It's starting to actually look real

Well I am starting to get that wow feeling. I've been looking at lots of the old photos as I am putting things back together and trying to figure out where things go. The engine looks a ton better and I can't even begin to believe I am using the same front swingarm/fork as the one I started with. It is just night and day. Here's the swing arm before and after. There is also another picture of the swing arm below.



And here's the engine before and after:





I went ahead and installed the rear brake & drum, the piston & chamber, the stator & flywheel, as well as the spark plug and most of the engine wiring. I also started rebuilding my front fork, well at least the front axle & brakes and everything else I could do without the fork.

Here's what I learned on this part of the rebuild.

1. The rear brake actuator is your key to making the rear brake install easier. Start with the brake pads with the spring on. The brake actuator should not be all the way slid in. Put the ends of the brake shoes with the metal pads around the actuator. As you slide the actuator in you can slide the brake shoes on to their posts.

Here comes the hard part. At the same time you are doing this find someone to help you slide the brake lever and spring on to the actuator as it slides down.

That was the easiest way I found to do the rear brakes. Otherwise you are fighting that spring trying to lever your brakes on. This also works the same way on the front brake but is actually a lot easier as you don't have to worry about sliding all those parts on there right away as you have a much more open and unobstructed area.

Don't forget to grease up the actuator.

2. Don't drive your piston engine studs too far into the case. Otherwise you might not have room for the washers & nut. This is especially true for the one stud that also has the long nut used to hold the piston cover. Otherwise my piston install went real smooth. I did heat up the actual piston with the hair dryer and put the wrist pin in the freezer for a little bit. It slid right in without any real fuss. I also lubed up my piston chamber with 2 stroke oil.

3. The front fork is almost equally frustrating putting it back together. Here's my tips on that. Heat up the swing arm on the big bearing side. Drop the bearing in and use the old bearing as a punch. Tap it in with the rubber mallet. Shouldn't be too hard. Next install the seal and next install the axle from the hub side. This should be obvious as the axle wouldn't be able to go in any other way. Be sure to add some grease to the seal as well as the axle itself.


The smaller bearing is a real bitch to install. DO NOT try to tap it in. There is a much easier way to do this bearing. With the axle all ready in flip over the swing arm and drop in the small bearing. Now take the washer and slip it on and take the nut and start to tighten it. You will need to put the hub, woodruff key, and castle nut on to the axle because you don't want the axle to spin as you tighten the nut. As you tighten the nut it should push in the bearing. Just keep doing this until you figure out the bearing is in all the way.

You may need to position the axle with a few taps. This might not make sense but when you tighten the nut against the smaller bearing it also pulls the axle as well. If you pull to far the axle really digs into the seal and gives lots of resistance. Your front axle will have some resistance because of that seal but it shouldn't be too bad. You want the axle to be a little bit out from the seal.


3. Putting the swing arm back together proved a little perplexing. Somehow I ended up with a couple of bags that just said front fork bits. That wasn't good. I wish I had done a better job of bagging and also taking pictures. It took me a while to figure out exactly where each part went. I would strongly suggest you pay particular attention to where the suspension spring meets the pivot rod. There are a couple of very specific washers that go in a particular order that you will need to be absolutely sure you get right. This was a real bitch to figure out and put back together. The spacing is very very tight, as it should be. Take lots of pictures as you pull that section apart. Again make sure you lube everything up as you are sliding that rod through.

Putting the engine back together

Started the process of putting the engine back together. I've gotten lazy about taking pictures. It's hard to stop when you have the gloves on and you are working alone. Hopefully I am describing things with enough detail. Here's a list of things to look out for:

1. Putting the christmas tree back together: First, heat the big end of the christmas tree, where your new bearing will go. BTW I used an open bearing here because oil will be going in and out. Next, put the spindle/axle in, and then mount the bearing and the retaining clip. If you have problems getting the bearing to go all the way in, what I did was use the old bearing as a punch. In other words, just put the old bearing on top of the new one and hit it with a rubber mallet. Drops right in.

The heavy grease, I am using Ray's, really works to keep the loose needle pin bearings packed on there. This was a lot easier than I had anticipated. Just put the loose needle pin bearings in after you mount the christmas tree into the case. Put a bowl underneath in case you drop one.

Don't tighten it all the way just yet as you will probably be loosening it and fiddling with it as you install the clutch plate cover and also try to align the slot on the spindle with the tab on the funky washer that drops into the slot to keep the spindle from moving. I thought this slot on the spindle was for a woodruf key but figured out it was for the tab on the funky washer.

2. Reinstalling the crankshaft: Freeze that thing! Seriously. I have a vacuum sealer that I use for food storage and such, so I stuffed my crankcase inside a food saver bag and vacuum packed it. This reduces condensation but does not completely eliminate it. I also sprayed the crankshaft with white lithium grease to help keep of condensation. Let it freeze for at least a couple of hours. Then take a blow torch or hair dryer and really heat up that bearing that is in the case. It should pop right in. If it does not, DO NOT force it or hammer it, just take it out, re-freeze and try to heat it even more. My first time didn't work, but the second time it literally just popped right in.

I had a little bit of play but that was gone when I finally put the cases back together.


3. Putting the gears back on: Really straight forward as well. Again, heat the bearing, apply some grease to the seal, and just shove it in there. Put your cruxiform at 4th gear (the little one, I might have that backwards, it may be 1st, but I mean the smallest circumference gear), take your spark plug socket, put the socket OVER the spindle and against the cruciform "cage." Take your rubber mallet and tap it in.

Again there was some up and down play, but the important part is that the gears match up with the corresponding gears on the christmas tree. It's a pretty close fit so it should be pretty obvious. Everything tightens up when the cases go back together.

4. Use heavy grease to keep things like the clutch "nut" on the clutch cover plate in place, as well as the kick start spring as you are putting things back together. I put the clutch cover plate back on before I put the cases back together so I could see if the brass nut fell off and could get it without having to pull the cases apart again just to get that piece. I didn't drop it.

5. Putting the cases back together: I had taken all my engine studs off and I replaced them. I went ahead and put those in (except for the piston chamber) and added a little lock-tite (blue). I also pre-mounted the engine case bolts in their respective holes. I added a little grease around the edges of the case for the gasket. My gasket had one extra hole on it but that was ok. Slowly work the gasket down the 4 studs pointing towards the flywheel. and then press the gasket into the grease. From here I also pushed the pre-mounted bolts a little through the gasket to help keep the gasket in place.


Next, just slowly start pushing the case back together. You will need to put your kickstart on for a second. Drop the kick start and put the cases slowly together. I had to take a screwdriver and give a small nudge to the gears to get them to set right into the gear selector box. When everything is lined up you'll feel it start to allow you to put the cases together. At some point you will be able to get a nut onto the engine studs. Use this to your advantage. Go ahead and put a nut on one or two of the studs. Preferably ones that are diagonally across from each other. SLOWLY tighten them. As you are doing so, try to see if you can get some of the engine bolts through far enough to put a nut (no washer should fit yet) on one of them and start to tighten that nut. This should start pulling the cases together and allow you to start putting the washer, lock washer, and nuts on the other bolts and studs. Tighten everything slowly and in a sort of zig-zag pattern so things tighten up evenly across the engine. This was a lot easier than I thought.

Check your work. Push the kick start and see if your gears and crankshaft move. Pretty satisfying to hear and watch it happen. Especially now that you know how it all works in there.

From here make sure you cover up the holes leading into the engine, ie the carb hole and the piston. I went ahead and mounted my rebuilt carb but I haven't done the piston yet. Probably going to do that later today, along with starting to work out the wiring for my stator.

Engine updates

Well not much has happened but a lot has happened. I was able to recover from the Easy-Off disaster. I bought a polishing wheel to go on the end of my drill and just kind of went crazy with that. The engine is all nice and shiny! It's not pristine, but it sure looks a hell of a lot better than it used to.

Whatever you are throwing on your engine make sure you read the label. Even some alleged engine cleaners say on the back to check what it does to aluminum. I would stay away from that completely. Not even worth it. Also my friend used CRC Lectra-Motive to clean his motor and he said it was amazing, except for it does in deed affect rubber and plastics. Make sure you have that stuff covered up or removed.



What have I learned taking apart the engine?

1. You can remove the gears/rear axle by hitting the axle from the tire side with a rubber mallet WITHOUT taking the gears apart.


A couple of things to point out when doing so. First, take the castellated nut and flip it around (so the castle faces the case) and screw it on until it is flush with the lip of the axle. They talk about this in the instructions on vespa maintenance. This is so you don't hurt the pin hole on the axle. Second, make sure you reach around to grab the axle/gears when you whack so they don't just drop out. I'd put a little grease on the seal so it doesn't rip the seal (unless you are replacing all that). Go ahead and give it a good whack with the rubber mallet.

Now that the gears are out, you can just keep that as one big piece and work on it separately.

2. My VBC has some differences that aren't easily learned about. The first of those is that my cruxiform set up is actually easier than most. My cruxiform is flat and all sides are even. That means the cruxiform can go in in any direction. That's great for not being able to fuck things up! But not so great if you don't know that and are trying to find a ready answer. I only learned this from a post on Scooterbbs. The parts book calls for part #94944 but I really need part #223225. You can see the differences on scooter mercato. That will make replacing the whole spindle very interesting if I ever need to because I am not sure what to follow.

My gear spacing is different. The gear spacing is actually way more uniform without the big gap between 1st and 2nd for neutral. Take pictures of your gears before you take them apart!.That way you can see the spacing for yourself. Get a real up close picture of the gaps. This helps a ton because if you get it wrong you will clearly see the difference in the gaps. Gears 1 and 4 are really easy to get right. They have a smooth surface that faces out. In other words if you have your gears still mounted like I do below. First gear is on the inside facing the wheel so it will be smooth on that side and fourth will be the same on the other side of the spindle. This is very obvious when you see it and will help you make sure you don't screw up at least those two. From there if you are in doubt you only have two gears to work out the combinations until you get the gaps looking like your original photo.


The next big thing that was different was my cylinder head has a copper gasket between the head and the bore. That was a really hard piece to find. If you have this it probably means you have an indian piston set-up. Shout out goes to David at scootermercato.com for finding this piece for me and figuring it out.

BTW I am now doing almost all of my ordering through Dave. He's in GA so shipping to me in NC is much faster, his prices are great, and he has been great on the phone with helping me find stuff, really knows his shit. Check him out and just give him a call. Lots of stuff he has that is not on his website, although he is trying to put it on there. I've had way better luck with him in finding stuff than anyone else so far. If you call him, tell him Jim sent you.

It also turns out that whomever put my clutch on last time got rid of the castellated nut and installed another type of bolt. I have seen this bolt in the online catalogues and now I've seen it in person. Seems to work well.

3. When taking things apart from inside the engine keep them bathed in oil. For parts from the main case use motor oil, for parts coming from the crankshaft use 2-stroke oil (crankshaft, piston, chamber, head). This will prevent them from rusting. I also spray wd-40 to keep things lubed and rust free while I wait to put this thing back together this coming week.


4. Getting the crankshaft off took a good whack and a decent size punch. Being a newbie I thought that inside the crankshaft spindle there may have been some sort of release pin so I wasn't sure what the punch was for. There is no such pin or anything. The recess hole described on vespa maintenance is specifically for the punch to go in to knock out the crankshaft from the bearings. I used a nice rounded phillips screwdriver that I had lying around. Make sure someone is on the other side to support the crankshaft when it pops out. And now that I look at other axles, almost all of them have a recess where a punch could go in to knock them out. I will probably invest in a set of punches for the winter.

5. The crankshaft is very important and you do not want it warped or out of tune. The crankshaft has a few main parts: The webs are the big round pieces, the connecting rod (connects the rod to the piston), and a rod bearing that allows the connecting rod to move smoothly inside the webs. My connecting rod got stuck probably due to something getting inside the rod bearing and although I was able to get it loose it is likely a shot crankshaft because whatever was in there before is likely still in there now and could seize up my motor while I am riding. grrrr.

6. Bearings. This was one of the better things I learned and mostly due to my impatience. The bearings used in a Vespa, and in almost all situations, are universal sized. That means you can order them from anywhere. It also means that you can likely buy them from a local shop as opposed to waiting all that time for shipping. It also means you have choices, lots and lots of choices and can likely get a much better bearing than the one the scooter shops are selling you for about the same price if not cheaper. You can get the same one they sell you for half the price. I just did a google search for "bearings raleigh" and found a couple of places close by with great selection.

In addition, based on my long history with mtn bikes, road bikes, and other bikes I am going to also purchase sealed bearings. They last a lot longer, run smoother, are cleaner, and easier to maintain. I am only doing sealed bearings in my front axle. I don't think it makes sense anywhere else as the bearings are going to be bathed in either motor oil or two stroke oil/gas mixture.

The bearing sizes for the front axle are 6201 (smaller bearing) and 6203 (larger bearing on wheel side). The bearing for the christmas tree is 6302. If you give those sizes to your bearing supplier they will know exactly what you are talking about. For example you could visit my local suppliers website and type in 6201 in the search field and see all the 6201 options. All of these bearings will have the following dimensions: ID 12mmx OD32mmxW10mm. 6203 is ID 17mmx OD40mmx W12mm. You just get to choose manufacture and what kind of seal if any you want.

I am not going to replace all of my bearings this time around, but I will in the winter. When I do that I will post all of the bearing sizes as I find them.

7. O-Rings. Small O-rings you can just buy and replace at carquest. Not sure about the other automotive stores. At carquest they had a box full of metric sized o-rings and I was able to replace all of my smaller o-rings for much cheaper than the scooter shops and again without waiting. I recommend this over my local ACE hardware store because they did not have metric and it is slightly off. Can't really have that where seals are involved and possible leaky stuff.

8. You can also get circle clips from your local ACE hardware store. I am sure the big stores have them as well. I just happen to have an ACE hardware a couple of blocks away and they have a great nuts and bolts section, although I don't use it much since I bought that bolt kit which has just amazing stuff. Discovered it had the engine mounting studs, the clutch pressure plate and spring, engine case bolts, and other fantastic stuff, just order the kit all ready.

Speaking of circle clips. Buy a snap ring plier set to remove the circle clips and you're life will be so much better. I broke down and paid $15 for internal and external pliers. My life has been so much better. Wish I had them earlier.

9. Just do a carb rebuild, now. It was so easy and I can't believe how dirty my carb was. It really is very easy. Just follow the instructions and you won't have any problems. Order a carb rebuild kit and go crazy. The one thing I would make sure you always order that doesn't necessarily come in the kit is a replacement gas filter and air filter. You almost always need one and they aren't that expensive. Also make sure you have the gaskets for the carb to box, and box to case. The box to case gasket should be in your engine gasket set but the carb to box may not be. This will make sense when you read the instructions and start doing it.

I actually had a carb rebuild party with Brett who is a little bit further behind me in his engine work. Was very handy having someone else around doing the exact same thing to spot check each other.

10. When taking off the clutch there is a thrust washer that is behind the clutch. Take this off and take a good look at it. One side is beveled. Mark it one side BEFORE you take it off. This will save you a ton of headache later. It's hard to tell it's beveled until you look at it real close.

Whew lots of stuff. I hope I got it all.

Engine work

Well I screwed up, just not sure how bad. I sprayed my engine with easy-off oven cleaner and apparently the chemical in easy-off likes to eat aluminum, which is what the engine is made of. Not good, although varying opinion on how bad. I made a mistake reading one of the restoration books and thought it said to use it for grease removal, and while it did in fact say that, it meant it for the cowls and undercarriage of the bike, NOT the engine. grrrr. So now my engine is all mottled white from what looks like left over easy-off remnants. Trying to figure out how to remove it. Here's what it looks like now.













Not much I can do about it now until I figure out a solution. CRC Lectra-Motive seems to be the recommended product, although there are plenty of other suggestions on scooterbbs, just search for engine cleaning and you'll get plenty of opinion.

Well regardless of the engine cleaning I went ahead and started taking apart the engine. Before you get started I highly recommend you read the vespa maintenance website. It goes in to much greater detail the do's and don'ts of taking apart your engine. You want to be particularly careful with your carb and piston, as you don't want random parts falling into your engine.

About the only thing I can add to what he says on the website is in regards to the circle clips on the piston. I wasn't able to get at them with needle nose pliers. There is a small hole on the ends of the circle clips. I was able to get a paperclip through the hole and then with needle nose pliers I was able to pull out the circle clip. I lost one of the clips because when it sprang out it went flying off the paperclip. I guess you could twist the paperclip around itself before trying to pull them out. I have new circlips all ready so I wasn't that worried about it.

That is all for now with the engine. Still deciding if I am going to crack her open. Probably will just to replace seals, and do a general looky loo. I mean I have the engine on the stand and pretty much taken apart at this point. I am probably also going to do a carb overhaul now that it is off.

My dog is puking so I need to go take care of him.

Engine Stand DIY

Still waiting around so I figured, hey, why not start fucking around with my engine. Did some searching and came up with the following DIY engine stand. I made some modifications and I am going to post all of my instructions so it's easier for you than the bbs history shows, although it's pretty easy to figure it out.

Parts:
2x6's (I used random scrap wood from a construction site)
3 3/4" floor flanges
3 3/4" x 10" galvanized pipe
3 3/4" T's for pipe
1 1/2 x 24" threaded rod. Ask for where the random steel rods and metal are, it is usually close to the nuts and bolts but not always. You really only need 16" but they only sold it in 1' or 2' sections at my local hardware store. This is for the front mount
1 3/8 x 5" Bolt. For the rear mount
5 Fender washers
2 regular 3/8 washers
2 1/2 nuts
1" Deck Screws.

I went with 10" because I wanted to be able to have the kickstand go all the way down and it sounded like for some 8" wasn't enough.

You want the wood to be cut up as follows:
2 20x6x2
2 16x6x2

Go ahead and make a frame out of the four pieces with the 16" pieces on top. The floor flanges will be mounted on the 16" pieces. On one 16" piece, mark the center and then measure out 5 3/8 from the center of the piece. This is dead center of the flanges. Go ahead and screw the flanges down. This is easier without the pipes in.

Now go ahead and put two of the pipes in and their respective T's. Lining the t's up of course so the threaded rod can go through the engine mount. Find a friend for this next part. Grab your engine and line it up with the posts. Take the threaded rod and slide it through, starting from the rear tire side (NOT the kickstart lever side), make sure to put one of the fender washers and nuts on at the end you are not sliding through. As it goes through the first t but before it enters the engine mount put another fender washer. Push it through the engine. Before it enters the next t put another fender washer. As it comes out the other side put another fender washer and the last nut. Go ahead and tighten up the bolts a little. I took a hacksaw and this point and cut off the extra part of the rod I didn't need.

Now your engine is swinging on the front mount. From here put together the other pipe, t, and flange, prior to screwing it in. Swing up the engine. Line up the t with the rear mount. I put the t on the left side of the engine mount. This should be obvious because it won't fit on the right side. Push the 3/8 x 5 bolt through and put the nut on it. No need to tighten beyond hand tight at this point. Move the rear pipe and flange around until it looks straight and sits flat on your 2x6. Take a pen and draw a circle around the flange. Go ahead and pull out the bolt and let your engine swing back down. Take out the pipe and t and then put the flange back where you made your circle. Drill your screws and then redo. I did it this way because it was easier to screw the flange down with the pipe out of the way. You could of course do it after you have aligned everything with the engine and T.

I also mounted my flanges on top of a block on top of the 2x6. I did this because I wanted to use longer than 1" deck screws and figured 2 1/2" deck screws through 2 pieces of plywood would hold for sure. Probably overkill but when I first started this project I started out only with the 16" pieces and not the cross pieces. Kind of stupid. I would probably not do the blocks if I was to start this over.

This only cost me about $30 with the price of metal today.

Still Working on that Damn Fork -- Also my custom wiring harness

I figured since I have my fork completely apart I should do absolutely everything to it now before I put it back together so I don't have to go back and do this all over again! The front fork has been a real bitch and every little thing is an obstacle.

My front axle was a little rusty and also felt like it wasn't rolling at optimal rolling resistance. So I had to take the front axle assembly apart from the swing arm. I also want to polish the swing arm so it looks real shiny and the best way to do that is if it is completely apart. I need to do this now because getting the swing arm bare again would be a real pain in the ass.

Here's a pic of what I was dealing with. It looks like it should be straightforward, it was not.

This is the back of the front axle and the first "bolt" you have to get off. This is really just a dust cover. You need about a size 23 metric wrench or a 7/8 in US. I had been spraying this thing several times in liquid wrench and I finally put the swing arm in a vice (with a towel wrapped around the teeth) put the socket wrench in and gave it a good whack with a rubber mallet.

Underneath this another bolt that actually holds the axle and bearings in place. To get this bolt loose you have to put the hub back on. When you put the hub back on one of the bolts for the lug nuts on the tire will line up with the hole on the swing arm for the brake pivot. If you've gotten this far then you should know what I am talking about.
From there you can take a thick screwdriver and put it between the holes to hold the drum, and thus the axle, from spinning. Yes, you need to mount the drum with the woodruff key, castelated nut, and pin in place. Use your old ones. Then, again the vice, socket wrench, and the rubber mallet.

Underneath are the bearings. To get the bearings out you need a blind bearing removal tool. I don't have one, but the Harley guy that is doing my paint job does. He's pulling these out for me now. That should be the end of my swing arm and thus front fork issues.







I did have another issue with corrosion on my front damper mounting bolt on the swing arm. Seen here:

As you can see the bolt is pretty rusty. That metal sleeve covering the bolt is actually a part of the front damper. It should not have come off when I took the damper off. I took a hydraulic press and applied some pressure and the bolt popped out once the rust "weld" was broken. I did soak this bolt in evapo-rust overnight and I was able to get rid of a lot of the rust. The sleeve then just popped off. The interesting thing is that I had a new sleeve in the packet of bolts I received and I am not so sure the sleeve was a part of the front damper, we'll find out when I get the new damper later this week.

Evapo-rust has been great btw. I have soaked all sorts of odds and ends here and there and it has done a wonderful job. I highly recommend you use it on things like your throttle tube, shift tube, really hard to find bolts and pieces.

Now back to the wiring harness! Now that I think more about it I don't think MikeH's electrical idea is the best way to go. You lose the color coding if you are doing anything beyond the most basic electrical outline and his system doesn't really take into account all the branches off the main wiring harness trunk. When I first started this I didn't think I would make my own harness because I thought I would be able to buy one that would work well as I have noted below. My big mistake was not taking measurements of the sections before I took mine apart to figure out where the wires were going and what they were doing. So now I have no measurements of the different sections. I did measure the individual wires when I had it apart so I could order replacement wires. I was smart enough to not just throw away my old harness.

If you pull your harness out take the following measurements before you even start fiddling.
1. Ignition switch to horn junction (where the wires to the horn will pop out to go to the horn)
2. Horn junction to horn
3. Horn junction to gas tank junction (where all the grounds are bundled together and also where the other junctions take off from)
4. Gas tank junction to rear brake pedal
5. Gas tank junction to stator and Ducati ignition
6. Gas tank junction to regulator (I have mine in left cowl)
7. Gas tank junction to rear brake

These measurements will come in very handy when you start building your wiring harness as you can put it together and do the shrink wrapping beforehand. Now I have to wait to get the body back and then take my measurements and do the shrink wrapping later. BTW check out waytekwire.com for some good prices on double wall shrink wrap. I would recommend buying the following lengths, widths and amounts:
1. 1 4' length of 1". This stuff shrinks 3/1
2. 5-6 4' lenghts of 1/2"

At my head tube I have a grand total of 9 wires coming towards the headset. 3 of those are for an LED rear blinker system I am going to install. Because they will be LED they should not draw significantly from my lighting system and should work quite well. I am going to install them much later but for now I want to install the wiring.

Because I am using mostly marine grade wiring, the wires are thicker than the stock wiring. I decided to break up the wire bundles as they get pulled up through the headset. Here is how I have arranged them:
1. One group wrapped in 1/2" tubing will be the 3 blinker wires, all 18g.
2. Second group is the wires going to the horn (2) and one of the 16g wires, thus 2 18g and 1 16g in that bundle, also in 1/2" tubing. This is purple, red, and I believe green.
3. Third group is the ground 18g wire and the 18g rear brake light wire with the other 16g wire, so same as the second group with 1/2" tubing. This should be yellow, black, and orange.

Thus I will have 3 bundles coming down to the horn junction from the headset. From here the harness becomes one big bundle and takes all the wires together from the horn junction to the gas tank junction. This will all get wrapped up in 1" tubing. This is the longest section for the harness and the main "trunk."

Under the gas tank I have five branches.

1. Two 18g wires going to the rear brake pedal. Red and blue
2. Two 16g wires and 1 18g ground wire going to the stator/cdi. Green, blue and black
3. 3 16g wires to the regulator (one of those is a 16g black grounding wire) and 1 18 wire for my future turn signal blinker. Black, yellow, blue, and white
4. 3 18g wires going to my rear brake. Black, orange, blue
4. 2 turn signal wires these will actually be separate but I am not doing anything with them right now so I am just going to bundle them up. brown and pink

Here is what this all looks like now while I am waiting to make sure the measurements are good when I finally get the body back:

You can see the three branches for the headset on the left. Then you'll see the three wires going to the horn, the horn junction. Next is the long thick trunk. Finally on the right side are the 5 branches coming from the gas tank junction. I have them coiled up just because it was easier to work with that way. It sure is pretty with all those colors.

I haven't done the shrink wrapping yet but I am hoping what I ordered will work. If it doesn't I'll let you know, but this should be the layout I use. I'll also take some measurements with some slack for mistakes so you have an idea of how to put one together yourself.

In regards to the blinkers it's more of an experiment and I wanted to use different colors so things don't get too mixed up. Marine west didn't have anymore colors so I went to my local audio store and they had way more colors to chose from, just not marine grade. That's ok because like I said it's an experiment and I won't be heart broken if it doesn't work or fails later. So now I have pink, brown, and white for the turn signals added to my wiring diagram listed in my previous post.

Body work is making progress so hopefully next week I'll actually get started.

Getting Ready Tips & Tricks

Ok so I just had to pass a few things on to everyone. First, if you have old aluminum leg shield trim they do still make it and you can replace your beat up factory aluminum leg shield trim. I ordered mine from First Kick, where I first bought my scooter. You just have to get the tool. Next, if you are doing any kind of restoration work buy the following two kits:

The Rubber Kit and the Hardware Kit (Nuts & Bolts)

The bolt kit is particularily fantastic. It has the brake pivot bolts, the springs, engine mounting bolt, and all sorts of other fancy bolts and nuts that I would not have expected. I'll try to figure out what's missing and post that here, but for the price and total lack of headache of trying to match bolts at the hardware store or just ordering bits and pieces this makes very good sense to order and to do so early. Price wise it's amazing.

One other thing that I am not doing but would seriously consider if I was starting over and had read this post earlier is MikeH's electrical diagram recommendations. It seems to really simply the electrics and make it very servicable. He does seem very opinionated about it but I understand that when something works for you, you just want to everyone else to see the light.
Regardless here is his pretty good idea.

I've all ready spent money on marine wiring and don't want to bother trying to source marine grade multistrand wiring for this project and waiting to get the bits in the mail. I should start putting this thing together this week and I would rather not worry about this. Had I seen this earlier I probably would have gone this direction.