Paso rhs

The Paso is one of those Eighties bikes that looks better today than it did back then

Old cables, high resistance, too much heat: we caught these just in time

Old stator cables, high resistance, too much heat: we caught these just in time

Scott’s Paso 750

This was the last stage of a long restoration which saw Scott repair and repaint every body panel, make a new seat, and sort out bent forks and yokes. The loom was old and knackered, with frayed wires and burned alternator connections. Also, the bike had a new battery and solenoid, and the cables to these parts didn’t fit at all well. But the worst problem was haywire instrument lights and dead fuel and temperature gauges. And when the indicators came on the tail light flashed too.

Most old looms are not worth repairing but this one was basically in decent nick. It had just been damaged in a few places by careless removal of body panels, or light corrosion. I repaired or renewed the damaged terminals, renewed the ignition circuits, and made up a longer cable to suit the new battery. Scott had considered buying a new regulator rectifier but the old one worked fine with new alternator wires and connectors.

The Paso 750 instrument panel has a printed film backing. Once its connections had been cleaned up and the plugs assigned to their correct places, it all worked properly again.

The bike runs nicely and sounds splendid. The paintwork and genuine decals are superb, and get a lot of admiring comments. And the electrics should be good for years to come.

Sometimes you can chop back knackered stator cables and patch in fresh ones, like this

Sometimes you can chop back knackered stator cables and patch in fresh ones, like this

This looked like a rat's nest to start with. Much tidier now

This looked like a rat’s nest to start with. Much tidier now