Modern Vespa

Now that the turnsignal buzzers are working here are the pictures and how I did it.

I started with the fact that it is too easy to mod the turn signal buzzer on a Vespa 250 because of the connector in the left knee pad panel area. So how best to do so on a LX150. I also wanted to be rid of the turn signal pods, but I did not want to loose the running lights.


Here is the darling Plum as she sits in her current spot in the garage. Stuff piled around her. (Effect of merging two houses into one larger one.)

There is one of the offending pods now... I did not think about them much till I saw pictures of Scoots without them. I really like the look of them gone..

Always put a cloth between your wrench and your paint. Be sure to tighten the cresent wrench very tight to avoid rounding the nut.

Here is my super secret advice: once you have removed a mirror, stick an allen wrench into the hole the mirror stand came out of. This prevents the two washers from falling all the way down into the floor pan of your scoot. Enough said about that....

here are those washers pulled up the allen wrench and out of the hole. I use this in reverse when putting the mirrors back on. This makes it way easier to get the washers in the right place.

Here is my second secret trick: I use an offset flat head screw driver to reach up into the handel bar cowling to gently lift the loop off the catch on one side.

This makes it easy to get the front cowling off without chancing scratching your paint or breaking the loop.

This shows that loop on the front lip of the rear cowling that makes it so difficult to get the cowling off.

So now that we have the front cowling off, Lets take a look at the insides of it to remove those offensive turn signal pods....


There are the connectors and wires we want to recover from the pods.

There is the Allen screw that holds the Pod in place. You will need to use a wrench to hold the nut. Or better yet a nut driver, but I do not have any that are metric.

Unscrew the smoke lens cover and pry out the amber lens. This will let you pull the reflectors out and get to the connectors on the back of the bulb.

This is the quick connector and wire harness that will need to be extended to reach the running light area.

Here are the two turn signal harnesses with the connectors from the bulb clipped off, stripped back and the wires twisted and tinned with solder.

Here are the bulbs I was going to use, but they turned out to not have enough light defraction to show up in the running light reflector area to be safe as a turn signals. So I replaced these with incadecent bulb... much better now. Also on the right are

Here is the socket soldered to the extention wire (about 12 inches long) I found that if you hold the pre-tinned wires down one on top of the other with a pair of needle nose pliers then apply a bit of solder to the end of the soldering wand then apply th

Here are the new wireing harnesses completed. But! The buzzers did not work. I could hear a click coming out of them if I stuck my ear to them. So cut open the wrapped electrical tape and removed the buzzer wire. Then re-soldered the joint between the

Here is where I reconnected the Buzzers to the wireing harness. I used a slim metal probe, slid into the open end of the quick connector plastic, once for each wire. So I could release the metal contact tip and wire out of the quick connector plastic. I

Here is the re-assembled buzzer connected to the quick connector, so that it can be connected back to the Turn signal switch.
Now on to the mounting of the bulb socket.

Now to get the socket mounted. I actually did this part before I had the wireing harness all done. I was surprised at just how little time this took. Probably about 45 minutes for each one, the second one probably closer to 35 minutes.


This is the back side of the running light reflector housing. Marked up. I started by measuring the middle line, then determined how close to the exsisting mount hole I could get, and measured from the end to get the x and y lines drawn. From those I m

The 9/16 inch diameter hole drilled using a step bit. I have two that go up to 1/2 inch and one that starts at 1/2 inch.

Here is the housing with the notches dremeled out then filed to get it out to the lines. The dremel was used to get most of the notches out to speed up the filing. But fileing is the best way to get these just to the size you need. I made them a little

Here the lights are remounted into the reflector housing and about to be mounted back into the scoot. [ Confetion the bulbs I got were larger than 9/16 inches so could not be plugged into the socket then mount the socket into the hole. I had to put the

Once I had the buzzers working I mounted them into the handel bar area with small cable ties. This is the left buzzer

Here is the right one. Due to the brake fluid resivour I had to move this one a little more to the center. After riding a few days with this I may move them so the buzzer points more toward the end of the handel bars maybe making them more directional.

I only found US standard sized hole plugs so used my step drills to make these two holes big enough for the plugs I found.

For the larger hole.

For the smaller hole.

Here they are in. But on the scoot you really can't ever see them.

Here is Darling Plum all put back together.

The right turn signal light flashing in the reflector housing.

And here is the left, it shows up a little better now that the garage door is shut.

And here she is out in the sun in without the ugly reflectors and no more pods!!! I just got the led light strips in today so will have pictures of those when I can get them set up as running lights and turn signals.

Nice-looking job! Much better without those pods. Glad you got the beepers working.

This is such an unbelievably slick project and write-up... You should PM Jess to have this added to the Tech Library!

I know how I'm doing mine when it comes time to de-pod my LX....

Sorry Guys and Gals
I did not realize there was a text length limit on what you could say about each picture.
I also forgot to add this wiring schetch at the appropriate point.


This is the wiring schetch I forgot to insert with the rest of the pictures.

Nice write up!

I am not sure if it is just my IE or if this place has a limit on the amount of text posted with each picture. So I am going through and putting the additional text here.

picture 14 -- shows the LED package and the sockets for the bulbs.
the text cut off at "Also on the right are" the GM/ford side marker license socket purchased at AutoZone for $3.99 each.

picture 15 -- shows the socket soldered and heat shrink tubed
the text cut off at "soldering wand then apply th"e tip to the wires pressing down just long enough to see the solder flow. Then hold in place with the pliers. Inspect the solder to see that no sharp peaks formed when pulling the tip away. Slip the short pieces of heat shrink tubeing over the soldered joint and apply heat by rubbing the side of the soldering wand's tip, not the end. Slide it back and forth along the full length of the shrink tubeing and spinning the wire to apply heat to all of it for a nice tight seal.

picture 16 -- shows the wireing harness 1.0 version.
The text cut off at "re-solder the joint between the" extention wire and the quick connect and re-tape the wires up with electrical tape. This protects from elements and abbration.

picture 17 -- shows the bare tips of the quick connector tips
the text cut off at "connector plastic. I" bent the re-pre-tined speaker wires to lay flat along the top of the quick connector tips right at the crimp point. I again held the wire down on top of where I would solder it with a pair of pliers and applied a heat right on the crimp point just long enough for the solder to run. Checked to make sure the wire was attached well and not sticking up.

picture 19 -- shows the drawn up hole to be cut
the text cut off at "From those I m"easured the spacing and distance for the tabs to extend past 9/16 inch circle. I used a circle template I had to draw the circle then drew in the lines for the tabs and then went over it all with a fine tip marker to darken it enough to see once the cutting started.

picture 21 -- shows a socket next to the notched reflector housing.
text cut off at "I made them a little" tight to insure the sockets would not vibrate out during years of riding.

picture 22 -- shows the reflector housing hanging out of the mounting hole
text cut off at "I had to put the" bulb in through the large running light hole and carefully slide it down so the prong end would come out of the notched hole. I then held the bulb against the hole from within the housing and plugged the socket into the bulb then inserted the socket into the notched hole and all was good.

that is it, I think I got it close to what it was when I was posting.. I seem to be a bit long winded but what can you say I am an old guy, teaching

Very nice
Exactly what I was looking for

Thanks

Will this set up work on my S 50cc

thanks

Not to detract from this very good write up, but if someone is interested in the Euro signals, and keeping the running lights working, then the Motorsport Scooters kit is just plug n play. May be an option for those cautious of driling holes.

You won't have the buzzer part, though

I do not see why it would not work on the 50 cc. Though I have not had the front end of a S open, I would bet the wireing is very close if not the same. The running lights look similar to those on the 150, might be the same one. But it definately looks to have enough space to add a 2nd bulb like I did. Michael_h makes a good point, the Euro kits could be used to make the re-wireing easier. And you can always add the beepers.
I just got a pair of (273-075 Radio Shack 6-28VDC Piezo Buzzers) for my GTS250. I will be adding them some time this month. They are rated at 90db and have 3 wires coming out of them. Common(+) Continuous(-) and Pulsing(-) I am going to hook the continuous wires up to the turn signals and run the pulsing to the horn. That way I get a little extra sound when I hit the horn switch and I get a beeping turn signal.

phil001 be sure to take some pictures and post them so we can see how you work this on the S!!

Isn't it a shame you have to have the lights up there and you cant use the originals on the leggys. Big brother will always spoil it for you. Bet it wont be long before well be scrapping our 2T's and riding 4's. That'll help the enviroment factories spewing out smoke to spit out new scoots and land fill full of old ioly engines. (hang on im running away from your thread)

Nice work there good to see the have-a-go spirit and I bet the write up helps many people out. ................................ There should be a section where threads like this are kept permanant and don't get lost

think i will do this with my et4 thanks

Ideal would be if you can find those rubber waterproof sockets that Piaggio uses for the GTS noselight. Then you only have to drill a round hole and it's also waterproof.
Does anybody nows where to get those rubber sockets?

The process went very well and quite fast. However, the amber 194A bulbs are wimpy and hard to see with the running light blaring. Is there a way to have the running lights cut out whwn the turn signals are on?

I am not sure... but I used these to add turn signal/running lights to replace the side reflectors on my GTS.

http://www.bikerhiway.com/radiantz-runturn-or-runbrake-converter-for-flexible-led-light-strip-p-312.html

I think they would work to do what your talking about. Because when the turnsignal activates the lights go from running to off and on.

for the life of me, I can't get the metal contact tips out of the quick connector plastic. what did you press on with this slim metal probe?

Finally figured out how to disconnect the metal contact tips from the quick connector plastic and thought I'd share in case anyone else experiences this problem.


The quick connector's back door needs to be released first.

Back door lowered after a little prying.

After scouring the house for an hour, my girlfriend's needle-nose tweezers were the right tool for the next job. Bathroom hair added for authenticity. ;)

The contact tips are secured in the plastic by a plastic ridge that needs to be lifted with the tweezers. Insert in the back above the curled end of the contact.


Last edited by DanielLevis on Sat Oct 15, 2011 2:55 pm; edited 2 times in total

Continued.

For the record, I did modify Green Dolphin's instructions a little bit using info found at http://modernvespa.com/forum/topic70?highlight=hole+plugs+turn+signal and watching the Scooter West signal mod video so that I could simply turn the stock running lights into amber running lights/turn signals using a dual filament bulb.


Once over the curled end, shove way back. You'll feel some give once the plastic catch holding the contact in releases.

Here you can kind of see the plastic catch raised over the right contact with the tweezers inserted. Pull the contact tips out one at a time.

Here's a pic of the (out of practice) soldering job I did, trying to follow Copper Dolphin's instructions. I opened up the curled "wire holders" on the back of the metal contact and put the buzzer wire through one of the curls and bent it back i

Turn signal pods gone! Looks and sounds great. Thanks, Copper Dolphin!

Hello Copper Dolphin,

I spotted a plum colored vespa, with running lights, on Freeport Blvd. near William Land Park. "Cool! How'd they do that?" I said to myself. I guess tha was you. Well done.

Mr. F