Lambretta

Having had my interest re-kindled for Lambrettas, I just had to have one, and anyone that knows me will know that that means NOW!

So, the search began ... a guy in Oxford .. Enrico, was advertising a scooter on e-bay, with a phone number listed. So, a quick call, a couple of e-mails and a few days later I was off to Oxford to pick up my first scooter for 33 years!!

I had blagged an old diesel transit van from someone at work, it was slow, thirsty and rusty... but it worked!

We duly met Enrico and he took us to the farm where his Lambrettas were stored in the stable blocks...

He wheeled out the red and white Li and I gave it a look over.. quite frankly, I didnt have a clue what i was looking for, but the bodywork seemed fine and the engine kicked over, and £700 later it was loaded into the transit.

After that Enrico showed me his collection, every stable we looked in was full of Lambrettas, from LD's to GP's and some rare models, too ... some pristine, and some original.. but what a collection! .. I could have stayed there all day!!

So, off in the transit to drive home .. I kept looking over my shoulder to see the Lammy grinning at me with it's not so shiny headlight ... I inwardly grinned back. The smell of stale petrol filled the van.. Ah! bliss!

We eventually arrived home and the lammy was hauled into the garden, parked up and covered awaiting the weekend.

I don't know what i expected really, condition-wise, but I couldn't resist the temptation to start the scooter up. Main problem was that the petrol tap had disintegrated, so I went online and ordered my first ever lambretta part from Allstyles.. 2 days later it arrived, and was duly fitted. A small amount of petrol and 2 stroke was added to the tank, tap turned on, choke applied, and kick ... and kick... and kick... eventually the scooter burst into life, but what a noise, sounded like marbles in a washing machine! I pressed the kill button immediatly! Clearly, there was something wrong, and was best left alone, for the moment!

      The weekend arrived and the stripdown began.....

 It surprised me just how easily the scooter came apart... there were only a couple of runner strip bolts that I had to cut off, the rest undid with relative ease! As things were stripped down I put all the smaller fixings into various sized foodbags and labelled each one up for future use/reference, then these were stored in crates...  It wasn't long before the scooter was in hundreds of bits laying around me.. scary!! Perhaps at this stage I kind of wondered if they would ever be put back together again!!

 There were two strange bits about the stripdown, the first was the fact that there was no speedo cable fitted to the bike and a look down the fork tube showed it was blocked with something ... something which turned out to be a wine cork! Just why someone stuffed a wine cork down there all those years ago, I will never know!!

                                                                                                         The The only other problem was when i started to strip the forks... one of the link bolts was stuck solid.. by this time I had bought Stickys book, and tried the suggestions in there of how to remove said bolt .. no joy! So, the help of Pete next door who worked in engineering, forks were despatched with him the next day and the bolt was (carefully?) drilled out .. at a cost of a four pack!

                                                                                                                            So, with the scooter in bits, my attention turned to the engine .. as mentioned previously, it sounded like a bag of marbles in a washing machine, so something was not right! When I had scooters in the 60's, the most I ever did was put petrol in, so this wasn't the job for me. So I stuck the engine in the boot of the car and left it with one of the dealers local to me so they could rebuild it. This took about 4 weeks, and doubled the cost of the scooter! Anyway, when I picked it up they told me the top and bottom end were shot, and so it had new crank, piston and barrell and all seals and bearings replaced. The stator had been rewired and new points fitted etc... The original side casing had a crack in it where the knackered crank had pushed its way out slightly.. all in all, a big job, apparently .. more about the engine later.. it looked good, though!

  By now Winter was approaching and twas getting cold outside, so everything was packed away and forgotten about til spring..

The good thing about having a Lambretta as a hobby is that its easy for people to buy you Christmas pressies, and so it was I bacame the owner of a compressor so I could do my own spraying.. another bold move as I had never done anything like this before!! But that couldn't happen unril the warmer weather as I would have to spray outdoors!!

Then came the task of stripping the panelwork down, as this was to be a bare metal respray .. I soon found that the quickest way to get the old paint of was with nitromors and various kitchen scourers.. and soon (-ish) all my parts were stripped ready. The only bit I didnt do was the frame which I had bead blasted and primed by a local firm.

Summer arrived and with it the opportunity to practice my spraying "skills" .. after a couple of goes, I seemed to have achieved a reasonable standard.. all with primer so far. Lots of prep and rubbing down lightly between coats. Eventually it was time for the top coat .. "New White" was sourced from a local paint factors .. the mistake I made was that I only bought in small quantities, and they weren't consistent with the way they mixed the paint, hence my frame loop is a different shade of white to the rest of the scoot!

Eventually all the panels and parts .. and there are a lots of parts on a Lammy.... were finished and with the good weather that year she was ready to put back together!

 It was at this stage that the engine could finally be started .... well, except no spark!! Gave up trying in the end and called Al in (south kent saints' lammy guru) he spent a little while checking things out before discovering that the pillocks at the scooter shop had wired the stator incorrectly and what shoud have been a green wire was, in fact, pink!! Grr... We also found out at this stage that they had replaced the Innocenti mag housing for a SIL one .. so had obviously broken the original whilst doing up the engine!!

So, the scooter was now up and running!! ..... Must admit I was looking forward to getting her out on the road .... apart from a couple of blasts round the local playing field, I hadn't been able to test it out, as no registration as yet..

Booked in for an MOT at TAGG racing, about 15 mins ride away.. left in plenty of time so I could get used to riding a Lambretta again!!

Started up fine.. jumped on, drove about a mile then she started to falter ... checked the petrol, no problem, started up again, ran for a while then just wouldn't pull ... shit!

Managed to nurse her back home, phoned MOT place and cancelled the appointment ...

To cut a long story short, it was the coil knackered, so the missus bought me an electronic kit for christmas, fitted that, it ran fine, much to my amazement!!

It duly passed the rebooked test with no problems ..except..... the guy said the rear brake was a bit weak, but the drum wasn't oval, so he'd pass it. On the way home I ended up with no rear brake at all!! Turned out that those dodgy dealers hadn't bothered to replace the rear oil seal and engine oil was peeing out all over my brake shoes  new seal and brake shoes followed ...

So, registration time... I took my V55/5 to those nice people at Maidstone DVLA and queued... paid me money, then got told I would have to bring it along for an inspection... but I could ride the scooter there .. a 22 mile ride... goody!

Drove up on a bright but cold day, but the cold didnt't matter... riding the Lammy that distance was a great feeling.

Arrived early, some young girl came out, asked where the frame and engine numbers were, took a look, and that was it!

Two days later and 683 UXS was officially on the road, made up a temporary number plate, and rode her all I could... JOB DONE!

The scooter has been (touch wood) really reliable ever since, starts first or second kick, and is now fully run in.

I learnt a lot of lessons during the stripdown and rebuild, but can honestly say, I loved every minute...

I also made a video diary and stuck it on youtube ..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn0GYIQ_IIQ