Hi Scootfiends ',;~}~

I've always worked on my own stuff where possible - a) I love tinkering/problem solving and b) always been too broke to pay anyone else to do it!

Taught myself bicycle mechanic-ing when I started to get into MTB'ing properly then built my own bike from the frame up - the wheels I had done for me at first, but when I trashed the rear rim I looked up wheel-building, got new spokes and rim and re-built it myself etc.

I just wish I had garage space and that these scoots weren't so damned weird and difficult to work on compared to the stuff I'm used to - I could take the engine out of my old DT 250 MX in about 10 minutes, remove head and barrel and replace with new gaskets in another 10 or so mins, all on my own with limited and rough-arsed tools as a 16-17 year old, but scooters with all their onion-skin layers of plastic and hidden everythings etc. I find a real PITA to work on myself, especially having no prior experience of them and having a knackered back too - at this rate it may turn out that I get it back on the road but suffer a massive patience drain and also can no longer walk upright!

',;~}~

Cheers!

Shaun.

 

Duct tape, and super-glue I'm a huge fan of both ',;~}~

Shaun.

 

So a duct taped mouth is both golden and silver - this what you're saying? ',;~}~

 

I'd have to have a fan club first bud heheheh...

None of the things I had back then were on the road, we used to ride them round local spare land and stuff at the weekends.

I had a TY 50 that had been ported and tuned a a proper little trials bike, but it had been ridden to death before I got it for £60.

Then I swapped that for a poorly and ancient Honda XT 125 4 stroke (old one with the under-and-up exhaust pipe) that someone couldn't get working - turned out to be a sheared locator pin end of the cam shaft where the ignition advance unit fitted. For a 125 4t that was a quick bike...

Then I swapped this for the 1981 (first 'monoshock' model) DT which came as a cardboard box of engine bits in the frame cradle, and I had to push it 3 miles uphill to get it home - it was a total 'shed', with very weak ignition, cracked gearbox casing leaking oil, meaning the 'meant to be 'wet' ' clutch dragged permanently, but even when I got it it went like stink, and by the time I'd had the exhaust reabultnbuilt with a wider and longer header/down-pipe, then using rusty hand files and an ancient 'padding rasp' raised and widened exhaust port, widened inlet and transfer ports, opened up piston ports (they have ported inlet style piston for Yamaha's 'open reed' system), skimmed head etc. it was a beast, when it worked lol! - This was all thanks to a tuning article in my mate's motorcross magazine about tuning for both torque AND increased, smoother top power it pulled like a thumping tractor at low revs in 5th gear and still took off like a rocket.

Also when I got it the DT had the mag rear wheel of an XS 400 (IIRC) on it, and with no tyre clamps I shredded more than my share of inner tubes lol! Until a guy who own an XS 400 with a broken rear wheel saw me riding it and found me a DT rear wheel to swap it for ',;~}~

Oh the days!

Cheers bud,

Shaun.

 

11 years this August for me and my wife bud, and it'd take more than these trifling messages to rock the boat here lol!


Shaun.

 

Exactly.

28 years married myself, although I'd have only got seven to ten for manslaughter...

 

It is all home! If we hadn't spent around 6 hours on the M6 in blistering heat (ok yeah the FIL's car has a/c but that's not the point lol) instead of around 2 hours it should have been, I'd have already tried the CDI swap but as it is we've only just finished putting all the various bits in various temporary storage locations (big and heavy - shed, light and delicate - loft), and all I wanna do is kick back for a while now.

The bodywork looks excellent so even if I don't get it running out of this deal, it'll make a good ornament, eh ',;~}~

CHEERS!

Shaun.


P.s. place I got this from is called bike transplants uk (and car transplants uk) and I gotta say what a helpful, friendly, and just all round bloody lovely bunch of folk, and what a massssssive array of (some rather cool) vehicles there - I'm actually trying to imagine or invent reasons to go and deal with them again ',;~}~

 

New ignition unit isn't compatible - not an immob. type and diff. pin connections - ugh! I was ready to splice the new plug into the old one colour-by-colour when I decided to try the new carb first, 'just in case'...

It's not a Kehin but rather the Walboro CV type, and it needed a good clean as it was full of greasy gunk from this weird fuel it had been used to test but 10 mins with rags, little brush, petrol and acetone seemed to do the trick then I bunged it on and went to fire it up - fired first time with no misfire, and revved out cleanly - WTF?!?

I'd really prefer to get the original (and seemingly better) Keihin carb on again but haven't a clue what could be causing it to run so incredibly rich when it hasn't been modified and worked fine before, so for now just gonna put the panels all back together and do some test rides see how it all holds up as it is...

That's all for now, gonna get on with it ',;~}~

Cheers!


Shaun.

 

It gooooeeeeessss!!!

Seems to actually pick up quicker than before it all went wrong and I did me a bit of fancy country road overtakin' through the twisties today - best pleased!
,,
Seems a bit slower from 50 to 60 though but if so I can cope with t:hat, heh...

Now to start making future tuning plans, like 200 cc cyl, race cam, delta clutch and one of those new slide weight wide range linear sport variators I can' recall the name of - may have it all done by 2025 lol!



Shaun.

 

With my income all my projects are long term mate LOL!

',;~}~

Must say though it's running quite well as it is - went out this afternoon for a quick hoon-about a few of the many country lanes and caught me a large tail of sunday sports bikers - turned onto the first narrow twistie and one of the blipped right past me, then the roads got a bit tighter and twistier and evened things out a bit more - ended up doing 3 or 4 miles stuck there 2nd but one in the pack, all of us one-by-one overtaking those 4 wheeled things that think you need to stop for a bend in the road - we came to some roadworks and temp. lights on red and the guy in front stopped, got off his huge shiny new bike, stuck it on the side stand, lifted his helmet up walked up to me shaking his head and grinning and said 'bloody hell you don't hang about on that thing do ya?!?' then got back on his bike before the lights changed and we did another couple of miles like that before I pulled over to sit by the river - to say I was made up, well - I was grinning like a 45 y/o kid and thinking 'what a TOP bloke!' lol!

',;~}~

Cheers!

 

<--------------- 52, with a mental age of 17... It's feeling young that keeps you young, Shaun.

 

Well my wife is younger than me lol! Ahem... ',;~}~

 

(Warning: The following post is quite long and may have powerful sedative properties).​

I'd been thinking these past few days about the 'new' engine I'd got sat in the shed - since I first got this old scoot years ago and had flat battery and starter motor problems, I desperately wanted a kick-start on it, just never got round to doing the retro-fit, but the new engine had one on already. PLUS my centre stand was bent to hell meaning I had to park on a slight slope, the right way round or the scoot would just fall over, and it was stuck on solid from a slightly bent and very rusty bolt pin - the one on the new engine was in perfect nick etc (you see where this is going don'tcha?!)

',;~}~

BUT, I was concerned with my lack of experience of scooters, and with the fact the breakers told me they couldn't start this one when they tried, not to mention the effort and risk to my poor f'd-up old back ',;~{~



Yesterday after finishing work early at around 1 p.m. I decided 'balls to this!' and went to swap the engines over anyway, figuring if I got stuck I'd throw a plastic sheet over the whole affair and try to elicit some help from a friend and/or ask questions here.

About 1/2 past 1 after unblocking the fuel vacuum spigot on the intake manifold (don't ask me how I came to check that right away! Heh... ) I got stuck in removing the standard exhaust and back wheel (stock tyre) from the 'new' engine, removed the back wheel (my personal choice Schwalb Weatherman white wall on it) and my Sito Plus exhaust from the old engine and started to peel off the bodywork up to the footwell where the screws are rusted '1/2+1/2' (half 'away' and half 'solid'!), removed the seat and helmet storage and aluminium tail plate, back shock, then with the centre of the frame held up on 2 bricks and a thin plank made all necessary disconnections, took carb off etc. then dropped the engine and pulled it out from behind.

Put my wheel and exhaust on the new unit, fired it in under the frame, wiggled it into place and started to bolt it up (NOT easy on the crooked stone flags outside our house, all on me lonesome - took some weid contorionist exploits to get it all in place), replaced rear shock (mine was rusted silly and hardly worked at all) and new aluminium tail plate (mine had no paint left on and was badly corroded), wired it all back up and reconnected all the plumbing and such then fired it up - started immediately and sounded really well too <g!>

Went round and refastened all the bodywork, put the new seat on (I'd made that swap a couple days ago), fired it up using the new kick-start for the hell of it and went for a test ride at about 6:30-7:00 p.m. - it was miles better than it ever had been - The engine revs higher before the drive kicks in now, so it squirts away from junctions etc. like a trouper and overtaking is a (comparative) dream, rather than a nightmare of grit-toothed calculation, forethought and then mostly resignation to staying where I am for a while lol!

Acceleration all round is notably improved and you can now feel the scoot trying to 'sit up' when pulling away, and I don't think I've lost more than ~1 mph on the top speed either, and 60 mph now feels a lot slower and more civilised than it did no doubt partly due to having functioning rear suspension and new swing arm linkage, mounts and rubber - my shoulders didn't ache from hanging on for dear life round the twisties like they had before either lol.


This engine also sounds a tad quieter to me for some reason - the other was quite 'thumpy' and this seems more 'fizzy' even on the stand, and listening to the difference in the engine bottom end esp. just after firing it up, it now sounds like the big end on the old engine was knocking quite a bit - I think the old one must really have been fairly tired after all even after only 10K.

So excluding a couple of fag and brew breaks here and there I got the whole lot done in 5 or 6 hours and well impressed myself - given me the confidence I need to not feel so worried about swapping the other goodies over in due time, and my plans for a few couple hundred mile round trips to the lakes or wotaveyou, seem far less daunting esp. now she has a kickstart heheheh. I also think this engine's quite a bit less thirsty but I'd need to do a proper mpg check to be sure.

OTOH my back is f'n killing me and I'm now waddle-walking worse than John Wayne with bleeding haemorrhoids and vinegar down the pants heheheh... but I'm an all-round happy bunny that's for sure ',;~}~

Cheers folks - just knowing this forum was here if I got stuck was more help than you know.

Shaun (now wondering a) what this scoot would feel like with the full legal amount of BHP and b) best way to achieve that heheheh...