Hi there, I am new to the moped world, having finally seen the light after several forays into the motorcycle world, (125 learner > chopper > sports bike) After becoming so close to my work I got rid of both the 2 and the 4 wheels and walked to work, with the use of the girlfriend's car for other occasions, however we are now in the (lengthy) process of buying a house which is beyond walking distance so I picked myself up a cheap 52 plate, piaggio from the next town across. So as it was cheap, there are ofcourse issues (of which and again ofcourse, were not mentioned at the point of sale) Main issue, if I keep to ~half throttle I can get the full rev range, but full throttle limits me to 6k, so from what I have read I am suspecting the main jet size? Secondary issue, speedo, oil temp and fuel gauge aren't working, I checked at the wheel level and (thing?) the speedo cable attaches to is spinning, so I need to check the end going into the clock next, but is there a common fault that could kick out both the temp and fuel? there are lights to the clocks and the indicator notification lights work, don't want to find out the hard way if the low fuel light doesn't want to work : -) Not sure if it has been played with, I got 40mph out of it according to my phone, the exhaust looks stock and untouched, what's required to de-restrict the stock one, or does it just get replaced? Also need to confirm whether the variator washer has been removed. It has just passed it's MOT so I get to have it back for a proper play now, all I have don'e so far is to replace the rear shock as it failed first time round. Any comments, much appreciated!
Firstly, welcome to the site. Secondly.......photos please. We all love a gander. Thirdly.......down to the nitty gritty. Do you have a digital speedo or mechanical one? Lights could just be the bulbs blown. Fuel gauge - separate sender unit plug at tank end, bridge the connection with a piece of wire or a split pin and see if the fuel gauge responds, same for oil gauge. Sort out the known faults before looking at mods. Get in a hell of a mess otherwise. 40 is ok for now, will keep you out of trouble on most of the roads.
Hi, Thanks for the reply. It is a mechanical speedo, I disconnected it from the wheel, spun the wheel up and the bit that goes into the cable moves, so need to investigate further up now. All the lights work, including the ones on the clocks I can operate, so hopeful if the clocks are damaged that it is not too bad... thanks for the tip of bridging the connectors though, I will test that tomorrow and having re-read my post, I was a bit ambiguous, I was not after how to mod, rather to ascertain if it hasn't been messed with already to make problem solving easier : -)
Apart from the bogging, which as you say is either due to a too small or too big main jet, probably, your issues are electrical. Speedo - no need to panic too much on that, just disconnect it from the speedo drive at the wheel, push the inner cable all the way up as far as it will go, and give it a twist with your fingers and see if the speedo needle moves. try it both ways as i can't remember which way it turns off hand. If the needle moves then it is just seating that needs looking at, if not pull the inner cable out, it is probably broke. Leave the outer cable in place. More than likely the washer is already out the variator, but for piece of mind there are some things that need changing straight away. Drive belt - because it will let you down at the most inopportune moment if you don't Rollers - because they probably have huge flats on them and wont help with acceleration OIL PUMP BELT -----------this one is the most important to do/get done as soon as. It's a tiny little belt behind the variator, costs about £8, and it drives the oil pump off the crank. You will not know that this belt has broken until the piston goes; and then it's too late. Easy enough to do yourself, just make sure you put the drive gear back on the same way as it came off, or, like me, the belt will come off and within half a mile you will kill the piston and barrel.
Well first step is to take the carb out and give it a good clean I think, then I can also look at the jet size, 58-60 I believe is stock? When I took off the speedo a part that goes into the cable was left behind on the hub, is this correct? Or is that my break? I suspect it is. The rev counter also plays havoc at low speeds and idles so I think that is following the same fate although as it is working intermittently maybe I will be lucky and it is seated wrongly. Thanks for the tip (and the warning! that didn't sound pleasant at all) hadn't thought of the oil pump belt, I had planned to replace the drive belt and rollers, which size rollers would be recommended for the stock exhaust? Here is a pic of it once I got it home from it's first MOT failure, all I've done to it since this picture is remove the L plates wash it! replace the rear shock absorber attach some mirrors! It is now taxed and tested, so I can begin tinkering with it It also doesn't match my jacket or helmet, so seeing as every panel is scratched anyway, thinking a respray is in order!
6gr rollers should suffice with stock exhaust. As for a respray, hell yes! As for colours, i don't know what your preferences are but....................tango orange and satin or carbon black, black and white with chrome decals, Honda blue and either black or silver, suzuki do a nice metallic purple...............or have your own design on a vinyl wrap.
Well I have since replaced the speedo cable, so that has fixed that issue, There are plenty more now though The bogging got worse, and the electrics got really worse! Electric starter stopped working on me, but I was happy enough kicking it, then indicators stopped on me, so I stopped using it I found a loose wire going into the regulator, put this back in and have intermittent indicators on front and side, but not don't have rear light, but do have brake light. Also when I pull the rear brake or try horn or anything electrical (including the rev counter) the fuel gauge drops? The rev counter is the only one of these examples that actually work, the rest just cause the needle to drop and nothing else. The bogging down got worse, even on half throttle it was starting to die on me (4 kickstarts in 3 miles) So it needed action. So I now have a yasuni R exhaust installed Unfortunately that is all I have done so far, I have been unable to change the rollers, going to get a garage to help with the B&^*% of a variator nut, and then at least I will know it is back on tight. Also I noticed the restrictor ring is still in there, so will be able to get that out! A silly question though, but how do I get the carburettor out? I originally gave up last night when I saw the security torx, but now I believe that is just the reed? Is that needed for the removal? If anyone could give some pointers/pics, that would be fantastic! The exhaust has certainly improved performance, but after a little while it bogs down badly, so I am assuming not enough fuel is getting there, and the initial performance is just from the float? (forgive me if that sounds stupid, I'm learning as I go here) This was happening before I changed the exhaust, albeit not as extreme which prompted the action, so it could be the jets and carb are overdue a once over anyway also there was a distinct burning smell, would this be normal for a new exhaust? burning off initial coatings etc? The secondary(?) air intake on the right of the bike has been blocked off, if this standard practice or will this be impeding me also? When it is all working again I am thinking of the vinyl approach as it should get a better finish that I will be able to get with rattle cans and is a comparable price, thinking a gulf racing livery scheme, which has the added bonus that I won't need to declare the change as it will stay pretty much blue The bike as it looks:
Sorry for posting over myself OK I found out how silly a question of getting the carb off was : -) It is simply held there with the 2 air intakes, remove those and the thing comes right off... I Now have a 65 jet fitted instead of the 56, Ped actually works, the yasuni R is getting me to 45mph according to my phone which isn't bad at all, just need to get the restriction out of the variator now... I (think) I have found the root of my electrical problem, in that one of the wires, the far left yellow one from the regulator has corroded all the way through to snapping off so I need to get a new terminal plug, and get the old one out of the loom, anyone know the terminology so I can take a trip to maplins? Size etc, just incase I can't get the old one out before I go to town, cheers
Make a drawing of the plug and the wire connections, number them 1 to 5 or 6 whatever they are, make a note of what colour wire goes to what pin and where in the plug, i.e brown wire to number 1 pin, blue to 2, yellow to 3 etc, cut the whole shibang off and take it maplins and say new pins and plug required please.
if you're talking about this; that's for the standard exhaust to take some of the gasses, the box and pipes can be removed as they are doing absolutely nothing with an aftermarket pipe
Well got a terminal plug from Maplins and now the indicators work they couldn't replace like for like so I had to get an individual terminal and 'convince' it to fit into the block I took the regulator rather than chop the loom SubW00fer, yes that is the air intake that has been blocked off, good to know that it isn't a bad thing Just drove to work thinking that the bogging was finally over only to experience it again Last night whilst doing a once over I realised I had left the auto choke disconnected by accident during my test, so reconnected that so I guess I now know the cause of the bogging! will be disconnecting that before the drive home
I dont think having the choke on while on full throttle would be enough to cause it to bog.. who re-jetted the bike for you? Are you sure that is the correct jet size? You might be risking to seize the engine if the jet is too small, although if you went up from a 56 to a 65 i highly doubt it (assuming the 56 was the correct jet size for the stock bike)
