On Fri, 27 Nov 2015 13:42:56 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 27 Nov 2015 00:57:45 -0500, Micky
wrote:

On Thu, 26 Nov 2015 22:11:07 -0700, rbowman
wrote:

On 11/26/2015 06:35 PM, Micky wrote:
I'm glad you posted. If that's where it is, I wouuldn't have found
it.

What kind of scooter is it? There should be some service information
online. Unless it's a Chung King Lightning Bolt or one of those other
cheap Chinese scoots.

It is, but they too have documentation.

They are creative. One of them was called
something like Fubar 800. The displacement was around 50cc but the
crankcase held 800cc's of oil.

That's right. Low actually. 50cc's and 1 liter of oil. The piston
is only 1.33 inches and the stroke is 1.63 inches.

(and I see it has the factory-specified plug, and I measure the gap
and it was just right.)

It's a Tautau 50cc ATM50-A1. People won't find more documentation
on-line than I have, I was pretty diligent and I found plenty. I
have dl'd the owner's manual, 40 pages, and the generic service
manual, 180 pages (including the wiring schematic which almost?
exactly matches the scooter), and some other manuals for similar
scooters, GY6 and Panterra, but none of them show the gas filter. They
list it in the mainenance schedule, though, so I figured there was
one.

**Some other models are 49.5cc. I think there are some laws that
apply to bikes 50cc and above, so they made those less.

I also have the GY6 troubleshooting guide, which I had forgotten to
look at (I actually avoided looking at it until today, but today I'm
willing to look.) The closest it has is for Low Engine RPM, for which
it lists:
Air filter blocked
Fuel choke
Fuel tank cap air bleeder blocked -- so it really could have been
the cap after all, but it's not.
Exhaust pipe blocked
Auto choke bad
Carburetor diaphragm
Automatic oil cup bad.

Like most troubleshooting charts it doesn't list everything that could
be the problem.

Plus I joined a scooter web list, but I hate web lists, and it's only
worth asking there about things that are too obscure for the people
here to know. Like where can you get body parts for this model.

.... It has an overhead cam engine! But a maximum speed of 30, iirc.

And get this, they say it's a hemi!!

First thing to do is eliminate the vacuum operated fuel petcock.
Take the block out of the fuel line and join the lines with an inline
splice or a manyal huel shutoff. Plug the vac line. See if it runs
then.

I did most of this today. Test 1: I took the hose off the fuel
filter and gas poured out.

I put that back and took the hose off the exit of the vacuum petcock.
A little bit of gas dribbled out, though later it didnt' seem to
always dribble when closed.

But I disconnected the vacuum line and sucked on it and gas pretty
much poured out of the petcock. Probably not as much as Test 1. That
is, the stream narrowed a bit right after coming out of the petcock.
Hmmm. that didn't worry me at the time, but tomorrow i'll do what you
say, an inline splice.

Still, later I found some 1/4" OD hose and put a piece where the vac
line was and plugged it with a nail. I also put a 2" piece on the
port that had had the 2" piece that went nowhere. And I tied the
brake handle closed so I didn't have to keep holding it. And I put a
long hose on the petcock. Then, when it was started, I sucked on the
hose and that was enough to open it when the engine wasn't running,
but still it started to stall in just about the same length of time,
and loped slowly for another 10 seconds. Several times.

Later I was finally able to get the fuel hose off the carburetor and
when I sucked on the petcock, the fuel came out pretty fast. **


A video had used red and blue "clear" tubing, so I used clear tubing,
and while I was sucking, I could still see my saliva going down the
tube pretty fast. I didn't think I was letting any out, so that was
strange. But it never made it closer than a foot from the petcock.

I also was able to spray starter fluid while it was running and that
didnt' seem to make it run longer. Once it ran faster, for a short
while but even that didnt' usually happen. Is it possible to spray in
too much ether. It never was in a car but those engines were probably
200x as big.


From your description - a 4 stroke 50cc scooter, that is the most
likely problem - followed by a junked up carb.

Removong thr float bowl and checking for "greenies" and other crap
would tell you if that is the problem - but because it actually runs
for a short time, I'd put that well down the probability scale from
the fuel shutoff block.

When it's running, it sounds pretty good.

**OTOH, even after diluting the old gas with a new gallon, now that I
see the gas coming out of the disconnected hose is creamy brown, not
transparent brown like I remember. I also got some on my hands and it
doesn't smell like I remember gasoline smelling.

I should drain all this crappy gas, shouldn't I, but if it runs with
it for 15 seconds, that couldn't be the reason it stalls, could it?

I googled "old gas makes engine stall" and got several hits and I'm
reading them now (well, not right now.)

Here's one:
http://www.lcbamarketing.com/phase_s...hanol_blen.htm
Phase Separation in Ethanol Blended Gasoline Happens when there's
too much water in the gasoline.

It turns into layers. Maybe when I wait 10 minutes, the gasoline
rises to the top of the carburetor bowl.


Now that I have the extra hose, I can find a coupling and drain the
gas into something.

BTW, I no longer think thieves or vandals removed the seat. The owner
took the seat off to get to the engine to try to fix this thing. Maybe
he even did the other damage too when he fell. Why it was
rolled/pushed to the woods is still a mystery.