Bought the Thing By kz1000st (Read 1,103 times)

[kz1000st]

Remember the 50cc Lance Charming I mentioned on Craiglist? I bought it. Now I have my work cut out for me. Originally the guy who owned it had a problem with it stalling at lights when it got warm and keeping it running at an idle. It has 900 miles on it, guess what that is?

He took it to a "mechanic" who put a new carburetor on it and now it won't start. No surprise. I'll adjust the valves and start from there.

[ccprof]

So when are you adding a new garage to hold all your rides? Have fun!

[kz1000st]

I just spent the day fighting with the thing. This is going to be tougher than I thought. I finally got all the plastic panels off and found both valves to be tolerable. So I opened up the exhaust valve to .003 inch for the heck of it. It started and ran a couple of times then died after about thirty seconds. I checked to see if fuel was coming out of the drain line and it wasn't. I put the old carb on and now it's not running at all. Tomorrow I'll put the new carb back on and see what happens. Maybe I'll open the float and check to see if the floats move freely. I checked for spark and it looks blue and sharp. I'm stumped.

If nothing else it's an interesting pile of pieces.

[sprocket]

>>It started and ran a couple of times then died after about thirty seconds.

No fuel flow... replace the fuel filter and check the petcock...also check for vacuum leaks

Could also be a gas logged float or stuck float valve weight thingy...

[kz1000st]

I checked the petcock. I just put a drinking straw against the vacuum inlet and it sprayed fuel all over the place when I sucked on it. The old carb is leaking all over the place and even wet the plug. It, though, is pouring fuel out the drain hose unlike the new carb which isn't. I don't like the fuel filter though. It looks cruddy even though it's flowing. I think I'll replace it as a matter of course.

Like I said I'm going to open up the bottom of the new carb before I put it back on. Something funky is going on in there too.

[sprocket]

OK petcock is good...fuel filter 'iffy', I would think a jet plugging problem...

[kz1000st]

OK, a mystery. I resorted to an old two stroke tuners trick and put a new spark plug in it and it fired right up. Here's the mystery. When I let the RPMs drop off it misfired with a puff-puff and stalled. Then it wouldn't start again. Until I immediately put in a new plug. As long as I kept the revs up it ran fine but as soon as I let them drop it stalled and killed the plug. The last time I even took it for a ride but it did an electric hesitation but kept going. Except that when I got home I shut it off and it won't start. I'm sure the hesitation killed the plug.

Now I bought the plugs at NAPA-Autolite 4194-and I'm not sure of the heat range. What plug does a 50cc GY6 use? I'll go to a bike shop tomorrow and get an iridium scooter plug.

[Bashan]

I only know the NGK's, they're the same for 50cc to 150cc: NGK CR7HSA or NGK CR7HIX (Iridium). You don't HAVE to get resistor, but you undoubtedly want to blast a radio don't you KZ? I know you don't like to hear the engine. Rich

[kz1000st]

It seems to be running for now. I bought 4-NGK CR7HSA from Advance Auto, and when I put in the first one it wouldn't start. I remembered that yesterday I jiggled the wires for the CDI unit so I went back and pushed the plug in harder. How do you get the darn plug out anyway? Anyhow it started and it's running. I'll change the oil now and take it out for a long run to be sure before I put all the cursed plastic panels back.

Now what to do with it?

[kz1000st]

Oct 19, 2010 11:33:04 GMT -6 ccprof said:

So when are you adding a new garage to hold all your rides? Have fun!

I have a line on another bargain-stay tuned.

[Bashan]

Oct 21, 2010 12:05:17 GMT -6 kz1000st said:

I jiggled the wires for the CDI unit so I went back and pushed the plug in harder. How do you get the darn plug out anyway?

You pull the tab indicated by the red arrow in the direction of the blue arrow, I use a small flat screwdriver to push it up. Then you pull up on the two barrels indicated by the black dots, not the part indicated by the yellow arrows; I use needlenose pliers. The four plug underneath it uses the same type mechanism just facing the other way.

Oct 21, 2010 12:56:54 GMT -6 kz1000st said:

I have a line on another bargain-stay tuned.

I'm stunned....... Rich

[kz1000st]

A final-maybe-note about the Lance. I finally installed a CDI unit and fuel filter in it last week and it started right up and settled down to a strong idle. I even lowered it down to a reasonable rpm since the ignition is stronger and it doesn't die like it did before. I took it out between rain storms today and it ran better than it has since I got it running. No misfiring, hesitating or threatening to stall. When I stopped at one corner it pulled away cleanly and ran up to 35 mph without struggle.
I have a surprise buyer and it will be going to him next month. I'm just glad to put a fairly new China scoot back in service for the price of a fuel filter, a few spark plugs and a $15 CDI unit-shipped-from Scrappydog.

Also, Thank You Rich. Your instructions about how to pull the plugs on the CDI worked like a charm. The plugs came out of the old unit in seconds. I didn't even experiment with cleaning the plugs on the old one, just plugged in the new one and fired it up. It ran so well I took the old one off, strapped the new one on in its place and tossed the old aside. It will join the old carb and used spark plugs in the box I give the next owner.