Sunday, July 01, 2007

A Small Step for Mankind, but a Giant Leap for Me

Brothah Crazy Rob visited me earlier this week, and while he was here he helped me get the radiator off the VX800, as well as the loathsome rounded bolt.

He also tried (really, REALLY tried) to pinstripe the Vespa for us, but it was just too darn hot and the paint wouldn't flow. We learned that denatured alcohol does not work well as a paint thinner for One Shot. It does, however, do a very good job of making pinstriping brushes fall apart (insert "The More You Know" jingle here).

Today I spent the better part of the morning and early afternoon in the garage working on the VX. I got 4 of the 8 valves (the front cylinder) adjusted. Yay me.

The rear cylinder was frustrating and the garage was too damn hot, so I decided to call it a day. It seems I'll have to take the front carb off in order to get at the valves on the rear cylinder, and I figured that it'll be best to tackle that when I'm cool and less grouchy.

Incidentally, I noticed that the manual specifies that the REAR cylinder valves be adjusted first, then the front. Ummm, does that actually matter?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As long as the crank is at the proper position for the adjustment (different for front and rear) it doesn't matter the order. Make certain you sync the cards after the valve adjustment. Also, you really don't need to remove the carb to adjust these valves. Good luck.