Urgent Assistance Requested Please!

[tcthomp66]

I purchased a 2011 TaoTao 50 scooter on Craig's List on December 19. I was aware that it did not start, but not aware of the amount of work the prior owner had done on it.

I just figured out that he had swapped, on the fuel petcock, the intake manifold line with the carburetor input line. This has had the net effect of dumping fuel down into my oil pan.

I have just drained the oil and am putting new in. I plan to change this oil within a week.

My concern is working the remaining fuel out of the piston area. Will Seafoam help? Does anyone have any suggestions?

[kz1000st]

Take out the spark plug and manually spin the motor over with the hex head on the fan. If there's fuel in the area it will blow out the exhaust valve and spark plug hole.

[tcthomp66]

Thanks, that seems to be helping. Now I have a separate issue. If I spray carb cleaner in through the airbox inlet, the bike will start and run for a few seconds and then die. I have replaced the spark plug (has blue spark) and carburetor (cleaned). The only thing I can think of from here is a choke issue. I have the air/fuel screw at factory default. Any suggestions? I understand there is a small computer module (I found it near the battery - I think). Can this control the choke?

[skyrider]

I had a similar problem. Either your tank is clogged, petcock is clogged, or doubtfully line from petcock to carb is clogged. First drain your tank by taking out the petcock. Check for debris in hole then check petcock. I actually had stuff in my tank that had clogged my petcock so I replaced the petcock and all was well. Did find a youtube video on rebuilding the petcock if you're inclined, doesn't seem hard at all.

[skyrider]

Fix it???

[tcthomp66]

Just got back from my very first ride, thanks :)

I may still replace the petcock -- I just don't have a lot of confidence in it. The main issue turned out to be my own noobness.... when I cleaned the carb, I put it together wrong. Now that the bike runs, I'm finding it is absolutely gutless on hills. 30 mph on flat terrain, but 10 mph on steep hills. Any suggestions? I'm not worried about trying to make freeway speeds, but I definitely am going to need to get more torque.

[skyrider]

I'm like 210, zero power on hills till I put 16x13 rollers in, then big difference in power on hills. Got the recommendation from the Chinese Scoot Club and I'm very happy with doing hills now. You should be able to get 35 on flat, do you use a NGK Irridum plug, if not mine is a 4629 C7HSA. I also put a cap of Seafoam in each tank to keep the gas clean and boost octane slightly.

[skyrider]

also my speed on hills jumped to 25 to 30 depending on the hill with the new rollers.

[kz1000st]

16 X 13 is the size. What weight are the rollers? 5, 6 grams?

[tcthomp66]

Finding kits for setting up the weights on Amazon, and there are videos on YouTube on how to do the work. (Those two sites are proving invaluable right now). I'm also thinking (for the future) about doing a performance carb/CDI kit I found on Amazon, but the weights seem to be the best direction to go in the near future. Side note -- doing some research at work, I found out there can also be a nylon bushing that is used to keep the variator from fully functioning. When I open things up to check my weights, I'll be looking for that as well.

I appreciate the help on this. When I went on my first ride yesterday, I tried to go over a bridge that I need to cross to get to work, and the bike bogged down to 10 mph (speed limit 30). It wasn't just embarassing, it was both scary and dangerous (no place to pull over and get out of the way). Up to that point, I was determined to stay stock on my bike -- now I'm a little more open-minded.

[skyrider]

sorry about that, 4.5g is the wt. I would suggest Partsforscooters.com as if you can get him the owner is pretty helpful. I got my wts somewhere, standard ones made by Prima, or something like that. I'd also replace your carb, get stock, not performance. Replace your petcock and have you actually pulled it???? Really sounds like a carb/fuel problem. When you take off the variator nut use air compressor and take pictures or video of removing the parts so you can get them back together correctly. Its easy to do things backwards even if careful to line the parts in order of how they came off. I'd also make sure your gas is clean, nothing at the bottom of the tank, and fresh. Again, take off the petcock and check the bottom hole of the tank.

[tcthomp66]

The gas was the clue, thanks. I had already replaced the fuel filter with a transparent one after finding little black specks in the filter and the carburetor. Wednesday night I had to run a bypass on the petcock to get home from work. The next morning, I found more of the black debris in my new filter -- and in the float bowl of the carburetor. I was thinking I was going to have to pull the fuel tank and clean it when it finally registered... the prior owner had been trying to cut all his own lines, and had replaced the fuel line with vacuum hose. The corrosion of the hoses was being stopped initially by the fuel filter, but was breaking down into smaller particles and getting into the carburetor.

I now have a new gas can with fresh fuel, and am replacing the lines and filter this morning. (I was draining the gas tank into the old can when I was working on the fuel system, so the can and associated fuel is suspect.) The petcock and weights are being ordered through Amazon. Once I have the basics functioning properly, then I'll move the the variator weights and other items.

[skyrider]

I don't have a fuel filter on my qingqi, my petcock goes directly to the bottom of the tank, then a hose to the carb. There is no line from the bottom of the tank to my petcock. Simple. The line from my petcock to carb is gas line. You still need to not remove, but empty your tank, look with light to make sure its clean(removing the petcock to drain it first and leave it out) flush the tank with warm water. In terms of variator kits all you need are the rollers. I wouldn't buy any parts from Amazon personally, a good scooter shop will come in handy down the road.

[tcthomp66]

I actually have a shop in mind near where I where I plan to move to (making a job change in two weeks -- I hope...). When I bypassed the petcock to get home from work, I was able to make the 6-mile trip. After that, it wouldn't start. I just ordered the new petcock and a different fuel filter (the one I got locally is insufficient). I'm thinking on this particular design that, with the petcock bypassed, I'm flooding the engine. When it starts, it runs for approx 30 seconds and then dies. I was trying to adjust the idle with no effect.

[skyrider]

My scoot did the same thing when the carb/petcock/line was clogged. It would run then stop when gas in the carb was used up. Did you ever check to make sure your tank isn't clogged at the bottom??? Not sure about flooding the engine now, but the petcock is a valve I would try to rebuild your old petcock till the new one arrives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DqvB_5gP20
http://scootdawg.proboards.com/thread/25994/vacuum-petcock-question

[tcthomp66]

I would, but it's a sealed unit... no screws. I'm just waiting on USPS to deliver it (about $3-$4 on Amazon). I managed to get a good look inside the fuel tank, and there's some of the black specks down in the bottom. The microfilter seems to do a fair job of catching them, so my plan is to see if I can get a two-stage fuel filter system to work -- running through the microfilter and then the regular filter. Dismounting the tank to clean it looks like too much hassle unless there's no alternative.

[rks]

One of the things included in the PDI that I performed before starting my scooter, was to remove fuel tank and fuel gauge sender, so I could blow the tank out, using an air gun and my compressor....just to make sure that there was nothing left in it from the manufacturing process.

It does take a little time to do this type of stuff....but having a trouble free, dependable scooter, for the past three years (and counting), makes it time well spent.

I might suggest you find a place in your area that sells non ethanol gas. If used on a regular basis, you will experience fewer, fuel delivery problems, than those that burn the corn blended gas.

[tcthomp66]

From the looks of this one, I might have to remove most of the plastics to get to it... but I think you're right. The other option I was looking at was using a siphon to try to suck out the debris, then dispose of the gas that came out with it.

Also, I disassembled and cleaned the carb (again) and found the smaller of the two jets was clogged. This (I think) is why it would start and then run for 30 sec before dying.

[tcthomp66]

UPDATE: I put the two-stage filter together with a bypass on the petcock, and was able to start and run around the neighborhood last night. Once the replacement parts get here, I'll be able to do a permanent fix.

In the mean time, I think I'm back to my original issue. When I test-started it on the center stand this morning, I was getting excessive smoke out of it. I checked the oil, and it was actually pushing back out of the filling point. Now when I originally drained the oil (it had gas in it), I only got about half a quart of fluid. I suspect that something was going on that prevented the rest of the oil from draining. I'm going to change the oil again this afternoon. Does anyone have any further insight on what might cause this?

Also, I bought this used from someone who was trying to do their own maintenance and apparently did some epic fails... anything and everything is suspect.