A mate is selling his wife's (she passed away recently) Mercury
Regatta mobility scooter and I'm considering it for my Mum (90).
She did ride Dads lightweight / take-down trike but when coming to a
halt on the down-amp at a pedestrian crossing, rather than just
letting go of the throttle bar her ancient cycle riding muscle memory
kicked in and she pulled what she for that second thought was the
front brake. ;-(
Luckily I was ready for such and event and was just able to hold her
back from going straight out in front of a 4X4 (that very
considerately didn't slow down but just sounded the horn). ;-(
So, rather than a finger operated, brake-like f/r throttle bar, this
Regatta has a thumb(s) operated 'Wigwag paddle' and apparently my
sister hired her something like that at a garden centre and she got on
with it well (no mishaps).
Anyway, mate has let us have it on approval to make sure 1) we can get
it into Mums back garden easily and 2) to see if she's happy with it.
I have previously done a discharge test on the 50Ah batteries and they
were both around 40Ah so still useable.
So, we got it to ours tonight with the thought of taking it to Mums
when we get a chance (one of us can ride it there) and when giving it
a quick look over (I was going to treat the tyres (tunes) with
Punctureseal and pump the tyres up etc) I felt the front suspension (a
coil-over-shock on a trailing arm, like a sand rail g) and it felt
non existent. I first put the grease gun on the main pivot nipples
and it took a few pumps but I saw no grease anywhere. Not wanting to
fill the arm with grease, I thought I'd better give it a closer look.
I removed the nsf axle bolt and had to tap the wheel off with a rubber
mallet. Then, to get the swinging arm off I had to disconnect the
track rod end, the spring damper and the king-pin (large socket head
bolt with Nylock nut) and stub axle assembly.
I then released the trailing arm (central bolt and large washer) and
pulled the arm off and it was very dry and rusty. The only grease that
was in there was the few pumps I put into it that had only half filled
the greaseway?
I later mentioned what I had found to my mate and he was particularly
annoyed that he had paid another 60 quid (on top of the s/h purchase
price of £600 in a mobility shop) for a 'full service'?
Ok, I wouldn't have expected them to strip what I did down but they
obviously hadn't even stuck a grease gun on the front suspension?
I also found the sealed bearings in the steering upright / kingpin
were so stiff the chances are they were sliding on the pin (and so
wearing it out) and that wheel bearing was also noisy.
So, tomorrow morning I hope to do the other side and anything else I
can strip / clean / check / lube and make notes of any bearings I find
questionable, ready to replace if Mum likes it and decides to keep it.
Two things that we don't mind there. Assuming nothing has worn because
the wrong stuff was moving ... 1) I can be happy it's all as it should
be and 2) I will have a better understanding how it all works, should
I need to look at any of it in the future.
I have already got the (Curtis) battery charger as that had stopped
working. Upon inspection I found the main 6.3A mains input fuse has
blown and there was the signs of a bit of a flashover near one of the
main SMPSU IC's.
https://ibb.co/mRYmM8w
I have some new (wire in) fuses but I might try the old 60W 240V lamp
across it first? The IC's are £10 for 5 from China, if I bother to go
that far.
There is a bit of corrosion inside the case so I think water got in
there somehow (they kept the scooter in one of those rigid plastic
mini cabin things, along with an external double mains socket).
I'm not particularly bothered if it is dead as I may well replace it
with a pair of Optimate 2's and charge both batteries individually via
an extra port in any case.
So, I was wondering if anyone here has, had or maintains a Regatta
mobility scooter and what you thought of them please?
Cheers, T i m