First 100 miles on a SunL (And general review)

[kitcarguy]

So After a month of waiting to my scoot thru a local dealer I finally got one. My Original purchase was going to be a Tank Racer TR16, But after a fiasco that went on with the dealer and tank (Still dont know the details) The convinced me to go with this model





Now I know. SunL is Junk, SunL is this, Beware of SUNL, YADA YADA. But then again I Also see some of the "Better" Chinese models have pretty good issues as well.


Let me give you a little rundown on what has already happened with the scooter (before, and after it being out of the crate)

It arrived at the local shop with the frame (crate) crushed. The shop was going to refuse the shipment, because it was that banged up. But they faced a little problem. Refuse the shipment, and hope that the customer who has been waiting for a month did not drive anything through their storefront, or accept it with the minimal plastic damage and hope that the customer would be ok till the replacements came.

Well they accepted it and got it all assembled and ready to go. Good choice.

I picked it up on wed. and scooted away. Managed to get a whole mile and it was dead. It did not seem to be getting any fuel. But the scooter shop guy (John. And he is a scoot dawg member) came rushing over. Started right up for him and left me scratching my head.

So I left to get back to my 20+ mile journey home. John on the other hand got in a wreck(he was in a car luckily) Apparently some lady decided that talking on the phone and driving on the wrong side of the road was more important that paying attention. And then BAM, head on collision with John. He is ok but a little banged up.

Well about another mile, and on a busy road it died again. Started up fairly fast and I was going again. This time around a got about 4 miles and it died, then again few and died again. Then as though the scooter gods shined down on me the little sunl that could sprung to life. nothing could stop it, well nothing accept for needing fuel pulled into the gas station gave my silver bullet a little 93 octane and continued on home.

Apparently the issue could have been the vacuum petcock or something.


I have put 100 miles on it as of this morning. What does the future hold? Well in a 100-200 miles from now its going back in the shop. Jets, exhaust, air cleaner, etc.

Damn This turned into a long post and I did not even get everything down .

So if anyone would like me to continue feel free to let me know.

[earlwb]

I would suggest checking all the wires and connectors to see if something is loose. The two bayonet pins on the ignition coil tend to be loose, and can cause issues with intermittent ignition problems. You'll need to unplug connectors and connector blocks to ensure there aren't any loose pins or bad connector crimps. Take photos of the connectors before you mess with them. One guy pulled on a connector to unplug it and several wires pulled out on him because of poor crimps. We had a heck of a time figuring out where the wires went.
Check the spark plug boot out too. Some of those have been known to fall apart internally. Check the fuel lines and vaccuum lines out often or replace with better rubber.

Since it ran for a while and quit, it leads me to think of the fuel tank vent system. They typically run the fuel tank vent through a "one way" valve and then to a small carbon canister. There is a vaccuum line on the carbon canister and another rubber tube going to the air cleaner. Anyway, the one way valve sometimes sticks closed or gets stuck blocking off the vent to the fuel tank.
The vaccuum petock is easy enough to bypass in order to test whether its functioning or not.

SunL got a really bad rep, but there scooters aren't really any worse or better than other importers. But don't expect SunL to have any parts or to honor any warranty. You are pretty much on your own just like many of the other Chinese scooter importer companies. Albeit there are some good companies out there.

[kitcarguy]

I find it odd about the parts issues. The local shop that sold it to me(been in biz for several years) tell me they never have issues getting parts from SunL . There was some damage to a few panels on the scooter during shipping, and the said they ordered it, but said it could take a week or 2 for them to get it.

The scooter is running great now. I am going to take some time this weekend to go over everything and take photos. I will keep this thread active with what I do. and how everything is going with it.

[earlwb]

Well, it is very possible that the parts problems have improved a lot over what it was in the past. It would be nice.
SunL pretty much drove away many dealers from their company in the past by not having parts and support.

[kitcarguy]

Well lets see if it takes 2 weeks to get the replacement panels

[kitcarguy]

I have noticed that the motor feels very restricted. You can tell it has more to give (at all speeds) . I also have noticed, as everyone else has that the speedometer is not even close to acurate. I did not test with GPS but have noticed about a -5 mph difference in speed when going thru one of them police things that show your speed on the side of the road

I am going to take it for a nice long local ride this weekend, an see how it does.

[earlwb]

Yeah I used the police speed radar trailer too, and my scooter speedo was pretty much on up to 40mph in comparison.
You need to rack up about a 1000 miles or so on it before it starts to smooth out some and loosen up good.

[rerun2]

Amen on getting some miles on the new scooter! As things wear in there will be noticable changes, at least that is my experience. It seems that my ride is still improving bit by bit.

[kitcarguy]

3 days and 140 miles on it

[Glennby]

i'm rooting for ya Kit!

[lok222]

Awesome! I'll have keep in touch with you and follow how things go

I am pretty mechanically inclined so I will do my own work on the Sunl..

so far, I love this thing!

I got it from ATV Discounters as well.. but picked it up myself

[murdoc]

So I thought of getting one of these.
Ya or Nay
I don't want something I have to work on all the time.

[kitcarguy]

Well I rode some more today. I am over 200 miles on it.

Before I did, I checked all the nuts, bolts, oil and all that other good stuff. Everything still nice and tight. few things I would like to point out.

- Speedo is about -5 mph off. Doing 40 really doing 35.
- It tops out at an indicated 67mph.
- License plate bracket rattles and its pretty annoying.

It is going back in the shop at the end of the month. I am going to wait till after the holidays then its getting a bit tricked out. Will include the following.

- New SS or Carbon Fiber Exhaust. I have not decided what I want yet.
- New Jet and Air filter.
- Most likely remove the emissions stuff from the scooter.

Then I am going to have a variator kit installed.

Thats about it....for now.

[memturbo]

hey kitcarguy whats the model number on that scoot?

Thanks

[kitcarguy]

If I am not mistaken its a SL150-19

I have just hit 280 miles on it. I have not been riding much. And I have seen my 2nd problem today.

It seems after sitting for a few days the scoot now sputters starting at about 30mph (indicated) and continues all the way up to speed. If you back off the throttle a bit it will continue without sputtering.

Has anyone encountered this in the past? I am going to check everything out today, but anyone have any top things I should look at.

Also I wanted to point out that its been 3 weeks and I have not heard anything about the replacement plastics that my local scoot shop was suppose to order.

[kitcarguy]

I have spent about 45 minutes out there checking things out. The plug was not loose, no lines look broken/cracked, the exhaust is tight.

Anyone have any ideas what else could cause the sputtering I am encountering

[earlwb]

Probably running a hair too lean. The engines nowadays are set to run on the hairy edge of being too lean all the time. Which when it is warmer outside, usually isn't a big deal, but when winter and cold temps come around then the engine winds up being over the edge and just a tad too lean. You might want to upjet the main jet a notch and see what happens.

Check the two power wires going to the coil, the little el-cheapo connector tabs aren't the best, and tend to loosen up, making for a intermittent bad connection at speed from the vibration.
Otherwise the ignition coil could be going bad. Sometimes the factory people forget to screw in the spark plug wire into the coil and the spark plug boot, which causes the coil to fail prematurely too, due to the extra high voltages breaking down the coil wire insulation.

Don't forget to check the vaccuum lines, a cracked intake manifold or loose vaccuum line can cause this problem too.
Also if the tube from the air filter to the carb is loose it'll make the engine too lean as well.

[kitcarguy]

I am going to take the plastics of the scoot tomorrow and go through everything again.