Buddy having a hard time starting

[murrellington]

My buddy 150 has been having a hard time starting recently. It used to start in one second but now it takes several and I have to give it some throttle to really get it going. It's been getting worse. Today when I was riding the motor just cut off and I had to pull over. It eventually started up again and I rode home. It did this about 5 more times on the ride home just dying on me.

I don't think it's the battery because the lights and everything work fine when the scooter dies. Any suggestions what the problem may be? I was going to take it to the shop but if it's something I can fix then I'd like to try.

[scootERIK]

Could be the stator.

[babblefish]

How many miles does she have? When was the last time it had a valve adjustment? Is there enough oil in the crankcase and is it fresh? Is the fuel filter clean? If you pull the air filter element is there a lot of raw gas in the air filter box? What is the condition of the sparkplug? Sometimes the connection between the sparkplug connector and the ignition wire becomes corroded in which case it is helpful to remove the connector (by unscrewing it), cut about 1/4"-1/2" off the end of the wire then reinstalling the connector.

Pull the fuel line off the side of the carburetor and let it hang. On the intake manifold near the heads intake port is a small vacuum hose. This goes to the fuel petcock and tells it that the engine is running by sensing the vacuum in the intake manifold at which point it opens and allows fuel to flow to the carb. Pull this hose off the manifold and suck on the end of the hose then make sure fuel flows out of the fuel line. BTW, this only works with non-FI engines.

[MikeR]

Buddy 50 got it's first servicing a few days ago.

Had a difficult time starting it today - tried over and over - engine wouldn't turn over. I read a voltage of 11.6v, and I figured that's close enough to 12v, so the battery shouldn't be the problem. However, after boosting the battery, the Buddy did start, although I had to keep the throttle open for longer than usual or the engine would die. Ran it for 18 miles to make sure that the battery was getting a full charge. Arrived home, turned it off, and again it didn't want to restart.

Put a battery "maintainer" on it for 5 hours until the maintainer indicated that the battery was fully charged (voltage 13v).. I was able to start the Buddy, but again had to keep the throttle open for a while or the engine would quit.

Suggestions??
Much appreciated!

[giddyup98]

I had a hard starting problem with my Buddy 125 and it turned out to be a semi-tight exhaust valve. Had the valves adjusted and now she starts like a champ. In any event, if you have more than 7 or 8K miles on your Buddy, you should get the valves checked/adjusted.

The fact that your 150 not only is hard to start, but is also cutting out, it sounds more like a carb/fuel flow issue than a tight or loose valve.

[Dooglas]

Put a battery "maintainer" on it for 5 hours until the maintainer indicated that the battery was fully charged (voltage 13v).. I was able to start the Buddy, but again had to keep the throttle open for a while or the engine would quit. Suggestions?

If your battery is unable to adequately power the starter without several hours on a charger, then it may be that your battery needs to be replaced. A local battery shop can "load test" your battery to see if it needs replacement. It also may be that your stator is not recharging your battery as scootERIK suggested. I'd start with testing the battery in order to eliminate one possible problem at a time.