Speedometer cable

Today I worked on a small job which turned into a small nightmare. I also forgot my mobile phone today so no photo's on the activities. Well, it's not exactly rocket science either but I always like some photo's for historical and reference reasons. 

In any case, today I made an attempt to connect the new speedometer cable. The previous owner did not install it when he had rebuild the scooter. The cable was also severely damaged. But it would have been a minor job to get a replacement

The cable is about 1 meter in length. So I had ordered one online but it appears the inner cable comes in different sizes as I learned, sigh!  The new cable had 2,5 mm while the original was 2 mm:

So I went to a vintage Vespa scooter shop nearby. I knew about that shop for a long while but never visited them. A very nice owner completely into Italian stuff, just like me. He had on cable on stock left that I needed.  

I had already figured out one riddle using this online photo. The previous owner had put the brake cable into the hole of the speedometer cable. And there was no spare room for another cable. But by seeing this photo I now know how it was suppose to be fitted. Typical the supporting photo is also showing a similar damaged speedometer cable.

So putting the brake cable in the bottom hole and adding the speedometer cable into the other upper hole. But then, horror, the top connector screw dropped into the tube all the way down to the bottom. And there was no way to get it out. I suspect I might not have been the first person running into this issue. The simple trick is of course to use some scotch tape to stick it to the cable.

The only option I  could come up with is to completely removing the front steering rod and then turn it upside down. Then I figured I could use a thin iron wire and push it all the way up and create a small hook at the end. This worked partially but the thin wire didn't reach the top, it got stuck and wasn't firm enough as it bend when pushing firmly.  Then I had this genious idea to use the brake cable. The innercable was thin enough to slide it through the connector screw and by having a bit scotch tape put around the cable it didn't glide over it. Yes, it was fidly job but it worked :-) 

So everything got connected up in the end. I did not use a clamp to secure the bottom-end screw as at some point I need to dismantle the whole scooter to get it repainted. As said earlier, I first would like to have everything complete and working. So this is one item completed.