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Enrique's Spanish LD MK1

New LD submission; Wed. 16 July 2014

Lambretta 125 Eibar 1A serie. Year 1955. By me, enrique cordoba

Enrique Cordoba

Good morning, my english is very bad.
The lambretta was the first model LD 125cc made in Eibar-Spain in 1954 and 1955. The 1A was the serie and they were only about 4000 units. It has only one teleflex from de hand to the gearbox.
My father bought the lambretta new in 1955. He used it 'till 1970 when he bought a car. And then, the lambretta stop first in a collective parking in bad conditions and finally in a room till my restauration.
To the  work the lambretta was desasdembled, paint in the same colour that originally because it was very bad with some oxided and one fire in the motor tape. The original parts you can see, have been chromed. I had need to buy some innocenti parts not original like the electric interruptor, the fuel  tape and some gum pieces. I'm trying to find the original anagram and the fuel tape.

The lambretta is now legal again to drive in Spain with the original number you can see partially. You can correct all (my writing) that you like. Thank you.
El 16/07/2014 02:46, escribi:



Quoting enrique cordoba :

I have an image before de restoring.




Fright Night: Wendell's latest:
Here's what i did in my spare time last month. ''Hey Johnny, how's it going? It's a cx500 shaft drive that I turned sideways and added a chain. I've bought two more of the bikes and am going to build two more, one for me and one for my wife, Robin. talk to ya later, Wendell''

SOLD : MK III 150 AVV (electric start)

Well I just sold the AVV. Sad to see it go of course but it went to a good home in San Francisco where it was first sold and had lived the majority of it's life anyway; it's only the right thing to do. I'm leaving up these notes about my having worked on it in case anyone finds them useful. I'm sure to retire this article after a time. Here are said notes:

"I've been thinking of selling the AVV. In the mean time I'm working on getting it to full working shape, or at least getting everything working, or at least getting the starting and charging systems working. The motor does start though it'll need to be rebuilt I bet. As it is it has an oil leak somewhere around the starter.
It doesn't really smoke and it goes about like an LD goes but I just KNOW that it hasn't seen any service in a long, long time. So far since I've had it, I've had the starter motor repaired, made a starter cable, and put in a battery and cables The starter works well now. I used motorcycle jumper cables for the big battery cables in the scoot.
I cleaned out the fuel tap and carb and it ran after I did that. I didn't clean the tank and so it'll probably keep re-clogging or fouling the fuel filters for a while.
Then I got a key for the ignition switch so I could test it and it tests out good and all positions do what they're supposed to. I've got some of the wiring from the switch re-done but I need to find a light switch to complete the re-wiring. Almost all of the original wiring and harnesses were gone or wasted when I got the AVV. I'm going to re-wire to color code as much as possible though I'm not going to try and replicate the original harnesses, that'll be for the restorationisti.

The bike is missing the original rectifier and regulator, I've substituted an modern solid-state combined unit from Baja Designs in Vista, Ca. and it's mounted under the front seat as original.
The original regulator also acted as a junction for a number of connections and so I put a screw terminal junction block at the original regulator's location in the left side engine compartment.
I found an original battery cover but it was made without the forward mounting bracket so I made one and had it welded into the cover.

UPDATE July 16 2006 Since this modern rectifier also has the regulator built in and since I don't have it anyway, I didn't use the original electromagnetic regulator. The old unit also acted as a junction for several wires which still have to be juncted, so I got a ''barrier strip'' (junction block) at radio shack and put it where the original regulator was located. I hooked it up and took avv out to the street where it'd start and then die. Fuel problem fer sherr! I cleaned out the carb. Everything was plugged up with crud. Put it back together and tried again. Started right up and drove away like a champ. Just pull the start lever, motor starts right up, nice and mufffley quiet, smooth motor, good power, smokes a little. That may be seals or just the old ORIGINAL muffler still loaded up with combustibles from when it used to run not so good and wasn't properly burning all it's fuel/oil mix and instead was just storing up the residues in the muffler, now to be heated and smouldered away.

Now here's a letter that Steve Jackson in the UK sent me when I was considering selling the AVV, wherein he gives some tech tips regarding the electrical system:
''I would personally keep it, but then I don't tend to sell much of my Ld stuff. Alternatively, if you could get it to me in the UK, I would willingly pay you $200 for it! (Only joking). There weren't too many built, and they seem to attract a higher price than standard Lds.
The original 12 volt system was probably hindered by the 1950s design rectifier and mechanical regulator - the electronic regulator system is the way to go. I ran 12 volt electrics on my LDB, using an AVV Filso flywheel, modern bridge rectifier and big Zener diode. It seemed to work pretty well, and I used a 36 watt headlight. I've got enough parts to convert my project machines to electric start, and I've rebuilt one of the starter motors. The oil leaks seem to be a common problem, probably due to the hardening of the rubber oilseal next to the larger gear which mates with the one on the motor shaft, or the small seal inside the gear itself.
The other place is in the clutch cover - the two alloy sections which make up the cover are held together in six places (where the material is peened over), and sealed with a fairly brittle form of epoxy adhesive. I dismantled mine, drilled and tapped is six places for retaining screws, and replaced the epoxy with silicon rubber sealant after cleaning out the epoxy.
The lighting switches seem difficult to find, and the rubber cover on the side of the rear toolbox/battery box is probably impossible to find.''
Best wishes,
Steve Jackson

How I got my AVV

A few years ago I got an email from a guy in Vacaville, between San Francisco and Sacramento, who said that he had this scooter in his garage and it said ''Lambretta LDavv'' on it and so he searched the web and came up with my site and he contacted me to see if I might know what he might do with it. Well I don't have to make you guess what my suggestion was. So I got in my '74 VW van and hit the road in the morning. I got up there sometime around 12 or 1 in the morning so I found a spot on some little side road out by the Sacramento River delta and jumped in the back and crashed for the night.
Next morning, when the mood hit me, I woke up. I went and found a fone, got directions and came over. My benefactor said that he and his wife just bought this house and it had a detached garage and in the garage was this old scooter and they wanted to get rid of it. So we worked out a price of 200 bucks i think and but I didn't have that much so he said I could mail the rest to him when I got home, which I did.
While we were in the garage I noticed this console piano sitting there too and I asked him about it and he didn't want that either, and for that matter would I like it. Well yeah I said, and he only wanted 50 bucks for that. It was a Wurlitzer console, the bar model that's covered in brown vinyl, with a grain that's kinda like tolex so you can spill drinks on it and stuff. Oh yeah, now this rocks! An avv AND a piano for next to nothing! Now to get it all home.
Determined, I decided that it would all go in my van. We took out the middle and back seats, put the scoot in lengthwise along the left side, followed by the Wirly, which kinda went in the remaining space diagonally. Then from the back we put in the seats on top of the new cargo. It was full!
We said our thanx and goodbyes and I hit the road by around 10 or 11 in the morning. I headed back to 5 South and settled in for the cruise. Almost back to San Diego and the end of an 1,100 mile round trip, the car suddenly lost a lot of power. I could only go maybe 40-45, and on hills I had to downshift, sometimes down to 2nd and moving over onto the shoulder with flashers. Well I couldn't stop now and it seemed to still run so I kept limping along 'til I got home sometime late at night. I was so beat, and I just got out of the car and headed to bed.
The next day I got somebody to help me out and into my house with the piano, got the scooter out, then I took my stalwart bus to the shop. Sad news; the valve seats had come loose from the heads and the valves for that or those cylinder(s) were just jammed open on the loose seats. We made a temporary fix of loosening the valves so they could move and it'd run for about a half a day and then the problem would develop again. We did that a couple of times but the real story was for new heads. Now I had had that van for 19 years, had put 240,000 miles on that motor, and had it for 100,000 miles on the motor before that. I had very well worn the whole car out by this time and I couldn't see rebuilding the motor at great cost just to put it back in a car that was no longer worth even the motor I would be putting into it. It was the 1.8 litre pancake with the 2 carbs. A GREAT car it's whole life and a champ to the end.
I'd heard that you could donate used cars to Father Joe's St. Vincent de Paul organization and they would give you a tax deduction reciept for it so that's what I did. I re-adjusted the valves one last time so that it ran and drove it straight to Father Joe's. They started it to see that it ran, checked the blue book or whatever color the book is about used cars, and gave me a big, fat ole' tax-deductible donation reciept for like $2,000 bucks or something. The great thing also is that then they use those cars to train folks to be mechanics, who then fix the cars and sell 'em and the money goes back to St. Vincent de Paul to continue their programs for those who could use some help. Talk about a win-win.
So that's how I got my AVV. I bought an '87 Vanagon; very cushy, quiet, power steer, AC, cruise-control, power mirrors, fold-down adjustable armrests, carries my 10' longboard entirely inside, 90 whole HP vs. the 65 from the '74. Weighs more, doesn't handle near as well, NOT EVEN IN THE SAME SOLAR SYSTEM of reliability as ol' blue and white, continual problems with it to this day, but it's a real nice car, I love it.


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''The Younger Guy''

by Linda Clevenger

The first time I caught sight of her was while doing a favor for a friend at his public storage facility. It was clear that she was a long way from her birthplace, the sunny hills of Italy. All things considered, she was curvy enough and she looked pretty good for her age. Its true that some things improve with age.

''Well, now'' I ventured, ''What have we here?'' I took one of the boxes that had been burdening her. Just then my friend Carson walked in. ''Oh, I turn my back ten seconds and you're all over her huh?'' he snickered. ''She don't get out much these days, but Man, we used to command these streets!''

That's one thing I have never understood about some guys. They hook up with a pretty little ride for just long enough to show her off , then they hide her away from everybody and practically forget about her. I mean for YEARS!


''Mind if I take her out?'' I asked my buddy, half expecting him to say ''Hell no!'' but much to my surprise, he laughed at me. ''I don't think she'd be ready for that'' he continued. ''You like her?! She's not fast anyway...She's what you call an innocenti, back in the old country.''

Wherever she came from, I liked her style. ''We'll see about that, won't we girl?'' That's when I knew I was going to make her mine. That was twenty years ago. She was with me through thick and thin. Its almost like time couldn't touch her classic beauty and sturdy frame. I just wish I could say the same about mine because I'm sad to admit I had to let her go today.


I sent her off with a younger guy...even though I know she'd have stayed with me till the day I died, but she deserves better than this. I didn't have time anymore to take her around, showing off for her friends or go paint the town. Hell, it was all I could do to keep from getting put out on the street. She wasn't supposed to be a workhorse, she was meant to roam free, and she wouldn't have stayed pretty growing older with me and besides I needed the god damn money, but it wasn't nearly enough.

I saw the flicker of light in her eyes and the swish of her tail lights as they left in the night. We'll always have Perris. That's Perris Valley! Only now I can drive there in a car. Goodnight Lambretta wherever you are!

Linda Clevenger 1/27/2005


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Wendell Jones' designs

click makum picture big.

In the eighties Wendell and I worked together as fabricators in Emeryville, Ca., just south of Berkeley. He had a Kawasaki Ninja and I had my TV3 and we'd dragrace and see how fast he could catch and pass me once I'd take off.
I think that he got interested in scooters around when I told him that I was roadracing my Lambretta in the ASRA. Here are a couple of his creations, one from a couple of years ago, the other from just a month or two ago.
The one on the right has a Honda Elite 250 motor and Wendell says that it handles really well.
Here's a link to the ASRA race website, see what's going on with the automatics program and when you can catch the next race.


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1963 Triumph 2000 MK I Overdrive

While those of you from the British Isles may not find this terrifically exciting, I am TOTALLY excited to return to roadworthiness this car which I've had sitting around for so many years, never having given up on the dream of getting back in the driver's seat and now IT'S BACK!

Most Americans have never seen one of these. It was sold in the U.S. as I understand for just one year, though in Great Britian they had a Great long run of many years in a few evolutions, the biggest of which was the stroked-up 2.5 motor. This is the first Mk with the 6 cylinder 2000 c.c. dual-carbureted motor, the same as was fitted to the GT6.

It's basically a 60s British sports roadster coated in family sedan, with such features as bucket front seats with factory 3-point seat belts (in 1963!), rack 'n' pinion steering, McPherson strut front and independent rear suspensions, front disc brakes, 4 speed floor shift with overdrive in 3rd and 4th, and that smooth as silk 2 litre 6 under the hood. Six Appeal. Alot of these features actually debuted on this car and were later handed down to the sports models like TR4 and GT6.

And speaking of the lump, it's being rebuilt from crank up as I write at Harloff Motors in La Mesa, Ca. by Robert Nobles who is their Britcar specialist and who used to own one himself, Can't do any better than that.

I'm pretty hot-to-trot on this ride. I didn't get it together in time for British Car Days in Fallbrook recently but I should be up there with it next year. It's alot of fun to drive and rides really nice. At 90some H.P. it's not the fastest thing but it does pretty well and has alot of character to it's performance. You sit pretty low and so it seems like you're goin' really fast.

Maybe someone would like to send in pics and write-up of THEIR 2000/2.5 and we could get a collection of them going.

Update 10-22-'04Motor is in and runnin' good. Gotta get the front brake calipers rebuilt so we can take it out for a test drive.
Update 11-27-'04This week I brought it home. Almost there and one of the carburetors shut down, necessitating limping in the last few blocks on 3 cylinders. The next day I started it up and got it to fire on all six for a test spin. It feels down on power, either break-in, carburation or timing. After a few miles the carb crapped again. I'll take it back.
The steering's heavy and it doesn't return to straight when you let go of the wheel after a turn. I was reminded that someone rebuilt the steering rack recently and apparently didn't go so good a job of it. Maybe it's just too tight.
Over the weekend I got the lights working, and cleaned and lubed all the door latches so that they latch now instead of swinging wide open on turns. During this fix-up I discovered that the doors are equipped with very discretely hidden child locks (or date locks, as you choose) to make the door un-openable from the inside. They were THINKIN' back in '63.
There's a mysterious short in the turn signal lever mechanism which is shorting out the battery; I'll fix it as soon as I can find out how to pull the steering wheel to get at it.
Update 12-2-'04Got new float (fuel inlet) jets put into the carbs, that seems to have cured the problem. Robert fixed the same problem on the same day with the same remedy on a 70s XJ6 Jaguar; they use the same part, that's British for ya'.
Update 1-10-'05Finally getting the horn to work, more often than not. The main problem has been that the turn signal mechanism has been shorting with the horn mechanism within the little space they share way down below the steering wheel. I drove it all over the place today and it didn't honk once when either I turned the wheel or put on the turn signal. I still don't trust it. I left the horns hooked up though so now if it shorts out at least I'll hear it go off and can disconnect it so it won't drain my battery in sneaky silence like last time when I left the horns disconnected.
It has two horns by the way, and they're now tuned to a 4th, though I may tune them to a flat 5th just so people know I'm being cross when I use 'em.

These wet last few weeks in Sothern California have forced me to address the defrosting and heating functions of the heater. I removed, inspected, cleaned and replaced the blower and heater as well as cleaning the firewall installation area in which said components reside. They work (AND LOOK) better now. This being an El Nino year I'm soon to service the wipers, motor, cable, switch, etc. so as to make the wiper system reliable which is now not.

Update 4-5-'05 1600 miles on the engine now and it's starting to perform pretty well. The other day I was on the freeway and I pulled on the choke some and noticed that the car ran better. From my Lambretta experience I took this to mean that the carbs were set up lean. I screwed out the jets on the bottom of each of the Stromberg CD150s 1/4 turn and it produced a noticeable improvement, both smoothing the motor under acceleration, and seemingly allowing the motor to rev out further. The manual choke is a really handy thing for that particular carb diagnosis, not to mention for starting the car when cold, as these primitive carbs don't have any cold starting circuitry whatsoever and the car just simply won't run right until it's warm, period.

Update 4-7-'05 Had it in the shop today for the first tune-up/oil change. Also diagnosed worn out right bushing for the steering rack, allowing some play in the right wheel and thereby disallowing an alignment to be effectively done until the rack is replaced.
Furthermore in the steering; the steering column tube is loose in/through the firewall, the steering lower u-joint is sloppy and the upper steering rubber knuckle is starting to tear.
Installed some urethane rack mounts to replace the squishy old rubber ones.
Found out that the brake booster is leaking air, thereby allowing excess air into the vacuum system and throwing off the carburation.

Update 4-9-'05 Converted the electrical system to negative ground in anticipation of installing a stereo. Here's the site where I took directions for the conversion procedure: http://www.vtr.org/maintain/negative-ground.shtml. To start with I just want to get a radio in there, then maybe later put in good speakers, power amp, and an ipod-ready tuner.

Update 6-12-'05 Driving home the other night the clutch pedal seemed to have alot of free travel, and a couple of times I had to pull back the pedal after clutching. The next morning, the pedal was completely slack, swinging back and forth like a man after a visit to the gallows. I figured that the hydraulic actuation of the clutch had given out, and I'd just warm her up, turn her off, put her in second, and limp down to the garage for a repair. No such luck. When I started the car it just sat there idling as if it were in neutral.
Had the 2000 flat-bedded down to the shop, where the initial speculation is that the splined hub has torn free from the rest of the friction plate. Whoops.
Got it to the shop. In preparing to remove the transmission Robert noticed that the clutch slave cylinder arm was in the pressured position and that what had really happened to the clutch was that the master cylinder internal spring had broken within the cylinder, and had locked up the cylinder in the activated position, so that the clutch was stuck on. He fixed the cylinder and back on the road we were.

Update: last week of June -'05 When prepping to remove the trans, Robert had removed the shifter from the trans. After he replaced it, the car didn't shift right, as well, I had asked to have the hand brake adjusted up so that it actually held the car whilst parking on a hill (pointed downhill, of course! * ).
Well, now after getting the car back following the above mentioned clutch repair, the car didn't shift well ( was perfect before) and the handbrake cable now clanged on the driveshaft in a variety of driving situations. Took the car back. Turns out the a shifter spring was installed upside down, and the handbrake cable had to be deflected away from the shaft to not clang. Anyway , got it all sorted out and the car worked well again.

Furthermore,The rear brakes were now sticking on. Diagnosis: ancient rear brake hoses which aren't allowing fluid to return out of the cylinder, a half jammed left wheel cylinder operating only one shoe, and a missing handbrake return spring in the left wheel.
Got the parts from Moss Motors. My Mark I 2000 one used the same brake hoses as a TR6. The wheel cylinders (.800'' bore) and return spring are the same as those used in MGB roadsters and early MGB GT. The later GT used a bigger (.875'') bore cylinder. Probably the MK II 2000 went to the bigger bore cylinders as well, but this is just speculation.

Update: August-'05 Speaking of brakes, I just had the brake master cylinder rebuilt, it was schmerching by the fluid when you stepped on the pedal. This is the single circuit type for the 1963 model year. After these they went to the dual circuit type master cylinder which was this kind of wedge/rectangle shaped thing. So anyway, for these primitive first types you use a rebuild kit for a MG Midget clutch master cylinder (they had hudraulic clutches, I think that it's the same as for the Sprite). so I lucked out again in being able to use parts from one of the more relatively common British cars on the 2000, and by having the services of Robert Nobles who knows all of these parts by sight.

Update: December-'05 The old Lucas generator, though still putting out like a champ, was wasted. The front bearing was shot and the pullley and fan were slopping around up and down and weren't due to last too much longer. I bought a used gen on ebay that the guy said worked. Well it didn't and I was out $35.00 with shipping. I wasn't surprised. I went to Broadway Auto Electric in Lemon Grove and they said that they could get a new ''Lucas'' generator, now made in India, and not really related in any way to the actual Lucas company, long since out of business I guess. The 2000 actually calls for a C40L, for long. The L is about 1 or so inches longer that this standard type C40 model and you have to pay attention to getting it mounted as far forward as you can so as to align all of the belt pulleys into the same plane. I got it pretty good and this new unit works like a champ so far. The production quality of the unit looks pretty good as Indian goods go. Might have actually been made in a factory of some sort instead of in someone's living room on the floor like some Indian Lambretta parts I've seen.

Also, I ordered the u-joints and boots/stoneguards for the rear half shafts. They're from Moss Motors. The u-joints are common to Triumphs, Jags and Healeys of the era, the inner boots are from TR250 and the outers are from TR4, 250 and 6.

And here's a link to THE INNOCENTI STORY until I find a better location for it.

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