P200E Engine Build Project Update ! By Kaveman (Read 3,915 times)

[Kaveman]

Huge and I mean huge update ! IT's Alive !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The engine came to life earlier this afternoon for the first time !!! It smoked like hell at first but leveled off. I was able to ride it from my friends place (where I have been working on it) to home this afternoon. That was about a 4-5 mile ride on city streets. I came real close to getting a speeding ticket on the way home . Pics that I took will be posted later on . I had erands to run so I left the scoot home. I was hoping for no oil leaks but the d@#$ little puddle of oil was there once again under the gear shifter. I'll track down that oil leak Friday . More info to come . Once I got the new cdi wired in , it started after a few kicks . This engine is stricktly kickstart only . When I turned off the key switch after the engines first run , the engine kept running. Yep !! I didn't wire in the kill switch. Once the green white wire ( kill switch wire) was wired in with the green wire on the cdi , the engine shut down with no futher issues. More to come abit later . ;D
willc. ;D

[Kaveman]

[jct842]

all worth while! and the ridin begins

[Kaveman]

Well . My scoot has a oil leak some where !! I'll have to pull the cowlings off this weekend to see if I can find it. Add the ruckus from the clutch (a/e may have to pull that to). Otherwise it runs well . Like with chinese scoots , its always something !!
willc.

[Kaveman]

The oil loss is minimizing. I guess my scoot wanted to mark its spot !! I have made 2 clutch cable adjustments . The second may have taken care of the issue with the scoot wanting to move forward while the clutch lever was fully pressed . So far other than the oil leak and clutch cable adjustments , the scoot is behaving itself . I put the 1st gallon of fuel in tonight . That was after adding 2 cycle oil to the tank . Not sure what type of gas milage I'll be getting . Hopefully I'll know soon . Right now I need to focus in on getting the newly built engine broken in and being nice to it till that is done. That means no 45+mph rides. This has been quite an expierence for me and I have learned quite abit concerning the vespa 2 stroke engines both internally and externally. More updates will be posted as time goes along.. Have a great weekend to those who read this thread .
willc. ;D
p.s. It has been taking anywhere from 1 to 3 times with the kickstarter to get the engine started. No gripes from me on that !! ;D

[justbuggin]

awlsome news hope you have lots of fun with it

[Kaveman]

Update ! D@#$ SOB Clutch !!
Now that the scoot has been up and running for the last couple of weeks, I have have a new issue to deal with ! The clutch ! The vespa clutch is comprised of 7 or 6 springs . The clutch gear end then mounts ontop of the 7 springs top retaining plate . Then there is 3 metal backed cork plates and 2 steel plates that are sandwiched inbetween the cork plates. They are all retained with a huge circlip. It is considered a "wet" type clutch because the oil from the crankcase keeps it wet with oil . On the back of the clutch bell a special plate mounts . On the clutch cover there is an arm with a special type of brass plunger .This plunger makes contact with the special plate when the clutch lever is pulled on the left handlebar to activate the clutch . The pressure from the small plate loosens the steel plates when the and takes the engine out of gear ( like what a manual car clutch does on a car) .When the clutch lever is relased the clutch goes back into gear and your off and running again . Confused yet ? Right now my issues are with the clutch bell itself and the cork plates. I decided to try a 4 plate racing type clutch plate set. It's not gone over too well .To deal with this issue I either have to build a new clutch up completely or buy a new complete p200e clutch already assembled . The only way to adjust the tension on the clutch is by the clutch cable that goes from the headset through the end of the external arm of the clutch cover. It is a royal B@$%* to deal with . There is a small pinch bolt that tightens down on the end of the clutch cable . This keeps tension on the cable and the clutch lever assy .The clutch cable is adjustable by a threaded end . I am currently all the way threaded out of the clutch adjustment spindle . Ok confused ? Yep most likely u are ! A couple of pic's of a Vespa clutch are below . Right now I am seriously conisdering buying a new clutch assembly rather then rebuilding. Cost will be about the same either way I choose to go. Those of you who read this posting , if you have a question , let me me know and I'll do my best to answer it.
This is what you get to deal with when you graduate from a chinese twist and go scoot to a classic Italian manual 4 speed Vespa (or Lambretta) scoot !
willc. ;D

[Kaveman]

[dragonsparks]

The suspence is killing me. So which way did you go? Cool Thread.


Dave

[Kaveman]

After reviewing the options available , I have decided to go with a new clutch assembly. Most likely from over seas shipped via FedEx . I'll get to order it next Monday (a/e Payday) . Then the wait begins . More to come as things progress !
willc.

[Kaveman]

Another quick update ! June wasn't exactly a good month for me for multiple reasons .
Early this month I purchased a new clutch assy with a new seller on Ebay . After 5 days of promises that the new clutch would be shipped , nothing more was heard from the seller. B"H for PayPal and their customer service !! I filed a claim and was stuck waiting yet another 10 days for the creep to respond. nothing. On the 11th day after filing the claim I got my $$$ back . It is the last time I order from someone with minimal feedback ( even if they have all positive feedback) . With this issue dealt with , I quickly ordered a new a new p200E clutch kit from a very reliable seller I have previously bought from (ordered a new lml stator and flywheel from him a few months back ) . I paid the extra for Fed Ex shipping from India to get the clutch here sooner . The parts should be here on July 2nd. I have parked the scoot since the first of the month due to the ongoing clutch issues . The engine is still running well despite the clutch headache I currently have. Hopefully by the 4th I'll be back scooting again . Unfortunately the high temps here in Boise will be 100+F for most of next week . I don't do extremely well in heat so I'll have to watch it when I deal with the clutch repairs. That's a brief rundown on my June !
More to come when I finally get the parts I desperately need !!

willc. ;D

[Kaveman]

Greetings my fellow Scootists !! Here is yet another update . The p200 powered Stella 2T is back on the road . I was able to get the new clutch installed on July 3rd . After a few clutch cable adjustments it was back to being ride able again . A new issue is bugging me at the moment. The scoot is hell to shift when first getting going. The clutch isn't the issue. Another scooter guru of another Vespa scooter related forum was kind enough to send me a used Paggio made shifter for my Paggio P200 crankcase . Up till this point I have been using the original shifter from the original LML made 150cc engine. Apparently there are a few little differences between the two crankcases when it comes to the shifter itself. To fix this I'll have to remove the old shifter ( a royal pain in the tuchas to do) then remove the 2 shifter cables ( dealing with those d@%* irritating pinch bolts from hell yet again ! ) , installing the 2 cables onto the 'new" shifter , getting a gasket put between the shifter and crankcase then tightening the 2 retaining nuts and pray I did everything right the first time ! The joys of working on ones scooter ! I'll try and get a couple of pics taken while I am doing this . Hopefully by the end of tomorrow I'll have the work done. I need to change the crankcase oil as well so this will be a good time to get that done. That's pretty much it for the moment !
willc. ;D