Found this old pic of the Innocenti factory - just think, - one of those blue & white SX150s might have been shipped to England and been the one I bought in '69, - you never know eh?

new year

Well its the back end of Jnuary 2011. Not done a great deal but have kept something going.So far since last entry Ive stripped and rebuilt the carburettor - original dellorto.
- pic below shows latest additions - the crank, drive sprocket assembly, mag housing(other side) and a new chain ( old one was slack as .....). Going to have to take clutch housing off again to get chain levelled up, its a bit out at the moment.

The drive sprocket assembly is a peculiar beast, - you have to get the splines lined up so they fit on tightening ( most manuals etc suggest hitting with a hammer to see if it sounds solid, so you know its fit!). I first put it on making sure splines were well out of line and counted number of turns to get tight, - undid and started again with splines positioned correctly (hopefully) and tightened up again, - once a couple of turns past original number you know the splines are together and moving down, - then tighten up.
If the chain was correctly aligned I'd have to take it off again anyway as you cant get the lower chain guide on afterwards!

Other bits - fettled up and painted rear wheel rim, manifold and silencer, and polished up hub.

Also fettled up and primed the cylinder cowl and magneto housing cowl - both solid, no rot and have come up lovely!

You can see the cylinder head behind after cleaning out all the muck, tar and gunge from between the fins.

The cleaned up cylinder and spanking brand new piston (lovely fit - made for each other!) sit on the bench and await their turn to join the engine.

big freeze

Boxing Day, christmas just gone and no new lambretta engines in the stocking, so will have to persevere --  not much movement recently, - too damn cold. Was hoping to make some major progress over the christmas hols but the big freeze has a put a stop to that.

Knocked up an engine frame out of an old table frame a couple of weeks ago-

- have seen a few frames on the 'net, - I wanted one that would a) fit on my narrow workbench  b) fit entire engine when completed  c) be able to run the engine in it when complete. d) be easy to make - and the beauty of this one is that it can stand on any of the six sides to allow access to whatever bit you're working on at the time, and at the moment it can be rolled over etc without any of the engine getting knocked.

The other bit of progress from last blog entry is, as you may notice, the gearbox has been rebuilt and clutch housing fitted. New end plate bearing fitted - old one was knackered. New clutch plates are soaking in gear oil at this very moment. I did clean and refit the drive side bearing (missing on pic) but it didnt run too smoothly , - grated with a couple of dead spots, so not happy with it, looks like a new one needed.

Only other bits of 'progress' are soaking the carb and inlet manifold in white spirit to clean off the tarry gunge - come out quite well.. Cylinder barrel still soaking in the stuff.....

Hopefully the carb is reusable, - I did break a bit of the top but managed get a replacement NOS top off ebay. Other bits bought for future use are a couple of oil seals/clutch plates/gasket set/gear oil
Happy New Year

Time for a clean up

All work so far has resulted in getting covered in black oil and gunge, so have a good clean up with white spirit to get rid of as much as possible to enable working a bit cleaner.

 Inside the engine casing after a clean up.

 - and outside, - still a few bits hanging on - cleaning out the fins around the casting edges edges was a pain. Had to saw off one of the brake shoes as it was stuck fast.

Spent a bit more time on getting the front casing nice and clean as its the one you can see when its in the machine!
Kickstart assembly seems fine so leaving that in there for now.
Well, unbelievably, I'm almost in a position to start rebuilding and replacing a few bits - the downside of that is that Ill have to dust down the old wallet and go and spend some money - amongst other things ill need some bearings, clutch plates, piston & rings, probably a new chain if I cant reuse this one. etc.

Gearbox

-lets have a look at the gearbox - already had the end plate off and removed the bearing, which was knackered, - much play- probably got a hefty jolt every time it was put in gear with the long slack chain. Just loosely fastened the plate back on while doing other things.
Once the end plate is off everything just comes apart dead easy - place all my bits in order on a tray, - only the selector shaft to undo with a single bolt. mainshaft/layshaft comes out with a mild wallop with a piece of wood. Everything seems in good order, very little wear at all - all nicely reuseable - apparently a favourite spot for wear is in the sliding dog/layshaft cursor, on the square profile ends, - if these wear and get rounded off it can cause gear selection problems/jumping out etc - this is in really good nick.
Get out my gallon of white spirit to get everything de-gunged and cleaned up.

The contents of the gearbox - all cleaned up and laid out - not that much to it really when you get it all out - looks more frightening on the exploded diagram in the manual.
To far right is the bearing covering plate from the hub side, to access the bearing - might leave that in it seems in good condition, probably just replace the oil seal ( apart from that theyre quite expensive!).

Cylinder

The fins on the cylinder were absolutely stuffed full of thick muck & tarry gunge - the engine casing was also coveered in the same stuff. Horrible stuff to get off, like a mixture of thick tar and fine sand. The fins on the cylinder casting were filled up - cant have been much cooling due to airflow at all, possibly a contribution to the engine siezing up?

Been scraping bits off now and again over the past few weeks and its getting a bit cleaner. attacking the cylinder vanes/fins now with a small screwdriver and a kitchen knife, - its slow going.
Just hope its going to be fit to reuse when cleaned up.
Removed the crankshaft - covered in black gunge, - but seems alright - just a slight bend in the con rod, -in the vice and gave it a clout with the hammer - seems ok now!

The siezed piston attacked......

Well here we go again, its had a week of soaking in diesel and Ive made some short lengths of 2x2 timber, slightly rounded to fit in the cylinder and with a bit of tin plate screwed over the ends to prevent the wood splitting. - place in the wood after draining off the diesel and with the long handled lump hammer - whack! whack! and more whacks until the wood disintegrates! - not a sausage1 - repeat the procedure a few more times getting quite a sweat on - nothing - no sign of movement at all, - bollocks!
Ah well, nothing for it, - my long handled lump hammer has a hexagonal head which nicely fits in the cylinder, - pop it in and whack it with another lump hammer, - bang bang bang! - have a peek in, - the top of the piston is cracking but we have movement-hurrah - keep on whacking until the heads in up to the wooden hammer shaft, - the middle of the piston head has now broken completely off and dropped through, - fortunately have a bit of steel tube just big enough to make contacyt with outer edge of remaining piston, - in it goes and more and more whacking until, eventually, plop, the engine drops the remaining half inch onto the cushion, - time to survey the damage....

Well, the piston is well and truly knackered, - knock out the gudgeon pin/roller bearing, and extract the crankshaft, - that all appears ok. Inspect inside the cylinder, - doesnt seem to have cut any grooves out while on its way down, but there is some marking at the level where the piston was stuck. So, not sure at the moment whether I can re-use the cylinder, - might have to seek advice on that, but at least the bloody thing is out.