New here...have a problem, too (electrical?)!

[moribound]

Alright, I have a 2006 Magster 150cc (GY6 engine) scooter with a problem starting. I just bought a new battery, which it turns out may not have been the problem.

About a week ago, I figured my battery must be going dead because I'd turn it over (using the electric start) and the battery would just lose power after a while without successfully starting. So I made a guess that the sparkplug was fouled and probably old, causing it to not fire, and the battery was getting old as well.

So, I replaced the battery and the spark plug. The old sparkplug was probably the original with over 10K miles on it! I turned the key though--and nothing! No power to the gauges, no electric start. Nothing. I did get it started with the kick starter, and I have a tester that says the battery is fully charged.

I heard that a fuse could keep the battery from recharging and keep the starter from working, too. Could the fuse attached to the battery ground wire be causing this if it has gone bad? Or is there a different fuse somewhere causing this? Any help would be fantastic, because I'm pretty stumped.

[moribound]

Well, late to work now thank to this problem! I thought I'd be ok since I got the scooter started early using the foot crank, but now I can't get it started at all. The battery has to be getting drained somehow.

Could it be because of the broken front brake lever? The cable snapped or something a while back, causing the brake light to come on sometimes. When the scooter is turned off, the lights don't come on though. Is it possible to still drain the battery from that?

[wutzthedeal]

The fuse from the battery will cause that. Typically only the rear brake lever (switch, specifically) has to be operational for it to start, not the front one. Check the fuse and the rear switch.

[scootnwinn]

There is no fuse in the ground wire. if there is on yours you have the battery installed backwards. The fused wire is the positive

[Deleted]

Typical problem with motorcycles, if you leave the alarm or even the electronics ON for just a few hours, those small batteries only hold maybe 110cca's and that's not enough to keep a charge for long, you need to click the alarm OFF button on the remote after the engine is dead to make sure the electronics are off too, another solution is to ALWAYS plug it into a charger.

How I know, I made the same mistake.

Took time before I figured out how to keep the battery from going dead.
Like yourself, I bought a nice new one, cost me right around $100.
And it would go dead, too.

So...

But nowadays, after some learning, it took a bit and a few jump starts too but I really don't suffer from the dead battery problem anymore.

[scootercapecod]

I've found that even if the electric start does work, it's good to kick start once every so often to keep parts moving and not wear so much on the starter motor. Aside from that, your electric start should work with a quick blip of the button.

[moribound]

Jan 8, 2013 15:26:40 GMT -5 wutzthedeal said:

The fuse from the battery will cause that. Typically only the rear brake lever (switch, specifically) has to be operational for it to start, not the front one. Check the fuse and the rear switch.

Yep, it was the separate wire with the fuse wired to it! I had it wired like a ground wire, but it was supposed to be wired to the positive terminal! lol

[scootnwinn]

I knew it