Abarth

Boring update, just collecting parts now and getting distracted with building my old mans new turbo setup on his Punto. 2 parcels have arrived waiting on the third. First the forks and speedo cable arrived, both in perfect condition, stoked to find a mint set of forks in the same color! Check this; the second parcel was from Yamaha Timaru and they still had genuine parts for it, pricey but OEM. Lastly an order from Wemoto in the UK should arrive next week. New engine rings to freshen up the compression.

I almost brought a grey one of these from a kiwi guy living in the states who had it in storage. Wish I brought it and cry a little whenever I see one. Awesome car man, interiors are so lush in these. Don't decent condition ones sell for like $20k on the tard? $1,600 is a bargain! I offered the guy $4k for the grey one and I thought that was cheaky, took him 3 weeks before he accepted my offer.

Yeah thinking of doing an order on Wemoto, heaps of parts! Anyways tonights venture revealed two problems, one I should stop taking shit apart and second is that the reason the headgasket appeared to be leaking is because it didnt have one. Good enough reason! Had a good look at the engine when it was running and it was pretty clear it was losing compression out the side of the head. Exhaust ports are a bit coked up, they are sitting in a bath of degreaser / carb cleaner. Everything else look okish, rings look ok, will measure the end gap just to check.

Rode this badboy to work today, lol'd riding it through the CBD. It looks micro size when parked up at work with all the other scooters. Made it home again without any problems, sucess! Well except for the gearbox being a bit cunty hopping from 1st to 3rd if rushed and it feels like its a bit down on power. Having to drop it down to 1st to go up a hill sucks. I can live with 2nd gear but 1st = 10kph. I have noticed it huffs a bit of smoke from the headgasket, while it isnt fully blown I suspect it isnt in the best condition. A minor top end rebuild could be on the cards shortly, Timaru Yamaha still have some parts like $4.50 head gaskets, points are a bit pricey at $40 something dollars. Anyone know where to get points cheaper? Plan is too hone the bore, skim the blocks, new rings and gaskets to give it a bit compression. New points and an ignition lead thrown on to better manage the spark. Hopefully got a decent condition gear set coming from Chch too, I'll strip down the box and hopefull make a good gear box from the two gear sets. Had a bit of a saga trying to find some straight forks as mine are slightly bent. Found a wrecker who had some in excatly the same color as mine less the bend. Stoked! Keen on one of these too, they have a decent range on the turd, enough to keep the popo happy.

Got it from Cycletreads in Takapuna, they had one left after I got mine. $50 bucks.

Cheers, got the Motul 10w30 for $25 from Scooter e Motion up here is Auckland, he also sells the strawberry 2 stroke oil. His trademe name is doublecarb. Otherwise Red Baron sells it for the same price. Your ones a reed port one right? In the Haynes manual it says SAE30 or 20w50 engine oil is recommended. I got the 10w30 spec from another manual about Yamaha rotary valve engines as mines the rotary type. Right found the problem with the AC circuit, it was the ignition switch contacts that needed a good clean. Now the front and rear tail lights run off the magneto, can any body enlighten me what regulates the voltage for these two bulbs? The wiring diagram shows the battery regulates the DC circuit and there is a resistor for the parking light but nothing for the head and tail lights?

Cycletreads in Takapuna, $13 bucks but they were / are having a sale so got a small discount making it $10.

Sweet cheers mate Went shopping yesterday: Ipone 2 stroke oil actually does smell like strawberries, gets quite deceiving when such a nice sweet smell is quite toxic. Battery was only $10 bargain! When I got the Yamaha it never appeared to have a battery installed, part of the reason it blew so many bulbs as the battery acts as a regulator on the DC circuit. Got a Michelin tire for the rear to match the front, I'm a sucker for that kind stuff. Plus the old rear tire did have a few cracks in it and the rubber probably isnt as grippy anymore. Need all the grip I can get with all that 2 stroke power. Replaced all the 2 stroke oil with new strawberry stuff, drained the whole tank and re-bleen the entire system. Got rid of the Burt Munrow style cork lid as it was coming apart and replace it with a wine bottle cap. Spot the house wire. Removed all that and cleanned up the internals of all the switches. Chucked in a full set of bulbs, DC circuit works like the neutral light, brake light etc. AC circuit is still isnt working, there appears to be a loss of continuity between some sections of wire. Ah well half fixed. Debating whether to solder the AC lights directly to the yellow magneto wire inside the ignition switch. As I want the headlight and tail light to run constantly when its running, pretty much like every modern moped does to comply with NZ road regs. Replaces the milky colored gearbox oil with some Motul stuff, no real noticable difference in gear changes. Starts first or third pop and currently rides sweet, happy days.

Went to the central library today and found they have almost every type workshop manual there is. Took a couple of quick copies of some interesting pages including these wiring diagrams. They should help in sorting the electrics. Also got some parts coming from Chch, including a straight set of forks and a headlight surround. Early rotary port V50 Later V50

Purchased this off an oldschool member, stoked as I really like this early shape of V50, looks more like a Yamaha Newport. Plan is to get it running smooth and reasonably reliable while keeping it vintage. So far the list of stuff to fix isnt too extensive, it does have some funny anomalies though, like someone used house wiring to bypass the ignition and rewired the engine kill switch to the right indicator. Luckly it doesnt have any indicators so it isnt a problem so far. Looks like its had a bit of a nudge in the front so I'm process of finding replacement parts, including a new set of forks as these are a weee bit bent not majorly, or may see if I can get them straightend. Straightend would be ideal as I would like to keep it original. When I first got it it wouldnt start without a decent amount of 'start ya bastard' down the throttle and left me having to walk it home after the first test ride. Came to the conclusion it wasnt getting enough fuel so armed with a can of carb cleaner I disassembled the Mikuni carb. Loads of sediment was in the bottom of the fuel bowl and all the tube parts / jets had sludge build up. No doubt from the shit floating in the petrol tank. I should get a fuel filter till I get the tank sorted, but onward. Couple of pics Amazingly that oil pan was spotless before I took apart that carb in it. Runs like a champ now, has this nifty choke lever on the handle bars for cold starts which works well. Just need to wait for the voltage regulator to turn up now before I can put the lights back in and take it for a decent ride.

If all else fails you can borrow mine. Its on the shore too

Well, the second motor a 150cc had been running reliable till one sunday morning down the motorway. Pretty sure it dropped or broke a valve at 100kph leaving the piston looking like this - And it effectivley took the rest of the motor with it. Luckly I found a new engine in a matter of hours and later that night the Vespa was back to normal thanks to a newer LX150 motor. After many months of debating of whether I should paint it I finally stacked it on its good side which sealed the deal that this Vespa needs painting. Always been a fan of them in black so heres what happened next! Ordered some Mipa 2k Primer, Basecoat, Mipa 2k Clear, 2k Thinners, sandpaper etc.... Stripped it down Found a bit of surface rust building up behind the paint First coat of primer, still lots of sanding to go! Collection of muli color parts haha. All primed up, did two coats, added a little base coat to darken the primer in the last coat to act as a guide to find any hidden high spots. Started off with 320grit then worked my way up to 600grit before applying basecoat/colour. Base coat goes dull once it dries. Clear coat brings out the basecoat nicely, here you can see the red pearl in the black basecoat. Really stoked how the colour came out. No pearl Pearl! This is the finish straight of the gun, its ok but has heaps of orange peel. Hit with a bit of color sanding, wet sand with 1500grit finishing with 2000grit. Then used a cutting compound to bring the shine. Could do with more polishing, but that will do for now. One more, first time I've seen in day light, stoked with how it turned out. Even the seat color matches the black well. I also added some 3M carbon wrap on the parcel tray and up by the ignition, hard to tell from the iphone camera but I reckon the carbon look goes well with the black.

Where is a good place to get Mipa paint in Auckland?

Ahh true, so they are. I used late model Regatta pistons which I think are those 1585cc ones. They don't boost the compression up that high as my block was from the late XSRPM which already had 1mm skimmed off it and my compression was only a touch over 11:1. Anyways like Tom said 130hp with torque should make it go hard. 2 1/2 inch exhaust will make it rev happy too.

Good score on those Fiat parts! Especially the cam wheels. Bummer one of those domed 1600cc pistons were damaged as they go mint in the 2lt block, raising compression slightly. Get some old solex carbs from a 130tc as they will be perfectly jetted for the 2lt engine. I would give you mine but they leak fuel horrendously. Should be easy to get a set though.

Nube question can I spray 2k Clear coat over a 1k color base coat?

Cheers mate, got some today, excellent guy there, super helpfull.

Gah, last minute decison to paint my POS vespa. Where in Auckland do they sell automotive paint supplies on the weekend? Looked at a few places but they are only open on weekdays.

I'm just going from my own experience and some mates cars as a lot of old Fiats have a simlar setups in the front. Any bush that requires them to rotate/deform we found we were better off with rubber all the rest nolathane though. And yeah the other pro of having rose joints ^ But hey if it rides nice and handles good then job done! Nice work!

When your driving and you hit a bump the suspension doesnt absorb the bump because the suspension doesnt want to move up and down with the shock so the impact is felt by the passengers giving a crashy harsh ride. With nothalane bushs in the front of the arm you are increasing the suspensions resistance to move. Suspension should move up and down freely letting the shock and spring do all the work, hence one of the pro's of race cars having rose joints. Pull the strut out and move the hub up and down like it would driving along the road. It should go up and down freely.

Those nothlane bushes on the end of that front arm will make your cars suspension fell crashy. Keep them rubber or rose joint them as they move up and down with the hub during suspension travel instead of resisting movement. I've got a similar setup in my car with a mix of rubber and nothlane bushes that works sweet. Nothlane is good in those wishbone style bushes.

Dwight did all my head work in the Strada, excellent job!

What schedule are the bends your using? I'm debating whether to use #10 or #40.

Was looking for something to get to work on a couple of months ago. Then this heap turned up on trademe which had been stolen and recovered, the owner just wanted to get rid of it so $267 later it was on the trailer home! Stoked as its an ET4 125cc version so it has a bit more grunt round town instead of the 50cc I was originally looking for. Anyways got it home checked all the fluids and hot wired the smashed in ignition, it burst into life straight away. Bonus! Got some second hand parts for it to get it road worthy, still looks as rough as anything but who cares. As it stood, I wrapped the horn cover in 3m carbon wrap, looks much better now imo. Jazzed up the exhaust with some high temp paint and cleanned the rust off the chrome with lemon juice and tin foil (works a treat!) Drove round like this for a couple of months and it was running mint. However it wasnt as much of a fan of burnouts as I am. Pic's explain - Engine out How this broke before anything else is beyond me Took the opportunity to clean up the head, it may even get a bit of a polish if I have time.

Yeah I think black bumpers are the go. How much coin you after for the link? Does it have that serial link to hook it up to the PC?