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

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Missing bearings?

So having posted our 'steering column' woes on 'Stacey', our 1971 motovespa, on the forums, advice came flooding in and I guess the situation is as follows:


“Have you fitted both top and bottom bearing races”?
Yes we think so......but we will go back and check!

“Are they the right size bearings”?
Well dur!
Or maybe we’d better just check that one too.


“Did you grease the bearings?”
Yes...and us; and the bench; and the garage floor; the kitchen sink; the hallway carpet; the bottom of our shoes.......
oh yes – we greased the bearings!


“Have we tightened everything up properly?”
As far as we can tell yes but then we can tighten it further but then the mudguard rubs against the legshield and that can’t be right.

“Have you tried putting the whole weight of the scooter down on the bench so the front wheel rests on it and then tighten it up?”
No – that’s a good tip to try this weekend.

“Are you missing the lower bearing seat?”
Ah! Now then – that could account for the rocking. We think we put it all back and we triple checked but something is clearly amiss and so we need to go back over everything and check one more time!


“Or could it be the bearing cone which is in the lower part of the steering column attached to the legshield?"
Ditto – better go back and look at that one as well


Hey ho hum! Life is never easy but then it would be so boring if it was. Thanks as always to the extremely patient guys on the 'Small frames' and the 'Vespa Club of Britain' forums. You have probably saved us again!!!!

Steve

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