Modern Vespa

Recently my 150 Super has decided to toot the horn a little randomly when the steering is turned. Initially it was only one way but the other way has decided to join in.
The electrics are 12 volt non battery with a regulator in the system. Everything else is fine, just the embarrassing squark when the steering is turned.

Sounds like you've got yourself a happy little scoot there, piglet!

TOOT TOOT, TOOT TOOT...YEAH!

You have a wire in the headset that has worn through and is now shorting to ground, causing the horn to honk when it does.

It's most likely either where the neck meets the headset or inside the headset where it runs through/past the grip tube.

Either way, the best way to fix it is to run a new wire and splice it in.

You will have to remove the speedo section etc to access the wires. Just be careful when unscrewing the speedo cable that you don't let go of and put some tap around the speedo cable "nut" other wise it might disappear down the hole!

Chandlerman, I feared that was the case. I love the way the people of Italy clearly have fingers the thickness of needles and with the flexibility of a piece of string. My big paws 🐾 struggle getting into the small areas.

Waspmike, I have had the speedo out so often that the speedo cable has a cable tie (zip tie) around it with the tail still attached. It means it doesn't slide down the hole when you aren't looking.

Look on the bright side...the wiring on a Super is pretty simple.

On my Stella, there's so much wiring and so many hairpin runs that it's damn near impossible to run any more wires without grooming out the old one, which is probably bundled together with a bunch of others for added impossibility.

Ain't it the truth. I sometimes wonder if Piaggio used child labor on the assembly line.

I have heard it said that it is a product of their background in aviation. A very good friend flies small planes and says the electrics almost seem like a second thought.

I know several general aviation pilots and they all have constant, ongoing electrical issues like what we do, but infinitely less reachable and more expensive to fix. But they can't go up until they're fixed (by a certified mechanic on non-experimental aircraft), which for most of them means that they fly a very expensive plane a handful of times per year.

The average scooterist, on the other hand, will probably ride at least a little so long as the ignition is firing and, ideally, the headlight and tail light are at least flickering.

And don't even get me started about marine electrical systems...

they use 8 year olds

I thought you were talking about a LML (yes Chandlerman, that had some reference to your scoot)

excuse me....posted in wrong thread

LOL!

My scooter is just the victim of an exceptionally hard life on the mean streets of Chicago, but I've never denied that from a quality perspective, LML only built two scooters per week: the first one in the morning on Monday and the last one of the week on Friday.