Vapor Honing the engine casing on my Lambretta – After

Here is what they look like after the vapour honing, nice & new just like they came out of the factory in Milan 43 years ago.

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Vapor Honing the engine casing on my Lambretta – During

Here is couple of quick videos of the engine casings being vapour honed. 

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Vapor Honing the engine casing on my Lambretta – Before

This is a process that combine water & glass beads to gently clean ageing aluminium, works a treat.

Before:

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Layshaft from my SX150

Tapping out all the threads on the SX150 engine

Rebuilding the SX150 engine, Part 2 – Breaking the engine down.

Now that the Engine is out and on the workbench you can start the process of breaking down all the parts, rather than list a multitude of tools I will mention which tool to use in each step.

Break the engine down in this order:

Step 1 – Cooling System

1. Remove the spark plug with a spark plug spanner
2. Remove the Flywheel Cowling with an 8mm socket
3. Remove the Cylinder Head Cowling with either an 8 or 13mm socket, mine was a 13mm for some reason
4. Remove the the Exhaust Manifold and Carburettor Manifold with an 11mm socket
5. Remove the kick-starter with either an 8 or 13mm socket
   1. Top tip: insert a flat head screw diver into the gap & give it a small tap, this will help widen the gap for easier removal

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Step 2 – Top End Removal

1. Remove the 13 or 14mm head nuts from the top of the barrel with a 13/14mm ratchet, there is no order to this.
2. Once the nuts are removed tap the barrel out with a rubber mallet
3. Leave the barrel on the pins and remove circlips from the Gudgen Pin located on the Piston
4. Tap the Gudgen pin out of the piston with a small drift
5. Remove the Needle Roller bearing from the Con Rod

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Step 3 – Flywheel & Stator Plate Removal

Your going to need a couple of specialised tools for this job, you need either a Flywheel Holding Tool or a Con Rod Holding Tool, either work well but the ConRod Tool is more versatile. Plus you will need a Flywheel Pulling Tool.

Grab your Air Ratchet & a 17mm Socket as well to speeds things up.

1. Place the Holding tool of your choice into position
2. Using the 17mm socket on the Air Ratchet in REVERSE to remover the nut

Once the nut is off you can then use the Flywheel Puling Tool to wind out the Flywheel, wind the tool on at least 1cm so it does not pull the thread, remove it and place the Flywheel in a sealed plastic bag straight away so no metal shaving get stuck on the internal magnet

1. Remove the cover plate and the rubber o-ring
2. Dot punch the stator plate and the Mag housing so you know where it needs to go back into place when you re assemble the engine, if you are putting in a new Stator Plate then dont worry about this step.
3. Remove the three nuts on the Stator Pate with a 10mm socket, make sure you remove the retaining plate.
4. Lift the Stator Plate out and make sure you snake the wires out gently, then bag the Stator Plate ASAP.

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Step 4 – Magneto Housing Removal

Coming soon!

Rebuilding the SX150 engine, Part 1 – Removing the engine.

Having accidentally heat seized the piston in my Lambretta SX150 I decided it was time to do a total rebuild of the engine.

There were a number of parts to this process and I am going to try and document everything that I did a few weeks ago + outline what tools I used and the order in which I did the engine strip, this is by no means an experts guide, just an overview of my experiences that may help others amateur Lambretta mechanics in the future.

The first step was getting the engine out of the scooter.

For the most part this is very simple & there were around 18 steps to getting the engine out, the hardest step was undoing the engine bolts that were on very tight, once out and on the work bench the real work started.

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Tools required

• 5.5mm alan key
• 10mm alan key
• 8mm Spanner or socket
• 13mm Spanner or socket
• 17mm Socket or socket
• 24mm Spanner or socket
• 27mm Spanner or socket
• Lambretta Hub Puller
• Air Ratchet

Steps

1. Drain the oil, use a 10mm alan key to remove the oil drain plug and drain the oil into a bucket of some sort, make sure it has nowhere to leak from!
2. Remove the side panels
3. Use an 8mm socket to remove the running boards
4. Use a 10mm spanner and remove the black rubber side buffer on the engine side
5. Remove the half nuts from the rear shock with a 24mm socket or spanner
6. No place the oil drain plug back in place and move the oil somewhere safe so it does not spill in the work area
7. Remove the rear shock & allow the scooter frame to pivot down, careful here as it can drop pretty quickly if you dont have a grip on it, try and have someone with you for this step to help you with it
8. Remove the exhaust, it may have springs attached to the engine block so remove these 1st, then remove the 13mm nuts on the engine casing
9. Disconnect the HT cap on the spark plug
10. Disconnect the Carburettor & the fuel lines
11. Disconnect the Earth lead with an 8mm spanner
    1. Make sure you take photos of any electrics you disconnect so you know where they go when you put the engine back in
12. Disconnect the adjuster block in one piece
    1. I removed mine completely s I am replacing this old innocenti one with a brand new MB Developments version
13. Disconnect the clutch arm
14. Remove the rear wheel
    1. remove the locking plate with a 5.5mm alan key
    2. remove the 27mm nut with an air ratchet or spanner
    3. remove the rear hub with a toll made for this purpose called a Hub Puller, wind the hub off using the puller and an 11mm spanner
15. Remove the black rubber stopper on the tierod, disconnect the tierod and remove the circlip
16. Remove the brake cable at the brake, not the rear of the scooter, use a 17mm socket to do this and pull the cable and the cable outer from the back of the scooter, make sure you dont lose the top hat from the cable outer.
17. Remove the engine bolts with a 17mm spanner, support the engine and draw the bolt out, this can be a slow and painful process if the bolt has not been removed in a while, be patient.
18. thats it, you all done, next stage is the engine strip.

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SX150 Engine stripped down & ready for Ball Burnishing

All these parts went off to be cleaned using a method called ball Burnishing, Ball burnishing is typically done using steel media or a media with a high bulk density that leaves an attractive and polished looking finish.

I had the engine casing of my other Lambretta engine vapour honed, which is a completely different process, so I am looking forward to seeing the finished result when it comes back tomorrow.

Hopefully I will be able to start the engine rebuild on Sunday, fingers crossed!

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Importing a Lambretta Scooter into Australia

Recently I bought a Lambretta SX150 from a scooter shop in New Zealand, I am based in Australia and had to go through the process of importing it to Sydney, here is an overview of the process.

FIRSTLY – Be prepared for frustration & don’t it on your own!

SECONDLY – Dont do it a XMAs time like I did!

I worked with a company in Botany called Bell Total Logistics & they took away a lot of the pain.

First off, before you even bother to do anything you need to get a permit to import the scooter into Australia, its not painful, just time consuming.

Go to the Dept of Infrastructure & Transport website & download the application form, fill it in and send it off with your $50.

This can take anywhere up to 10 weeks to get finalised, mine took 8 weeks & that was over the 2010 Xmas period.

Once you have your Import Approval Certificate you can instruct your shipping company to get the ball rolling.

Few things to bear in mind:

• Australian Customs & Quarantine DO NOT like wooden crates, source a metal box for your import
• Keep in mind that both sea & air cargo base the cost on cubic weight, not actual weight, so if you go over 1.2m in height your up for more money, my scooter was 131kg, but as I choose not to pull it apart for the journey I ended up with 250kg in chargeable freight which was 1.5m3.
• Air cargo is not always more expensive (about $3 per kilo), in fact for me it was cheaper than sea freight, but that was from New Zealand.
• Scooters are considered Dangerous Goods FULL STOP, so only certain airlines will ship them & it is more painful to get the scooter out of & into the country
  • Customs at both ends will want to inspect the scooter

Here is an overview of some of the charges you will be up for:

• International Freight – dependant on what way you ship
• Destination International Terminal Fee – $70
• Destination Air Document Fee – $44
• Handling Fee – $98
• Destination Cargo Automation Fee – $15
• Customs CMR / EDI Fee – $25
• GST on Importation Duty & Customs Entry Charge – $$ based on the purchase price of the scooter + the shipping fee
• Soil Disposal – $65
• Lifts – $10
• CFS Extra Inspection – $65
• Aqis attendance – $65
• CFS Steam Clean – $125
• Destination AQIS Inspection Fee – $129
• Quarantine Lodgement – $35

Plus Getting it from the Airport to your house, I used a Sydney based guy called Mark from Sydney Motorbike Transport for only $90.

New Engine Stand for rebuild

New Engine Stand for rebuild, originally uploaded by Barry P Smyth.