Sunday 27 November 2011

Official Dating Certificate

Just a quick update.

There are a couple fo small parts left on order for the scooter to be finished. The first is a handlebar switch, which has been on order a while but is taking a little longer to arrive that we expected. Without it, we cannot run the wires down to the horn and therefor we cannot put on the horn casting or the horn grille. The last item missing is a seat cover. Again, we are waiting for a new leather seat cover to arrive which is remade to original specification to fit on our newly refurbished seat base.

Next week, we hope to have them and the scooter will be all but finished.

We can then add the last parts, finish up the wiring and start the scooter for the first time in many, many years. That will be quite a day. The scooter will then go through a few setup stages to ensure starting and running is perfect before it returns to Armandos Scooters in Sheffield for it's MOT.

This week, the Lambretta Club Great Britain Dating Certificate arrived. This confirms the Lambretta we have was built in 1963 and more importantly, it guarantees that I will be able to have the scooter issued with an age related plate by DVLA.

So, it is all coming together nicely and we will soon be ready to hand this scooter over to the lucky person who buys it.

More next week.

Paul

Sunday 20 November 2011

The wiring loom

Shown below is the genuine cover for the CDI unit. Passed through it are the green, white and red wires from the stator plate and a green wire from the loom. The yellow wire you can see branches off toward the rectifier.

Attach the four wires to the CDI.















And fit the rubber cover as shown.















This is yet another genuine cover for the regulator. However, it was quite hard due to age and very tight to fit. For the purpose of this work today, I have shown the wiring without it, but it WILL be fitted when the wiring is completed.















Here we see the yellow wire fitted to the regulator where the yellow dot is. The pink, purple and brown wires from the loom are all joined together and go to the dot marked in grey. The last dot on the regulator is black and indicates earth. Here, you can see the earth braid.















The earth braid travels down and is attached to the legshield strut with a nut and bolt via an inline ring fastener and then down to the top of the flywheel cover, where it is attached at the same point the flywheel cover is fixed uppermost.















The headset wiring block is divided in to sections of individual, dual and triple connections. By turning your wiring block over, you can see which ones are linked.

Using the wiring diagram posted earlier in the build, connect the wires as required. Some wires, like the black ones for example need to be connected in a block that allows 3 to be joined, as long as you allow for this, you can put the wires anywhere as long as they connect together as shown.

 













Here is the wiring diagram posted previously for reference. Print it out if that helps:





One New Old Stock Carello Headlight

For those in the know, this is probably the Holy Grail of headlights for the Li series Lambretta. A genuine, NOS Carello headlight unit complete with factory wiring block.  For those who don't, just know that this scooter has been fitted with the very best equipment. If you are the lucky new owner, nobody is going to be telling you this part or that part is wrong.

Notice that the block is held in place with a wire clip, I will be removing the block to make life a little easier wiring in the loom and switch etc. clipping it back in to the headlight unit is a very simple job.





Adding factory water slides

At the time of manufacture, all Li models imported to the UK would have been fitted with 3 waterslides. One with running in instructions on the inside legshiels, one with air filter cleaning instructions on the air filter elbow and a final one on the right hand side of the tool box for battery care.

It was a legal requirement that all scooters used in the UK had a parking light at this time and therefor, all models exported to the UK had a battery tray and battery as standard equipment.

As this model was made for the Italian market, no battery tray was fitted and thus, we only require two of the water slides.

Here is the 'running-in' water slide. First, remove the opaque cover from the front of it.















Then soak in water for around 30 seconds.















Turn it over carefully and soak for a further 30 seconds on the other side.















VERY carefully, push the slide upward and off the backing sheet and lay this exposed edge on to the scooter in the position shown.

Then, slowly slide the backing from the transfer as opposed to the other way around. Gently hold the transfer in place, whilst pulling the backing from underneath.















With a very soft clean cloth, carefully dab any excess water from the slide and press out any air bubbles. Minor wrinkles can be left as these will dry out and vanish by thenselves.















I personally think this is a nice addition to a factory restoration and really looks the part.















Soak the air filter slide as previous.















And apply where shown.

Installing the speedometer

Standard speedos like this are getting increasingly hard to find these days. This one, I know is working 100% although the housing and face are yellowing slightly I am going to use it. It is totally original and quite rare.















These are the markings you look for when hunting for a genuine Innocenti Speedometer.






























Insert the speedo into the headset top. It should be quite a snug fit. Make sure your headset top is on a nice soft surface with nothing to scratch it underneath.















Place on the retaining ring as shown.















and fasten down with three 5mm long screws which have round slotted heads.


Don't forget engine oil

Easy to forget, but probably fatal for your engine if you do it.

Remove the upper oil filler plug.















Make sure you do not loose the filler plug fibre washer.















Use a funnel in the engine filler hole.















and add 750ml (three quarters of a litre) to a dry engine.















Remember, we are adding this to a totally dry engine, so after initial running checks and setup, we will be checking the levels again using the level plug as some oil will be lost when circulating the engine and soaking the clutch etc.

Normally, you will drain the oil using the lower of the two plugs in the bottom of the engine and check the level by filling from the top until it starts to seep from the upper two plugs (the level plug).















The engine is ready to roll.

Adding fasteners and supressor cap to HT lead

The HT lead already comes from the CDI Unit as was attached in a previous post.

Next job is to secure it to the frame en-route to the sparking plug.

You will need a rubber grommit like this.















Slip the grommet over the plug end of the HT lead















Push the grommet right up the lead and then pass the lead down through the tab on the legshield support like so...















Now, the grommet and lead leed to be secured by the metal tab. If yours will not pass under it, you will need to open up the tab VERY gently. The tab can break off pretty easily.















It should look like this.















Whatever model you are working on or whatever CDI, Coil, Regulator setup, your HT Lead should go over the rear shock absorber support like this.















Pass a rubber bridge over the HT Lead end.















Attach to the frame using the last of your frame alloy clips as previously shown. It goes just in front of the bracket for the airbox.















This is my favorit kind of supressor cap as they very rarely come off. Insert the HT Lead in to the cap shaft and push home as far as possible.















Look in to the cap and you will see it is all the way home.















Now screw in the plug clip. This not only grips the head of the sparking plug, it also pierces and secured the HT Lead.















Like this.















You can remove the alloy cap from the top of the sparking plug and pop on the cap.

Installing the kick start pedal

If you have to buy a new one, make absolutely sure it is the correct one for your scooter. There are many different kinds and the wrong one will mean a bad fit, incorrect depth and loss of kick travel or even worse, damage the spline on your kickstart shaft.















Fit the pedal rubber.















Push the kickstart pedal on to the engine shaft making sure the tab is as close to being in line with the stopper rubber inserted in the engine. Don't worry if the best spline to fit the pedal means the stopper is very slightly over or under, but more than a few mm is not good.















Affix the bolt from above like so...















And tighten using a split washer on the underside. You don't want this bolt getting loose whilst in use or the pedal WILL go missing.