Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Sunday, 29 May 2011

renovating a vespa engine wasn't in the grand plan of things but.........

We've been tackling 'Stacey's engine. We've managed to do a bit today using the Haynes Vespa manual and a brilliant set of videos by a guy called 'Sausage' - no honestly, that's his name! He has cult viewing status in our house........he makes things look so easy. Anyway lots done until we reached the clutch and discovered that we needed a clutch puller tool....which we've needed to order. Ah well!

Steve



the external view of the cylinder head


the base of the head, it's definitely a Malossi conversion


top of the piston, heavily carboned


the piston at the top of the bore


side view of guegon pin (at least that's how I think you spell it!)


some burning at the top but not below the rings
now for a decision, is it still OK or do we need to replace it?
Anyone got a view?


the crank showing through


the rear brake shoes and rear brake back plate
behind that back plate is the clutch cover


this is the brake back plate


the main driveshaft I think


the cover off and the clutch exposed
we need the clutch puller to get the clutch off the tapered spindle


the clutch looks like it is in good condition, I think!


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steve:

Looks like fun!

I believe the pin attaching the piston to the connecting rod would be called a "gudgeon pin", spelled the same as the gudgeons that take the pintles for Arwen's rudder.

Over here in the USA, that pin is called a "wrist pin."

God bless!
Wayne

steve said...

ha! That makes sense. The guy who told me the name of it had a georgie accent so thick I thought he was from Scandinavia somewhere. took me a few minutes to work out he was speaking english. Didn't sound like my other georgie friends - so thanks Wayne. Gudgeon I understand! I quite like 'wrist pin' better actually

steve

jim said...

hi Steve
On a two stroke engine a certain amount of blowby past the piston rings is normal. That's the dark staining in your photo.
So long as the piston is not scuffed too badly around the lower part of the skirt it's likely to be OK

What you do need to do is to clean out the piston ring groves. be very careful when removing the rings to not break them - particularly the lower ring- they're made usually of cast iron and very brittle. Check carefully that the little roll pins which locate the ring gaps are secure in the piston. carbon on top of the piston is less critical. It usually flakes off on its own and passes through the exhaust when it gets to a great enough thickness thickness.
If you need any info just ask and if i can help I will.
Lovely pictures on your blog BTW.

Jim E-mail flexwing462 at yahoo dot co dot uk

steve said...

hey Jim, thanks for the comments and advice - much appreciated - really useful tips. we'll post more on engine renovations soon
stay in touch and thanks

steve