november 2006

:: chairman's foreword (september 2006) ::

greetings fellow luna-tics, i hope that everyone is ok and making good use of what sunshine we seem to get in this country (i can't account for the weather anywhere else). the past few months have been extremely busy on the luna front and with my book writing. i have spent the best part of a day going through the photo archives at mortons (publishers of scootering & scooterist scene) in horncastle. despite, mine and gill's best efforts we could not find any luna line photos. we have found 43 lambretta photos that we want to use in my book, the only sticking point being that morton's want us to cough up £50 each per photo - OUCH!

the isle of wight rally has been and gone and it was good to see the LOC well represented on the island. i had originally planned to go to the event, but work always seems to conspire against me and a couple of forthcoming court cases have seen me frantically working on case material. the good news is that i have been to WS9 scooters in walsall to sort out my lui 50c. and very nice it is too, it will need some work but its a good sound basis for a project and won't need too much work doing to it.

as some of you will know i had 20 LOC patches printed to celebrate the club and the luna landings 2006. these sold within a week - must admit i was surprised that they went so fast, so thanks to everyone who ordered one. there are a couple still outstanding that i need to send but they will be out soon [i expect they've been posted by now, as pete wrote this in early september - sarah]. i have been asked why only 20, well to be honest it was a mix of keeping it a little bit exclusive and also due to the outlay of getting them printed, especially when i need to keep over £2k on one side to pay mortons for the use of pictures. hopefully, those that have their patch or patches (hey jem!) like them.

i recently went on a trip to a secret location in the west midlands where i viewed a guys collection of over 50 lambrettas. whilst there we talked about all things lambretta, including the luna line. seems he turns luna line machines down everytime he's offered them (and he seems to get offered them for very little money!!). i have asked him to contact his italian contacts to see what accessories or other stuff he can get - so watch this space. he is also going to speak to another contact to see if he can source me some original italian photos for the book (at a price a lot cheaper than £50 each!!).

well, thats all for now, i need to go and salvage TTL 16J (my 1971 vega) from a certain dealers and start working on putting a vespa engine in it - that andy quail has got a lot to answer for.

cheers for now

pete davies

:: luna landing # 3 ::

vfm isle of wight international scooter rally

9 lunas landed successfully on the island between 24th and 28th august 2006.

above: 7 vegas at ryde ice rink car park on sunday
snapped by marc d, left to right: cezeta's, greg's, bart's
(all the way from belgium), czechers', vegagirl's, adam's, doug's.

above: andy quail's luna-tic, LOC
prizewinner at the custom show,
snapped by donegal paul.

there will be a luna landing 3 page out soon with comments about, and more photos of, lunas at the isle of wight rally.

:: this month’s featured luna: andy quail's lui ::

andy, is an LOC member from nottinghamshire, and member of the east midlands scooter alliance, he has a vega 75s as well as a custom lui 50c. i asked him to send some info on his award-winning lui:

"the lui with the vespa engine, hmm, started life as a full frame white model, my mate originally bought it from some guy in portsmouth - i went with him to pick it up. my friend had it for a year collecting dust and asked if i wanted to buy it which i did. i already had a vega and lui but not a 50c,looking in some old mags i saw a vega with a p range range thought it would be a good idea to do it to the lui c because of the handle bars".

andy q"

:: lack of sparks????? ::

a problem i have come across whilst building/repairing/working on luna line machines is that the spark from the ht lead is often weak, intermittent or at worst non existant. the original ducati ht coils as fitted to most 75cc lunas earth themselves through the coil mounting bracket that is then bolted to the frame via the junction box retaining bolts/nuts. in the case of a standard luna 50cc model the coil is mounted on the cylinder cowling and the coil earths through its bracket and onto the cowling.

i have come across several instances where owners have had their 75cc machines painted and have then forgotten to remove the paint from the two tubular mounting lugs that the ht coil sits onto. hence no spark when they test the electrics. the same scenario can happen on a 50cc model if the area on the cylinder cowling that the coil bolts to is not cleaned of paint.

another problem is oxidation. owners do not generally know that the ht coil needs a good earth to function correctly and miss the fact that water ingress can cause rusting/oxidation of the earthing points. it is a good thing to add the cleaning of the coil and the mounting place to your annual routine maintenance list (if you have one).

most luna ignition faults are not caused by the stator plate/flywheel (as long as the flywheel has a good charge) but are caused by owner lack of knowledge or general neglect - keep the earths clean and you should have hundreds of miles of trouble free motoring.

picture no1 shows the coil mounting tubes that need to be thoroughly cleaned of paint/rust before assembly of the ht coil



picture no2 shows a 75cc Ducati coil with the coil mounting bracket heavily rusted around the mounting holes - this area should be cleaned back to bare metal to ensure earth continuity between the mounting bracket and the frame.



picture no3 shows a 50cc ht coil that has had the mounting bracket thoroughly cleaned in the area on the rear of the bracket that bolts to the cylinder cowling.

regards - the LOC/lunabase team: pete, jem, justin and sarah

luna news no6 (feb 2006)

luna news no7 (mar 2006)

luna news no8 (may 2006)

luna news no9 (july 2006)