Modern Buddy

Hello all, i own a 09 Buddy 125 with only 200 miles. Unfortunately looks like i got a bad batch of gas last year. Scooter runs, but will not idle (just dies unless i keep the RPMs up). I know this is not good for the clutch and dangerous at traffic lights. I tried to clean the carb still on scoot w/o success. My big problem is that I live on Long Island and no dealers close to service and no local shop wants to touch it since they are not familiar with Genuine Scooters. Anyone have any ideas?

Well most will suggest you disassemble the carb and a new spark plug...but my take is that your not comfortable doing that.

What I would do is get rid of the existing gas from the tank, put in new gas and then put some kind of carb cleaner in the gas tank, like SeaFoam. You'll have to let it idle for a long while or ride in your neighborhood. Hopefully it will clean it up.

"A bad bunch of gas last year"??
Has your scooter been sitting all winter? Did you do anything to prepare it for the long winter storage?

If not, I would start with what iMoses said, clear out all the old gas from the tank and the carb, an put in some fresh gas with some seafoam. That might help. If not you likely will need to clean your jets and maybe the fuel filter too. Depends how gummed up everything has become. And while not fuel related, it might be a good idea to do an oil change as well just to get all the old fluids out of there.

I'd steer clear of any shop that's afraid to service your scooter, just on principle. But the engine design used by Genuine (and PGO) is one of the most popular small-engine designs on the planet. Any competent motorcycle mechanic should be able to service it.

thanks guys, the issues actually started at beginning of last year. I drained the tank of fuel and tried to clean the carb the best I could without disassembling it. I than used fresh fuel and added seafoam, but no luck. I keep the scooter garaged in the winter and now am sure to drain all fuel, but damage has already been done. Will try changing spark plug to see if that helps. How hard is carb to tune if i remove the jets?

Surprised no one has suggested this yet, but if the only symptom is that it stalls during idle, you could just increase the idle.

My tank of bad gas did kill my spark plug, but my symptoms were pops and stalls while at high throttle with 1/2 tank of gas or less.

porabjr wrote:thanks guys, the issues actually started at beginning of last year. I drained the tank of fuel and tried to clean the carb the best I could without disassembling it. I than used fresh fuel and added seafoam, but no luck. I keep the scooter garaged in the winter and now am sure to drain all fuel, but damage has already been done. Will try changing spark plug to see if that helps. How hard is carb to tune if i remove the jets?

There will be other opinions about this, but I've read that it's better to store it with a full tank of gas during the winter, than to drain it. You just need to put some sort of stabilizer in it like Stabil or Seafoam. If you store it empty, it's not really empty and what's left in there has more of a chance of evaporating completely and leaving behind nothing but gunk. Just for future reference.

I always fill the bike tanks but for a different reason that does not apply to the scooter. Metal tanks tend to rust from condensation that might form in a less than full tank. That goes for metal tanked cars too.

But I do also agree that the carb is better wet than dry for storage.

If you're not okay with doing all the work yourself put it on a truck and take it to one of the shops in/around the city, CT, or even up to Hudson Valley Scooters in Peekskill/Newburgh.
There's plenty of them around, it's just getting there that's the problem.
I have to go to either HV Scooters or the shop up in Burlington if I need anything done to mine-- that's beyond my/the bf's capabilities (which is really only things that require ECU work).

Try a shot (1 oz) of SeaFoam in your gas tank. You can get it at WalMart and many auto parts stores. It might be easier than taking things apart.