My Roketa MC54-250B Experiences at 13,200 miles

[bcjost]

Hell0
I'm looking for the plastic electric quick connectors found all over the chinese scooters. I"m looking for a ten pin mail to female and the wire ends. To hook up the remote/ alarm.
Thank you
BJ

[surfrusty]

You may be able to find much of what you're looking for at an electronics supply store. Here in San Antonio we have Altex Electronics. Check the yellow pages for what might be in your area. And, as always, call ahead. They might not have specifically what you're looking for. I hope that helps.

[earlwb]

I use Altex Electronics too, but the connectors are similar to the Molex brand connectors. But you may have to replace both ends with the Molex as it may be impossible to exactly match up the Chinese clone connector properly.
www.altex.com/nonflash.php
Another good source is Digikey, they have just about everything possible there.
www.digikey.com
also MCM Electronics is pretty good.
www.mcmelectronics.com/

[earlwb]

Friday decided to go for it. I made a long scooter day trip way down to Zabcikville and Yarellton Texas, taking pics of all the city limit signs or towns I went through to do it. I racked up a total of about 355.8 miles for the entire trip. I had stiff 20 mph winds out of the South, so my speeds going down there really sucked as I was mostly cruising 40-45mph, sometime 35mph going up a hill. I averaged 61mpg fuel consumption heading south but had a spectacular 71mpg average on the return leg with the tailwinds. It looks like used about 5.7 gallons of regular gasoline to do the trip, which costs about $21.65 dollars for the gasoline at $3.79 a gallon.

About 1 mile south of Maypearl on Route 66 the front valve stem came loose on me. Fortunately, my son drove down and brought my spare valve stem, stem tool and big C-clamps. So I was able to fix it and still ride the scooter home. The nearest auto parts store or even Walmart was like 26 miles away. Maypearl doesn't really have any businesses left in it for things like that. I had been thinking about replacing the valve stem for a long time, but since it looked good without any cracks and wasn't leaking air, I kept putting it off. I suggest everyone replace their OEM crappy Chinese valve stems right away, as they are a time bomb waiting to go off. I was going about 50mph when it came loose, and it was a scary slow down to stop safely without crashing. Fortunately the tire beads didn't come loose on me, or it would have been all over. If it wasn't for the valve stem, nothing else would have happened as I got home OK.

I also was monitoring my battery voltage since adding the electric fuel pump. So since I am not seeing anything big as to a trend, the alternator and voltage regulator are handling the load OK. It is just a poor choice of a wire for hooking up the electric fuel pump to.
5/17/2008 12.85v
5/19/2008 12.82v
5/20/2008 12.80v
5/21/2008 12.76v
5/22/2008 12.86v
5/23/2008 12.87v the 355 miles day trip I just did.
Regular daily commuting with lots of traffic lights seems to be showing a slight decline in voltage over time. But one short few mile long errand run day seems to clear it out and raises the voltage back up.

Zabcikville, Texas, oh yeah that little dirt road on the right is named Zabcik Road too.


The Zabcikville building that was built back in 1932, it is used by the area water company now.


Greens Sausage House in Zabcikville, they actually have a "Sausage Burger" to let your taste buds go wild with glee.


Yarellton is another hard city name to get.


Oenaville is also a toughie to get a pic of.


Yes my scooter fell over in Durango, ouch! I need a new left turn signal lense unit now.


The Malone USPO is about the only business left in town.

[tvfritz]

Wow!!! That was some ride you went on. The wind blew mine over too, but on the other side.. Now if it's windy at all, I put it on the center stand.. Was yours on the center or side stand when it went over ??

[earlwb]

Yeah it was on the center stand. The winds were blowing like 25 to 30 mph with gusts too.
I think a big gust caught it just right in the gravel parking lot.
It shows how a 250 doesn't quite have the power to handle headwinds if you were thinking of riding it on the freeways a lot. Although the ride down took forever at 40mph or so, the ride back was fun with killer tailwinds. You could go any speed you liked within reason.

[hossbob]

thats it im getting on my scooter and taking a all day ride today go to the beach or some thing

[yarddogbbq]

one of lifes worst feelings, when a bike hits the ground, done it, side stand and wind.

yd

[scooterollie]

Yep, know the feeling too on gravel! Sorry about that! I guess it is another one of those "not if but when" things.

Like your trip. Thanks for sharing. I've scooted around the area for errands but have yet to do a trip. The time is soon approaching!

[earlwb]

Just passed the 7000 mile mark on my scooter Tuesday evening. It is still hanging in there.

[mg]

Earlwb, where did you get the solar panel,and how much did it cost? Also, you were talking about putting a relay and fuse inline with the electric fue pump. What is the purpose of the relay, what type would you need, and where can a person get one? I am about to install a facet 40177 electric fuel pump on my mc-54b. It is an oem fuel pump for kohler and onan engines, I think. It is rated at 1-2 psi, and 7 gph. , so I shouldn't need a pressure reglator. I ordered it from southeastern power products in Fla. You stated in your post that your mc54b had a positive ground. My 54b (made by Benzhou) has a negative ground. I'm thinking about wiring mine to the battery with an on/off switch, and running it in parallel to the mikuni vacuum pump, and turning it on when I need to go over 50 mph. What do you think? Also, I don"t think you ever said which wire you did use for your electric pump. I'm not crazy about the solar panel idea just to run an electric fuel pump. When I put a voltmeter across my battery, I get 13+ volts at idle, and almost 15 volts at 2K rpm. When the fan comes on, I get 12.5 volts at idle. I can see how there would be a battery defecit with the electric pump. Thanks for the great posts.

[earlwb]

I installed a Pelican Case as my new trunk box. The old one was OK, but it sounded like a drum major corps when then engine was running, and it has been steadily falling apart over time. More and more cracks appeared, the lock latch fell off, and the hingers finally cracked and broke off, along with the trunk stop strap. So I opted for a Pelican Case as they are really tough and made very well besides being extremely rugged. I simply did not like the quality or rubustness of the aftermarker trunk boxes I looked at. I saw the same thing happening later with the aftermarket trunk boxes.

[earlwb]

I simply went through the wires with the front panel off and looked for a good candidate with the multimeter. I wanted power to the pump only with the ignition key on. The wiring is a little odd in that they put the main fuse on the black terminal (negative) on the battery. When I wired up the voltmeter, I had to reverse the two wires going to it. I wound up doing the same thing with the fuel pump. So simply triple check your voltage polarity when you get ready to wire it up. I can't tell you which wire to wire it up to, the scooter is all put back together now.

The solar panel was an idea I had for charging up things like my cell phone, and I figured I might as well use it all the time to charge the scooter battery too. What the heck, it plugs into a adpater plug and it has a extra alligator clip connector too. Mounting it on the trunk meant I had the solar panel there for useage all the time. In full sunlight it is supposed to output up to 300ma of current for the battery. I got it at Wal-Mart in the battery department section. It is a Coleman CL-300 solar powered trickle charger.

I haven't looked too hard yet, but I am thinking about getting a 12v solid state relay, and wire it up to the battery so that it can power the pump directly. The existing wires would be used to energize the relay so the pump would be powered by the battery. The 12v solid state relay ought to be available at most any auto parts store as they use relays for5 all sorts of things like making the horn work, etc. The main reason was the way the fuel pump is wired now, the onboard voltmeter tends to read lower than normal because the fuel pump is on the same wire too. SO I figured wiring the fuel pump to the battery would correct that issue. But you only want the pump to turn on when the ignition switch is turned, so that means one needs to use a relay. A mechanical relay would work too, but a solid state relay does not have any moving mechanical parts inside.

They have a bunch of inexpensive mechanical relays with sockets even on Ebay:
motors.shop.ebay.com/items/___W0QQ_nkwZrelayQ2012Q20voltQQ_newuZ1QQ_sopZ1

or maybe:
www.wiringproducts.com/index1.html

Most solid state relays are designed to handling high voltage AC voltages so one has to looks for a solid state relay that uses 12v input and DC voltage on the output switch circuit. Since mechanical relays are quite reliable it is probably a moot point.

Over in Carrolton Tx is a small store called "Tanner's Electronics" that sell lots of surplus electronics, mostly for ham radio people and electronics hobbyists, so i was planning on visiting their store sometime and see what they had.
www.tannerelectronics.com/

[mg]

Earlwb, as I stated before, My mc54B has a negative ground. The 15 amp fuse with the black wires, is not the main fuse. The main fuse is a 20 amp that plugs into the starter relay. The 15 amp fuse by the battery is wired between the ignition switch, and the blackwire from the cdi box. All ground wires are green, except the negative battery cable, which is black. This is according to the Benzhou wiring diagram that came with my scoot. Sounds like your's may be the same.

[earlwb]

You are probably correct, it just sorta looks that way to me.

[pattiey]

Hi guys, I have had my scooter for almost 2 weeks now and have a question for you more experienced riders. I have the mc-54B that has remote start and used it once, every since I can not start it manual without playing with the remote start, kind of like it has it locked out or something, it will not release it for manual start. Anyone run across this and if so how do I fix it?

[pattiey]

The dealer just wants to disconnect and says it is not covered under warranty. Not a bad idea but It is part of what I had paid for if you know what I mean.

[earlwb]

If you use the remote start, you have to remotely turn the engine off, if I remember right, you do something else to remotely release it back to normal, so you can start it.
I simply avoid using the remote control. Too weird for my tastes.
here is instructions on how to use the remote:
scootdawg.proboards59.com/index.cgi?board=manuals&action=display&thread=7463

[pattiey]

ok, I have tried the directions you have guieded me to and it does not release the remote start from the disarm button to manual start any ideas anyone?

[pattiey]

I used the remote start once just to play with it and now I can not get it out of that cycle and back to manual start.

["Big Guy"]

Press the disarm button twice so you hear four chirps.


-Rich

[pattiey]

that does not solve the problem either. When I had told the dealer, he had said he had one other person with the same problem. I am assuming it is a falty remote system. Just wandering if anyone has run across this same problem and knew of any fixes to it? I have tried everything I can think of. It is a pain in the butt to keep hitting the remote start or to get it to at least turn on the lights and so I can hit the start button.

[cat0020]

Unplug the remote system for at least 30 seconds and replug it back in?

[earlwb]

I'd probably just disconnect the battery for 30 minutes and then hook it back up.
otherwise, I don't use my remote, but if I suspect it is the problem, it is out of there. I'll yank that sucker out as fast as I can.
Taking a educated guess I assume I need to run a jumper on pins 6 and 7 if I yank out the remote unit.

[scooterollie]

Earl,
The systems seem to vary some. My Fiji needed another wire plugged in w/o the system. My Bali didn't. Just plug it in or unplug and remove it.

[earlwb]

interesting, I'll keep that in mind the next time I pull off the front panel to mess around with things.

[michiganman]

Jun 6, 2008 5:59:08 GMT -5 earlwb said:

I'd probably just disconnect the battery for 30 minutes and then hook it back up.
otherwise, I don't use my remote, but if I suspect it is the problem, it is out of there. I'll yank that sucker out as fast as I can.
Taking a educated guess I assume I need to run a jumper on pins 6 and 7 if I yank out the remote unit.

I yanked out mine it runs fine without it no jumpers i have a YY250T

[drewropa]

Jun 5, 2008 20:48:35 GMT -5 pattiey said:

Hi guys, I have had my scooter for almost 2 weeks now and have a question for you more experienced riders. I have the mc-54B that has remote start and used it once, every since I can not start it manual without playing with the remote start, kind of like it has it locked out or something, it will not release it for manual start. Anyone run across this and if so how do I fix it?

I also have this exact problem. The only suggestion I have not tried is disconnecting the battery...which I will do overnight. However, I do not hold out much hope. (Roketa MC54-250)

[scootenround]

Wanted to tell you Earl, that this was a well writen section and very useful. Thanks for all the advice! BTW you should really try and sell your variator tool, seems like it really does the trick.

[earlwb]

When I was looking at the pics trying to see if I had a closeup of the alarm-remote control unit on my scooter.
I discovered there is a fuse block there with it, a ATC type automotive blade fuse from the looks of it. I am not sure of the amp rating on it at this time. The fuse on the battery is a 15 ampere one, so I assume it is either a 15 amp or a 20 amp fuse. So they have a fuse up front under the panel. It appears to be right next to if not attached, to the alarm unit. Sort of a PITA to get to. It might be the 20 amp fuse they show on the circuit diagram just above the starter solenoid. I don't know yet about that though. So there could possibly be three fuses in this scooter.