Modern Vespa

Rust Is a bitch!

Finally got the front hub off my v100 for the same reason. Turned out the brake pads were fine and I didn't need to take the hub off!

Ride it and enjoy it. If the brakes stop working then get the hub off.

There's no rust involved with the hub. Not too worried about it right now honestly. May just have been I had the bike up off the ground and the wheel wouldn't stop spinning. I'm sure a little heat will help it when I need to get it off to replace the brake shoes eventually.

The electric impact gun is a godsend for tearing down engines. It never goes in the tighten direction though on my engines.... It would make short work of your hub nut.

Yeah I have one of them and a pneumatic one. That nut didn't move with either one :shrugs:

heat. then impact. try that.

Oh, the rear hub will come off, all right. Now we're discussing the state it'll come off in...

I'm thinking maybe Liquid wrench or Kroil penetrating oil a few drops at a time.

If he goes the penetrating oil route, he may want to plan on replacing that rear seal while the hub is off, as those oils attack rubber and similar compounds like nobody's business.

First things first boys.

Not worried about the rear hub but currently. I'll heat it and pneumatic wrench it off no prob I'm sure.

I've got a new problem! Put the engine back in and was waiting for gasket material to make an oil drain gasket so I could put the gear oil back in. Everything went fine there. Kicked the beast over and she ran for about 10 seconds and died. Headlight was on and taillight and brake light were flickering during those seconds. Ok no biggie I'll just kick her over again and should be kosher since there was no gas in the carb or line I figured it would just need a little persuasion. Cool. Starts up on first kick. With no lights. At all. Fucking kidding me?

Any ideas as to what caused that? I'm gonna check with a multi meter tomorrow to see if I'm getting power at the lights. I'm too tired and annoyed to do that right now.

Ghosts. Definitely ghosts.

Just my luck.

Did some wiring come unplugged???

Hmmm.
I'd look in the junction box and re-connect the power wire that's come loose in there.
🙂

(Assume you had to connect wires in there when you put the motor back in.)

So that was definitely ghosts.

They work fine today.
Did a start up and it stumbled along again for 10seconds then died so I restarted and she ticked over fine. Lights worked both times.

Gremlins man. Gremlins.

Went for a ride tonight since it's wicked nice out. Learned a few things.

1. The lights. Welp there's a definite gremlin. Lights kept cutting in and out. Still had spark and the engine ran but the lights would randomly turn off and back on so something is loose. I'll check that in the morning.

2. The lights. Suck. Even when on I couldn't see shit. Super dangerous. Gonna have to look into an LED alternative or just never ride at night. LED may work if I can find one with the right BA20d socket. I can just tap the power for that from the Koso ac/dc converter, may as well do the tail and brake light in LED while I'm at it then eh?


The Blue Bastard.

What's the 10" equivalent for 60/8? Cause 70mph is nuts. Still haven't gone past 1/2 throttle in 4th. Maybe I made it to 5/8, maybe.

I feel your pain. The headlight in my 61 Allstate 200 sucks equally bad. I live out in the hills in a rural area and deer strikes are quite common. There's also a large herd of elk that roam around my area as well. I almost plowed straight into the middle of the herd in my old ford pick'em up truck a few years back (poor headlights in the middle of a snow storm). I was always spooked of hitting one, so I only rode my Allstate after dark only a couple times. The headlight on the Allstate would also point about 15' up in the air, and not on the road. Luckily I have all the trees (the county road winds through a short forest) memorized, so can navigate the turns by looking high up in the trees.

I haven't decided on what my final plan is to boost the lumens on my Allstate. I did just purchase a 12VAC VAPE ignition for it, but I haven't wired it up yet.
My Plan A was to-
-wire my scoot as 12VAC, install a AC to DC converter (which I have already).
-install a Baja Designs LED for a headlight.
-install a second Baja Designs LED inside the legshield Lucas light (that is currently mounted on the scooter).

My Plan B is to-
-switch my AC VAPE over to DC.
-wire my scooter with a DC harness.
-install a battery somewhere.
-install both of those Baja Designs lights.

The only tricky part is that the shape of the BD lights would look silly on an old scooter, so I'll have to camouflage them somehow.

I don't know which Koso AC to DC converter you're looking at, but when I just google searched it, the one that I see have a 6 watt max rating. That's going to be WAAAAAY to low of a rating for a higher powered LED. I bought my AC to DC converter from Baja Designs, and I think it's rated to around 60 watts or so? I'll have to call them up again to find out for sure.

Just looked that up and you're correct. Dang it. Guess I can try LED's that work on AC?

They are hard to find and all had horrible lifespans in my experience.

You could just get a Rectifier version of the Vape regulator and plug it in. The whole system is modular like that.

I've tried several AC LED's off my Vape's AC regulator. Some didn't work at all. Some very bright, for a few days to a week. Suspect the AC output is too unstable through the rev range for an AC compatible LED.

Give me a few days. I've got a cheapo 10-28vac to 12vdc buck transformer arriving tomorrow from Amazon. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

BTW I snapped the rear shock buffer in half while trying to true the frame like a gorilla to a safari jeep.
It was the original buffer! All those years and no one thought of replacing that guy. It crumbles by hand. Had one on the shelf, so not a big deal. Made for an interesting ride, though!

Lesson repeated:
You have to go through EVERYTHING on a vintage scoot.

Bummer about the LED's not playing with the VAPE. Aren't there low wattage LED's though. For some reason I thought they drew a lot less power. Like 5watts or something. Maybe I made that up in my head and believed it. Who knows. Gonna search around and see what I find. But so far outlook not so good. I just wanna be safe if I am out and the sun decides to set before I'm home. I don't plan on riding much at night but always better to be over prepared than under.

Oh if that transformer works that'll change things! Hope it works for you/future me

Your shock buffer sounds like my engine mounts! Literally fell apart in my hand. Into crumbs. Was very weird to see. I'm thinking about getting a Clauss one. But heard they are harsh. Should last a long ass time though.

Interesting. I'll look into that. They really thought this system through which is really nice.

LED's are a DC device, you need an AC to DC converter for an LED to work properly.

Another option is throw a couple of bright ass flashlights and some duct tape in the cowl for the after dusk rides ..

To digress I went for a ride tonight and the sun set while I was out. Headlight is pretty useless for me seeing the road. But at least others can see me so that's good.
It cut out twice and I noticed that the horn doesn't work at all when the lights go out. Could that help narrow down what's loose? The connections in the junction box were tight. That'd mean I gotta check under the tank I think. Or it's that pesky blue wire shorting since that has continuity with ground still. Never could figure that one out.

Now we're talking!

As others have also noted, LED's really only work off DC. In my experience, the AC ones never lasted for more than a few weeks, even if they were allegedly made for AC.

The draw for an LED tail or brake light is only about 2 watts, so lots of leftover power after that. I put mine into absurdly bright headlamps and other lights.

I have had marginal luck with BA20D LED bulbs. They just don't seem to last, either, even on DC. I think it's partly the lack of ventilation through the housing, but also I was buying random stuff of Amazon to check it out. Right now, I run incandescent headlights on the GL and VBB both, though I'd love to upgrade to a nice bright LED on both of them.

As I said, you can swap out the regulator on the AC Vape for a DC regulator/rectifier and it's plug n' play, other than any changes you'll need to make to the wiring harness, plus getting a DC horn.

I don't recall (but also don't think) that the horn circuit on the SIP 12V harness is a stupid short-to-ground like the OG AC harnesses, but you'll want to doublecheck that rather than taking me at my word.

DC horns are a PITA to find one that fits a largeframe and cost a dumb amount of money (like $100 USD). I bought one for my GL, but still need to figure out something for the VBB. I'm thinking find a small DC unit and swap it into the housing. More to come at a later date on that, though, once I figure out what I'm going to do.

I am a heretic, just let's get that out of the way first.

However, I have successfully ran LED on AC in my Primavera.

See this thread:
https://modernvespa.com/forum/post2140188#2140188

Untitled by john.headley, on Flickr

I know it's not supposed to work. I just did it and it did. Ask Greasy to fire it up and show you, I bet it's still working.

LED's are funny like that. They either die very quickly or last forever. The ones I bought were cheap-o off Amazon, so that may have been the root cause of their rapid failure, but I've definitely had much better luck with DC, even the cheap-o ones off Amazon.

Just went to install the cheapo DC rectifier, only to find the power wire had come loose from the SIP AC regulator. Latest DC bulb(same as John's -- 1157/BAY15d) works fine again now.

Gonna ride with it till it dies. Until then I'm trying to decide whether to connect it to only one supply at the headlight(would run as on/off only) or connect it to power at the junction box, to include the tail/brake lights and old 6vdc horn.

score 1 for team heretics!!

Following up:
Headlight dimmed after 2 weeks. Installed the DC converter in the headset (snugs up nice without gluing) and a brighter bulb. My bulb type is different than yours, btw.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0834X45QL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&th=1

Some pics:


I can relate to the wasp.

Cheap converter from Amazon

4 watt LED

8.5 watt LED. Brown wire is blanked. You need to test which pole is bright on a BAY socket. Now on/off at the switch.