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[Jonny69]

I refer to my posts on OcUK about my bike:

Originally Posted by Jonny69

Dr Jonny Diagnosis is my new name, I have sucessfully diagnosed and fixed my scoot! I narrowed it down to a faulty coil, well it's not so much the coil it's the plug lead but it's glued into the coil so you can't replace it when the wire fatigues. Well done Piaggio, great design and £30 I didn't need to spend.

So let me talk you through how to change the coil on a Vespa. Take the small hatch off the front of the engine compartment and you can see the coil, it's the most accessible bit, easy job then. You can't undo the scew though because the bodywork is in the way so you have to take off the kickplates which in turn mean you have to take off the glovebox, then little panel on the front of the bike that covers the horn to get to the two hidden screws. Once the coil is undone you have to pull the lead off the sparkplug, which you can't do with the engine in place. Okay, ready for this? Take the two side panels off the back of the bike for accessibility, then undo the bottom of the rear suspension so the back wheel (and the engine) drops down. Then hook an engine crane to the back of the bike and lift it about a foot up in the air so the engine is completely exposed and finally you can pull the lead off the plug.

The actual time on the coil itself here is under 5 minutes, time with the rest of the bike: over 2 hours. This is a part that lasts about 8000miles so I have to do this just over once a year. Clap clap clap, great design.

and then

Originally Posted by Jonny69

Some of you might remember I posted about the malarky I had to go through to change the sparkplug and coil in my ET4 Vespa a few months back. This weekend was oil change time, way overdue and I'm skint so I decided to do it myself. Forseeing that it might not be as straightforward as it sounds I consulted the Haynes manual. Now I've noted before that what's in the book doesn't bear much resemblence to the bike because it covers about 5 similar (but no way the same) models, but it's close enough to get you started. So out I went, Billy Big Balls, new filter in hand etc.

First up is to drain the old oil out, no problem, the drain plug looks like it's right underneath in the book, pan under bike, plug out and drain. Well no. First Piaggio have put the bike stand right in the way so you can't get a pan or a bottle underneath. Second, they have decided it is a good idea to BLANK OFF THE DRAIN PLUG!!! So how the bloody hell am I supposed to get the oil out the engine you Italian idiots? Who's great idea was this?

Right then, off with the old filter. Usual lark with the strap wrench except as usual there is something in the way, the exhaust, but it came off with the help of a bit of grunting and swearing. Some oil dribbled out the side so I tried to tip some out through the filter hole. No way, it's too small. So I go round the other side to the filler neck and that is clearly the only way it's coming out. Bike up on bricks straddling a drain, shallow pan over the drain cover and lean the bike over onto its side so all the oil dribbles out.

What a performance. It took me about an hour to get that far. I'll be paying someone to do that next time, I pity those that do this for a living :mad: :mad: :mad:

I think the guys who designed the ET4 had olive oil in their eyes and were too busy looking at themselves in the mirror and combing their greasy hair.