Trying to remove the front panel on my 09 People S125

[Indy21]

Ok, so I've been wanting to remove the front panel of my People to investigate the 'dummy' signal lights located on the front.

I downloaded the pdf service manual (http://www.peoplescooterclub.it/UPLOAD/21537399-Kymco-People-S-50-125-200.pdf) page 2-5 and tried to follow the, what seemed simple, instructions.

"FRONT UPPER COVER REMOVAL
Remove the six screws on the back of the
front upper cover.
Remove the bolt and two adjusting screws on
the front of the front upper cover.
Disconnect the signal light wire connector.
Remove the front upper cover."

When removing the 9 screws the top of the panel loosens up but the bottom seems to still be attached to something. I've tried pulling and pushing but not too hard so that I don't snap some plastic loose somewhere. Almost seems as if there may be grooves of some sort holding it to the bottom panel.

No, I haven't tried removing another panel yet because I ran out of time the other day and couldn't dig any deeper into the thing.

Wondering if anyone has had success with this?

I did however discover from looking downward through the slight opening in the top that the existing dummy lights have a piece of masking tape or something covering an existing hole through the back of the lights, so I'm hopeful that this may be an easy task of simply unplugging the stalks and, given enough wire to reach, plug them into the backs of the dummies and use them.

Thanks for any help, will be trying again when time allows.

[Stig / Major Tom]

I don't have a People, but I have taken apart several of the plastic panels on my LIKE.
Some of them slide sideways a quarter inch, then come apart.
Some are just clipped together, face to face , and require a careful prying kinda pinching of the panels.
Yep, it is a pain in the whatever to figure out how to get these panels apart the first time - they ARE pretty tough plastic, fortunately - and once you find the secret things go a lot easier for you.

I pried my front and back handlebar cover apart with  the gentle use of a pizza cutter wheel. slipped it in and they popped apart. Take you time - and I have NEVER found any of these service manuals to be very helpful with these plastic panels.
Do make certain you haven't missed a couple of hidden little black screws.
My dummie lights have a black plastic cap screwed on ....but no wires around.

[Indy21]

I don't have a People, but I have taken apart several of the plastic panels on my LIKE.
Some of them slide sideways a quarter inch, then come apart.
Some are just clipped together, face to face , and require a careful prying kinda pinching of the panels.
Yep, it is a pain in the whatever to figure out how to get these panels apart the first time - they ARE pretty tough plastic, fortunately - and once you find the secret things go a lot easier for you.

I pried my front and back handlebar cover apart with  the gentle use of a pizza cutter wheel. slipped it in and they popped apart. Take you time - and I have NEVER found any of these service manuals to be very helpful with these plastic panels.
Do make certain you haven't missed a couple of hidden little black screws.
My dummie lights have a black plastic cap screwed on ....but no wires around.

Well that helps to know I'm not missing anything by what you're saying. I did take flashlight and inspect the bottom area inside the best I could, didn't see any more screws. In fact I took a several screws off the bottom panel to see if that would free it up to no avail.

I'll try again when time allows and try what you are saying, sliding it a little left or right but I'm too afraid to pry too hard because I would FREAK if I snapped something off on my brand new ride!

And I agree, the service manual makes it seem like it just 'comes right off' when you remove the screws, untrue.

So you managed to reactivate your lights then? Yours had a cap, mine has tape covering what is no doubt the hole where the wiring and lights should go, it's pretty obvious once seen.

Tried to post a pic the other day but the site wouldn't accept it, I'll try again, think the file was too large or something.

Thanks for the help and wish me luck!

[Indy21]

Picture attempt

[GLV55]

Interesting -- I would like to activate the lower lights on my People 150, so I'll be looking forward to future posts when you figure it out. Your 125 should be very close in disassembly method from your description. The photo was very useful as well. Keep us informed, please.

[Indy21]

Interesting -- I would like to activate the lower lights on my People 150, so I'll be looking forward to future posts when you figure it out. Your 125 should be very close in disassembly method from your description. The photo was very useful as well. Keep us informed, please.

You bet! I'll post up some pics of the whole process when time allows. Stay tuned!

[Indy21]

So I took about 30 minutes today after work to reattempt taking off the front panel. Removed the 9 screws and pulled and tugged every which way I could without breaking anything and still couldn't get it to come loose.

It appears, from what I'm seeing, that the front panel and the bottom panel connect somehow by slotted groves, so maybe this weekend I'm going to start from the floorboard and work my way up, surely I can get it off, it's just a matter of following what is connected to what and working backwards.

I do not however want to disassemble the entire bike just to look at what I've already seen is there. If I'm gonna go through that much trouble I want to have a plan. Now I'm wondering if taking apart the turn signal nubs and seeing if it's the same size to fit the holes in the dummies. I'm probably being a little to hopeful thinking it's going to be 'plug and play' but that sure would be nice.

We'll see.

[marietta_ken]

So just to be clear, did you remove the little cover on the front and unscrew the bolt underneath? I just took mine off a few days ago and don't recall anything extra that had to be removed. If need be, I'll take mine off again and advise.

[Indy21]

So just to be clear, did you remove the little cover on the front and unscrew the bolt underneath? I just took mine off a few days ago and don't recall anything extra that had to be removed. If need be, I'll take mine off again and advise.

I removed the six screws on the backside (3 on each side/cargo box side), the two behind the front wheel and the bigger one under the tab on the front center.

The top of the panel breaks free easily once the screws are removed and when I pulled it open I could barely see the bottom where it looks to be grooved together with some tabs with the panel below. Didn't want to force it free in fear of snapping something off and not being able to replace it properly.

So when you removed your screws then it just simply came off with no resistance? Please do share before I end up disassembling half of my bike! LoL

I could have taken a picture of what I could see towards the bottom but my son had my phone at the time, I'll have to give it another go with pictures next time.

[Stig / Major Tom]

You are correct to take your time with this!
These goofy panels do come off without breaking!
I do wish I could have been there when they were drawing up these scoots - a couple of nice chrome screws on the tail light lense would have looked OK - saving us from disassembling the rear of the scoot to replace a bulb!
I liked the one fellow's comment that he drilled a 1" hole in the side panel to remove the rear shock top bolt- then popped in a $1 plastic plug from the hardware store!
The slot and tab joints do come apart with gentle persuasion - but some of them must be slid 1/4" one way to open - some simply pop apart. The how-to is in a safe in the basement of an unmarked Taiwan warehouse.

[Indy21]

The slot and tab joints do come apart with gentle persuasion - but some of them must be slid 1/4" one way to open - some simply pop apart.

Going to try again this weekend hopefully. Glad you know what I'm talking about with the slot and tab joints, hard to explain when I haven't really opened her up all the way and can't really tell what it is I'm looking at but there is definitely something holding pieces together other than additional screw/bolts.

The other day when I removed all screws from the front panel and loosened the top, I decided to study things a bit more. Looks like I'll have to unbolt the floorboard from the top, remove the side foot cowls, then the bottom panel along with the front panel to get things apart. Kind of scary considering I don't usually disassemble things all that often, especially not NEW things that I don't want to damage.

I'll have to wait until I have a 2-3 hour window of time where I can really take my time and remove things a piece at a time. Of course, this may be all in vain if I decide to remove the stalks and discover that the existing lights won't just "plug" into the dummies. Then I'll be at another roadblock as to what to do next. I don't really 'fabricate' things, so I'll probably come on here with pics and rack you guys/gals brains about it.

I will tell you this though. There is no way the existing bulbs in the winkers are gonna fit through the dummy holes so any suggestions on smaller (brighter/high quality) that I may order up would be helpful.

And again, when I take on the project I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures to show what I'm dealing with here.

Stig, I was looking over your 'mods' list in your sig. Please tell me more about the NGK plug, is it much better than what comes stock on the bike? I like snagging cheaper/easier upgrades when possible like this. Also interested in the style mirrors your using as the stock ones on my bike aren't really wide enough to see past my shoulders, I'm only utilizing about half a mirror on each side due to me being in the way!

Thanks

[Stig / Major Tom]

My mirrors post - I liked it so bought the right side one from the same seller on ebay.
Stock mirrors did not work for me - could not see what was happening back there!

 http://www.kymcoforum.com/index.php?topic=8921.msg96665#msg96665


The ebay seller for the mirrors-
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Piaggio-Vespa-LML-Star-Scooter-long-adjustable-motorcycle-mirror-Italy-/121180752420?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item1c36ef8a24#ht_1245wt_807

I did have to buy the small adapters to make them work on my Kymco LIKE 200i. There were about $5. The mirrors seem to be pretty good quality - and have many ways to adjust them. Use blue locktite to secure them when you get it figured out - so they don't come swinging around and tap you on the shoulder when riding - like mine did. (was afraid to overtighten - the blue stuff did the trick)

The iridium plug came highly recommended by several veteran scooterists here. It is a cheap improvement (@$7 ordered from autoparts store) and is supposed to last a long time. I had about 600 miles on my LIKE when I switched out the stock NGK for the NGK Iridium spark plug. Idle speed picked up a little (judged by Seat-Of-Pants tachometer and ears - LIKE has no tach. Mine does now - but not then), idle seemed smoother when sitting at lights.
Since my LIKE accelerated nicely and ran smoothy from new (with the stock plug) I have no facts to support me saying it seemed to run even better with the Iridium plug -
I did notice that the slightly increased idle speed was present when rolling off the throttle upon approaching a stop light - which added 15 feet or so to that 'coast to the light' period. I noticed it upon changing the plug - but quickly became accustomed to it and do not notice it now. 

There was a question about the Iridium plug being too hot ---- (some said we would have to go to one range colder on the plug - in spite of the fact that the NGK cross-reference charts did not bear this out) - but I emailed NGK and they assured me that if your recommended (per owner's manual) plug is, say, a "7" heat range - then the "7" Iridium plug is built to be the proper replacement for the standard NGK plug. (ie: the heat ranges are the same for standard and Iridium "7"s, 6's, 8's etc.)
Is the Iridium plug a major improvement over the standard NGK plug in my scooter?
No idea, but for $7 it is nice to know I have the best plug in my new scoot!
They are 100,000 mile plugs in autos - but for one $7 plug I'll probably change mine every winter! It's right there when I'm adjusting my valves. Just saying.....

I dreaded the valve adjustment like a dentist appointment - due to those mysterious and delicate looking plastic panels. Shoot, now I'm in there and back out again in less than 20 mins. A butter knife came in handy the first few times.
Still, scared of going into the rear shocks top bolts area 'cause of those rear panels! Just need to do it a few times, I guess. Maybe next month.
Ride safe!
Stig