Hello. New to old scooters in Edmonton.

realgone · Post by **realgone** » Mon May 12, 2014 10:23 am

Hi folks,

I got an old Vespa 150 in trade last winter, and just got around to tinkering with it a bit.
It's a 1965 or 1966 large frame 150, but that's all I know.
How can I tell if it's a VBS or VBB or VBB2 or whatever?
It has a VIN plate from Classic-Vespas.com on it.
Who are they? I can't find any info. Hacks? I have my suspicions.
I just rebuilt the carb with new gaskets and I can get it running, but it isn't quite there yet. It'll need some fiddling and tuning, and I'm going out of my head already. I'm not bad with figuring out four stroke motorcycles, but the Vespa engineering is a whole new enchilada.
So far it'll start with enough kicking and swearing, and it will idle without choke, but that's all I can say for it. With a handful of throttle it bogs quite a bit and will stall without some finesse.
I can get it into first with enough revs, and scream down the alley, but the only way to do it is to feed the throttle in gradually so that it doesn't bog and stall, and it seems that it needs to be wide open.
I set the pilot mixture screw at 1.5 turns out.
Set the throttle slide so that about 1-2mm of light was showing at rest, but I've monkeyed with the idle screw since then and I'm not sure where it's at now.
Any advice?
Before I lose my temper on this thing, is there a local shop good at dialling these in?
Thanks, hoping to get this thing going and meeting some of you Edmonton scooter lot.

redbike · Post by **redbike** » Mon May 12, 2014 4:11 pm

Someone will be along shortly to give you much better advice than I can, but in the meantime, welcome to the vintage scooter scene. We are by and large a friendly lot and tend to congregate at Wild Earth Cafe on 142nd street, just south of the 87th Avenue traffic circle on Sundays at 1:00 p.m. We do workshop days for club members to sort our their steeds as time allows. They get less frequent as the riding weather approaches, but generally, help is available. Which is good, because we don't have a scooter shop here anymore that will work on vintage bikes. Look forward to meeting you. Redbike, aka John.

Post by **Kevin** » Mon May 12, 2014 11:58 pm

I seem to remember classic-vespas.com being run out of Florida. I think they imported "restored" vespas from the asias.

If ya can find the original frame number and engine number we should be able to trace down what actual model it is.

http://scooterhelp.com/serial/ves.serial.numbers.html
is where you'll find the info once you find your numbers.

jbcollier · Post by **jbcollier** » Tue May 13, 2014 7:04 am

Off for a week of scooting in Victoria. We'll see what we can arrange when we get back. I gotta warn you though, I'm way behind in my own work right now.

Go back to basics:

Fresh fuel? (don't forget 2T mix, 2% unless it's a GS or SS)

Compression? (stiff kick?)

Spark? (ALWAYS try a NEW plug)

Fuel and flow? (clean & runs out when you open the tap)

Carb? (start with the idle screw 2 turns out from lightly seated)

Make any difference with the choke on or off?

realgone · Post by **realgone** » Wed May 14, 2014 9:10 pm

Thanks for welcome and the advice, folks

Yes, fuel is fresh and mixed at 2%
Petcock is functioning and fuel is flowing.
Spark, yes. Compression, I have not tested. I will test tomorrow. What is the acceptable psi range on these?
Keep mixture screw at 1.5 and idle screw at 2 out?
Plug- embarrassed to admit that I just brushed and sprayed the old one, I will try a new plug along with the other changes and check back.

jbcollier · Post by **jbcollier** » Thu May 15, 2014 5:41 am

You ca get a rough idea of the compression when you kick it over. If it kicks over really easily, like there is no plug, then there's not much compression.

realgone · Post by **realgone** » Sat May 17, 2014 7:49 pm

By the leg I thought the compression felt okay for a scooter, but I put the compression tester on tonight before screwing in a new spark plug.
Looks like it's rebuild time.
On a cold motor with the throttle held open I'm getting around 85-90 psi.
Also in some parts of the stroke when kicking through, the starter slips. Maybe some teeth are stripped.
It looks like this thing is going to get pushed back into a corner until this winter. I was hoping to ride it this summer but it isn't in the cards. I will still stop by for one of the Sunday meetings soon. In the meantime, where is the best place to order parts for these?

jbcollier · Post by **jbcollier** » Sat May 17, 2014 9:45 pm

80 to 90 is not bad. Remember, it's a scooter with an effective compression ratio of 5.whatever to 1. I'd suspect it's OK.

Did you try a new plug?

realgone · Post by **realgone** » Sun May 18, 2014 10:01 pm

Tried a new plug, ngk b7hs (a b6hs came out, do I have the wrong plug).
Once I had it started it did run marginally better than before, but it's still a ways off.
Lots of popping. Exhaust leak? Choke cable too tight?
One heckuva leak coming from somewhere as well.

jbcollier · Post by **jbcollier** » Sat May 24, 2014 7:12 am

Where's the scoot? Maybe we can ride there tomorrow and have a quick look.