floor space for me to wheel my scooter in amongst the half stripped Aerials and BSAs (though I did notice a quad bike and a corgi parachute motobike in the corner)
The MOT man (i think a son of Len Onslow himself) was a delightfully reserved / grumpy old chap with a twinkle in his eye.  While he checked my bike over he and another old chap, told me stories about the war; rations, ministry-men, and black-markets.  There was no rush.  We had a lovely chat during which I was awarded with an MOT for £28.

And so I was able to drive back home so very nearly legal (I still need to get road Tax) - I smiled most of the way - and even got her up to 60mph on the Bristol road! I didnt do it for long, I really dont want to come off that bike.  Even less so in a ski jacket and ski gloves!

So nothing dramatic to report - everything as it should be.
I suspect that this story is coming to an end now.  I hope for years of trouble free riding - and that by its very nature it simply not very interesting stuff to write about or read about.  I wonder if the most enjoyable part of owning a Vespa is coming to the end for me?  Only time will tell.

We are going for it now!

It would of course make sense to throw a dust sheet over the scooter now and wait for winter to pass. 
But owning this scooter never made sense from the start, so why start now?

I would really like to get an MOT on the bike now - just to know all is good, and if its not then I have the whole winter to fix it.  But in order to get an MOT, i need to get it out on the road and for that I need insurance - so Ive just bought myself some insurance.
I phoned 3 companies, and they all quoted much of a muchness, but I felt in the end the best deal I got was with Bikesure. £133 for 3rdPFT, £150 Excess, 5000mile limited mileage - and this includes oodles of legal cover and heaps of personal accident cover (I wasnt really listening - but it will be in the documents when they send them through).
I valued the bike at £2000, and it made me realise that its not such a daft thing to have insurance now - even if Im not going to use it during the winter, as it is certainly stealable now, and should be covered by insurance.

In an ideal world I would like to get some miles (well at least some hours) on the clock before taking it out on the roads for an MOT - just to know that the bolts wont rattle off or a cable nipple doesnt slip - but thats virtually impossible to do.  I can only ride so many times up and down our culdesac (and even that is illegal) without annoying neighbours, and so I shall have to bite the bullet sometime, and why not straight away?
 
So, in theory,  if I wanted to now,  if i fix the rear indicators tonight,  I could take the scooter for an MOT tomorrow (the weather report says 'sunny'
ooh exciting! i wont be able to sleep!

will it start?

Well to cut a long story short.... yes it does! :-)
Of course it does.  I shouldnt have been surprised really - Vespas - they're not rocket science!

But to tell the long story....
Its saturday, which means I can comfortably take the whole day to myself in the garage, and with all the little rebuild steps ive been doing up til now, I was pretty well committed to starting her today.
Top up oils.  Put a gallon of 50:1 two-stoke mix in the fuel tank (Dan recommended this as a precaution, but I notice that Haynes also suggest this after an engine strip, just to ensure some lubrication while the autolube primes) - connect and adjust rear brake cable, clutch cable....... and then I found myself titting around again with the number plate and the tax disc holder.  Once again I was subconsciously avoiding the big question - would it run?  I snapped out of it and put the ancillaries to one side, and wheeled the scooter out of the garage.  The last time id started it, Id filled my garage and next doors house with white smoke, so I wasnt taking any chances this time.

Ignition on, fuel tap to Aperto, choke out.
Kick one (ooh that new kickstart gear does feel considerably more positive)
Kick two - and she fired into life! But OMG what is that racket?  Whats happened? it sounds worse than it did before the rebuild!  It must have only been seconds but I remember it feeling like an age as the bolt of cold sweat ran down my back and I panicked.  I could see another engine rebuild flash before my eyes as I desperately fumbled to try to work out how to stop the engine - in my panic I seemed to have become blind to the ignition switch.
Turns out that i'd forgotten to put the exhaust pipe and silencer back on!  What an idiot!

So on with the exhaust pipe - and a little reflection - is everything (else) properly in place?
Kick - first time start.  Sweet :-)
But OMG whats that racket?  Bloody hell there is still a clattering in the engine.  Again I felt a wave of depression go over me as I saw a vision of the engine coming out again - can I really be bothered?
It turns out that I could make the clattering stop if I pulled the clutch in - Aha, so maybe its a clutch adjustment thing.  I can fix that later - but first lets see if I can get this thing to drive.
Well yes it does drive, but its not sweet.  its difficult to get it into neutral and it stalls too easily unless you give it considerable revs and clutch slip.
Ok, so it starts and runs, but it looks like im going to be doing some fine tuning and cable adjustments - but it was time for breakfast.

As I sat having my toast and coffee (and this is the cool thing about walking away from a problem and letting your unconscious mind to incubate - I thoroughly recommend it - whenever you have a problem that needs sorting, start by doing nothing!) , it slowly occured to me - I wonder if it would be possible to get the gear-change cables crossed - so that what looks like first gear on the handle bar is actually fourth gear and visaversa - and in that instance, neutral would be at the other end of the twist.
[Vespa has a simple in principle, but potentially complicated and troublesome dual cable arrangement from the handlebar twist to the gear-changer unit on the side of the engine.]

So suitably caffined and warmed up, I went back to the scooter and tried to ride it down our road using the gear-change 'in reverse'
OMG (again) everything is as sweet as a nut!  its perfect!  clutch spot on and gear selection smooth.  And now that I knew where the real neutral was, that awful clattering had disappeared - clearly what id been trying to do was find a neutral INBETWEEN gears - and I think this is exactly what I was hearing in the video I posted a few weeks ago, before the engine rebuild.
Once again - I am a complete idiot - I had literally got my wires crossed!  and was selecting the gears in reverse.  No wonder it wouldnt pull without revs and clutch slip - I was trying to pull away in top gear!

So it was a simple case of swapping the cables over at the gear-selector end (well not quite so simple now that everything was on the engine, but certainly no more than 30 minutes)
Another test run and I am delighted :-)
Everything is as it should be (though I think i need to sort the earth out on those rear indicators)
There is still a fair puff of white smoke.  Im not sure what is acceptable.  Is this smoke from the grease and rebuild oil?  maybe its smoke from the double dose of 2 stroke oil (in the fuel mix and in the auto lube).  I hope its not burning oil from the gearbox now that Ive replace all those oil seals.
ooh and I do need to get those wheels painted!

So now what? there was only so much riding up and down our road I could do - I need to get an MOT, tax and insurance.  Its such a shame that the weather is turning now for the winter - just when I am ready to get out on the road.
Whatever happens now, I do feel relieved and pleased to have got it all to this point - its all been worth it :-)

Engine in

Up with the lark again to see if I can get the engine back into its frame before work.
Remind me to buy myself a little trolley jack - it would have made it so much easier to lift the engine the necessary 8" off the ground and into position.  As it happened, lots of blocks of wood and plenty of swearing did the trick.  Its not that its heavy to lift or that the mounting is difficult to access, but it is difficult to get access all around the engine when you are trying to hold the blimmin thing at the same time.
Of course it all went back into place easily - its only just come out afterall.
Connected up fuel and oil pipes (I really want to get the 2-stroke oil settling into the system before i start her up).
And then it was time for work - Though I was happy to leave it there.  This was a momentous occasion (arent they all?) - the engine was securely back in the frame and I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.... again :-/

Building the engine up

So its all a case of popping everything back together now isnt it?
Well almost.  Im trying to grab a half hour here, and hour there so you can imagine how miffed I was when it turns out that my gasket set didnt include the carb/engine case gasket.  Another lunch time trip to Gransport who assure me that it should have been in there, so gave me one anyway - Thanks Dan.
rebuilding all the bits is pretty plain sailing really - though i do often have little panics - did I tighten those nuts properly? did I remove the bit of rag stuffed in to stop dirt falling in? etc etc

One small panic is that I forgot to soak the new clutch plates in oil before reassembling.  I notice that some engine rebuild blogs and books, dont make reference to this proceedure, but some do.  I wonder if I should take the clutch out again? or will the engine oil splash his way up there nice and easily anyway?

Another little head-scratch ive had is over the timing.  The position of the stator plate that I removed is different to that suggested by Haynes manual.  Being electronic ignition there isnt any contact breakers to adjust, but you can still advance/retard the timing by the rotary position of the stator.  The picture here, shows the timing as it was when I broke the engine down (i know it runs like that, but I dont know if it was running properly).  Haynes say that the PX200E engine should have the mark on the casing aligned with the 'A' mark on the stator plate - that looks like a couple of degrees different to how it was.
So, what to do?
Well in the end I went with what Haynes says, reasoning that I was better to trust him than some previous owner who thought a pop-riveted plate over a rotted out chassis was satisfactory engineering.
We shall see what happens when I try to start her (soon I hope)


I do worry about the autolube device - I have no evidence to say it wont work properly, but it does all seem so marginal to me - its a delicate bit of mechanics, doing a finely tuned operation with a thick gunk that is just waiting for a blockage - and then it all goes catastrophic!  I decided that as I didnt know the history of the 2-stroke oil already in the tank, I would drain it and refill with fresh - I should have thought this through, but it turns out that there is more than a pint milk-bottles worth of oil in that tank, and the following morning there was probably a good half pint of oil all over my garage floor! still at least i know ive got a flushed tank now, so fingers crossed for many years of trouble free autolube. 
Tip No.1 from Dan at Gransport - always put a couple of caps of 2-stroke oil in a full tank of petrol - as a just in case.  Tip No.2 from Dan - only fill the oil tank part way up so that you dont fill the complete sight-glass - this way you can see if the oil is being consumed by a correctly working autolube mechanism.

So everything assembled, it all seems to turn over nice and smoothly and compression feels good

Case closed

A man is allowed a lunch break isnt he?
Eager to know if that crank is pressed far enough home, I wanted to get the engine halves together and sealed.
The Gransport chaps tell me that they use silicone sealant for gasket sealing their engines (or are they just making fun of me, the noo-boy?)  However I am a fan of red hermatite and so hermatite is was.
Everything went remarkably well i think (and I touch wood as i say this - I'd like to not have to split it again for a while)  Everything lining up, pressing together smoothly and pulling up tightly - I made sure to tighten the case bolts evenly and a satisfyingly small witness of red hermatite told me that the surfaces were mating nicely.

And so while we are here, why not reassemble the oil dosing gears and drive, then why not the clutch?
Again - all pretty straight forward really - not even interesting enough to take photos.

My only challenge was to work out how to translate the 24lbft torque to the castellated clutch nut tool that I had made (which doesnt have a 1/2" socket drive).  In the end i put the torque wrench in the vice and 'sensed' just how much that feels - if you are interested, 24lbft at 16" is enough to make your first finger ache.  And so with this sensation in mind I put a 16" extender tube onto the T-bar of my castellated clutch nut tool, and tightened the clutch up until my pointy finger hurt about the same as it did in my test.  Im sure McLaren would have a better method, but Im not reckoning on competing with them.
So, lunch-break over - back to work - feeling rather happy :-)

Fitting the crank. Part 2

With crank in the freezer and engine case/bearing in the boiler cupboard - I am at risk of getting in to trouble with the wife if i dont get this job done quickly.

tube and washers to pull crank against the bearing

As suggested by the chap on the scooter help link in the previous post - I made up a 'puller' consisting of a short length of tube and a bunch of washers to help pull the clutch end shaft against the bearing, and thus not stressing the engine case counter-weight flanges by belting the crankshaft home.

Eventually you have to do something - so with the engine case / bearing already up to boiler cupboard temperature, I played a calor flame directly on the bearing until too hot to touch (but not so hot that it would damage the oil seal)
A gob of grease on the mating surfaces, and a quick text from TVOR to remind me that ive got to do this quickly before the parts return to ambient temperature.  I'm feeling under pressure.
I dashed into the house to get the crank from the freezer, and before I can blink im trying to shove it into the bearing.
The scooter help chap says that with a cold crank and a hot bearing you should be able to hand press the crank home.  Bollocks.  And so i was glad that id made up his suggested puller, which seemed to do the trick - but there was a hell of a lot of pressure required - I am so glad that i didnt have to resort to hammering - i am sure the pressure needed would have damaged something.
I reckon it only took about 5 minutes to do, but it was a stressful 5 minutes and i seem to have bruised my arm in the process, but lord knows how!
Finally I made sure to slosh lots of oil around the frosty crank to save it from rusting

With crank now in place, I could pop in the christmas tree (input shaft) and the drive (output) shaft - again needing a fair degree of hammering to get home.
And that was that.  I hope.
Have I forgotten anything? i will be well fed up if i find a loose washer somewhere later.
I decided not to do anymore for the evening and be satisfied with finally getting this far...... but i did go to bed that night wondering "how do I know everything has gone home properly?" - it will be a bugger to shove the crank a little bit more now that its all cooled-down/warmed-up

fitting the crank. part 1

Oh boy Ive been fretting about this, getting the crank into its new main bearing.  The thing i am worrying about is distorting the crank as i shove it back into that very tight bearing.  Haynes talk of putting a hardwood wedge in between the counterweights.  I tried this but was still too scared to hammer heavily enough to get the crank home.
I tried warming the bearing to expand it a little, but still I darent whack hard enough to drive the crank all the way in.

And so here I am late at night looking for online solutions.  Here is a great description of how to fit a crank  http://www.scooterhelp.com/tips/engine/crank.install.lf.vespa.html
Freezing the crank as well might help a little, but I think I shall also make up a tube puller too

3am - and im tossing and turning - hope i havent damaged anything trying to fit that crank.  I dont think i was wacking too hard..... or was I?
7am - in garage inspecting crank and engine case - all looks ok.  Found some tube to make a puller spacer.  Crank in freezer.  How long does it take to freeze a crankshaft?
Lunch time - chat with Gransport - how do they do it?  Sadly the answer is 'hit it'
I am nervous

Wheel hub

The other week when I was assembling the back end in the belief that I was going to start it and ride it for the first time, I became a little suspicious of what felt like a rather soft screw thread when tightening up the wheel nuts - I turned a blind eye in my excitement to see if it would start.
However, when an engine rebuild became obvious, and I had to dissemble everything again, I took a closer inspection at those wheel hub nuts.  And im rather glad I did - they are heavily damaged.

Apparently these wheel nut studs can be fitted to the aluminium hub in one of a number of ways - pressed in, threaded in, swaged over or peened over.
It was clear that I would have to replace them so I had a go, and soon discovered that there was no-chance I was going to get those cheeky fellows out safely - even when I'd made my decision to buy a completely new hub, and hence didnt matter if I damaged the old one by drilling out to a way-oversized hole, I still couldnt get a single stud out.  How are they fixed in??

And so I was resigned to buy a brand new wheel hub - and at £35 I wasnt too disappointed - it is a rather safety critical item afterall.  I havent checked the front one in detail yet, but if its been treated like the rear one, I suspect another £35 will be in order.

And so that brings me to another budget review.  With my latest engine bits, new wheel hub, some two-stroke oil (only £10 - i didnt go for the £50 strawberry smelling 2-stroke oil), ooh And the second hand spare wheel that I recently bought on ebay for £35, I am now up to a running total of £857 (gulp!)

Christmas tree

Apparently if you are in the know, you don't call it an 'input shaft' or a 'primary shaft', you call it the 'Christmas Tree' due to its uncanny resemblance to a christmas tree (presumably one in a robot world)

As we have already seen the thread has been sheered off my original one allowing the shaft to float and things to rub.  I think ive caught it soon enough before irreversible damage.  So circlip out, and a simple wooden drift to get the shaft out of the bearing.  Here you can see the original knackered one and the new healthy one.

Im not happy with the bearing though - too rumbly and full of metal flakes so that means another trip to Gransport to spend a bit more money