Picked up a '78 Vespa Ciao last night. Previous owner said it was running this past summer but quit one day. There's no spark and I've been trying all day. New plug, cleaned boot, cleaned and gapped points. The wires look like they were messed with.. with nothing running to tail light. I've found a few diagrams but I'm no good at reading them, maybe cuz i'm colorblind but probably cuz i'm dumbbb. Hoping someone can point me in the right direction.
You should search “Fred’s guide” to see the proper order of operations to make a moped run
Check if the tail light is burnt out it won’t run, if there are cut or missing wires that could be a problem too
Diagnose before you take it all apart, otherwise you will likely create more issues.
Also check for a hard wiring diagram, there’s at least one in the wiki, and if the wiring is all effed up you may just want to disconnect it for the moment to hard wire it and check for spark etc.
Someone cut the green wire/ brake running light (it goes though the bike to the tail light). the blue wire/ brake switch/ ignition ground is cut to. The purple wire is the kill switch, I usually remove it. You can kill the bike with decomp level, choke or turn off at fuel tap. here it is simple: 2 wires coming out of the rubber stopper in the engine, one is the the ignition wire (probably gray) and goes to ignition coil the other is the ignition ground and just needs to be touching the engine body and you get spark.
Fred's guide is here: https://www.mopedarmy.com/wiki/Fred's_Guide
Thanks for the suggestions guys. I started fixing mopeds by myself when I was 13 or so, and have never bought one that runs, so Fred's Guide has always been the place I go.. that's what led me to clean the points in the beginning.
I got my father to come and check out the wires with me. Thankfully he's not colorblind so we figured out the wiring pretty quick. We grounded the brake light wire and got spark. Ended up wiring the brake and tail light wires back up tonight, and now I just need to replace the burnt out bulb.. probably what led the previous owner to cut the wires in the first place.
Appreciate the help!
Great news!
I worked on a NASA program for a bit that required that all wires be white, with signal names printed on them.
> Brian F wrote:
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Great news!
>
> I worked on a NASA program for a bit that required that all wires be
> white, with signal names printed on them.
Yeah, modern moving lights have all black wiring with collar labels. Black wiring is the cheapest
It's so much better that way.
On a different satellite program I worked on, we had someone miswire a power supply because, naturally, they thought wires of the same color should connect to one another (they didn't follow the wiring diagram, and the mistake was missed by the inspector too). This caused a big old short circuit that was a real pain for everyone.
wired my ciao based off of this blog post. I also have my brake light and headlight wired together with no break light switches. been a reliable setup for me if you want to go that route.
I agree, I do the same with my Ciao's. Cops are more worried about it being plated and you wearing a helmet than whether or not you have a running light of a brake light in the back.
Almost (if not every) Ciao I have bought has come with the brake light burnt out or LT he motor disassembled because the previous owner never checked the wiring or bulb and simply assumed the motor needed disassembly (or RTV to seal it?).
Checking the tail light was probably the first advice I ever got and it is always a good place to start at least on a Vespa moped.
It that it’s relevant to your current issue but my first Ciao I bought in ebay as a “Titled and running” moped, and it was titled but very much would not start- long story short the exhaust was coked up and we didn’t realize until we saw the carb spitting fuel mix backwards.
Basically take your exhaust and bake it in the grill or in the fire pit to burn out the “coke” aka pure carbon build up .
> Nick Wes wrote:
> -------------------------------------------------------
> > Basically take your exhaust and bake it in the grill or in the fire pit
> to burn out the “coke” aka pure carbon build up .
Or for a lot less hassle , just fill the pipe with oven cleaner and let it sit for a while and then rinse it out with a garden hose . Repeat if needed .
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