The Vespas...

Confession: Both of the Vespas have been out-of-commission for the past few months.

Truth 1: We FINALLY registered the Super150 and it croaked en route home from the DMV; it hasn't worked since.

Truth 2: The Primavera125 had been fully functional, but suddenly the lights ceased to shine.

Truth 3: Andrew hates being a grease monkey.

Truth 4: Leigh's pride and ego are too big to let anyone else be our mechanic this time.

Result: Both of the Vespas are out-of-commission.

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Leigh's first try at fixing the 150 Super was to take apart and thoroughly clean the air filter and carburetor. . .



Despite cleaning these parts on three separate occasions, the bike still wouldn't run.

So, Leigh took the exhaust system off; if the muffler was clogged and making the engine choke, then without the muffler, the engine would run like a charm.

Didn't work.

Hmm... what about the fuel system? Leigh had been avoiding this because she hadn't wanted to mess with gas and the tubing. "We" bought a gas canister and removed the gas from the tank (in a very well-ventilated area). Taking one look into the tank, it was obvious that we had a big problem - the tank had rusted and there were flakes and chunks of iron oxide all over the floor. Aha!


But, it's impossible to get a hand into the tank. So, Leigh created a contraption to scrape the tank, but this turned out to be inadequate for the quantity of rust. In addition, we needed a special tool to remove the fuel system from the inside of the tank. Andrew begged a local scooter guy to remove it for us.
One look at this piece, and we knew this was the problem. There is a sediment collector in the middle of the piece and it was completely full of sandy iron oxide. We think this would block the fuel from getting out of the tank and into the carburetor. Since we won't receive the new one and the specialized tool from Scooterworks until Tuesday, we cannot be sure that this will completely solve the problem, but we're 90% sure it will help! Meanwhile, we were told by several 'experts' to place gravel into the fuel tank and shake for a while until the inside has been scoured and the rust removed. . . Guess what Leigh's doing on Memorial Day Weekend?

Yee haw.


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We thought the 1974 Primavera125 was having a regulator/rectifier issue, but it turns out that the initial diagnosis may be wrong. Below is the electrical wiring with the battery removed. We don't think the battery is getting charged when running the bike, so I looked into getting a new regulator/rectifier, but Ducati no longer makes these things for 6V batteries.

American Scooters sold me the below home-made rectifier, but we were later informed that this contraption will not regulate the voltage levels returning to the battery. Harumph.
The electrical work is beyond my level of expertise, so (Leigh is shelving her pride and) we are bringing the bike to a local scooter store so their mechanic can (hopefully) diagnose what part of the electrical system is faulty.

Soon enough we should have the Primavera125 back on the road. . .