china/jap. repair ease By jct842 (Read 571 times)

[jct842]

I was wishing I had a china scooter tonight. I have a 180 riva that 3 weeks ago refused to start. I got around to getting it running tonight. It has things on it that are nice but not nesc. the previous owner had "fixed" a few things before I got it. one is the fan comes on with key instead of when it gets hot. I believe he was in the ign/start circuit too. all that was happening was the starter solenoid was not getting voltage and starter of course not spinning. this scooter has as I said lots of un-necessary stuff. in total darkness all you need to do to find the ignition keyhole is push the horn button and the ign lights up!

it has the normal starter solenoid, but to get voltage to it there is another relay it has to go through according to the manual. I chased wires with the wrong color codes for 3 hours and called it quits. never did find the relay. wire colors are different than the manual and hard as a rock from being 28 years old. ended up wiring it just like a china scooter + voltage off the brake light switch to start switch then to the starter solenoid! I noticed now the idiot light for oil is now in-operative. can get along with out it.
but it starts and runs fine. yamaha certainly does not use the kiss principle. If this was wired like a china scoot it would have been a 10 or 15 min job. john

[Bashan]

Sounds like the previous owner got kinda creative with his "fixes". Yeah, I agree, there's a lot to be said for the basic Chinese design. It'd be kind of fun to strip that Riva down and rewire it from scratch as a Chinese scoot. Rich

[kz1000st]

When I had the Big Ruckus the first problem I hit was that it wouldn't start with the starter button. I found the safety switch in the rear brake, checked it for continuity and it was fine. Yet the button wouldn't work. Finally in frustration I jumped out the switch and-Vroom-it fired with the starter button. Sometimes a China scoot makes more sense.

[jct842]

if I was a few years younger I don't think it would have been as much of a problem but I was bound and determined I was not going to get down and crawl around with this scooter. I am sure I could have found the missing relay if I was as agile as I used to be. all that neat crap is nice when they are new, but after god knows how many other owners it had and what they did to correct it all I wanted is to push the button and start it.

it also has a side stand switch that was disabled long ago too. john

[kz1000st]

I'm having a similar problem with my 31 year old Yamaha. The safety switch is a relay buried near the coil, it doesn't always kick in. From the sounds of it engaging it seems like a solenoid and contacts setup. No one ever thinks about what happens when these things age. Obviously a new relay will go through a zillion test cycles, but will it keep working 30 years down the road? Try and get a replacement part for something the manufacturer estimated would be in a scrap yard after 10 years. I'm waiting to hear about all these six cylinder techno marvels in 15 years and the parts that expire by then.

[bigkahuna427]

I am not sure how this might apply to the scoot you were working on but here is what I have seen in other situations.

Some solenoids are bolted to the frame or starter motor but the solenoid itself may not ground itself there. The electromagnetic winding to activate the solenoid can have a separate ground. The safety switches can be on the ground side. If it has a start relay before the solenoid the safety switches would most likely be there and on either the hot or ground side.

I hope this helps if not now maybe in the future.