Modern Vespa

My '06 GTS hasn't been ridden a ton this summer. It's spent a lot of time on a trickle charger in the garage. The battery is only a few years old. Voltage at rest is normal and the charging voltage looks good too. All of a sudden the GTS will just cut out completely and the dash will go completely out, nothing at all on the display. If I cycle the key a few times I can get it to restart but I'm not too comfortable riding too far from home until I can figure this out. My initial thoughts were a possible bad ground or perhaps an immobilizer issue? I should add that the last time this happened the trip odometer zeroed out, along with the time and date.

Any thoughts on where to look?

w.

Battery terminals are tight and in good enough shape?

Yep. No problems there.

w.

First thought is dodgy ignition switch, not uncommon. Cheap enough to just swap out regardless.

Excuse my ignorance about all things electrical but the "switch" would be the ignition drum that the key goes into or are we talking about what's behind the drum?

w.

It's the green bit that has wires connected into it, right at the back of the ignition key barrel.

Access behind the glove box or does it involve removing the horn shield?

w.

That's the one. You have to start with the horn cover anyway...

Yeah. I watched a few videos. Think I can remove the glove box without taking apart the headset, which I did once to replace a bad brake light switch. Behind the horn cover, 2 screws, then the rest are in the glove box and along the bottom on the outside.

w.

Sounds like you're on the ball. Get at it. It might not be the switch of course - but that's about the only thing to render everything dead except for an intermittent battery. That's not unheard of (I've had one way back when) but it's very rare.

Many Thanks

w.

I was able to install the new ignition switch but unfortunately that's where my problems started. For the life of me I couldn't fight the glove box back on. It was then that I noticed the immobilizer antenna just hanging inside, not attached to anything. Decided to test the new switch before reassembly. The lights came on and the fuel injector primed but nothing when I hit the starter.

Need to know where the antenna belongs and whether or not the keys need to be reprogrammed. Extremely frustrated. Just needed to walk away.

w.

Nope

UPDATE: I figured out the antenna placement and was able to get the glovebox back on. The scooter starts normally BUT NOW the glovebox latch isn't working. I must have inadvertently messed that up. Just don't have the energy to open it back up. Isn't there a way to open it without the latch triggered by pressing the key in?

Thanks

w.

sounds like you missed the rubber band on the latch (serious).

iirc need to use a bit of wire down through the left knee pad cover.