Quieting in the Noise
Tools on the floor of the garage isn’t my idea of a good time. Perhaps in time it will be. The scooter was getting louder and I couldn’t ignore it any longer. Noise chips away at the serene nature of a ride. One of the aspects of riding the Vespa GTS that I appreciate most is how quiet it is.
Bad Vespa Exhaust Gasket
A worn out exhaust union gasket destroys the silence (and eventually will damage the scooter). This graphite and metal mesh gasket seals the joint between the muffler and the header pipe coming from the cylinder head. It’s delicate and subject to failure. The risk of damage increases each time the rear tire is changed and the muffler has to be removed.
Good Vespa Exhaust Gasket
This is what a new gasket looks like. Piaggio recommends changing the gasket each time that union is disassembled. At $20 a pop and the rate of rear tire changes it seems expensive. So a lot of Vespa riders only change it when there’s a problem. In most cases the failure is slow. You hear the exhaust noise begin to increase to an eventual pop-pop-pop noise as hot gas begins to go in directions it shouldn’t. Plenty of warning to have it fixed.
Easy Fix
Changing the exhaust union gasket isn’t difficult or time consuming if you have the right tools on hand. Three Torx bolts hold the muffler onto the scooter and a 17mm hex head bolt in a clamp holds the muffler to the header pipe. All four can be removed in a matter of minutes. Once you pull the old gasket from the muffler end and clean everything up you can insert the new gasket and put everything back together.
Simple. Easy.
Almost.
The Right Tools
Luckily I had purchased (don’t remember doing this) a tool to expand the end of the muffler to allow the easy insertion of the gasket. Without it would be difficult to complete the job. I could have had the entire job done in 15 minutes. Unfortunately though I had to drive to Tyrone to buy the last Vespa exhaust union gasket Kissell Motorsports had in stock. Later that day I discovered I had a gasket already as well. Now I have a spare.
And the Vespa is once again a silent runner. For my next mechanical trick I think I’ll replace the drive belt and rollers.
Get it ready for Summer. : )
Summer? I wanted it ready for now!
What makes any job like that unpleasant is lying down on the ground. A bike lift may make these types of jobs much more tolerable. I’m sure you know someone with a lift in a heated shop…
Good news. Back in January I bought a big motorcycle table lift at Harbor Freight. Works great. As soon as I straighten up the garage I’ll be able to actually use it. Heat would be a nice addition. Paul has suggested one of the burner units that you fasten to a propane tank. Lot’s of heat in a hurry.
You’re right though, crawling around on a cold concrete floor in the winter is no fun. That’s what I had to do to change the exhaust gasket. Luckily it was a quick task.
I find it always satisfying to do my own wrenching on my two-wheelers – knowing that the job is done and (hopefully) right.
I’m hoping I find the same satisfaction you describe. Perhaps once I have the garage set up in a more comfortable manner to work I’ll find wrenching more delightful.
I seem to be missing part of an information trail.
Kissell moved to a new location near their original location;
the proprietorship was then sold and shop has moved again?
This time to Tyrone?
So my question is two-fold. Kissell is obviously no more a Vespa dealer; looking at their range of available product they seem to be a BMW and Ural dealer.
And where will you now have to venture for repair parts
for your faithful steed? Amazon?
Final note this posting; how is your wife Kim progressing?
Kissell Motorsports did move 28 miles away. Not so far that I wouldn’t have them service the Vespa. The unexpected part was them giving up their Piaggio dealership. Things are going well for them as a BMW, Ural and Beta dealer. Spoke with the owner back in February. I one week they sold 17 motorcycles. That’s outstanding for winter here in central Pennsylvania.
As far as parts go for the Vespa — Scooterwest in San Diego along with others can supply anything I need. Much of the routine maintenance is simple enough for me to handle if I don’t recoil from it. And Kissell’s will still service the Vespa. So I’m in good shape.
Kim is progressing slowly but in a positive direction. Surgeon suggests June as the target for being in some range of “normal” whatever that might be. We’re taking things a day at a time now.
Hi Steve;
I’m pleased to see that you are keeping on top of the maintenance needs of your Vespa. I find ‘fiddling’ with my bikes to be quite contemplative, sort of like washing the dishes every night. It calms me down and settles my mind.
Since reading your posts for the past couple of years, I’ve been going to school on your ‘life with a Vespa’ lessons and have come to realize that ‘small’, when it comes to the size of one’s motorcycle, doesn’t necessarily mean ‘less’. Today, I bought a used Honda 250cc Elite scooter to supplement my 650 Burgman, and I love it already.! I know… it’s not a Vespa, but the concept is the same. Like the infamous Ed March says, you don’t have to spend $25K and heft around a 600 lb. adventure touring bike to go adventure touring!
If you or any of your readers are interested, there is a book out there that was written by a Canadian author and photographer named Thomas Martin Smith who took his 250 Honda Elite on a two year, around the world adventure tour. Interesting reading, no matter what you ride.
Cheers,
Jim.
I hope and expect to find the same satisfaction in fiddling with the Vespa that you do Jim. I remember how relaxing it was to while away time in the garage when I was a teenager. Perhaps I’ll find a similar place now.
Congratulations on your acquisition of a Honda Elite scooter. Bombproof machines. Even my wife knows of them from an old Honda scooter commercial featuring Lou Reed as spokesman.
I’ll check out the book by Thomas Martin Smith. A quick check on Amazon shows him to be an interesting character.
Lou Reed? Advertising for Honda? Now that would be interesting. His music certainly brings back some memories…
It’s a strange commercial. Hard to imagine Lou selling the rights to “Walk on the Wild Side” to Honda. You can see the commercial on YouTube.
Funny how that noise creeps up on you at first. I was like “am I imagining it, or is this getting noisy?” By the end, it was getting downright annoying. By the time I popped it off, the gasket looked pretty much like yours. Unfortunately I didn’t have the spreader tool, but the most basic trick is pounding it open with a wooden tool handle. Other standard trick is a 1-1/8 socket. Even though I had a couple laying around (thanks, Dad!), sprung for the tool for the next round.
There is a non-Vespa gasket that’s more like $10 that you can get from EBay. MV has the discussion/links. Looks pretty identical to OEM and haven’t heard any reliability issues. Still, being the cheapskate I am, I’ll likely try to see how long it lasts.
My experience with it was the same as yours. The noise did creep up slowly and had me wondering if I was imagining things.
I did purchase a gasket on eBay in the past. I think it is a Yamaha gasket but identical to the Piaggio one. And it was less than ten dollars. I’ll look for another to have a backup.
So far, I haven’t had to deal with this, but in time I will want to deal with the failing cosmetics of the muffler itself – my current plan is to purchase an identical pipe to the stock one (I happen to like the sound just as it is, not too loud, but with a peasant little rumble), have it put on, but instead of chucking the old one, which is otherwise still serviceable, have it repainted in a more-durable finish than it came with…perhaps an admittedly more-costly but more-durable ceramic finish. I’ll likely have the scratches I put on the bike’s underbelly refinished as well to fend off corrosion.
I repainted my stock muffler every year until I broke down and bought a replacement on eBay when the corrosion burned through muffler. I got what appeared to be a brand new (used) muffler for $75. Cheap compared to the loud aftermarket ones. I had considered sending it to JET HOT to have a ceramic coating put on it but I decided I didn’t care enough or want to spend the money to have a shiny muffler. And I did have the underside of the Vespa repainted last year. The salt was beginning to take a toll and I wanted to forestall any unfortunate rust through on the body. A bargain at $275.
Moving forward I’m anxious to see how much repair work and wrenching I can handle.
Do you use a torque wrench? Wondering if it would be handy, or an unnecessary expense.
Cheers!
I have a torque wrench and use it from time to time. Not on this job though. Lazy I guess. I can’t answer whether it’s necessary or not for the kind of parts I wrenching on. Bearings, cylinder heads and such I would say yes it matters. But I really don’t know. Probably should do as I’m told by the manual though. Thanks for the reminder.
I’m coming in late here and apologize for resurrecting this discussion. I’ll soon be replacing my original rear tire after putting some 5,500 miles on it (a Michelin City Grip) and am making ready to possibly replace the exhaust union gasket. The sensible side of me says to simply order a new OEM Piaggio gasket from our good friends at SW ($17 for the “old style” or $26 for the “new style” – not sure what the real difference is…), but the “thrifty” side of me says, hey, I can get these on Amazon/ebay for less than ten bucks. For what it’s worth, any input the direction I should take?
Thanks for your wonderful blog, Steve. I check my inbox daily and it always makes my morning whenever I see something arrive from SITS.
Cheers!
Hello Floyd,
Regarding the various exhaust gaskets available — I’ve used the Piaggio OEM version as well as the much less expensive ones I’ve purchased on eBay. I’ve been told the less expensive ones are Yamaha parts that are the same size as the Piaggio ones.
Just looking at the two products you can see the Piaggio version appears to be manufactured better. Everything is smooth and clean. The less expensive ones look a little “rougher” on the edges. In use though, I’ve not found a great difference between the two. I’ve had both eventually burn through. Haven’t kept track of mileage though.
A friend stopped by on his Vespa GTS300 a couple days ago and I told him it sounded as if his exhaust gasket was failing. He didn’t know what that was and still had the original in place after 22K miles. We started the scooter and crawled underneath so I could show him where the exhaust was escaping. Fortunately it was venting downward and away from anything mechanical. I had an extra gasket on hand and sent him home with it and the expansion tool so he could replace his first gasket.
I used to change mine almost every time I pulled the muffler. That was recommended by Piaggio back then. Not sure what the recommendation is now. Regardless, I only change the gasket if it appears damaged or I begin to hear the failure.
I’ll be buying more gaskets and will most likely purchase the less expensive non-OEM ones.
Not sure if this helps but good luck with your maintenance!