Modern Buddy

In an attempt to get my Black Cat up & running (I took apart & cleaned the carburetor, put in a new battery), I opened up and took a look at the air filter and it was soaked either with gas or oil - couldn't tell which. What does this mean???

Also, where is my fuel filter located please?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

There should be a light coating of oil on the filter, to help trap contaminates. When you clean an air filter you're supposed to lubricate it with oil. Now "saturated" with oil sounds a little overkill and could restrict airflow.

Not sure about the Black Cat, but the Buddy has a dry air filter. If it's a wet filter, it should be—at most—moist, not soaked.

If you overfill with engine oil or gas, they can back up into the filter. The filter can be cleaned. Remove, wring it out, wash with mild dish soap and warm water, wring again. Leave out to dry. Blow it out with compressed air if available.

If it's supposed to be wet, you can wet it with a 50-50 milx of gas and clean engine oil. Just dip it in, let it soak, the squeeze out excess until it's just moist, as mentioned above.

I've noticed the same problem. My oil level is not too high, but right in the middle of the dipstick safe zone. I haven't overfilled my gas tank either. There just seems to be some oil backing up through the air intake hole - not a lot, maybe 10-15 drops worth....I just haven't worried about it.

I have been having the same issue, oil was overfilled by dealer. When I changed it more recently, I took it down to correct level but seems like oil is still a little left over...

I have been thinking about changing the air filter as a result, 07 buddy with 9000 miles on it so may be helpful anyway? but Scooterworks has been out of stock...

Sooooo...............in a continuing effort to get this scoot up & running, I have: stripped down & completely cleaned the carb, put in a new fuel filter, new battery, new spark plug and it STILL WON'T RUN!!!!!!! ARGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH
Actually, it will run for about five minutes (long enough for me to take it around the block) then by the time I'm pulling up in my driveway, it dies. It only has 290 miles and I just don't know what else to look at. Any suggestions?????????????? I've played around with the air/fuel settings, the idle setting......no joy.

^auto-choke prob?

thats all i got i am a n00b with this stuff. sounds like a good guess, 'tho

or how about a valve adjustment? i love that one

A foam filter should be moistened with a light oil. Some filter oils come in an aerosol form. To heavy of an oil will restrict the filter too much. It is possible to inadvertently get gear oil in the filter; if there is too much oil in the final drive, it can be pushed up the gearbox breather tube into the air filter housing.

The cut out after a few minutes sounds like the auto-choke (by starter) is disengaging and the leaning of the mixture is making it too weak to make power. You might have an air leak in the intake path. I've seen this situation on 2T Hondas and it's been caused by an intake air leak, the auto-choke malfunctioning or a leaking crankshaft seal. Hopefully, it's the former.

coffeebrown wrote:Actually, it will run for about five minutes (long enough for me to take it around the block) then by the time I'm pulling up in my driveway, it dies.

Five minutes? Every time? This is going to sound nuts, but it sounds to me like it a fuel starvation issue. I think it's running out the fuel that's collected in the carb float bowl then stopping because fuel isn't coming in fast enough to refill the bowl while the motor is running.

I don't know why this is happening, but the fuel system is pretty straightforward. You have a tank of gas. At the bottom of the tank is a fuel tap. The fuel tap is turned on and off by a vacuum hose that pulls a vacuum when the motor runs, thus allowing fuel to flow and cutting the flow off when the motor isn't running. [EDIT: Folks below reminded me the Buddy has a fuel filter. My Blur didn't, so I always forget. As they suggest, the smart play is to just replace that bad boy if you suspect fuel flow problems] The fuel flows down a hose into the carb where the flow into the carb bowl is regulated by a float that pushes a needle up into the "main jet" when the bowl is full, thereby stopping the flow of fuel. I think something in that system is not working properly.

If you can locate the fuel tap, something quick you can do is verify that the vacuum hose to the fuel tap is connected at both ends. If it's not, reconnect it and you'll be back in business right away. Beyond that, you're going to need to know how to troubleshoot the fuel tap and, if that's not the problem, how to disassemble and troubleshoot the float/main jet assembly in your carb. Carb work is not exotic, difficult stuff, but it's a good idea to have somebody walk you through it the first time you do it.

Hope this helps...

osted: Mon Jul 23, 2012 10:13 am Post subject:

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Not sure about the Black Cat, but the Buddy has a dry air filter. If it's a wet filter, it should be—at most—moist, not soaked.

ERic, now I am confused. I have a 125 GB. Air filter saturated w/ oil or not.

avonpirate wrote:

osted: Mon Jul 23, 2012 10:13 am Post subject:

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Not sure about the Black Cat, but the Buddy has a dry air filter. If it's a wet filter, it should be—at most—moist, not soaked.

ERic, now I am confused. I have a 125 GB. Air filter saturated w/ oil or not.

Not. If it's saturated, it spilled in there and needs to be cleaned out and dried or replaced. Also, may want to drain and replace engine oil in proper quantity.

thnx Eric. This is info that should be included in the manual we are speaking of in another thread. The Haynes book does not ID Genuine Scooters, nor address, that I can recall, an air filter such as mine. As a newby thisis important stuff..... 'cause I don't have the depth of knowledge to differentiate.

Hey coffeebrown, I had a similar problem where my scooter was riding for about 5 minutes and dying out. I realized that the issue was with the new fuel filter I had installed. I noticed that the lines were being kinked and impeding the flow of fuel. I replace the new fuel filter that was kinking the lines with the old one ( the one I was replacing) and problem gone, so I decided to get a new fuel filter with a 90 degree input and output (see photo) instead of the straight in line filter and my scoot became the monster that it is. Faster acceleration, smoother riding and throttling. Try it and see if it helps. Good luck, we need more scooters on the roads.

wow, that fuel filter is soooo like the fuel filter in the '71 soft top beetle I restored. As soon as it started buckin' and being sluggish, I'd pull off the side of the road, pull out a new one ( I'd buy them by the half dozens) and replace. So, I get it! Unfortunatley I did such a good job of restoring it that I sold it to a collector to make a downpayment on a condo . Acting like an adult is crummy.