Evening chaps.....sorry to keep you waiting, didnt realise you were waiting!
Scoot was in mint condition or arrival, when Dave wheeled it out of the van i was very impressed....i'm not a Vega fan, but it looked smart, very clean paint job and nice chrome, looked lovely.
Anyway, fired it up and the carb was miles off, this was immediately apparent....it was massively over-rich, wouldnt rev out and wouldnt tick-over. We loaded it onto the dyno, just to get a base reading, and if i recall correctly it was approx 3bhp!! Massive lean spot mid range, but massively rich at tickover and full throttle.
After a few adjustments to the carb, a few new bits fitted, and a number of re-runs on the dyno to check, and re-check.....we got to 9bhp and it was finally revving out, pulling well and still very far into the safe jetting section. Dave doesn't own the Vega for racing, he wanted it safe for ralies etc, so we left it slightly rich for safety. We could easily take him to 12.7:1 and based on what we know of the engine, it would be a 10-12bhp motor, which isnt massive power by other standards, but it is pretty good for a tiny little Vega and more bhp than some standard 200cc engines kick out! But as i say, we left it rich with a view to letting Dave run it for a bit and get used to the new tune, and if he wanted to come back and have it leaned off a bit more later, then we could do that no problem.
So we sent Dave off for a test ride up the local bypass, but when he came back he reported that it was running rough....which was odd, as that was completely opposite to the dyno reading when i had just red-lined it cleanly and crisply 5 minutes earlier....so we decided the best thing was for me to test ride it before i made any further adjustments, so that i could get a handle on what he meant by rough.?
So i donned a crash helmet and mounted the Vega, but as soon as i revved it i could feel the weakness of the engine under throttle, it felt like something electrical was breaking down.......? So we checked the spark plug, HT lead, ignition etc and nothing was immediately apparent....and then we lost the electrics all together....no spark!
Dave mentioned that he has suspected an electrical fault earlier, but thought he had it sorted. We did note the ignition switch wouldnt turn the scoot off on the dyno, and Dave mentioned he'd had issues with stator soldering and pick up box before....so we suspected that it was a re-occurence of the same issue. Which is a shame, as i usually enjoy the part of a dyno test where the owner comes back after the road test with a big grin on his face, and it bugs me when we have to send a customer home with 'job incomplete' stamped on the sheet.
So Dave took the scoot home to investigate the elec fault, and i let him know that when the elec fault is sorted that he should road test again and come back to me to let me know that the scoot runs as well on the road as it did on the dyno, and if not then i will re-adjust. But other than the unexpected elec fault, all looks good.
