Total Exhaustion

By any measure, it had already been a great day. We got our girl running and learned plenty in the process. Anything else would just be icing on the cake. Since we only had a few hours left to work, we decided to take off the exhaust and see what we could to to get that cleaned up.

Although it looked pretty rusty, there weren't any holes. A wire brush, some sand paper, a little elbow and this thing should clean right up... Our first step was to head over to the local ACE Hardware for some supplies. While we were there, we picked up a small wire brush bit for the drill. The idea was to use it for the really rusty parts. The next item was a can of Rustoleum High Heat Spray. This stuff in generally for use of BBQ Grills so we're hoping it will hold up to the heat of the exhaust.

Once we got back to the garage, the work began. Although the bit we bought for the drill worked pretty well, it was just a little too small to cover the surface area we needed. We used it to get as much of the rust and old paint as we could before the drill battery died. After that, it all came down to sandpaper and elbow grease.

If you ask me, it was worth it. There was some pitting in a couple areas due to the rust, but we figured a couple coats of paint and no one would notice. So we gave it a quick wash and here's what we were left with...At this point we got some rope, hung the exhaust from the garage door and started painting. After a couple of coats, here's what we were left with. We were really pleased with the mat look of the paint. We're planning on doing a gloss black for the body so it should be a nice contrast. Hopefully the High Heat Spray paint will hold up for a while. The work it took was, in a word, "exhausting," but the results make my shoulder hurt a little less.

Thanks for reading!
-Jason

Gentlemen, start your engines!

Let me remind you of where we left off last week:

We’d got a new battery, put some fresh fuel in, checked the fuel line valve to make sure it was “on” and almost got her started. After lots of head scratching, we decided to pack it in for the day and give it a go the next weekend, starting with cleaning the carb…

Being complete n00bs, we had no idea if the problem of her not starting was related to the carb or not, but we wanted to clean it anyway, if only to see what one looks like. Here’s what we were dealing with, including air filter, prior to dismantling:


Looking pretty grimy, but not too bad:


And here’s what it looked like after dismantling (notice the brass jet in the middle of the float chamber still in there, though – not cleaning it proved stupid and crucial):


And, finally, back on looking shiny and new:


Now, rather than writing lengthy prose about the steps involved, I’m going to list them, one-by-one, so you can appreciate the effort that went into this. Here goes:

1) check the fuel line valve is “on” (as we’d determined last week)
2) confirm we have a spark from the sparkplug
3) try starting her using the electric starter, to no avail, practically draining the battery
4) check fuel line where it’s attached to the carb, nothing coming out
5) discover additional fuel line valve at the other end of the line near the fuel tank
6) try to determine which way that valve is “on” (with a couple of mouthfuls of fuel for Jason… *snigger*)
7) still little to no fuel coming out, so take off the tank
8) drain fuel tank, while cleaning fuel filter as best we can – nothing obviously blocking it, though
9) put tank back on and align both valves to “on” for sure
10) try to kick start it… for ages.
11) spray a little carb cleaner into the carb directly
12) engine splutters a couple of times, including a pretty awesomely pathetic backfire, but she still won’t run
13) checked fuel line AGAIN and there’s no fuel whatsoever getting into the carb
14) fill the tank to the top of the fuel filter to try to get past the apparent blockage
15) now we’re getting fuel
16) try to kick start it… for ages, again, and half the time with the ignition off. D’oh!
17) still no luck
18) remove carb
19) pour small amount of fuel into engine directly
20) she fired up!! Twice!

At this point, we’d eliminated every other possible problem and figured it must be due to the carb. So, we cleaned it again, this time making sure we covered every part. Lo and behold, the jet we overlooked the first time was pretty clogged. A quick spray of the cleaner blew what was a pin-size hole into a proper hole and we reassembled everything again.

Here’s the result (check out our elation quickly turning to panic as we realize the throttle is stuck open):



She hadn’t been run in a couple of years, so red-lining for her first start in a while probably wasn’t the best thing to do, but we fixed the throttle problem (carb wasn’t quite assembled properly), and left her idling gently for a few minutes afterwards while we marveled at our accomplishment.

Step one of this restoration complete!

Money Talks. Guy with Broken Scooter Walks.

Maybe some of you out there can relate to this. You start a new project, could be anything, and for one reason or another, you get pulled away and can't get back to it for a while. If that's ever happened to you, you probably understand how I can't wait to get back to work on the ole' Verucci. We were so close to getting her started this past weekend, and the prospect of getting her up and running has been on my mind all week.

Well, since James and I haven't been able to actually work on the scooter, I thought I'd do a little accounting. I think it's going to be pretty important to keep tabs on what we spend during this project. We have a lot of goals for this project, not the least of which is doing it on the cheap. Believe me, that was a major selling point when explaining the idea to our wives!

Here's what we've spent so far:

With the cost of the can of carb cleaner I'm about to buy, we'll hopefully have a running scooter for about $200. Now some of you out there may be saying, "Hey, you could have bought a running scooter for that much." Maybe yes, maybe no, but if we had, we'd never have learned the things we've learned up to this point. In my opinion, the experience we've gained so far has been worth every penny.

Speaking of learning things, I'd just like to recognize a forum that I've spent a lot of time on lately. It's called Chinese Scooter Club. I can't say enough about this web site. The information, advice and people are all top notch. Thanks again!

Well, that's all for now. More to come this weekend.

Thanks for reading!
-Jason

Will this Tear Down Lead to a Start Up?

As any home makeover or ride pimping TV show will tell you, the first step to any improvement is completely dismantling whatever you're improving. Since we're new to this whole thing, who are we to argue? So after James' work bench mini project (no one told me there would be carpentry), we got straight to undressing the old girl.

This is what we started with. It's hard to see here, but there are a lot of interlocking plastic sections that make up the bulk of the body work. On the whole, removing the plastics was fairly easy. However, the plastic itself seems quite brittle and there are a few existing cracks. This, combined with our general lack on knowledge about the scooter, meant we had to be extremely careful not to do any more damage. One of my biggest worries about the project is repairing cracks in the plastic. Although there are a few cracks here and there, at this point, I don't think there's anything we can't fix. More on that in a couple of weeks.


After about an hour's work, this is what we ended up with. All undressed and nowhere to go. She's definitely looking more like a scooter and less like a motorcycle now. We did our best trying to keep all of the different screws and bolts organized. Whenever possible, we taped them to the piece they were used to fasten. This became more difficult around the handle bars though. There were just so many screws holding in the switches and lights. I'm sure it's going to be a challenge getting it all back together. My guess it that it'll be a lot of trial and error.



With all the plastics off, we got our first good look at the engine. All in all, it looks pretty good. Our next mission was getting her running. We knew the engine hadn't been run for about two years so we decided to start with the basics. That included changing the spark plug, changing the oil, and installing a new battery.

We started by hitting a local scooter/jet ski/boat/motorcycle shop called Tampa Bay Power Sports. Even though they didn't have some of the parts we needed, the owner was extremely helpful. He was able to give us plenty of helpful advice and even showed us the proper way to fill the battery we bought with acid. I believe his exact words were, "I'd better do that for you. You two will end up with battery acid everywhere." Being that this was absolutely true, we took no offense. We'll definitely give them any business we can in the future. We ended up getting the oil (10W40 fully synthetic) and the spark plug from Advanced Auto Parts and heading back to the garage for installation.

So did she start? In a word, "Almost." Fortunately, before we completely flooded it, it actually turned over a couple of times and tried to run. Being the newbs we clearly are at this, we couldn't figure out which direction on the fuel cut-off was actually on. We needed to know for sure how the fuel cutoff switch worked so the only thing left was to take it off and find out. Now that we have it off, we might as well take the carb off and give it a good cleaning. More on that in my next post!

Thanks for reading!
-Jason

Bench press

Despite being completely clueless (is that in-general, or just about scooter repair? Yes...), we know that nothing constructive can be done unless we have a decent workspace to use during this restoration. Fortunately, I have a mostly-empty, 2-car garage and a forgiving wife willing to let us scatter bike parts all over it. However, for some unknown reason, it appears this garage was previously used to actually keep cars in it, so is not particularly well setup for maintaining order in our potentially chaotic project. Sure, there are a couple of shelves/cabinets and a tool wall (with very few tools), but no defined workspace.

So, armed with a step-by-step guide found on the Interweb, we set about building a sturdy workbench on which we could tinker with our parts, so to speak. I set off to Home Depot early on Saturday to fetch the lumbar (some 2x4's, a couple of 4x4's, and a sheet of particle board) and got them to cut the various lengths required. Jason, meanwhile, provided our morning fuel in the shape of McDonald's bacon & egg biscuits. I feel that may have to become a tradition!

A few deck screws in appropriate places and we had the main frame put together:

Then it was just a case of securing the particle board to that frame (although my 1/2" miscalculation on the required width of the board made that a little trickier than it should have been! Darn "nominal vs. actual" lumbar sizes!):

Finally, we heaved it into position ready to use (and it can hold a LOT more than me!):


Now the project really starts!

What does a $100 scooter look like?

The fact is, a $100 scooter can look like a lot of things. Unfortunately, you probably wouldn't want to ride many of them. That's where James and I come in. Somehow, the two of us came up the the completely mental idea that two guys, knowing next to nothing about scooters, engines, or body work could miraculously turn a used $100 scooter into something worth risking life and limb to ride.

An now, the "Before" picture:













Isn't she a beauty?

Not to be out done, here's my attempt as starting her up:













Didn't work...

And how about one from the front:













So there you have it. Step one, buy something to fix up, complete. There's a lot of body work to be done but first things first, we need to get her running. More on that in the days and weeks to come.