Vespatude - A Vespa Blog: The trials of Heebie the Vespa

Well, it will be a while before I will be posting about my latest ride on Heebie. Something drastic has happened to the scooter and I'm afraid to find out what it is. To compound the problem, this week doesn't give me much time to dig into the issue.

I think my problems are on two fronts that I believe go back to a common event. Last post I talked about the throttle issue I had. That is now corrected, but while working stalled on the side of the road, I pushed the bike up on the curb. When I got it running (temporarily) I dropped off the curb rather abruptly. At that point, I started having new problems pop up.

First, the timing seemed to have gotten knocked off. The couple of times I did get the bike to start, I got some major backfiring. Yesterday, I took the flywheel off and took a look at the stator. It appears that one of screws got jarred loose and the stator doesn't sit exactly right. That could be part of the cause for the backfiring.

Second, and more of a worry, the bike has some mechanical popping sounds that show up when I push the bike (in neutral). At first it only happened when I was sitting on the bike. Now it happens at anytime I push the bike forward (it doesn't seem to happen when I push it backward).

I can't help but think that when I came off that curb, it broke something. At first I thought it was the frame because the popping only came when sat on the bike. It also caused a vibration that I could feel.

What to do? I just can't afford a new engine right now - though ultimately, that is what it is going to take.