strangeangel

They're a great* bit of design, those rubber inlets. The whole weight of the carb is supported by that on many scooters, with obvious consequences. It was such a problem with the Helix that Honda fitted a brace to the later models, which they made available for people to buy and fit to earlier bikes. Another possibility that springs to mind is the condition of the vac lines, any missing clips etc.
 
If you want to save a few pund on the transmission overhaul I would stick with genuine rollers but get an aftermarket belt. I use Three Five belts (Taiwanese) in the Helixes which are cheap and reliable. I went to those because I bought a genuine Honda Bando (£££) for my first belt change and the bastard snapped half way through its duty cycle...
 

Sadly this week the unthinkable happened. We have been served notice on our units. Having to clear out a fair few cars and parts...including this:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1993-Reliant-Robin-/324520155297?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292
 

Bonus shot of the internals of my £8 stereo...

Bit of an update on the blue one while the white one still undergoes surgery!
While the car has been working and running it's had a few issues and there's some broken things that I've wanted to address. Firstly the stereo, while my bargain £8 from eBay stereo has worked well it was only pumping sound out of one of the speakers. Took it upon myself to investigate and after determining that there was indeed wiring running to the speaker the plug for the stereo had pushed the pin out for the speaker so it wasn't working (who'd have guessed my £8 stereo had shonky build quality). Plugged in and working perfectly!
Speaking of broken electrics, Reliant clocks have a habit of dying. Both Reliants I have owned the clock hasn't worked and apparently it's really common. So I swapped it out for a posh £5 rev counter off fb marketplace! Now I know exactly how much the engine is screaming at me.
Also the oil pressure light didn't turn on. This one has concerned me slightly but a new pressure switch which I had laying around from a Mini engine rebuild and it is now Illuminating! The good news is it also goes out when you start the car! Again, Reliants have a habit of flickering oil pressure lights at idle but I am lucky in that mine is not!
It's also been running a bit rough at low speed. I self diagnosed this as ignition related as the plugs are a lovely brown colour. The points were dirty and corroded so I've done a full ignition service and replaced leads, cap, rotor arm and points. Now it runs lovely! Access is a little tight to the dizzy and it's easier to do the cap and leads from the drivers engine hatch in the footwell.
While I was under the car doing the pressure switch I spotted a couple of grease nipples for the kingpin. I gave them a couple of pumps of grease each until it was just popping out the seal. Turns out that was a mistake... Reliant designed the kingpin to have dust covers INSIDE the brake drum. So if you overfill the king pin with grease it fills your brake drum full of grease too! That was a bit scary when I reached the junction at the end of the road! Because I'm a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to this car I immediately turned around and put the car on the drive and whipped the drum and shoes off and stuck them in a washing up bowl with a load of brake cleaner. After a good scrub the shoes got a bake in the oven. 20 minutes at 200C. The kitchen smelt lovely after that... Back together now and the brakes are even better than before!
I also cut up an old IKEA rug for floor mats because the drivers footwell had no carpet!

 

I spent the weekend (when I wasn't being falsely accused of being pulled by plod) trying to fix my handbrake.
One of the MOT fails was that it appeared to be hitting the stop on the mechanism and not being good enough.
What it turned out to be was that someone had replaced a clevis pin on the bottom of the handbrake handle with a bolt, which was fouling the body. Luckily I had a spare clevis pin from a Mini that fit.
I then promptly pulled the handbrake a few times and the handbrake suddenly went loose. Turns out the cable sleeve had pulled through its mount on the axle bracket. A quick fix with a slotted washer and a few tack welds and the handbrake is golden.
Re-test is booked in for Wednesday!
Also this angle on a slightly inclined driveway is definitely not dubious...

I had to pull the update last night so here goes again! Took alot of time this week with work and family so time was limited, I did however make great progress. Managed to refit manifold with new studs, exhaust and alternator. I had a quick fiddle with the wiring which of course highlighted more issues....another parts order goes in but it really does feel like we might make it!
 

Yeah you can buy a full carb that I reckon I could make work for £15 brand new, but confidence would not be high in it lasting a month. 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Carburettor-Carb-4-Stroke-For-Honda-CRF50-XR50-GY6-Choke-110cc-125cc-150cc-UK/313389075680
I've just been out again and applied a bit of brake cleaner and some revs to try and get things flowing through the carb.
It kinda worked, was able to wobble up and down the road at up to 20mph but it's still not right in the lower end of the revs, also this elbow thing does not look too clever as you mention. 

I'm hoping with a better effort at cleaning the carb I'll get there.
Very pleased with the GTS having now ridden it a bit, can see why they are so popular with moped crime gangs as the acceleration to 40ish mph is really good, big enough to fit a gang member or 2 on the back of and I reckon they must crash quite well with the metal frame, which is probably important when involved in a chase.
I reckon it could be even faster with a tranmission service, I imagine it is well overdue and both the belt and the rollers wear which slows the bike down, it's about £80 worth of parts if you go genuine though so might have to wait until next month. 

Impressed to see that they both went in the van so easily... fetching scooters home in the C15 always involved taking bits off - nothing ever went in with the top box and mirrors still attached! Just think how easily I'll be able to ship home rank mopeds in this Vito... MUAHAHAHAHA. The GTS looks like it'll prove itself a proper bargain, I'm sure you'll enjoy riding that in the urban scramble.
 
Re: the carb on the 125 - it did look spectacularly rank, but those CV carbs are normally pretty reliable, even when terminally worn. The problems I've had over the years (the same type are fitted to my Helixes) are cracks in the rubber inlet manifold - I would whip that off and have a really good look at it if you haven't already - and the vac piston sticking occasionally. The latter can wear and get burrs on the end nearest the needle, cleaning with a bit of fine abrasive paper usually does the trick. Ultrasonic cleaners are good IME - I have one of the Lidl jewelry cleaners, which is fine for moped carbs, but won't take something that size. - you'd be able to get bits of it in OK though. I wholeheartedly recommend voiding the warranty by using diesel in it instead of water.
 
As you have already surmised, the aftermarket (Chinese) carbs are down in the bottom drawer behind the bar in the Last Chance Saloon. I gambled £25 or whatever it was and bought a Helix one purely to use the bi-metallic strip electric choke thing - the Honda ones are £££ - and for once my luck was in. A while later, after discussing Chinese carbs on a scooter forum, out of curiosity I stuck it on one of the Helixes, which was running perfectly with the carb it had on at the time. Nightmare - poor starting, idled when it felt like it and, worst of all, two big flat spots in the middle of the rev range. I've since robbed the gaskets from it, but anything where actual engineering tolerances are involved should be considered scrap. If that one really is bolloxed then a decent second hand one is your best option IMO.
 

The W114/280E has gone..we saved it from becoming an Auckland swimming pool..bought extra doors for it..fixed oil cooler..but the patchwork of welding was beyond my expertise or bank acc...put on online in Wellington for €1..and a couple of Aucklanders paid an excruciating too much sum for it....I felt bad...but theyve accepted their burden..and i more than doubled my money. When does that ever happen?

I know they're more likely to be off a '57 Chevy or similar, but what came to mind when I saw those headlight trims was 'TRIUMPH HERALD!'

I was idly looking at local cars on the Gumtree app on my phone for no good reason a while back. Saw a Merc W201 and while checking out the photos managed to accidentally tap the automatic "Hi, is this still available?" message button. Seller responded quite quickly and I had to explain sheepishly that I wasn't actually interested in buying his car...😳

CDI turned up yesterday and got me some good sparks. The scoot fired up fine on brake cleaner but not a sniff without.
So I took the carb off to have a look.




Pretty rank. I've cleaned it all out as well as I can with brushes and wire and the bike does now start and idle without spray but it dies if you open the throttle more than about 1/4.
I'm guessing it may be the accelerator pump as this is pretty hard to clean out properly.
Not too sure what to do next, maybe get a little ultrasonic cleaner to try and clean it better as a replacement carb is $$$ and the generic ones are most likely shit.
Also fixed all the MOT fails on the GTS (see Bikeshite thread for man vs tyre) so will pop it in for retest in the morning.

If you stand outside your gaff right now and listen carefully you'll probably hear me applauding... using a redundant fire extinguisher to seat a tubeless tyre - if that isn't the Autoshite way then I don't know what is 😎

@pbottomley has several. If you have a rummage through the Bikeshite thread there is an absolutely priceless video of him hooning around on one.
 
 
WOULD.
 

@pbottomley has several. If you have a rummage through the Bikeshite thread there is an absolutely priceless video of him hooning around on one.
 
 
WOULD.
 

@pbottomley has several. If you have a rummage through the Bikeshite thread there is an absolutely priceless video of him hooning around on one.
 
 
WOULD.
 

Twas thinking the VeloVap would be just the thing for @strangeangel and im not just saying that because my own personal Bias because of its Surrey registration number

Now come on, own up, we're all friends here - you really want an Ariel 3, don't you?

If you stand outside your gaff right now and listen carefully you'll probably hear me applauding... using a redundant fire extinguisher to seat a tubeless tyre - if that isn't the Autoshite way then I don't know what is 😎

If you stand outside your gaff right now and listen carefully you'll probably hear me applauding... using a redundant fire extinguisher to seat a tubeless tyre - if that isn't the Autoshite way then I don't know what is 😎

Not one, but FIVE Jawa Manet/Tatran scooters!!!!!!!11!
 
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1035222313584428/
 
 
 

Between you and me, I think someone's pissed in it.
 
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/3727870717291295
 

If you stand outside your gaff right now and listen carefully you'll probably hear me applauding... using a redundant fire extinguisher to seat a tubeless tyre - if that isn't the Autoshite way then I don't know what is 😎

Between you and me, I think someone's pissed in it.
 
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/3727870717291295