Post by Gary on Sept 27, 2008 20:53:35 GMT -5
This is a running account of my experiences good and bad with my Viva MC-13 scooter.
Here is the first post made at 10,000 miles:
Well, there have been lots of trials and tribulations along the way, but my cheap china scoot made it to 10,000 miles today. Its running strong, and I see no reason why it won't make it to 20,000 miles and maybe a lot more.
I've had a blast with the scoot. Its been very cost effective and is fun to ride. I've learned a lot overcoming the various nuisance problems that cropped up mostly in the first few months of ownership (see list below). The support from the great folks on this site including Earl, Yarddog and many others has been wonderful. I try my best to return the favors and help other folks wherever I can.
I wish all of you many happy miles, whether it be on a cheap china scoot or otherwise.
Gary
PS: Here is a running list of problems I have had with the scoot. Nothing major but lots of nuisance issues:
Here is the first post made at 10,000 miles:
Well, there have been lots of trials and tribulations along the way, but my cheap china scoot made it to 10,000 miles today. Its running strong, and I see no reason why it won't make it to 20,000 miles and maybe a lot more.
I've had a blast with the scoot. Its been very cost effective and is fun to ride. I've learned a lot overcoming the various nuisance problems that cropped up mostly in the first few months of ownership (see list below). The support from the great folks on this site including Earl, Yarddog and many others has been wonderful. I try my best to return the favors and help other folks wherever I can.
I wish all of you many happy miles, whether it be on a cheap china scoot or otherwise.
Gary
PS: Here is a running list of problems I have had with the scoot. Nothing major but lots of nuisance issues:
- The battery died within days of getting the scoot. My Internet dealer replaced it under warranty. The cheap replacement soon failed as well. I installed a Yuasa battery that has lasted really well.
- Right off the bat the charging system didn't work. Eventually tracked this down to a faulty resistor heat sink diode, a $10 part. Replaced the diode and the charging system has worked great ever since.
- The starter switch and the turn signal switch broke early on. These were replaced under warranty. I was a little concerned that I might be replacing switches every few months, but this hasn't been the case. I've had no failures since.
- The valve stems cracked early on. Replaced with better ones.
- The fuel filter developed a leak (gas dissolved the glue and the housing came apart). Replaced with a better filter; no problems since.
- An emissions system hose developed a hole. Turns out this was my fault - The engine inspection panel under the seat looked like it was missing a screw so I put one in. The screw point ate into the hose. Turns out that screw is to be left out.
- The carb heater fitting cracked, causing a loss of coolant. Repaired the fitting once, but eventually I just removed and bypassed the fitting. Its only needed for extreme cold weather.
- The plastic radiator fill housing cracked. Replaced.
- The supports for the trunk broke at the welds. Had them re-welded but they broke again. The metal is pretty porous. I plan to add some gussets and re-weld the joint, but haven't done this yet
- One brake switch stopped working. The replacements didn't quite match up and had to be modified a bit to work. They work fine now.
- The headlight aiming mechanism stripped out. Replaced the mechanism with a hex bolt, but it is not as easy to adjust.
- Upgraded to 45W headlights. The lights are still pretty marginal. Would be nice to upgrade to HIDs some day.
- Replaced the turn and tail lights with LEDs. This was straight forward. The LED bulbs are nice and bright.
- The body panels had lots of rattles and squeaks. Eliminated these over time with judicious placement of duct tape and double sided foam tape.
- The speedo is way off. Added a bike computer, which works great.
- The rubber bumper for the center stand fell off, causing a loud rattle. Replaced the bumper with a piece of scrap rubber.
- The rear axle nut worked loose, causing poor handling. Tightened the nut with an impact driver and applied blue locktite. Been OK since.
- Lights stopped working. Turned out a connector had pushed out the back of the fuse box.
- Muffler fell off. This happened shortly after I had the rear tire changed. The shop must not have tightened all the bolts. Haven't used the shop since.
- Casting on engine for swing arm bolt cracked and stripped. Got a longer bolt and thru bolted it.
- Had loss of power at high speed. Thought it was a defective fuel pump. Replaced the pump, but that did not solve the problem. Instead, it was the air box that had come loose. Put better clamps on the air box. It has held up fine since.
- Had poor idle, missing, stalling. One of the yellow wires off the stator got too close to the exhaust manifold and fried. Splicing and rerouting the wire solved the problem.
- Had intermittent stalling (once or twice a week). Scoot had to cool off to restart it. Replacing the CDI seems to have solved the problem.
- Variator nut came off. The outer CVT pulley came loose and broke off most of the fins. Replaced the pulley $40.
- Upgraded to Cee Bailey windshield. Very nice!
- Internal piece in muffler came loose casuing loud rattle. Replaced muffler.
- Variator nut came off again. Argh. Destroyed fan pulley again.