Saturday, June 27, 2009

Install the brake light switch

Before I delivered the bike to Paul S. to check the electrical I installed the rear brake switch. Remember I have a non-batt Rally 180 style brake switch, which is stock for my wife's bike.

I am not sure why, but it was a major pain the butt to find this exact switch with a grey gasket. Thx to Max at ScooterWest I have it.


The first thing you want to do is cut off the soldered tips of the wires. Those are there to preserve and protect the wires. If the wires can be crimped into place or if they connectors do not bend to pliers you can solder like I did.


Soldering in and of itself is an art. I am not great, but decent. Another hobby of mine is electric remote control airplanes so I have gotten to fluent when it comes to soldering. Before you tackle it yourself for the first time Google how to. It's a quick and easy read.

A few hints:
- you want the solder to look like a Hershey Kiss in shape.
- the less you can use the better.
- after you are done always cover the entire tip of the solder gun in solder and use a wet rag to wipe excess. Then put away.

Note: after I dropped the bike off at Paul S.'s I realized that I wired the tail light electrical wrong. I put the blue/black together and left the yellow alone. See past post. The black should have been left solo and the blue/yellow belong together. Furthermore I need to tighten the rear brake cable so the brake applies pressure to the brake switch.

P.S. - Sad news . . . Lisa and I are disappointed that the Vespa most likely will not be unveiled at AmeriVespa next weekend. We'll be on our Bajaj Chetaks, which bothers Lisa a bit. I should have started working on it sooner, I just did not have time.

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