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Post by Mark88 on May 22, 2020 8:35:56 GMT
Hello all, Happy to make my first post although I've been reading a lot on this forum. I have a little 1980 v9b 100cc Vespa that I bought 7 years ago from a kid who just had it sitting in his garage and never used it. I was a bit scared to buy it in all honesty since my experience with bikes is minimal, and especially with old ones. ( I used to have a Peugeot speedfight 2 as a 17 year old and I had a malossi kit on it ) However I ended up loving it, especially since living in Cyprus allows me to drive it all year around. What was unexpected was how reliable these little bikes are. Only maintenance needed was a couple of clutch cables and once I had to open the carb and clean it up a bit. That's all... The brakes are not that great, but gearing down helps a bit. I have new brakes sitting around but not the tool to open that weird bell casing Only modification I've made is getting tubeless SIP rims and tires cause I got tired of getting flats. Now the handling is even better. TL/DRSo everything was going well until this morning when I decided to go over the pavement ramp in front of my garage with my wife as a passenger. Don't know what I was thinking. She's no more than 50 kg but the exhaust hit the pavement and immediately there was a noticeable difference in the sound of the bike. i'm guessing the exhaust got damaged? or moved a little bit? Now I did a search on this forum but couldn't find anything. Has this happened to anyone else? Is there anything I can do. Thanks in advance all Attachments:
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Post by Jimmy D on May 22, 2020 9:31:07 GMT
Hi Mark, A 50kg wife sounds nice. My wife and I combined would be WELL over the maximum weight of any Vespa Did you take a look? Send us some photos? If the exhaust was dented it'll make a difference to the performance and possibly the tone. But hard to tell without a visual inspection! I presume the engine cases etc are okay?
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Post by movin64 on May 22, 2020 9:33:00 GMT
Sorry can't help with your question, but nice scooter
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Post by tzsteve on May 22, 2020 10:28:49 GMT
Most likely cracked the down pipe on the exhaust. These get delicate after a few years due to rust. Not a difficult job, get a manual then have a close look
Nice little scoot
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Post by mark on May 22, 2020 10:39:24 GMT
Lovely scooter and even nicer surroundings !
Presume the exhaust manifold / studs where they bolt to cylinder head not broken or loose ?
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Post by Mark88 on May 22, 2020 13:03:10 GMT
Wow, you guys are awesome, Thank you so much for the comments, I genuinely appreciate it. So I worked on it for a bit until I run our of fluids, it's quite hot here. So what I noticed is: 1. The Exhaust Catalyst? don't know its named, but anyway it moved back to the point of touching the tire. So I took off the Wheel , and the exhaust. see image 1 2. The mounting of the exhaust catalyst to the frame seemed a bit bent. As soon as I remove that big bolt the whole exhaust moved, so you could tell there was tension because it was not sitting properly. See image 2 3. I then took some pliers, unbent it a little bit and popped it back in. see image 3 Overall I didn't see any holes on the exhaust. When I put the exhaust back, now it sits maybe 5 mm from the wheel. After that I put the wheel back and kicked it and unfortunately it's still the same. Still sounds much louder than normal. I then blocked the exhaust tip with my hand while it was running and the bike kept going so definitely there's a leak somewhere. This was fairly easy to do, but now I don't know what else to check. If you have any tips for me I would be very grateful to you as I'm sure almost everyone here knows much more about smallies than me.
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Post by mark on May 22, 2020 16:37:50 GMT
If the exhaust seems ok I would imagine you loosened or broken the manifold / elbow connection to cylinder head ( I’ve done similar thing before ) I think your original style exhaust will bolt to a small manifold / elbow which bolts to engine. It will sound loud/ loose power if it isn’t tightly bolted / poor seal. No 5 on picture is the elbow which goes between cylinder and exhaust Some body will correct me if I’m wrong , I usually am 😀
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Post by mark on May 22, 2020 16:41:07 GMT
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Post by jbcollier on May 23, 2020 13:23:02 GMT
Put the scoot on its stand on top of a long piece of wood. The front wheel will be high in the air. Lift the back of the scoot up and support it with a stand or another wide piece of wood. Now the rear wheel is in the air. Remove the rear wheel. Undo the lower shock nut and carefully remove the lower shock bolt. The engine should lower. It's now held up by the carb so put yet more wood under the engine to "just" remove the tension on the carb. Remove the spark plug wire and the screws holding the plastic engine shroud. Lift off the shroud. Now you can see where the exhaust attaches to the cylinder.
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Post by Mark88 on May 27, 2020 13:58:53 GMT
You guys are the best and are absolutely right. That neck thingy that is in between the exhaust and the cylinder head broke... in half. Can it get welded you think? Or should I just order a new part? While I was there I did notice an alarming amount of fuel leaking. I do think it's coming from the carb but not sure. See images attached. Attachments:
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Post by jbcollier on May 27, 2020 14:06:32 GMT
Looks pretty dry under there to me.
Replace the broken piece. They are readily available.
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Post by Mark88 on May 27, 2020 15:02:58 GMT
Put the scoot on its stand on top of a long piece of wood. The front wheel will be high in the air. Lift the back of the scoot up and support it with a stand or another wide piece of wood. Now the rear wheel is in the air. Remove the rear wheel. Undo the lower shock nut and carefully remove the lower shock bolt. The engine should lower. It's now held up by the carb so put yet more wood under the engine to "just" remove the tension on the carb. Remove the spark plug wire and the screws holding the plastic engine shroud. Lift off the shroud. Now you can see where the exhaust attaches to the cylinder. This is a perfect guide for me on how to lower the engine. I was always afraid about damaging the carb but this clears it out. Looks pretty dry under there to me. Replace the broken piece. They are readily available. Dry? But Air bellow was completely soaked. IS that normal? I guess this is why the floor gets greasy
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Post by jbcollier on May 28, 2020 14:12:12 GMT
In theory, everything is tight and nothing should leak out. In practice, small amounts can leak around the cylinder and carb. Pressure in the engine forces small amounts to seep out and air flow through the carb goes both ways to a small extent leading to fuel deposits. The bottom of the air screen should have a plastic tray to collect the fuel and a hose to drop it on the ground. Both are usually missing.
All that to say it can get a bit messy under there even though nothing really is wrong.
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Post by Mark88 on Jun 9, 2020 11:14:00 GMT
/Update Finally my smallie is up and running better than ever thanks to you all. Ok so this is what happened. Because I was inpatient and wanted a quick fix I ended up welding the manifold... I found a guy who welds exhausts and he welded the part in no time. Came back home, popped it back in but when I would run the engine and block the exhaust tip to test the seal I could tell that air was leaking somewhere. The engine would continue running quite comfortably. Then...as usual I overdid it. I thought maybe I didn't tighten the exhaust well so I ended up over-tightening the bolts connecting the exhaust to the manifold which resulted in one of the studs braking. Then I tried to remove the studs and replace them, but after spending (wasting ) a lot of time I realized that the manifold was one piece with the studs. Then I tried to get the part locally which I usually avoid since I prefer to order stuff from the internet mainly because it's so much easier to get the exact part you are looking for.. In my town there's a man who has a vespa collection and specializes in fixing them so he sold me the part but it wouldn't go though the cylinder block studs. Apparently the part was for the v50 so he didn't know either that the 100 has wider studs coming out of the block. The holes were about 7mm so in the beginning I made them 7.5 and still it was too tight so then 8mm did the trick. Another challenge was when I would install the exhaust, things were misaligned. When I tried to align the exhaust to the manifold, the exhaust mount hole connecting under the bike was completely misaligned. If I would first loosely put the exhaust mount bolt and then try to tighten the exhaust to the manifold it was again misaligned as my basic drawing shows. After bending here and there the exhaust mount eventually it aligned perfectly and now the engine's throttle response feels much better to my surprise. TL/DR - Long story shortNew manifold part installed, some troubles aligning everything but now engine runs like a dream better than ever. Thank you all so very much for your thoughts and support. Next project for the winter will be redoing all the cabling as all the cables are completely hardened and pieces brake off if bent.
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