Modern Vespa

That info is GOLD - Thank you!

Calipers are your friend, my friend

It's all about stopping thinking in terms of "I need a 1963 GL front axle bearing" and starting thinking in terms of, "I need a 20x47x14 sealed bearing."

For example, I bought a bag of 50 hi-temp o-rings for my Malossi 166 head for the cost of one o-ring from any scooter supply house by measuring and searching. That's a more-than-lifetime supply, especially seeing as that kit is on the shelf now.

And once you start doing anything interesting with the lights or electrickery system, you pretty much have to go that route.

Yes, a shift in my thinking could be quite advantageous.

And I love my digital calipers, so it's just the operator that needs to make the shift

Installed the dampner today, and the welded swingarm area is working fabulously.

I also sanded on the front fender...

I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas!


My contraption for compressing the spring enough to align the shock sleeve nubs

Nubs in grooves - check! Antiseize on the bolt.

Need to sand this side

Getting there

Today I played with the hammer and dolly kit I got a few weeks back.

After watching Chandler's vids, I put in the earbuds, then the ear muffs, turned on the tunes (The kinks and whatever else came up) and started tap, tap, tapping.

I zoned out and went with the flow. Then I realized an hour went by. But lo and behold, I think it's almost ready for a coat of primer! So I gave it a coat of Ospho for good measure, and will look at paint tomorrow.

BTW, it is very therapeutic, all that tap, tap, tapping, like doing a puzzle. But you gotta be in the right headspace or it could be....ugly....


This should be fun. My new dolly and hammer kit

It had some serious road rash and the bottom lip was all bent up. I got it cleaned up and shaped appropriately

Someone took a ball peen hammer to the inside of this dent and dented the crap out of it. I did what I could. I want to get some paint on it, the work it some more

Ospho is your friend....

Chris came over today bearing gifts! He bought me a px150 front end so I can put disc brakes on Ruby, the P200e AND a carload of P200e parts!

Where did we get all this goodness, you ask? Well from none other than GeekLion! We made the deal many weeks ago, and the stuff has finally made it here.

So Chris and I took inventory of what was there, what was missing, and he helped me stash it in the garage for some time in the future.

We didn't get much done on Lucy, the GL except to prime the fender. Oh, and we put on the new SIP rims and tires on Ruby!

A great day on the rainy Oregon Coast. Thanks Chris!


Parts mania

I wonder what's all here?....

Time to write down what's missing and get this list to Jesse...

All put away on the upper left shelf.

New SIP front tire and rim

You're going to love that disc brake Scott! I'm exited for you!! The only tricky part is if you decide to use the stock PX150 brake hose. The fittings are a large enough diameter that it won't fit through the opening at the top of the frame's steering neck (where the cables and wire pass through). You'll have to grind the opening slot much larger. Then have to worry about the brake hose pinching the wire harness. A safer (and of course more expensive) way is to route and aftermarket brake line inside the fork tube.

Thanks Whodat. We were looking at it, and it looks like drilling a hole and running aftermarket brake line inside the fork is the way I'm going to go. And it looks like I'll need to grind a steering column lock groove in the new fork as well. I'm hoping to use the existing headset and not change it to a PX upper and lower. But I think that'll mean buying an aftermarket reservoir and lever also.... Hmmmm....

The absolute easiest way to make a slot for the column lock dead on, is to first remove your P's current lock cylinder (but you'll most likely damaged the two rivets and maybe the lock cylinder cover as well), install the PX fork, sight down the hole (where the lock cylinder was) and make a mark on the fork through the hole. But then again, there's more than one way to skin a cat.

Good one - thanks for the tip!

When the patient on the operating table is on life support and another one shows up sometimes the only thing to do is say a little prayer.

Got the front fender painted....


High tech paint booth - ha!

Needs more hanging drop cloths and box fans

Y'all are awesome.
Always love a report from Scott's garage.
The good chi can be felt all the way down in Lala land.

Yeah, I'm taking a few...shortcuts... Thanks my friend. We try...we try...

And a very Happy New Year to us all!

That's a sweet garage set up.

Thanks grunpnut - it's basically a one and half car garage, stuffed with three garages worth of stuff.

It holds a minivan full time, but I pull it out for sorting and such...

It's all ambience.

I haven't made much progress in the last couple of weeks, but I did finish the front fender and got it mounted, and the dust cover and lower bearing race installed. Chris is coming over on Sunday and we should make some good progress. We'll see!


The fenders been cut and polished, and installed

I used a piece of PVC and a big hammer to get the lower race in position. Yes, I beat the crap out if it! Ha!

It's in and bottomed out

Beauty shot

Looking sharp!!

Damn! What a difference between "Before" and "After"

Thanks guys. Chris decided to go with silver and white, vs cream colored because when the whole scoot gets painted, it can get painted then. For now and the next year (or 10) it'll be this color

I feel momentum happening on the ole GL. Chris came over today and we installed the steering column, headset, new cables - inner and outer, and fender trim and crest.

Now just gotta hook up all the new cables.

A shout out to Bar Italia for their custom cut cables. All the perfect length outers snd the wire ends were all tinned. Class act


Ahhh, coffee and peanuts....

Are all the bearings greased up? Slide it on in...

Watching Chris polish up the fender crest whilst I eat peanuts...

And drinking coffee...

Ohhh, look at that nice trim...

Headset installed and new cables run, just not hooked up yet

The local Sears store is closing, but the Allstate is still running strong 60 years later... This was taken when we went for a burrito run...

GL is looking good!

Man, Sears closing… just weird. We lost all ours a few years ago. A portrait in how not to evolve.

Chris came over a couple days ago and we made some good progress.

We got all the cables hooked up - properly - and finished up the front end.

And of course rode to get burritos in the rain, but I forgot to take pics of that.

Oh, and yesterday I put on the left side cowl


Let's get this show going!

Ohhh, so nice ..

Split pin, installed correctly :)

Fancy nut cover - ha!

It's coming together

A great day all around

Glovebox on!

Up next - electrical!

Nice. Snack pics are always an added bonus with your updates.

I figure everyone wants to know what we're eating! Ha!

I've moved on to electrical.
I checked the voltage coming out of the stator wires with the engine running and two of them were pumping out enough juice to run things.

So the gameplan is to hook the yellow wire that goes to the switch to the yellow wire coming from the stator. Also connect the yellow to the green, and tie a single wire regulator into the line.

I'm testing this with a 12vdc battery to ensure I've got all the wires in the switch hooked up appropriately. So far so good!

https://youtu.be/0LFDx121IkA




First, wired up the taillight. I already did the brake switch earlier

Next, run all the wires to the switch

Next, wire to the headlight and parking light

This is a single line regulator. Yellow goes into the power line, and the other to ground.

I bolted the brake and horn power together with the regulator, then put heat shrink tubing over the junction. Then Shoe goo'd the regulator to the cavity - clamp is holding it for now

I need some help.

My gameplan of hooking up a 12vdc battery to the system, then plugging in the stator didn't work. No power at all.

With a 12VDC battery hooked to the main power line (Yellow wire) and the Yellow and Green/Blue wires hooked together to give power to the horn and brake light, the switch does all the things properly to the lights.

The single yellow stator of the P200 engine though gives out 12vac, and when plugged into the same yellow wire going to the switch, there are no lights and the meter says it isn't putting out any juice.

At the old battery area I tied those wires together with a single wire AC regulator, and the ground to the body.

Does anybody know what I need to do to make this work? I'd rather not pull the stator out and rewire, and get the full wave regulator rectifier. I don't care if it's AC or DC. Maybe I've just got it grounded wrong? Hmmmm....


Current wiring schematic with battery but no rectifier, just the yellow and blue/green tied together with an AC regulator

Isn't your horn still a short-to-ground (balanced AC) circuit?

If so, it's going to be dragging all the power straight to ground. Probably heating up the wires and giving off a little smoke if it's more than a trivial battery, too.

Only if you use the horn....but seriously, I did the 12vdc just to test it all out. I figured swapping to the AC power wire from the stator should just "work". Maybe I need a better regulator, like a full wave regulator rectifier. This scooter didn't have one. I just used a single wire AC regulator...

Is that a 12v conversion switch?

Spit balling here - because I'm only half up to speed.
Piggybacking on CM's question - is it possible that the brake switch is grounding you out?
Perhaps disconnect and try test again if yes?

Yes. This scooter didn't come with a switch so Matt at ScooterMercato recommended this one. Negative. Not grounding out. But thanks for the input.

It looks like I need a rectifier regardless, and I don't have one in the circuit. I'll get one and go from there.

Hell, I may even go all crazy and go full DC like the below picture, but I really don't want to pull and rewire the stator.

What ignition are you running, again?

That shouldn't matter if you're trying to test the system with a battery. It'll not work just as well off the motor as off the battery.

Unbond your circuits, test them one at a time to either confirm it's working or isolate for a short to ground.

I went back and looked and the handlebar switch looks like a 12V conversion, so no horn to ground.

Good luck!

Just checking. You do have a separate ground wire between the engine and the regulator?

Yes, and this is the regulator I'm using.

Turned the lights down to geek out on the speedo ooooohhhhh

Solved it yet?
Having trouble posting without using the word vape.

This is just a for-the-heck-of-it stab:
Remove the black wire from the stator to that regulator's chassis terminal and disconnect the horn.

Wooohooo - it's working. I called MattGyver and he explained it.

You've gotta connect the red wire and the brown wire coming out of the stator, then the yellow wire will stay hot. Either that or just ground the red wire.

Grounding the red wire worked perfectly, and all is right again in the world.

I cannot stress this enough. ScooterMercato is a HUGE asset to our community. Big thank you to Matt! You are THE MAN!


It's alive!