No spark

Eric123 · Post by **Eric123** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 6:47 pm

Hello everyone long time lurker, sorry this is my introduction, but the forums have helped me so much in the past despite me not being a poster here its time to break the silence.

Marley is my 2007 Buddy 125, shes got about 13500 miles on her and has been great thus far, save for being the victim of a faulty factory stator (replaced under warranty a couple years ago). I made it about 11,000 miles before i noticed my transmission was in need of upgrading, I went with the complete NCY kit and did the replacement this past summer. This is when my first signs of reliability problems began.

After the replacement I ran into some stalling and backfiring issues, I rechecked my valve clearances just to be sure, then I remembered the exhaust gave me a hell of a fight on the reassemble and after a few days of battling the stalling, sputtering, backfiring, etc. I decided to try to reinstall the exhaust, turns out it wasnt seated correct and had a couple small burs on the flange, problem solved.

Since then I have had intermittent stalling issues, as well as hard starts, almost always once the motor is warmed up. A couple weeks ago I took her on a 500 mile round trip from Tampa to Tallahassee, rode like a champ once I got her fired up, but hard to start when warm and sometimes stalling/dying when coming to a stop but she always fired right back up. Lately the problem has gotten worse. Starts right up when cold and then after some riding will die almost every time I come to a stop. I know I should replace the fuel filter, but I didn't get a chance... Yesterday she died.

While riding around town, she consistently died at every stop and began backfiring and stalling while coasting to stop or braking, at one light I had to pull off and could not get her to re-fire for about 15 minutes, I adjusted the idle to try to keep the rpms from dropping too low when idling and this got us home...tried to start her this morning and got nothing but gas. I opened her up to check the spark and theres nothing there today... Where on earth should I even start?

Sorry for the story but Im at a loss, just hoping the more info I can provide some of you might have some ideas! Do the coils on these things go all at once, or can they act up before they quit? Im leaning towards trying a new coil and CDI just because of mileage and use... Thanks everyone!

viney266 · Post by **viney266** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 2:01 am

Could be a coil...Call your local shop and ask if they have a coil tester...Its a device that "runs" the coil just like its on a bike. If they do , pull the coil and get it checked. If its bad, problem solved.

Before doing that, check the spark plug cap, see if its tight and see if you can trim the wire back 1/4" and reinstall the cap to get a fresh end. Try that first.

If its not the coil, then check your battery state, make sure its charged. Then check the charging system and make sure the output is good.

If thats all good, COULD be a cdi...rare, but they do go up...If you have a friend with one, just swap the cdi real quick and see if you get spark...

Eric123 · Post by **Eric123** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 3:02 am

thanks for the response! theres not really a shop near me, but im guessing any scooter or motorcycle shop should have something of the sort so ill check around.

Ill try the cap tomorrow, can the caps fry? ill try trimming...

the battery, surprisingly, is original but still strong, all other electronics run fine and the starter engages normally, so I would assume its good, but if I have to take the coil in, i may as well have them both tested.

These seem straight forward, thanks alot! heres to hoping i wont be chasing gremlins!

viney266 · Post by **viney266** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 3:56 am

Caps can go bad, but usually the physically fall apart. Pull it off the end of the wire...It unscrews...and have a look.

Eric123 · Post by **Eric123** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 10:46 pm

Thanks so much Viney!! i trimmed the wire end at the cap, reassembled and boom! fire! i did notice some corrosion on the wires/terminals at the coil, and i took her around the block a few times and she still wants to die when coming to a stop... im guessing (hoping) fuel filter, and ill probably just upgrade the coil and cdi, probably run some fresh wires to the coil or red-do the terminals if nothing else.
hoping she just needs a little love to keep her going!