Furthermore, I had a nice chrome-plated rack that I wanted to mount. . .
The rack is flat but the trunk is curved, and the as-purchased mounting
system, (two very heavy flat bars,) would have put a lot of stress on
the injection-molded trunk
The 4 nuts below the rack are 3/8" stainless steel, they are merely spacers to raise the rack above the top curve and prevent stress.
Inside, instead of
the 2 clamping bars that came with the rack, I used rubber washers to
provide a little resilience.
Altogether, the "4-point" mount is completely satisfactory.
The rack will carry a jacket or a few books, etc. tied down with bungee
cord.
A trip to AutoZone revealed several possible candidates - I selected "APC Illuminators" because they weren't too expensive ($9.99) and because of the package blurb -- "bright white." I visited APC's website but could not find these lamps (part # 36.0401.W) listed there.
The little LEDs came with 3M's self-adhesive pads; I carefully cleaned the mounting surfaces with alcohol before sticking the lights to the trunk.
The wiring is stuck
to the trunk with "Goop" another of my favorite goodies - a
few pieces of regular transparent tape held the wires until the Goop cured.
The wires are brought from outside the trunk to the scooter wiring through
a small hole drilled between the left lamp and the the trunk lock. After
the wires are pulled through, that hole is filled with a dab of Goop
as a weather seal.
The wires were taken out through one of the unused mounting holes in the bottom, then led between the trunk and its mounting plate, thence through one of the "cooling slots" (?) in the back of the scooter.
The (4) holes on the flat surface on each side of the lock are the mounting points for the red lens .
This trunk model with stop lights would have cost about $40 more. I preferred LEDs for their low current demand, cool operation, and insensitivity to shock and vibration (compared to incandescents.)
The end result? Disappointment!
This photo was taken in the garage in total darkness. Compare
the LEDs to the standard brake light below. They are nearly invisible
(the brake light is red; color distrotion results from overwhelming the
camera's CCD.) You can see the LCD instrument panel is nearly as bright
as the LEDs!
The lights were invisible in daylight. The advertised "Bright White" is actually "Not Quite."
I found some "Festoon
base" (try looking that up!) dome lamp bulbs that looked small enough
to fit behind the lens. Then I tried to find "clips" in which
to mount them!
These are used in every Japanese auto built (and many others); but there
is NO source for the mounting clips used to hold them! Neither Thomas
Register nor MacRae lists anyone making 8 x 40mm lamp sockets or clips.
Finally, I just soldered
pigtails to the bulb's bases as seen here. Use copper wire; the nickle
bases take solder easily without too much heating.
Cutting off those feeble LEDs, I spliced the bulbs in place, folded the
pigtails (green wires) and secured them with beads of "Goop."
This slightly flexible mounting gives the lights some protection from
vibration.
These are #6411 bulbs; 10 Watts.
Compare these lights with those in the photo above. These are about the same brightness as the main stop light, and hard to miss because they are higher and closer to a driver's line of sight.
