Modern Vespa

50's British cars. My Nash and TR3 are both positive ground.

Thanks for that kmf!

That's understandable, since they even drive on the wrong side of the road.

Really old (like 1920's) cars used it. Past that, I don't know.

Ummm... Stupid Ford had stupid positive ground on my lovely fifty five Vic.

I had a 67 MGB with positive ground.

My 1950 truck has a positive chassis or ground.

I think I have it!!

I ran out of black wire. And I think the red is too short for the positive lead, so still have to do the battery leads. I guess I can do an extension of the red one.

I thought about doing this anyway, because a lot of the newer batteries have clip terminals, so can have a set for those and the ring style that are interchangeable.

Such a strange configuration. The bottom terminals have multiple color wires going in to them.

Fingers crossed.

Piaggio loved to have multiple wires split off from one fastener.

Pristine! Such nice work.

One little thing at a time.

looking amazing, great work! so satisfying to follow....

I love following yours.

Two Bay Area Rallys in the same restoration timeline. Now with wiring.

Now I'm at the point where I have all these small parts I bought, but forgot where I put them.

Do p200s and Rallys have different pipes?

I think this is how the exhaust fits.

Femsa.

Is this how the femsa wires go?

The spark plug wire is so weird, bolted to the frame like that.

Just a few little parts left.

The Femsa is weird. There's a ground wire that hind of routes off, so the wire cap doesn't cover the wire sleeve thing.

I seem to remember that the earth wire is slightly longer than the 3 wires going to the femsa box so it doesn't pull. Also, I can't tell from the picture but do you have 3 wires to the femsa coil?

That makes sense. It's too short.

I have the other three wires, and had it rewired, so they're all new. And there's a little clip that holds them.

I think I need to cut back the sleeve a bit. There's plenty of play there. And I guess I can add another bit of tubing to the main wires so it connects to the boot there.

It's definitely needing some adjustment.

I ordered the clip to hold the harness, too.

Finally have all the painted parts.

They used up all the paint. Need to find a touch up pen.

Dang dude, that thing is flippin gorgeous! I'm already cringing when the first layer of road grime is deposited on that beautiful machine.

But hey, you only live once, and nothing lasts forever, and, BALANCE, in all things...

In other words, ride the piss out of it and no doubt it'll outlast all of us now that you've given it a new life....

Fantastic Job!

I can't wait to ride it!

It's not perfect. But it should be very road worthy. I'm really hoping like frame isn't bent or something. I never rode it, bc the tank was full of rust.

Pretty damn close to perfect! Persian miniature artists used to put a flaw in their works on purpose to stay humble.......Vespa artists??

Detail porn. Apparently, the pods have to go on first, bc there's no way to get the wires through otherwise.

It looks soooo good. You're doing a phenomenal job!

I like the turn signals. The patina on the speedo is the perfect kind of detail. In good condition but shows that it is the original genuine article and not some cheesy repop.

Headset parts.

It keeps the throttle open where you set it, cruise control. works well when greased but if it dries out it can make it really hard to close the throttle.

I normally leave it out. By the time the P series came out there was a requirement that the throttle be self closing.

oh! that's intentional! I always thought the older bikes just had bad throttle return.

The P style is much better

Now it's a million little things.

I have no idea how to get the speedo cable through. It has to feed through the top, and through a place in the fork inside the fender.

I could feed the brake cable from the bottom, but the speedo has that big clamped on part at the top to thread on to the speedo.

Puzzled.

I think I might need to drop the fork and detach the fender to feed the cable.

Also. Does the clutch have a barrel end? I don't think it does. But it's inside the handlebar, and you can't see.

I am so impressed with what you have done to this bike !
The clutch cable has no top hat. I have no idea why.
If you take the inner out of the speedo cable and run a fairly stiff wire that it at least twice as long as the inner up through the fork and then through the outer with the end bent over or wrapped to the outer, you can pull it down through the fork. The plastic sheath on the outer will almost certainly hang up on the sharp edge of the exit hole at the bottom so it takes some fiddling to get it through without peeling off the sheath.
As for the wires, it is always good to make them over-long as it is easier to cut them shorter when they get to where they are going than stretch them out. The handle bar switch is tricky as there is very little room for excess in there. Your heavier gauge may also prove a challenge.
Patience and perseverance.

For the speedo cable, feed some wire or weed wacker line UP the hole in the fork until it comes out the top. Then tape the bottom of the speedo cable to it and pull it down and out the hole. It's a tight fit, so go slow. Greasing the outer helps.

Thank you for the tips on the speedo!!

I will try it.

Getting so close.

I tried kicking over. No spark.

Have to diagnose why.

I was hoping it would work.

Also, installed the shifter cables, and there's a ton of play in the shifter box.

I might have missed a washer or something. the whole cluster lifts up when I shift. Seems very wrong.

Luckily, it's on the outside.

Bend it so it holds the cables off the exhaust.

check for spark with the key off

you could also disconnect the wire at the junction on top of the engine to rule out anything with the harness.

Disconnecting the kill switch wire is the very first thing I do when I encounter no spark.

Thanks! All these little things now.

Dumb question. Does the spacer in the clutch and shifter clamp go on top of the cable?

I hope I put the stator in the right way. It only seemed to fit one way.

Spark. No spark.

I disconnected the junction box, tried my spare Femsa. Tried the green/blue/red in forward and reverse order. Checked the ground on the Femsa (it goes to a bare frame post).

Nothing.

Not sure what's going on.

I had the stator checked and rewired by Robot. I'm sure that''s good.

I don't know if I put the stator the right way. But it only seems to fit one way.

And if it was the wrong way, it would probably spark, just at the wrong time, since it's all a circle.

Hm. I guess I could have damaged a wire pulling it through. The grommet was hard to get through. But seemed fine.

I'm a total noob, but could it be your flywheel that's lost magnetism? I know if they sit by themselves for a long time (without the stator or something else in place) the magnetism can degrade. Like I said I have no idea I'm just throwing it out there?

It's possible. The last time this bike was registered was 1985. 😬