Straight to the heart
The engine, sitting there in all its muddy glory
With the steering column currently causing me some headache (lack of tools), I decided to pay more attention to the rear of the bike, knowing that this area will probably need more work than the rest of the bike, afterall, it is where the engine lives and is obviously more complex than any other part.
Removing the engine required a little trial and error, undoing the swingarm and shock bolt didnt cause any hassle, but heaving the thing around my tiny shed trying to get the lump removed was a bit of game, especially when I realised that I hadnt undone the various control cables from the rear! A few swift movements of a silly little spanner and the cables were undone, nothing to stop the lump dropping out now, and thats exactly what it did.
Pulling the body to one side to admire the heart of the beast, I was presented with a little bit of an ugly site, not surprising really as it had probably never seen the light of day from under the chassis of the bike. It was covered, and I mean covered in thick black oily dirt which had accumilated over the years, it was going to be a clean up mission first.
More oily dirt
Sitting the engine on my bench, I set to work with a trusty wallpaper scraper, a jar of petrol (my favourite kind of cleaner) and a paint brush, scraping away the miles of crud, it felt satisfying. Eventually when the scraper had done all it could, the petrol was involved, no – not to burn the thing, but to gently wash away its muddy sins and to leave behind the treasure I had been looking for – an engine.
My father said something once when working on my VW’s, and it always sticks in my head when doing something like this: “The cleaner it is, the better it works.” and whilst there are the obviously points about things being broken and never working, he has a certain point. Oh yes, and the fact that its a much nicer experience to work on something with out clagging your hands with dirt.
The removal of the tinwear from the engine was simple enough, and cast aside into the “to be restored and painted” pile, this allowed me to access the cylinder head and barrel, which I knew would probably need some “de-coking”.
The engine and tinwear
Now, let me inform you, I have no intention to split the case of the engine and go that deep into things, plus I dont see the need to if everything is in working order, something I would be checking when I get inside. From my experience, its sometimes better to leave something alone if it aint broken – so im gonna save myself some work, time and no doubt headaches, and leave this stuff well alone.
The engine sat there looking a little cleaner, but this was only skin deep. It was time for surgery.
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I agree with your philosophy, mate.
I’m about to begin work on an old GS, and I’ve set myself 3 stages if all goes well:
1. Using minimum amount of parts necessary (points, condenser, coil, battery, ?), get it to run and drive.
2. Go through operating parts (brakes, hubs, etc.) to make sure they work. New parts only if the old are no good.
3. Maybe next year, complete disassembly, sandblast and repaint, split caases, change bearings and seals, maybe upgrade performance.
That way, I can ride as soon as possible, and also find any lurking problems so I know what to look for later. If I never get around to the later stages, I’ll still have a running bike I can enjoy.
Jigsaw puzzles are fun, but motorcycles and scooters are funner.
Cheers!
Your exactly right – they are fun!
Good luck with your ride, it sounds like your going the right way about it – and the first stage at least sounds like it could be up and running in no time, but there is always the thought of “well, if I have got this bit off, I might as well take the rest off”, thats what i have found anyway.
keep checking back on the site, you never know, you might pick up some tips – likewise, if you have any useful stories, please feel free to share!!
GOOD LUCK AND MOST OF ALL – ENJOY!
Hi JD
If it’s been standing for a many years the crank oil seals are likely to be gubbed, they go hard, get brittle and will give you a problem when you finally start it up.
I know what you mean about not doing stuff for the sake of it, but personally, for the £20 or so it costs in gaskets and seals, I’d change them and also the rear hub seal. The hub seals are notorious for leaking (oil onto your brake shoes) and thankfully can be changed from the outside. Clearly you would need to split the casings to do the crank seals but you can then take a proper look at the main and big end bearings.
Splitting the cases is easy enough to do but it’s the the last job you’ll want to tackle once you have the engine back in a nicely painted frame and find there is a problem..
hmmmm, you have me thinking now, and a little worried
– I intend to change the rear hub seals as when removing the backing plate to the hub, as well as all the guts, the 4 seals (3 small ones and 1 big one) were pretty shot anyway and fell apart.
My only worry is with splitting the cases and opening her up is that my own technical knowledge of the “inner workings” is a little limited, and therefore prone to make mistakes.
I once had a motorcross bike and had the cases split, new gaskets etc, and no matter what we did – the new gaskets always had a slight leak, now I know thats a different kettle of fish, but I am slightly worried… on the other hand, I get your point about when the lump is back in the bike – I dont wanna be finding out I have serious issues.
oh what to do.. advice ?
Hi JD, rear hub seal to replace is the one under the locking ring (which has a left hand thread btw), bit of a pain to remove this without the correct tool, you can tap it round with a drift but you will do some damage to the ‘castles’..
Understand what you say about not wanting to split the casings, but there is much more chance of them been shot than not, 40 year old rubber will be perished so unless they have been changed more recently I’d strongly suggest bite the bullet and tackle them.
Unless you put a screwdriver in the casings to prise them apart (as people temd to!) you won’t damage them, and they will seal again just fine. When apart you may want to consider replacing the main bearings, the layshaft needles, the cruciform and clutch corks if any of these look suspect. Vespa engines really are very basis and parts are fairly cheap, only challenging jobs are removing the old mains (if you need to re-use the crank) and fitting the new ones, I must admit I didn’t tackle that myself and left it to my dealer! IMO these jobs are worth doing now or you’ll only end up doing it later..