My Roketa Fiji 150 6,000 Mile Notes and Comments

[earlwb]

Here is a pic of my scoot at the Cubra Libre Cafe in Dallas Texas


After leaving the cafe, I wound up getting caught in a torrential downpour thunderstorm that the weather people claimed would not happen that day. So after getting soaked really good, i discovered the fenders and front bodywork was really good at preventing water from spashing up and all over me. I still got soaked from the rain downpour but not from the big water accumulations on the roads.
Unfortunately, I had topped off the fuel tank just as it was starting to rain, so I don't know if the fuel tank being too full or all the rain was the culprit causing a electrical problem or too much moisture in the air or something. But I was unable to go faster than 30 to 35 mph in the rain. About 6,000 rpm was as fast as the engine would go before it started cutting out and missing or sagging on me. So it seemed to be running great otherwise, but I was reluctant to stop and check things out, as it might not start again. So I limped on home at slow speed. it rained all the way home too, albeit it did let up a lot by the time I pulled up outside my home.
I'll check it out this weekend and see if it has started working normally again or not.
I suspect the gasoline wasn't very good or something as I normally only use Chevron Gas, but the Chevron station was one that I have never used before, and their premium gas may have problems with it.
If it is still flaky, I'll drain the fuel tank and put in gas from a known good source and check it out again. Since it ran pretty good otherwise I don't think the electrical system of ignition components are at fault.

I'll tel you this I really hated riding along and hitting the water puddles as you couldn't go around them because of the slow speed and traffic all around. You simply do not know what is under the water. A huge gaping monster pothole could be under there and you won't know it until you hit it.

Of course being like 35 miles from home meant it took a long time to ride home in the torrential rainstorm. No rainsuit either. I left my emergency rainsuit at work, as I didn't think i would need it that afternoon.
Sigh.

[barretdm]

Earl,

Rain really stinks. I can't imagine being 35 miles out and stuck in rain.

Your problem sounds like my problem on my fiji. I can go more than 40 mph when I used to get 60mph. I have yet to solve the problem.

I changed the fuel filter, oil, inspected the carb and fuel lines, replaced the gas, added fuel stabilizer.

I've got belt that came in the mail this week and still waiting for my iridium spark plug.

Let me know if you figure out what your problem is. Good luck.

-Dan

Here is a picture of my scooter.

[earlwb]

I will do. I'll be checking it out this afternoon, if it doesn't rain on me again.
It will ruin the test if it is raining again.

[swampsniper]

Earl, is the air filter getting wet?

[jusdoit]

Earl...did you ever figure out what the Hose that went to the "Thingie" is all about. My speculation is that you have a "California Qualified" carburator hook-up...kinda like the catalytic converter on cars......only in Calif...land of smog and such.
Have a Good One........just Bob in NC

[earlwb]

As far as I can tell the larger rubber tube goes to the small carbon canister from the fuel tank.
But it works well with or without hooking it up to the canister. But if you leave it open it tends to make louder slurping or sucking like noises.

Since the scooter was drop shipped from California, yes it has all the California emissions junk on it too.

[earlwb]

Looks like I have my project cut out for me. I tried a number of things, and it still won't go over 30mph or 6,000 rpm without acting like it is running out of fuel or cutting out or something. it starts, idles, and runs great up to about 6.000 rpm under load.

I originally thought it was bad gasoline, so I drained the tank and carb and put in gasoline from a better known source. Nope still had the problem.
I checked the airfilter and it looks nice and dry, no problems there at all.
I checked the crankcase vent and it seems to be OK and doing its venting thing acceptably.
I bypassed the vaccuum petock to no avail.
I tried leaving the gas cap loose to no avail.

I discovered a new thingie on the scooter.
It is a One way air vent valve for the fuel tank. It lets air in but tends to keep the fuel vapors in the tank. But it doesn't seem to work very well, as if you overfill the tank, it causes the valve to jam up as it fills up with fuel. So fuel overflow can still get into the carbon canister.
Here is where the one way valve is located on my scoot. One the right side just in front of the fuel tank.




Anyway, I pulled the valve out and unplugged the vent tube from the carbon canister and it still didn't help any.

So then I figured maybe the automatic enrichener isn't working, but it measured a a few ohms so it looks to be OK.
I did discover that if the enrichener is unplugged the scooter is dead and won't start, and the electric starter is dead too. So the enrichener heater coil is in series with the no-start safety feature they have built in. So that is worth remembering in case the scooter is dead for some odd reason. Thus on my scoot if it is suddenly dead one day, check the enrichener heater coil and see if it has opened up on it.

I checked the plug and it seems to be on the lean side colorwise. That is probably a good clue.
So just in case I checked the vaccuum diaphram on top of the carb as it was easy to get to. It could have gotten a hole in it or something, but it looks just fine too. Normally I always check the carb itself last, as carbs are super reliable and usually don't cause problems.

I just put on a new intake manifold a couple of weeks ago and it looks AOK too.

Unfortunately, I ran out of time today, so I'll have to go in later and start removing the emission control junk. I think it is letting too much exhaust leak back into the intake thus leaning it out, so it dies when you go past a certain speed. Or anyway that is my theory.

But I'll have to mess with it next weekend, as I have to machine up some covers and stuff to plug up the holes left when I remove the emissions junk. The side plug will be tricky as it is round and large and has a high temp rubber tube on it. So I have all week to come up with a plug for it of some kind.
The other problem is that you have to remove the emissions junk to get at the valve cover anyway. So if I am going to go to that trouble I might as well remove it all anyway.

[earlwb]

I just saw that someone had a small picture of the emissions junk on a GY6 engine in this thread here. It helps to explain a lot of things about it.
scootdawg.proboards59.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=discussion&thread=1187512648&page=1

Here is the pic that catastophix provided:

[jusdoit]

Earl;
I'm ready to replace fuel line for my Magster 150. The fuel filter is now between the Fuel Control Valve and the carb...close to the engine. I'm considering moving the filter behind the Control Valve for several reasons. Filter the gas before it reaches the FCV and get it away from the engine heat. Are there any reasons I should not move it
BTW...saw you live in Grapevine...Pretty north Texas country....Scoot On...Bob in NC

[earlwb]

On my scoot the fuel filter is inline before the fuel gets to the vaccuum petock, so I feel it is in the correct place there. So yes, I'd install it there before the vaccuum fuel petock too.
I feel anything helping to keep crud out of the moving parts in the fuel system is a good thing.

Yeah I really like living in Grapevine, it is a nice city with a good city government in place. You can actually talk to the mayor and other city council members easily. They aren't hiding behind a wall of body guards, etc.

[earlwb]

All right, I found the problem and fixed it. I had a little time this evening, so I continued my process of elimination and one of Murphy's Law states that it will always be the last thing you try that fixes the problem.

Anyway it turned out to be a ignition coil starting to go bad. Maybe it got a little moisture in it and was shorting out to some extent. The ignition coil wound up being a low speed coil and you couldn't get any RPMs over 6,000 or so to work with it.

So my scooter is back to normal until the next thing goes bad. What sort of sucked, was I would change one thing, then go for a test ride and see if it fixed it or not. Then try another thing and repeat. So it took longer than normal using that method. But just willy nilly replacing lots of stuff rampantly doesn't help you find the exact item causing the problem.

So anyway the emissions junk has a reprieve. I won't have to yank all that stuff off yet.

Oh yeah, after a test ride tomight, I found that my engine idle is now about 300 rpm higher than normal, but it was too dark to mess with the engine idle speed tonight. I'll have to deal with it later.
The racing coil coupled with the NCY racing CDI unit has it idling a little higher. Probably the CDI unit has a little more advance to it.

Time to order some more spare parts again.

[earlwb]

Well today was a bit exciting on the way home.
Here I was tooling along at about 40mph in the middle lane of a three lane road with traffic all about me, when suddenly the scooter's engine just simply dies on me. One of those oh sh$t I am going to die moments. I got incredibly lucky and was able to get off into the right lane before it stopped completely. So I pushed it about 1/4 mile to a place where I could get off the road. I don't know if the 4 way hazzard light is really visible, but I used it. So I found a bit of shade and then proceeded to figure out what the heck had happened.

Lookling around and checking things and pondering what the heck happened and getting ready to start plugging in spare CDI and coil units, I saw that the spack plug cap looked awfully odd, like it wasn't on the spark plug. So i pulled the little front cover off and took a closer look and sure enough it had fallen off. So I plugged it back on and the scooter fired right up and ran like a top again.
Sheesh.
I think when I was finishing the new coil install, I must have accidentally pulled on the spark plug wire and it loosened the cap so it was just sitting on top of the spark plug loosely.
I had to drill out the little mounting hole so the screw would fit so that I could screw it down onto the frame tab.

[scottfla]

Sheesh! That couldn't have been fun. Glad it was a simple fix, although I bet you were muttering to yourself

[jusdoit]

Hey Earl;
Saw your response on "Headlight"...One of mine went out (Mag 150) and knew I could order...But, I got bulb, 35/35W at local Honda Motorcycle Dealer. A little "pricy" but convenient ($10 bucks). They sell scooters. Don't have any idea what other parts on Chinese Scooters might be available at Honda or Yahama dealers Perhaps Scootdawg members might tell of any expericnces...........I am quite confident that Stan Jessup in Oregon is our greatest location for parts....just "Bob" in NC

[earlwb]

yeah, I order a lot of stuff from Oregon Vintage too.
I wonder if things like the CDI and ignition coil are copies of the Honda or Yamaha ones too. It might be worth it to switch over to those if they are. I don't know if a Honda or Yamaha dealer would let me look that close or not to see.

[tankcommander]

Earl, regarding your comment, "Time to order some spare parts again".......

Typically what do you keep on hand for spare parts? Seeing as how I have about 6300 chinos on mine it may not hurt to start laying in a few spare parts. Any suggestions would be helpful to myself and possibly others.

[earlwb]

I don't carry everything on the scooter, just the easier to carry stuff. I really hate that here I am way out in nowhere and the scooter just died on me feeling you get.

So my earlier comment was to get another spare CDI unit and ignition coil as I have my spares on the scooter now. So I needed new spares.

I figured couple of extra spark plugs, intake manifold, Ignition coil, CDI unit, voltage regulator, extra CVT belt, variator, and clutch unit too. I also got a extra rear Axle nut as well. Also an extra CVT belt, I take along with me on rides, just in case. I also have a CVT tool and long 1/2" breaker bar wrench too. I carry along lots of tools with wrenches and sockets to fit everything on the scooter. At home I keep a gasket set and a set of seals too. I figured I could limp home leaking oil if need be. I also got a couple of extra headlight bulbs, but since I have dual headlights, I leave them at home too. Extra 15 amp fuses are a must have item. I also got a spare switch for most things on the scooter, like for the turn signals, headlight, starter, kill, and horn. I also got a extra exhaust pipe and muffler too. In my case the muffler straps would break so i have spares of them too. But I am hoping I solved that muffler strap breaking issue.

I suppose having a spare alternator rotor would be neat, but I don't know how many coils are on mine yet. A extra electric starter might be nice, but I am hoping the kick starter will still be useable if the electric starter quits. I have used the kick starter a few times and it works. So I haven't bought a electric starter yet.
By the same token a extra carbuerator would be nice to have too. But I haven't bought one of them yet either.

When researching the scoots, it seems a lot of people had problems with OEM ignition coils going bad and OEM bad CDI units. The OEM variators may or may not go bad right away, but some people were getting problems with them cracking and the weights getting sticky too. I figured the clutch might have problems eventually too. Of course the OEM spark plugs may or may not be all that great either. Then of course there for a while the OEM CVT belts were sort of next to useless, with some people complaining that the CVT belts failed in just a few hundred miles of useage. So if the belt breaks I can replace it while out on the road someplace. Some people were having problems with the exhaust pipe cracking or breaking and or the muffler cracking or breaking, so I got an extra set of those too.

I noticed that some of the Honda coils and CDI units look like the Chinese copies, so I am thinking about getting a Honda version as there is that hope it might be more reliable.

Oh yeah I am condiering getting a spare GY6 engine, you never know. Ideally I guess getting one of the big bore kits with crankcases would be the way to go, but i'd still need all the little incidentals that isn't included in the kit. Fortunately I haven't read about too many people having bad GY6 engines, so I think the companies that are making the engines are doing pretty good. So I haven't made it a priority to get another long case engine yet.

Of course Murphy's Law states that the part that you don't have on hand will be the one that breaks. so I am probably doomed anyway. but at least I gave it a good try.

[bigiron]

This forum needs a sticky showing which parts are interchangeable with japanese parts. Obviously not body panels but engine, electrical, wheels, fuel, air, etc.

[earlwb]

That isn't a bad idea bigiron.

OOohhh, I almost forgot. I need to get a Bell for my scooter to keep those sneakey road gremlins at bay. Maybe that is the problem, as without a bell those gremlins can get in there and break things on me.

The legend of the bells: www.crazyeddie.org/harley/bell.htm
Legend has it that Evil Road Spirits have been latching themselves on to motorcycles for as long as there have been bikes on the road. These Evil Road Spirits are responsible for mechanical problems and bad luck along a journey.

Legend goes on to say that by attaching a small motorcycle bell onto your bike, the Evil Road Spirits will become trapped inside the motorcycle bell where the constant ringing drives them insane, making them lose their grip until they fall to the ground. (Ever wonder where potholes come from?)

Legend also has it that the mystery of the Guardian® Ride Bell carries twice as much power when it is purchased by a friend or loved one and given as a gift.

here is one place that sells them, there are many:
www.bikerneeds.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=45&Click=44553&gclid=CMHA3vTkiY4CFTyKOAodwlf8EA

On my Harley I have both a bronze and a silver bell to cover both types of gremlins out there.
I'll have to get my son to buy me another one for my scooter.

[tankcommander]

I have had my *gremlin bell* for a couple of months now and it was given to me by one of the guys in the office who rides a big road bike and thought I needed all the help I could get seeing as how I ride a *MOPED* as he calls scooters. Oh, well it was the thought that counts.
Earl a bump on me for your post regarding spare parts you made some very valid points.

[earlwb]

Thanks, I tend to go overboard on preparedness stuff. But it does make troubleshooting a lot faster.
I stopped at our local Altex Electronics store to pick up a few more spare 15 amp fuses for the scooter. While there I picked up a small circuit breaker, this one to be exact:

I am seriously considering wiring it in parallel to the fuse and pulling the fuse out and see how well a circuit breaker would work out. If I have problems with it I can stick a fuse back in too. My harley has a circuit breaker in it, and although you have to wait like ten minutes if it trips, it is pretty neat in that you don't have to carry around spare fuses.

[barretdm]

Earl,

Your problem sounded exactly like my problem. I would like to try and replace my ignition coil. What part did you get and from where? How hard is it to replace? Where is it on the scoot?

-Dan

earlwb said:

All right, I found the problem and fixed it. I had a little time this evening, so I continued my process of elimination and one of Murphy's Law states that it will always be the last thing you try that fixes the problem.

Anyway it turned out to be a ignition coil starting to go bad. Maybe it got a little moisture in it and was shorting out to some extent. The ignition coil wound up being a low speed coil and you couldn't get any RPMs over 6,000 or so to work with it.

So my scooter is back to normal until the next thing goes bad. What sort of sucked, was I would change one thing, then go for a test ride and see if it fixed it or not. Then try another thing and repeat. So it took longer than normal using that method. But just willy nilly replacing lots of stuff rampantly doesn't help you find the exact item causing the problem.

So anyway the emissions junk has a reprieve. I won't have to yank all that stuff off yet.

Oh yeah, after a test ride tomight, I found that my engine idle is now about 300 rpm higher than normal, but it was too dark to mess with the engine idle speed tonight. I'll have to deal with it later.
The racing coil coupled with the NCY racing CDI unit has it idling a little higher. Probably the CDI unit has a little more advance to it.

Time to order some more spare parts again.

[earlwb]

You can get them from Oregon Vintage www.oregonvintage.com/SorderGY6.html
it looks like this www.oregonvintage.com/Stdcoil.JPG
But many internet stores sell them and you see them on Ebay too.
I'd probably go for the MRP racing coil, as there is better quality insulation on it, so it should last longer.

[earlwb]

So now ultimately, that strange large diameter rubber hose I talked about earlier on my scoot that was left open and dangling behind the CDI unit. I have now put it back to like it was as it is the air intake hose for the air injector filter located in front of the engine under the floorboards. I had earlier had hooked up an extension and plugged it into the fuel tank carbon canister as it just happened to have a nipple that matched. But I now belive that the air injector intake hose should be left open like when the scooter first came to me.

[barretdm]

I have ordered the PFS Racing CDI and MRP high output coil. Looks pretty straightforward to replace. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hopes this works.

Getting 35-40 mph slow when you used to hit 60 no problem is a frustrating experience. Hopefully this upgrade will fix the problem and give me a bit more performance.



-Dan

[jusdoit]

Hey Earl;
Yesterday I removed a foam plug from bottom of my Air Filter box & went for ride...at 20 mph scoot started "bogging down"....never got tto 25 mph. Took home and inserted foam...took a ride and scoot is as "Spunky" as ever. I learned that..."More Air needs more Gas". I am happy since Scoot gets to 50-55 as it is configured. Age old strory..."If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Have a Good One............just "Bob" in NC

[earlwb]

Yeah, several people have discovered that if tjhey open up the air cleaner they need to upjet too. Same thing happens if you go put on a uni-filter.
The scooters now in order to pass DOT emissions standards run pretty lean right out of the box. Plus you may have all the emissions junk on them too.

I am not sure if hopping one up is all that great of an idea. As stock mine turns like 9,000 rpm to go 50mph. So if I hopped it up it would be turning over 10,000 rpm to go 60mph. I don't think the engine would last all that long in that case.
Now if they start selling the higher gear ratio gear set with axle installed too, for the transmission, I would likely bite the hop up bullet then.

[earlwb]

Today, I got ambitious, and decided to check out the CVT belt and variator. In the past some people had reported stress cracks and wear on the variator at around 4,000 miles.
I only had 3250 miles on the scooter, but I decided to check it out anyway.

So I pulled it apart and checked the CVT belt. As I had mentioned earlier, the Belt is a Bando belt. It didn't look too bad off, only one small crack in the outer rubber layer. When I measured a new Gates belt, it is 0.75 inches wide and the old belt was 0.73 inches wide. A Kings kevlar belt measured out at about 0.77 inches wide. Also when you stretched out the belts by hand, you could see that the old belt was now a little bit longer than a new same brand belt. But the Kings belt appeared to be slightly shorter in length overall. All belts are marked as 835-20-30.

Now I went ahead and pulled the variator off to check it out. The variator itself looks like new after blowing off the rubber dust. I did not see any stress cracks or obvious wear on the variator. The OEM 13g weights had the customary flat spots on them. So since it was shifting just a tad too soon for my liking, I opted to put in a set of 12g weights that are made by DR Pulley (round weights not the slider weights).

In putting it back together, i found that the new belt was just a little bit too short to be able to stretch over the shaft bushing on the variator. Of course the old belt went on and off Ok no problem as it was narrower and longer too. So the real trick was figuring out a way to have three hands to work on the clutch pulley to spread it apart some. Naturally the clutch pulley spring is really stiff, all I can do to spread the pulley apart. But then you need a third hand to wedge something in there to keep the pulley apart. I wound up using a long nose pair of small vise grip pliers, to just catch the pulley and hold the two halves apart for me.
After that it wasn't a problem to put on a new belt and get the end of it over the variator shaft.

So after cleaning up, I took the scooter for a test ride and the 12g weights seem to be doing the trick. the scooter now feels like it accelerates a lot better, and with the new belt I gained at least 1,000 rpm for my cruising speeds. It used to cruise at 40mph turning about 8,000 rpm, now it does 40mph at about 7,000 rpm. This is using the OEM tachometer of which I have no idea how accurate it is. 45mph used to be about 9,000 rpm and now that is back down to around 8,000 rpm again. So I can say that the old belt had worn down on me more than I expected.

I am seriously considering machining in a few holes or slots to allow for more air flow in the CVT drive case. Similar to those special racing CVT covers that someone mentioned earlier. I don't feel a lot of air flow moving through the CVT case from the front to the back. So I figure any extra air flow ought to be an improvement.

[barretdm]

So I replaced my CDI, coil, spark plug. I noticed the spark plug loose when I went to remove it so I thought that was my problem all along. Turns out, none of that solved the problem.

So I went to replace the belt which did look a little worn and cracked my variator.

Looks like I have to buy something else now.

I might as well upgrade my variator.

This is so frustrating.

[earlwb]

Well this is a toughie. I commented in your other thread some possible thoughts about this.
scootdawg.proboards59.com/index.cgi?board=talk&action=display&thread=1188338603