Modern Buddy

Hi guys... I hope u all are enjoying your weekend!

I have already been experiencing an issue w/ my new beloved scooter. My ignition remains in the on position. I cant lock the handle bars. I don't even have to use a key to start it. What the heck happened? I searched this forum hoping to find an easy fix, but failed to locate anything that fit this issue.

Have you heard of this before? Is my battery going to die overnight? Should i just take the battery out overnight? I called the dealer who said to try wd40...that didn't work either...the ignition looks like it may have been set wrong or slightly off mark and now has slipped back making it impossible to turn it in the off position.

I'm surprised it won't go to the column unlocked/power off position. If the locking pin were somehow involved, it would shut off but not let you turn it all the way to the lock position.

Since you're stuck with a power-on condition, it would be smart to unhook the negative terminal of the battery for the night.

Thanks for the quick response PeteH. I'm really dissapointed that I'm experiencing this already.

What is the difference of unhooking the negative, the positive or both? As a newb, im just curious why u suggest the negative vs both.

No real difference, except that the positive terminal might have some extra wires hooked to it, and the negative side usually just has one. Simpler.

Gotcha. Thanks again for your help! Very much appreciated

I had a similar problem when I got my Buddy in late Feb. my key got stuck in the ignition and when I finally got it our, I could not get it back in and it was also stuck in the on position. My battery was dead as a door nail. WD-40 did work or me but not instantly... It took a bit of jiggling and cajoling. But one I got it in there I have not had a problem since. PeteH helped me get it kick started and my dealer gave me a new battery. I have not had any more problems since and have been happily scooting all over town. You might want to try the WD-40 again. Maybe you have a completely different issue, but I thought mine was a lot more than it was. Good luck with it and hope you are riding soon.... You are oing to LOVE IT

Thanks mutt the hopple. I took these suggestions and wd40'd the ignition...no luck. Its jammed. I also unhooked the negative battery chord. I actually parked the scooter inside my living room because the steering doesn't lock right now and, naturally, id be devastated if it was stolen.

Ive been kickstarting it every now and again just to keep some attn on it. It has been fine up until now. it has been maybe 5-7 hrs since I last kickstarted it and I broke a sweat trying to get it started again. Once it finally fired up, the blinkers and horn would not work. Blinker came on but wouldn't blink. It just stayed in the lit position. The horn was weak. I cant believe I'm already having problems with this thing. Sigh...it has been so much fun, so I'm quite bummed that I have big issues with only 140mi on it.

Scooter shop wont be open tip Tuesday, so battery is completely unhooked and my scoots will just have to sit 2 days until I can bring it in. Ill keep this thread up to date
with details in case others happen to run in to this issue...at least they can have an idea of what to expect.

At the risk of stating the obvious, you do have your wheel turned all the way to the left when you are trying to turn the key to the off position, yes? I know sometimes jiggling the steering column to the left can help the key to turn. My key used to catch sometimes. Turning the wheel back and forth to the left like that would sometimes help.

Hope maybe this helps. If not, I guess it's time to let the 2-year warrantee do its job!

Really sorry you're having this kind of trouble. The ignition is definitely touchy but, as others have said, not in the way you are describing. Bummer that you'll have to take it in but it sounds like the best course of action.

One note on kick starting it. If you're doing that to keep the battery charged you'll need to let it run quite a while. These little generators don't provide much charging power and many of us who do lots of quick trips keep a battery tender hooked up.

Good luck- hoping your dealer gets it worked out quickly!

I've tried turning the handle bars all the way to the left and right. Ive tried just about everything i can think of. its looks like the ignition just dropped back a bit making it impossible to turn off/on. The seat can still be opened - but i cannot lock the steering or turn it in the off position. It wants to keep my key when i use it, but i am able to wiggle it out with the help of the WD40 that ive used. Hopefully this is covered under the warranty. i dont see how such an issue would not be considered a defect thats not covered.

I was quite bummed this morning to wake up to a sunny day with clear blue skies and not be able to ride my scooter to work (I live in Eugene OR - where we get about 50.9 inches of rain/yr, so sunny days are few and far between) There must be a reason that i should not be on the road right now. I can accept that - Only a mechanical problem would be able to keep me off the scooter today

Jmazza - thanks for the tip on a battery tender. Ive seen a lot of people on here talk about the battery tender as a necessity. I dont have one (yet) so ill look in to getting one since i am a short trip scootster. I really only ride to work, yoga class, library, grocery stores, etc (all about 2mi from me.) Once i am more comfortable, ill take more distant trips, but im still getting the hang of it.

Thanks guys!

Call Genuine emergency roadside assistance at 1-866-311-8982.

They will arrange a tow to take it back to the dealer to have it repaired. I would think you're covered under the warranty based on what you're describing.

Last night after work - I decided to hook up the battery just to see if i helped in preserving the life of it by leaving it unhooked until the dealer can help me out - i hooked it up and the scooter fired up no problem. PLUS the blinkers and horn worked again. I found that to be odd.

Maybe if the battery is hooked up, even if dead, youll get the functions of the horn and blinkers as normal, but if the battery is not hooked up (like mine was not) and you kick start it - then the blinkers and horn wont work. Does this make sense? not to me either... i was just very happy to see my bike was going to shit.

After seeing that the bike was functioning (minus the ability to lock the steering and turn the ignition in the off position still) i went for a ride.

I hope to take the scooter in after work to see what the heck happened to the iginition.

napohaku24 wrote:
Maybe if the battery is hooked up, even if dead, youll get the functions of the horn and blinkers as normal, but if the battery is not hooked up (like mine was not) and you kick start it - then the blinkers and horn wont work. Does this make sense? not to me either... i was just very happy to see my bike was going to shit.

Not sure I'm exactly following what you've done or not done but I wanted to say that it's not a good idea to try to run the scooter without a battery hooked up. Running with a dead battery hooked up is fine but I've always been told that trying to kick start and run the scooter without a battery connected at all can damage the charging system.

Glad the scooter is ok overall, though!

Thats good to know...never would have thought that to be a bad thing - but that is exactly what i did. I left the negative unhooked > kickstarted it > and had issues with the blinkers/horn.

When i hooked the battery back up, it fired up fine - no problems.

Glad to know its not good - i wont do it again.

napohaku24 wrote:Thats good to know...never would have thought that to be a bad thing - but that is exactly what i did. I left the negative unhooked > kickstarted it > and had issues with the blinkers/horn.

When i hooked the battery back up, it fired up fine - no problems.

Glad to know its not good - i wont do it again.

Yeah, I can't tell you exactly why it's bad, but I have been told it is by a few trusted sources. I hate spreading bad info but I'm pretty confident of this.

I had an instance of weird ignition behavior once a while back. I think I turned it without having the key in all the way and felt like it was spinning around too easy afterward. I messed around with it a bit by sticking the key in part way and it felt like things lined back up properly. I haven't had an issue with it since.
Your problem could be completely different but maybe it's worth a try to put the key in part way and slowly/gently turn the ignition to see if you get it lined back up.

As I understand it, the battery - even when dead - acts as a kind of moderator on the current running through the rest of the electrical system. Without it in the circuit, the stator can (under the right conditions) produce enough current to blow fuses, which is less likely with the battery there to absorb it.

That makes sense. Glad u guys set me straight...I only did it once and wont do that again.

I took the scooter in and the dealer said it needs a new ignition. It didnt take him long to decide that the ignition was a gonner. All covered under warranty. Phew!

Great news! (that it's covered). Sorry you had to go through this.