Nice day for it

The weather was just too good to waste, so I took Gloria for a spin, I did 70kms and no incidents to speak of but yet again as I head down to Paynesville in almost the same spot as the last two times the engine started to sound funny, no bogging or bad noises, just not right, I slowed down and coasted with the clutch in for about 30 metres and let it out in third and kept going. I think I will just not go on this section of road, the Burmuda Triangle I think I'll call it.
I took a couple of pictures on my ride. The top is Lake King, it was calm and beautiful as you can see. The secong is a corn field on the Lindenow flood plain and  a row of the sorriest mail boxes I think I've ever seen.

No news is good news.

Been a bit quiet on the scooting front of late, between the work & childcare routine of my wife and I, the weather and other commitments I haven't really had a chance to get a decent ride in, the work commute and a lazy 100kms last weekend is about it. The wet days saw the GT200  roll out for some action, the speedo clicked over 16000 kms, and I must admit I am happy to have a good reliable scoot on standby, she'll see more action over the winter as I dont really plan to ride Gloria in the rain, in fact she hasn't had a drop of rain on her since I got her, except one heavy fog that left a fine mist, I'm sure that the bike has seen enough rain in the forty years of her life in the humidity of HCM City.
I have also decided to not touch anything that is working, which at the moment is everything, I have a box of goodies showing up in the next week or so and the next thing I'm doing will be replace the odd ball horn for a vespa one, and get the new headlight on and the old one, which I suspect is from a different model, can go because it doesn't hold the glass in there anymore and just basicly stops it from falling out, it rattles more and more the faster I go. Of course I almost know that I will see something else that's buggered and the cycle will start again.
The scoot is running so well, the pick up through the gears is great,  I can get to 90 easily but get nervous, the rattling headlight doesn't help, the exhaust sounds great and people are turning thier heads when I'm further away, I still get smiles and thumbs up, it's great.
2240 on the clock, 180 off it.

bodging my own bodge.

I head into town early to see if I can find some replacement nuts, I find some at an auto store 7mm, I also pick up some decent washers, I head home to go about getting everything back together, this is where the comedy of errors begins, I put the washers and nuts on and nip them up a bit at a time like I did before, by hand and then I employ the torque wrench. and I then proceed to thread three of the four nuts, great.

I really want to go for a ride so I salvage the best of the original nuts and the remaining 2 new ones, it was a pack of five, and turn the long hexagonal spacer nut around and I do them all up by hand as tight as I possibly could and I did a compression test, three kicks to 120psi, thats what it was before, I give the nuts one more nip to be sure and decide to leave thaem, I will source some good quality high tensile or stainless nuts during the week. I change the jet out for a 105, everyone I talk to says I will need to upjet 1-2 sizes with the new tuned exhaust. I get ready to kick it over so I go to roll it outside, and thud. mmm that's not normal, I thought it might have been in gear but no, I get off and see this, pic three, the stand is fouling on the new exhaust....grrrrrr. So I lay the old girl down on the non-engine side, first mistake, Take the stand off and cut it back with the grinder so it clears and put it back on, sounds easy but it took me about an hour to get it right, there were miss-matched nuts and all sorts of washers and brackets and packers it was a mess, I will be starting a middle of winter fix up list and replacing all these things are now on it,  I need to find a way to fit the rubber back on as it makes quite a bang wher I let the stand fly up, however all back together away I go and kick it over. Sounds awesome, I gear up and head off, I noticed the difference straight away, the increase in power through the gears and I get the little dear up to 90 no worries now, I can accellerate up hills that prior I bog down to sixty, now excellerate to over 70, fantastic, I can't keep the smile off my face, until bang crack crack crack, shit I clutch in and pull over, my concern was short lived, the exhaust had come off where it attaches to the cylinder, so I lay the scoot down on the grass beside the road and put it back on, this time making sure it was tight. end of drama. I enjoy the rest of my ride until I pull in to fuel up and I see this, pic one, and now that I think about it I do remember feeling the slightest play in the wheel, I was hoping that it was just a bit of a leak from laying it down while I fixed the stand and then the exhaust before. So I go home and pull the rear wheel off nad clean it all up, there was some play in the wheel but I made sure when I put it back on I gave it all I had to tighten it up the best I could, split pin in and a quick look over all the areas I have had issues, all looks ok. I put Gloria back on her stand and notice a nice little pool of fuel on the garage floor, not sure as to where it has come from I give her a kick or five andreach the conclusion I've definitely flooded her this time. so I push her up the end of the court and push start her heading down, ride a quick lap or two to burn off and excess and pull in for the night. Pic three is my dog helping me.

So I got a good 60kms in today and the speedo reads over 2130, I reckon in the week without the speedo working I did around 180kms that the clock will never show. I'm really happy with the exhaust and upjet performance change. can't wait to ride her again.

Disaster averted

Ok I had another look this morning and thought I have to get this sorted. I basically had to chisel out the squashed washers that had in fact squashed enough so as to fit tightly into the thread on the studs, it was messy and I couldn't help but leave behind a few dings and scratches, regretfully, but I couldn't see another way. I have the head off again, I tidied it up as best I could, took out one of the studs so I can take it with me to find the correct nuts and new washers that aren't 1/4mm thick, the crappy thing is that tomorrow is supposed to be a perfect day to ride, sunny and cool, and if I cant get the nuts I can't test out the new Sito Plus exhaust. If that's the case I might have a bit of fun with some gear that my good mate, who now lives in Sweden, bought out for me when we were on holiday at Christmas time...hehehe it will be pretty funny. I am sure he isn't into the scooter scene in Sweden, but like most non scooterists he has a stereotype and he got me all the gear he thought a scooter rider would normally need.

Blood, sweat and tears, or beers?

My box of goodies arrived yesterday So last night I hit the spanners....and beer.

It wasn't long before I was thinking here we go again...

Is it me or did someone decide to just fabricate nuts that you can't get anywhere out of shitty steel so that when, not if, they thread themselves you have to wait two weeks for the replacements....end rant

My new speedo cable went on a treat, My new chrome headlight surround was totally different and subsequently the glass was about 5mm too small in diametre, so back on with the old one until I get a new headlight glass...I took the old exhaust off and since I was there I thought I'd pull the head and see if the soft seize had done any damage, good news is that it was smooth and clean so thats great, I cleaned up the piston even though it was pretty clean anyway and this is where it went to poo, I ran the head over some fine sandpaper on some nice flat glass to ensure it was clean and flat. I put it on and nipped them up in a criss cross pattern as I've read to do, and I get out my brand new, used once torque wrench and it won't engage the doing up ratchet only the undoing??So my night ended there. Not impressed

Today I go and get a grinder and a new torque wrench, I will be returning the buggered one when I have more time, I grind off the extra bracket on the exhaust that I dont need and fit it, I then consult my conflicting advice as to torquing it up, my Vietnamese friends tell me its 73-78 but not weather its Nmetres or kg or pounds, my service manual doesnt have a setting at all? the nut was very easy to get off so I'm wondering if I need to torque it at all. I leave it for now and consult a wiser man than me. I had grease everywhere, dirt and engine crud all over me and I'd cut my finger so there were blood spots on the floor and on numerous bits of screwed up paper towel,  a few beers and live music across the road from the pub clear as a bell. Gotta love friday night tinkering.

Thats not the best bit, I go to torque up the cylinder head nuts and once again my vietnamese friends tell me its 12.7-17.6 whatevers and the manual says 1.5-1.8 kgM so since my torque wrench is in pounds I assume the 17 will be good, I proceed to nip them up and they all bite down but 1, it decides to thread itself, grrrrrr, so I undo them all and wrestle with this nut for half an hour to get it off, then go searching through my bits to see if I have some nuts thats similar, of course I don't, refer rant, So I have to wait until tomorrow as my wife had to go to work and I ran out of time....I decide to pull the head off again and it wont budge I wiggle a screwdrive in between the head and the fins and try to gently persuade it, nope, a little tap with a soft hammer, no, I damage some of the fins and still no joy, My thoughts are either I have created a fine edge or lip on the head when I ran it over the sandpaper or the washers have compressed from where I torqued the nuts and have spread onto the studs acting as a stopper, what to do?? I opted to go inside and try not to stew on it until my wife gets home from work tonight, I can't do anything with out new nuts anyway.
Pic. one Headlight rims new and old, I need a new headlight that will fit into the new one.
Pic two, three and four Feeding the new speedo cable outer through, I read on Modern Vespa that this was one way to do it, you take the old inner out, feed through some whipper snipper cable with plenty of length, pull the old outer out, feed the new outer onto the cable and I found once you get almost through the hole in the fork it pays to tape up the cable to the outer so when you are on your back trying to wiggle the outer out of the hole you can pull on the cable to help it through, connect it all up and your good to go. pic four is the "new" speedo cable and connections.
Pic five, old and new exhausts, you can see the bracket that I had to cut off.
Pic six, seven and eight The head, the damage I did trying to get the head off after I threaded the nut. and the cylinder I was pleased to see three ports in there, I was wondering if I actually had a Veloce engine, I might or might not but it does have three ports, that will do me.