Vespa Engine Rebuild – ITS ALIVE!
My home-made vespa engine stand
Well, over the last week or so I have been crafting an engine test stand out of some 40mm box section my friend Jamie donated. The stand is complete and have today sprayed it up (mainly to hide some of the really dodgy welds).
I intended for the stand to be able to accept the engine and keep it steady at a reasonable height off the ground, allowing me to work on the engine whilst it was running without fear of it hop, skipping and jumping all over the place, I also included a bracket which would allow me to bolt the fuel tank to at relatively the same height as it would be mounted on the bike. With stand complete, it was time to get to the interesting part, mounting the engine and giving it a whirl.
Now I must say, that once you have all the tinwear and exhaust bolted to the engine it starts to get a little heavy, so maneuvering it into the stand was a little bit of a job on my own, not to mention getting the main pin through the stand, through the engine and bolted up on the other side, however I managed to heave it in after about 10 minutes of jossling.
With the fuel tank mounted on its bracket it was time for some go-go juice.
One problem I have identified already was that the fuel tap didnt seem to do much, regardless which way I turned it, fuel still happily travelled down the pipe, so one good thing has come out of this already (as the fuel pipe is somewhat hidden when its in the bike). With all checks complete I kicked the engine over lightly tickling the throttle through the top of the carb box, from which I had removed the cover.
2 decent kicks later (yes 2) and the beauty fired up and began to run – SUCCESS!
the engine mounted in its frame
I had to keep the motor ticking over by giving it some throttle whilst I messed with the other settings, this is where I may need some advice for any of you out there willing to dispell your knowledge. I had wound the mixture screw all the way in, and then wound it back out by 1 1/2 turns (apparently this is about right) – however with the tickover screw (on top of the carb) wound all the way in, it only JUST ticks over and thats when the motor is warm. Starting it from cold again requires me to cover the airbox hole with my hand to starve it of air and then it runs.
Im not too experienced with carb setups, and so any help or advice would be much appreciative – how can you find out the perfect mixture?? when do you know its right!??
Either way, I am absolutely over the moon that the motor starts, from my initial thoughts of giving it a clean up, to then progressing onto stripping the entire engine and splitting the cases, im a very happy boy to hear this thing running again, and definately as it started with so little effort!!
I think I will keep the engine on the stand now until it is ready for transplanting into the bike, especially cos it looks so pretty sitting there.
So, what are the next steps now……. its time for bodywork!!
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Now that it’s running, you can start planning sweet jumps.
1 1/2 turns is about right on the mix, maybe another 1/4 turn either way to fine tune. You can do this once it’s back in the frame. Fine tune by ear, find the smoothest tickover within the above range.. Tickover screw should not need to be all the way in, are you sure it’s back in correct (spring getting caught up somewhere?)
hi BrynO, the tickover screw is about 2 turns out now, I change the plug and it is running a lot smoother now – I guess I will only be able to really tell when its back in the bike and how it runs (without bogging etc) – thanks for the update.
Hi, do you have the measurements or plans for your engine mounting jig.
cheers
Nope – I kinda just guessed it and built it as I went along, but I can certainly measure it up if you want??
Hi,
love the mount how long did it take you to make it?
it took about 2 hours, just knocked it up out of 50mm box section – it was a god send to get the engine running out of the bike.
i have looked everywhere to buy something like this, But there is nothing like it anywhere!
no doubt you are in america, so i couldnt borrow it for a week lol!
Hello – great blog – inspires me to continue with mine!
How much of the wiring loom did you have to connect to get the engine going?
Thanks
J
I think posting the dimentions of this engine stand would be helpful to a lot of people, what do you think?
For me, I would use the measurements to build my own.
Thanks.
Hi
is there any where on the Internet with photo diagrams off how the internals of vespa handle bars go back tog?
well, not much really… in fact, none. I had the engine running outside of the body (without the wiring) on its own! no wires attached!
im not in america actually. im in the UK! and the stand is just going rusty now, about to be scrapped! wanna buy it?
Hi JD, How much we looking at? cheers
Hi JD,
i don’t get notification when you reply or post something, so i have to keep looking which i dont mind because your blog is pretty good, however I think its all been done now, so im not following anything new any more..which is a shame, unless blog readers send in there scoot for you to restore lol
And i don’t think you have uploaded a final picture?
If you could email me regarding the stand that would be cool!
thanks