After a few months of not riding it out of frustration and debating converting to CDI, I took the opportunity of having my brother Seth in town to take a stab at getting the old girl back on the road. The issue I was facing was that I did not have the Vespa “special” tool (aren’t they all?) that is used to pull the flywheel off of the shaft, and in doing so, I broke the flywheel trying to get it off the last time.
Well, as it turns out, simply turning around the hooks on the gear puller I used with disatrous results previously was all it took to get the broken flywheel off the shaft. From there, it was pretty simple to get the new points installed and re-check the timing once more. I’m still not convinced the timing is right now - need to make a better test light. I made one with a buzzer, but it’s too hard to tell if the tone is changing significantly.
So, Seth and I checked and re-checked the points gap, re-assembled it all, and lo and behold, it fired right up on the second kick!
Unfortunately, the little pin that holds the points assembly in seems to not be re-usable, and I wound up having to go down to Motorsport Scooters to get a new set. While I was there, I picked up a replacement flywheel for good measure.
Once home, I replaced that and the points and it fired right up again.
Now it will run indefinitely, it seems, but even after adjusting the carb a bit, it is bogging down significantly, and doesn’t have any power off the line like it did before it stopped running properly. I think I may need to adjust the mixture a bit. Hopefully, that’s all it is, and I can be back riding her to work at the new office in Carlsbad this week!
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