TV John - Lambretta naming right save the day
Meet the whole family... in a place called 'scooterlabs.net'
From the left.... on a stand is The Li150 (Juan fitty), then TV John (TV175), up above the VNA frame that inspired the Dirty rocket project, then Limahl (LML T5 - red and black), then the Dirty Rocket behind the table.
My wife has demanded naming rights for the TV and decided (instantly) on "TV John" after our favourite character from the Hamish Macbeth series. A small price to pay for being busted with two Lambrettas in the workshop.
Anyway, here's a snippet from an email I wrote to a mate summing up recent news ont eh TV175 progress.
TV News..........
Rebuilt the bottom end. Firstly I discovered my cases were cracked in the cylinder stud causing a dodgy transfer port. Managed to get them welded and te-tapped by THE MAN recommended by Brenton. He was good, and loved doing it (Ferrari and scooter guy).
In doing so found the crank had been messed with so had to replace it.
There are not too many places in Australia you can drive 3 minutes to pick up a new tv175 crank on a Saturday.
Had a few issues with the head gasket (had to lap it).
Due to me thinking the piston was upside down (it wasn't) then reassembling, then discovering it was the head loose, I can now get my barrel off and on again... Back on the road in 65 minutes. Not bad for a beginner.
Once running nicely I took it for a roadworthy, explaining to the dudes about the special category in the Sydney Lambretta Show that I had prepared it for. I told them as the president of the *&^&&*(*($@^ (mumble) I was responsible for providing a completely safe scooter that LOOKED like it was fresh from a barn but had all new and safe innards. This seemed to work.
Next was the Vicroads inspection. No probs there. The only danger is beaurocratic bungles, such as missing receipt, discrepancies in year and vin numbers, etc.
Next episode... i put it on the lift to sort out a cable routing issue. The throttle cable seemed to pull away from the carb when on the stand causing a high idle. When on the lift I noticed a considerable amount of play in the rear wheel. After a few phone calls I was still undecided whether to push ahead and leave the gearbox for after Sydney. A bit of internet research made me wonder whether the end plate nuts were loose. Keeping in mind I didn't even know what and endplate was, I was interested to find a bunch of loose nuts on something I would refer to as an end plate if I was doing the naming. Pulled the studs out, cleaned them up and smothered in loctite. Everything else seemed intact so I went back to the idea of doing the shimming and dog replacement after Sydney. Now it is nice and tight and handles well. Brakes ok, accelerates OK, starts OK. I thought the headlight was broken, but is is just a terrible 6v headlight . No wonder the Mods of the night put a few extra lights on.
Current worries
1) old wiring craps out before I restore
2) worried the endplate studs may loosen again
3) paying the price for not changing the kickstart seal as now it has done 20km's has started to leak.
4) died suddenly on the road last night. After full spark/fuel diagnosis it started again and ran fine. Worried about gettign used to the nature of the Lammy.
posted by Scooterlabs @ 4:46 PM
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