The best part of bringing someone else who knows as little about the project you're working on as you do is that when you ask "Where the hell does this go?", "What the hell does this do?", "What is this even for?", or "is this supposed to do that?", there aren't any judgemental looks shot in your direction.
Shannon came out today and helped me poke around a bit in the lammy. K, so really we stood in my very cold garage while I randomly pulled on things, took stuff off, and tried to just generally figure out where things went or what they did, and did a lot of talking. The good news is, the more I look inside this thing, the more it makes sense. It may not sound like much either, but it really helps to have a second set of eyes tell you what they see while you're looking somewhere else.
Today we pulled off the top of the headset, the wires inside are just kind of randomly taped to whatever, and don't really seem to work. I'm also pretty sure all that stuff will just end up getting gutted in the end anyways. Here's hoping, because I totally took that bad boy apart. I've been told that the speedo is worth a bit to have as it is, so I wanted to put it away for safe keeping for now. I also took the battery out, just because I don't feel batteries should sit around in cold garages for no reason. We also took apart the very suspicious looking throttle cable set up. Now, I could be wrong, and saved all the parts from this set up, but it throttle cable went to where it attaches to the carb (I think it's called the carb slide, someone can correct me if I'm wrong). After that point of connection, though, the cable went on to be connected to a long spring (it was tied in a knot to this spring, by the way) which was connected to part of the frame by way of a funky looking bracket. There is no word of these parts in the part book, I made Shannon look.
Okay, so I wasn't smart enough to take a picture before I pulled the spring off, but basically the excessively long cable bit was tied (yes, in a knot) to the spring, which ran over to that really awesome bracket that's on the frame side. Opening the throttle didn't seem to change the action with or without the spring present. I guess I'm just curious why it would be like that at all.
Anyways, I guess that's about it for now. With Christmas coming, unless I see a horncast for sale somewhere, I'm taking a break from buying parts for it until after the season. I'm still really excited about the whole thing. I like imaging how it will look when it's finished, and I'm really starting to enjoy reading about how it all works.
I've recently been enjoying some of the restoration articles at
The Lambretta Club of Great Britain/LCGB Workshop. They're written in the simplest terms possible, which is perfect for me, with some decent pictures. If you're in the same boat as myself experience wise, they've really made it understandable.
I also got a tracking number from the fellow in Oregon who is sending me a headset (hopefully). So at this point, at least I know something is coming in the mail. I've been reading his (the seller's) scooter posts around the interweb, he seems pretty honest and decent too. I know, you never know, but it helps.
My friend Jamie and I discussed that really, most people are pretty honest. He felt a leap of faith to buy a part like that wasn't a bad idea. Hopefully it comes soon!
Next Steps: Gonna buy a copy of Sticky's Manual-second edition, from
Motorsport Scooter/Scooter West. Shannon is putting an order in there, so at least I'll save some on shipping. I've been told this is
THE book to own. Then I'm just gonna do some studying and reading and researching until after Christmas.
The Damage So Far: $1000 (the actual scooter), $200 (Legshield), $155ish (Head Set bottom), $100 (Front fender), $40ish (LCUSA membership), Stolen paper and ink.
