Mrs JC update 1
So the new battery strap lasted about 2 days….an old inner tube soon got cut up to fit and so far is doing a great job. All of the other new parts turned up and have been installed and a couple of small issues have now been resolved.
I had a Scootrs pipe on the motor but it was deemed too noisy so an old sito was installed however this meant having to adjust the centre stand to get clearance past the pipe as the old rubber foot on the pipe side had turned to a melted mess and the bike never sat right. Adjusting the stand legs with some brute force and the addition of some metal stand feet sorted that out nicely.
This whole build has been about giving the scooter a bit more power, better lighting and adding an electric start plus to be fair, it retains its classic look. Its not going to go on long road trips and just needs to be reliable enough for the odd sunday ride or a local rally. Its no racer by any means and following the scooterhelp wiring diagram has achieved most of what was required.
One of the issues I found was getting a 12v, DC horn as per the diagram and also once the wiring was complete and double checked there was 12v at the horn circuit when there shouldn’t have been. Once you connected the horn it was on all the time so I tried 3 other horns but same result although the AC horns did smoke a bit when connected. The relay clicked as you would expect when the horn switch was pushed and the switch was correctly wired as per the diagram.
I replaced the relay but that made no difference so eventually contacted a local auto electrician who looked at the diagram and suggested there was a mistake in it, which turned out to be true. The red wire from the battery connected to the the horn relay on the 87a tag just had to be moved to the 87 tag. Once this was done everything was good and the horn circuit was voltage free. Thanks for that Bryan. The 12v horns are common on some Lambrettas and PX’s but not many will fit into the housing on the front of the leg shield and are usually black.
I ordered one from ScootRS for a Lambretta as that was all they had in stock and while it was small enough to fit in the housing it looked a bit naff. I had a couple of older horns and decided to pull one apart and use the chrome front on it with a horn gasket that came on the scooter. It turned out not too bad and is very loud for a classic scooter horn.
One of things you will need to consider when doing something like this, if you don’t go for the electric start, is to replace the kickstart lever. The original PX kickstart is angled and there is no way to use that on this body. The easiest thing to do is to buy a new one from SIP or Paul from Vespa Spares will sort you out. Make sure you get the one that is designed for a PX motor in an old frame.
The tail light, brake light run off the battery so they are bright and work very well. The headlight runs off the motor/regulator and is very bright, however there is no high/low beam or speedometer light working with this set up. Not an issue but it would be nice to have. I have installed a key switch that controls the ignition relay for security.
The battery and the relays all fit nicely into the side pod and there is a good amount of useable room for tools and oil containers. One thing overlooked was attaching the nuts to the two side pod bolts at the very rear of the scooter, this will have to wait until the battery is removed – which hopefully will also fit through the pod door…..
Its early days for this scooter but at the moment, it runs very well and is a lot better machine than it was. I found this headlight surround which just needed some adjustment with a rubber hammer to fit the contour of the supers light housing and although “chrome wont get you home” this one wont be going to far from the nest.
Without the autolube system someone, yes you Mrs JC, will just have to get used to adding oil at the petrol station like the rest of us.
