Sunday, November 24, 2019

Vespa LX and S seat lock cable broken - how to fix it!

Modern Vespa  a bunch of posts on this topic... but in my opinion, none have all the key info in one spot.

I'm not going to spell everything out, but if you are mechanically inclined this may be all the info you need.

Here is some of items you will need
- a special tool you make yourself to open the locked seat
- a replacement cable
- a staple gun and stainless steel staples to put the seat cover back on
- other normal tools

Step one: get the seat open.
The easiest way to do this is to make a tool from thin stiff plastic. I used a stiff plastic folder. Here are some pics.



For a temporary solution, you can attach a wire or string to the latch hook like this:

Step two: Get a replacement cable kit, like this one from Scooter West.
Step three: remove the latch cable end.
Remove the cover around the latch and remove the circlip and cable end. In this picture, the cable is broken at this end, so you can only see the cable end ring.


Step four: remove the plastic protectors by the grab rail /rack mounts.
These need to come off to remove the seat cover.


Step five: remove the cylinder lock.
You have to remove the lock before you can remove the seat cover. There is an R style wire retaining clip and two screws. Be sure to remember how these go back together!

Step six: remove the staples that hold the seat cover on and pull the seat cover back.
The seat pad is not glued down so this is fairly easy. I only removed the staples on the back half of the seat.


The rest of the steps:
I'm out going to spell these out as they are as expected!
- replace the cable.
- reassemble the cylinder lock
- staple the seat cover back in place.
- etc.