Vespa

Automatic Project

Frame Work

 

I was secretly hoping that this would be an easy engine to drop in to an older frame, but of course that wasn't true. The main problems is how tall the engine is, and how far the barrel comes of the front of the motor.

The carb area is a little large too but I think I can remedy this by tossing out the clunky carb box and adding a filter directly to the body of the carb.

The Automatica fits into the same motor mounts as a normal PK and a normal small frame, but there is a mounting bracket that goes between the engine swing arm and the frame. Luckily my motor came with this bracket so I thought I'd try to see if it would bolt in place.

The large bolt hole mount in the bracket got in the way of the frame, so I decided to remove it and add one later in the correct position. Removing it was done with a hacksaw, and made it so the bracket could pivot on the original motor mount holes.

If the bracket is placed at an angle the motor will fit without the cylinder. This was a good step because it shows that in theory the motor should fit. The issue now is that the inside of the frame under the gas tank is too low for the new motor. Once I get some better measurements, I will have to remove the sheet metal under the seat and rebuild it to make more room for the motor.

I marked the area of the frame I needed to roughly remove and used a reciprocating saw to cut through the thin metal. Once everything fits I will have to reinforce the frame to compensate for the area I removed.

Another shot of the metal area that was removed.

Now the under fuel tank area is a straight hole through the frame. I am a little worried that I won't be able to pull this off, but I guess I need to follow this one through or be guilty of ruining a Vespa frame.

I fitted the motor with the motor bracket and actaully managed to fit it without. I also started with the air filter box in place but realized it would need to be removed to fit well. In the shot above the rear shock isn't fitted but I am happy with the layout of the motor and the way the rear wheel falls in relation to the frame.

The motor was fitted without the cooling hood on the first try. I marked the area near the rear shock mount with a pen as more metal will need to be removed.

The last problem will be to have a look at the upper drive pulley and see how it grows when the motor is running...or dos it shrink? I'm not sure but it may get close to the side door.

Next Section -->