In February this year, I purchased a Vespa PX 200 E Millennium.
I bought it after selling my old one back in Italy—a beautiful 1983 Vespa PX that I had owned for ages. It made me quite sad to sell her, but I just couldn’t find a good reason to organise shipping her all the way to Australia. Considering what happened next, it might have actually been a better choice to do so… anyway, back to my story.
So, in February, I bought this “new/old” Vespa. Not that old, but still right on the limit of those classic, reliable, low-tech Vespas that they just don’t make anymore. Same body frame, same engine, no electronic injection. Just a classy old Vespa.
Two weeks after I bought it, the Vespa collapsed on me. I personally don’t think the previous owner did it on purpose, but it ended up being a massive journey. Everything started with a leaky engine oil issue and a rear indicator not flashing properly, and it ended up as a fully open engine rebuild. And remember, I had absolutely no previous knowledge of this level of mechanics.
I guess I can thank the God of Motorcyclists and the sturdy simplicity of the vehicle; otherwise, this could have ended up as a $5,500 mistake! Here is what I found in terrible condition or completely broken:
- The Petrol Tap: Inside the tank, the tube leaving the filter was disconnected and not doing its job.
- The oil Tank Gasket: It was leaking and needed replacement.
- Indicator Switch Short-Circuited: This required a long process of diagnosis involving continuity tests and more multimeter tests than I have ever done in my life.
- Indicator Flasher Relay: This gave up immediately after I started working on the switch issues.
- The Clutch EXPLODED Inside the Engine: This was one of the major problems. One day after starting the Vespa, I heard a loud grinding noise coming from it. All of the clutch rivets broke and passed through the main gear to the bottom of the casing. Fortunately, no major damage happened to the gears themselves.
- The Speedometer: It was flickering inside the headset. Was the gear inside the front wheel worn out? Maybe! Or was it the cable? Also maybe! So, I just changed all of them.
- Rust spots and broken plastic covers: The Vespa had a good number of rusty spots, and both the front and the headset cover had broken plastic screw threads, already previously repaired but in poor condition.
- Exhaust pipe clogged: The exhaust pipe was leaking residual oil from its end, indicating a flow of unburned fuel in it.
To understand what I had to do, I first had to assess the engine, so I started to disassemble it. Removing the flywheel screws brought another issue. The “bright mind” of the last person who worked on it decided it wasn’t required to add washers—not even wave washers—to the screws. The outcome of this brilliant idea, a few years later, was that the screws were fully welded into the engine casing. I had to drill them out! The same thing happened with the screws for the clutch cover… drill them out and reshape the surface.
So, we have four screws welded into the engine body, a full clutch to replace, the petrol tank tap, the indicator switch, and the relay. What else?
Leaving aside that even the rear tyre was assembled the wrong way around! The inner tube valve was facing the opposite direction of rotation. So you had to choose: either you assemble the tyre rotating in the right direction, or you have an accessible valve to pump up the air.
On top of all this, I didn’t have the proper tools, and I had to figure out what parts I needed and order everything from Germany.
It was a pretty big drama so far, and I definitely did not want to split the engine casing. Definitely not… But the Artificial Intelligence kept telling me that I had to open it up to remove the broken rivets. I didn’t even know there were floating rivets swimming in my engine oil! That was the first time I had ever seen a clutch. That was the first time I had ever seen a Vespa under the flywheel cover. I have to say, understanding how a Vespa engine works while disassembling it is interesting, but constantly dealing with your own ignorance is a pretty stressful situation. Plus, the Vespa has so many variations, and the AI tends to “delirate” (hallucinate) quite often, making it very confusing.
So, what was I saying? Ah, yes, what else was missing to fix? The rest…
I found rust on the main bearings and learned to remove all four of them using the hot/cold game and multiple improvised tools. Then came the engine gaskets. Oh, and yes—the terrible idea to put the inner brake drum/hub O-ring inside the engine instead of outside. For goodness’ sake, what were the Piaggio engineers thinking?! It felt like they wanted to make it as difficult to fix as possible.
Equally inconvenient is the positioning of the starter motor right next to the clutch, just behind the airbox. It sits directly in front of the idle mixture screw. If you find yourself needing to adjust it, you have to pray to Jesus and have hours of meditation training before you even attempt the operation.
In the end, all the O-rings got changed, the carburettor was fully checked, and the amount of rust I scraped out of the engine took me days to complete.
Also, in the process of fixing it, I almost damaged it a few times. I ordered an upgraded clutch that was sold as “fully compatible,” but instead, it was too thick. I had to buy a small spacer ring to add under the clutch cover to allow the discs to compress properly. I also installed a new gear selector cruciform, new engine oil, and new fuel lines. The CDI also died during the testing of the electrical system. I tested and re-tested the stator, checking every centimetre of the wiring loom looking for faults that weren’t even there! For a while, the flywheel puller was my favourite tool, and I did the torque measurement of the flywheel nut to 60 Nm so many times that I still remember the number.
It has now been 4 months that I have been working on the Vespa. I have managed to remove, clean, fix, and reassemble all of it, and balance the carburettor enough to finally use the vehicle and enjoy a bit of it before winter comes.
I spent $5,500 to buy it and another $1,500 on spare parts… plus tools, grease, oils, sealants, and countless hours of work to learn and fix it. I even had to create my own custom tool just to remove the petrol tank tap!
I am left now with a Vespa where I still need to change the airbox because it is bent, and I have to check the speedometer drive gear because I think they sent me the wrong one (the speedometer shows 10 km/h more than my real speed, at least I won’t get a speeding ticket!). I also need to change the indicator relay again because two broke, and the third, which I got second-hand, does a weird dance of lights. Also, the voltage regulator is close to dying as it isn’t providing current to the battery, so I might need an external charger to keep the battery alive over winter and an exhaust pipe replacement as the cleaning work did not give the best outcomes.
But now, it works! And I fixed it!
Now this Vespa is really mine… and I am happy riding her with the people I love.
Cheers,
Simone Berliat