Modern Vespa

Greetings:

Changed the standard (CHAMPION!) Spark Plug for an NGK Irie-Dium item for a cool $10 ($20 with shipping - Thanks Scooter Parts Co...) My trained Spider Monkey collapsed with PTSD and went away to Rehab, leaving me to try to wheedle and cajole the 5/8" plug socket into position. Mr. Piaggio, could you make it any more difficult to do such a simple, standard maintenance job?! It CAN be done, as I've shown, but add the ER visit for stiches to the wound cut by the frame edges getting your hands in there.

But I digress. The post is about getting horny. Specifically, replacing the anemic, completely unconvincing "Meep" horn with a - BLAAAHHH - air horn.
There's a little dismantling to be sure, but once the floorboard and glove box are off, its pretty easy. I even got the glovebox to reinstall on the first try, and the door actuator works about 60% of the time - actually an improvement.

The final location of the horn assembly is well below the louvers in the horn cover for optimal acoustics, but the thing is so loud it doesn't matter. Texting Prius Pilots will be resoundingly corrected should they drift into my lane!


We start with an Inline Fuse from O'Reilly's. Replaced the 30 Amp unit for a 10. No sense setting the scooter on fire if a wire wears through.

The horn comes with a relay, cheap as it is. The stock horn connectors serve to activate the relay, leaving only the Hot Line from the battery and the line to the horn to attach.

Here the connections are made and the relay affixed to the handy "Ear" of the stock horn bracket

Lurking in the spacious area below the horn cover. You can see the threaded hole where I attached my simple spring steel bracket.

Nice write up! Thanks for all the detailed and labelled photos.

Greetings:

Thank you Berto. I would've documented the spark plug change but there's not enough room between the head and frame to slide a slender cellphone in there. Plus the Forum Gendarmes would've censored the pics. Too bloody. Sheesh! Could they MAKE it any Tighter?! I seriously thought of using a holesaw to drill through the outer body, then use a plastic cap to cover the hole. Just my luck, though, I would make the hole in the wrong spot...

BTW that spark plug is the adorably tiny one from the 4-valve 50. The 150 is small already, but this one is absurd. I wonder just how small they can make a spark plug?

great write up on the horn...i was also able to shoehorn a stebel nautilus in my et2...

Greetings:

Thanks Jixaw! The air horn volume is truly gratifying, isn't it?

omg yeah it is..i feel like i have a weapon...if i toot it, pedestrians jump onto the sidewalk...

i need to pick your brain about the windshield bracket bending project...i just put a medium windshield on..and its almost perpendicular to the ground..did angling it make a big difference? ..anything to keep in mind?

Greetings;

Yes, the straight-up Faco brackets made me look like Ned Flanders riding a scooter. Nerd City.

Bending the struts of unknown metallic composition was a risk. You can't use heat without uglifying the finish. I happened to have a floor jack with a 5-foot hollow handle. I clamped the shield strut in a vise, then trapped the end in the jack handle. I applied torque to the handle just to bend it a couple of degrees, then slid the jack handle a few mm closer to the "angle" on the bracket and repeated, so as to avoid making ALL the bend happen at the same fulcrum. As I said, there's a risk of breaking the strut with ham-fisted force all in the same place. I think it came out quite well - the Jaunty Angle achieved.

I believe I showed some pics of the Bending Process in a previous post:
Wheelman's ET4 2003 "ISO"
Scroll on down to near the bottom.


Nerd city: Not enough bend in the strut bracket as delivered.

Better Aero possibly. Better Look for sure, at least I think so.

That definitely looks much improved with the windscreen laid back like it is! Well done.

This small:

(The propeller is 12" across.)

Yes, it's a spark plug, not a glow plug.

Image credit: http://www.modelaviation.com/

Greetings:

Wow!!
I bet a plug like it will be standard in the new GTS 350.
Nice RC!

Greetings:

I'd been hearing a metallic "Clank" lately riding over bumps. Then my horn stopped working. Uh-oh. Checked the battery connection, and inline fuse before listening behind the horn cover for the relay click when horn button depressed. No problems so far.

With great trepidation I undertook to remove the glove-box cover. Other posts describe the cussing involved with getting this thing back on and the door working. Sure enough the + lead from the relay had broken off right at the connection to the horn.

It appears my Spring Steel mounting tab was growing fatigued, and letting the mass of the horn bang against the steering stem outer and/or the front legshield. I managed the fix with junk on-hand, no trip to the hardware store. Ms. Wheel-person has been buying lamps lately - something about things needing to "match" - don't ask. But side benefit of abundant scraps of packing styrofoam to nestle the horn into. Cut and notched to shape with Henkels Kitchen knife (Don't tell her), and a horn "bed" was carved. Giant Zip-ties purchased in an ill-fated attempt to mount tires onto rims without force. (Didn't work...)

First photo from the left side behind the leg shield. Second from the right side.

Glove box went on amazingly easily, and I modified the latch mechanism to increase the percentage of time the box opens when the keyswitch is pressed. All in all 3 relaxing Garage Therapy hours.


Cinched in to foam block to prevent oscillation from the tired Spring Steel mounting tab.