Modern Buddy

This is a thread in the spirit of Bitza's Scooter Bollocks thread on MV:NSM. Post up what you did today, Stella related.

What I have been doing the past week is installing the Polini 165 kit I bought like two years ago. Almost all of the time has gone into porting the head. So to list what has been done so far: decked the cylinder for .04" squish gap, ported intake and exhaust, polished combustion chamber, polished exhaust port, lapped the valves, lapped head and cylinder gasket faces.

Today I finished up polishing the exhaust port, cleaned the head, and got the cylinder onto the case. I still need to reassemble the head, install it, get the carb and exhaust back on, install a new Cosa clutch, and reassemble the rear of the scooter.

My Stella has been demoted to a future disc brake fork donor for my P200, but I can play along.

My next mini-project is cutting/bending/welding the SIP Road Sport's exhaust pipes in order to be able to remove the rear wheel with the exhaust in place. I currently have a Polini expansion chamber installed and I miss the torque of the SIP Road.

Working on lapping a set of 1mm spacer shims down to .7mm. DRT gears are thick!

I don't recommend the 55T driven gear for 1st. The teeth don't make much of a positive engagement with the 11T primary gear. I'm thinking of getting a 56T gear to see if it meshes better. The 41T second and 37T third engage very nicely.

Waiting for my cam.

Well today was sort of a lazy day, I didn't sleep well last night so I was tired. I wanted to raise and reshape the intake port floor, so I tried to apply some JB weld. I had brought it in from the garage so it was cold and thick, so I couldn't apply it in a thin layer and just build up layers. So I slapped a big blob on but it ended up running everywhere, so I had to scrub it out with some brake cleaner, toothbrush, and q-tips. Tomorrow I'll try again. Kind of funny I'm doing all this work when I'm going to tear apart the engine to replace all the Indian bearings soon anyway. But I want to get the porting done, and the kit and 22T clutch installed so I can decide if I want to play around with the gearing while the engine is apart.

Here's some pictures of my port job so far:
http://members.modernvespa.net/neurotic ... _18906.jpg
http://members.modernvespa.net/neurotic ... _11078.jpg

Well I got the head together, didn't bother with the JB weld again. Then I ran to the dealership to buy some exhaust gaskets and place an order for a complete gasket set. Stopped at Fleet Farm to buy a 22mm impact socket and all the Dewalt mechanics tools were 25% off, plus I had a $10 off $50 coupon. So I got the socket, a 24" breaker bar and two 1/2" extensions. Then I got another coupon, so I bought a pair of American made steel toe work boots that were on clearance for $80, with the coupon I got them for $70, normally they were $160.

Spent yesterday and today looking for something to use as a clutch spacer, the stock one is a little too thick. Couldn't find anything so I ended up using the stock. Read about it here: http://modernvespa.com/forum/topic152624

Got the Stella back together today. I hunted around for something I could make a clutch spacer from this morning, I went to S&S supply (fastener store) and Fastnel, but no luck. I even looked at brass shim stock, but couldn't find any the right thickness. So I gave up and used the stock spacer. Usual annoyingness putting the rear body shell back on and the bolt holes never lining up properly, always afraid I'm going to cross thread or strip a weld nut. But got everything together fine. Bolted on new carb without adjusting idle speed or mix, just swapped out the main jet to a 125 (had a 120 in the old carb before kit and porting), fired up second kick with choke, idled fine without choke until I turned it off, pretty happy about that. Now just need the weather to get warmer so I can take it out to break it in and dial the carb in.

I got bored and made a decal to replace my missing Stella emblem


My scoot club decal

Those decals are amazing, I wish I had a Stella just for that logo alone! Kinda reminds me of the Corvette Racing Jake emblem

Yeah, I was tried of looking at the other mechanics Harley decals with skulls and decided if I can't find one, it was time to bust out the wife's Cricut and make one. The inspiration for that was based on the Corvette Racing Jake emblems.

You should send that pic to Genuine, they're looking for good ones for their catalog.

I painted the rear rack i had for my stella with the dupliclolr shadow kit, the black chrome goes better with my scoot now. I may paint the chrome wheels next.