2006 Buddy 50 electric starter runs and chugs, doesn't start

MohnJadden · Post by **MohnJadden** » Tue Sep 19, 2017 11:24 pm

2006 Buddy, around 3600ish miles. I went through around a 2-week period where it sat in my garage, and it's been anywhere from the mid 60s to high 90s in NJ. I can run the electric starter, and it chugs the engine, but the engine never turns over.

I've tried the following scenarios:

1) 10 seconds trying to start via electric starter, 30 seconds off, another 10 seconds of electric start

2) Waiting 36 hours and trying 10 seconds of electric start

3) Waiting an hour or two and trying 10 seconds of electric start, then two slow pushes down of the kickstarter to prime and a few kickstarts with the brake held down and master switch on

4) 15 solid seconds of electric start, 10 second break, another 15 seconds of electric start

I've only used the 91-94 octane gas in it and the oil light wasn't on. The tank was around 1/4 to 1/2 full, but just to be sure I added a few more ounces of gas and a few more of oil. No dice. I know that something is kinda combusting, I can smell the strawberry oil exhaust smell a little bit (yeah, I use that stuff, I thought it'd be interesting and I had to make free shipping on an order) but I can't see if there's any smoke or exhaust coming out of the pipe.

I'm not exactly a mechanic, but if it comes down to it, I found these instructions on carb removal: http://www.modernbuddy.com/forum/topic17556.html and this video series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPeydwdSn7w

If I have to clean the carb, I've got a gallon jug of Purple Power down in the basement.

Should I proceed to disassemble and clean the carb? Or should I be trying something else?

Dooglas · Post by **Dooglas** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 3:48 pm

You haven't said anything about the battery. How old is it? Have you put it on a battery tender (low output charger)? Typically the batteries on 50cc scooters are fairly small and you don't get a very long life out of them.

MohnJadden · Post by **MohnJadden** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 5:12 pm

Haven't tried that yet. For what it's worth, the electric starter sounds just fine and the lights come on when I try to electric start it. It started fine the last time I used it before the two-week idle period.

I have a multimeter and can test the battery when I get home today.

Would it be a bad idea to try hooking the battery up to my car via normal jumper cables, or do scooter batteries not work that way?

Dooglas · Post by **Dooglas** » Thu Sep 21, 2017 3:28 pm

A multimeter test isn't very conclusive on a scooter battery. It is far more accurate to test them under load. Virtually all battery shops have load testers. You can start your scooter from a car battery but do it with the car engine off.

MohnJadden · Post by **MohnJadden** » Sat Sep 23, 2017 1:27 pm

I hooked it up to my wife's car battery and tried to jump-start. Same situation persists. The electric starter functions but the engine never turns over.

Dooglas · Post by **Dooglas** » Sat Sep 23, 2017 4:01 pm

MohnJadden wrote:The electric starter functions but the engine never turns over.

Do you mean that the engine turns over but does not fire? If so, that leaves you to the classic spark and fuel tests to see what is malfunctioning.

MohnJadden · Post by **MohnJadden** » Sat Sep 23, 2017 10:36 pm

I fixed it! I took out the seat and seat tub, and took off the cover of the spark plug just under the oil reservoir. I couldn't get the spark plug itself out with the spark plug socket - it was REALLY in there. Just for giggles I thought maybe the spark plug cover got disengaged from the plug, so I put the socket back on as tight as I could. It started RIGHT up.