Scooters are pretty straightforward creatures, but it can be difficult to find the culprit that is keeping your machine from starting. Fortunately, thanks to our own trial and error, mechanical training and a little luck, we are able to troubleshoot several parts of the scooter. Thanks to our knowledge and our research, we are able to list the possible reasons why your motorcycle starts half of the time, here are the most frequent reasons:
- Dead battery
- Contaminated carburetor
- Blown fuses
In this article, we will explain to you how you can fix your scooter that starts every other time:
Cause 1: Dead battery
This is the easiest problem to diagnose and is probably the most common reason why a motorcycle starts a scooter every other time. According to the state of low battery, if there is some voltage left, you may be able to turn the key and turn on your turn signal, but starting is slow and laborious. If your scooter battery is completely dead, your motorcycle will not make any noise when you try to start it.
How to repair your scooter:
Take a multimeter and turn it on DC voltage and put it on the 20 volt DC setting. Now place the separate wires on the two battery terminals (if you read a negative number it just means you need to change the wires for the other battery terminal).
If the reading indicates a number near or slightly less than 12 volts, charge your battery and try to start your motorcycle again. If the number is really low, like 9 volts or less, your battery is almost burnt out and you need to buy a new one.
Indispensable products for repair:
- Multimeter
- Battery charger : Charger that automatically recognizes the current voltage and does not require manual operation.
- Battery for your scooter
- Screwdriver: To get your battery out
Cause 2: Contaminated carburetor
There are several ways to tell if the problem with your scooter that starts halfway is due to a dirty or poorly functioning carburetor. If you have an electric starter, remove the air intake, push the starter in, and squirt starter fluid directly into the carburetor. If your scooter starts and revs for a few seconds, it means your carburetor is dirty.
How to repair your scooter:
You will need to thoroughly clean the carburetors on your scooter. To do this, you will need to remove the air intake and then detach the carburetor from the engine of your scooter. You will need to disassemble part of the carburetor and buy a few new gaskets to reassemble it. We strongly recommend that you consult your owner's manual on how to reassemble the specific carburetor for your scooter.
The best way to clean the carburetor on your scooter is to put all the parts in an ultrasonic cleaner and run a few laps. When used with the correct solution, the ultrasonic cleaner emits ultrasound which agitates the solution. This makes it easy to remove fuel build-up and dirt that has built up in hard-to-reach places.
If the use of an ultrasonic cleaner is not an option, it is possible to clean the motor by hand, but the cleaning will not be as thorough as that of an ultrasonic cleaner. You can soak it in hot soapy water and then rinse it. Be sure to look through the sprinkler holes and make sure there are no obstructions; any obstruction will cause poor performance of your motorcycle.
Indispensable products for repair:
Cause 3: Blown fuses
The scooter makes a completely normal sound when you try to start it, but it keeps spinning without result.
You can even try spraying starter fluid into the carburetor, but it still won't make a difference as the fuse is unable to send a spark to the spark plug to make it light.
A blown fuse usually means that there is a bad ground wire somewhere, especially if you have to replace the same fuse over and over again. Sometimes someone tries to wire spare lights or a horn and puts the wrong wire somewhere.
The positive wire is then directly grounded and the fuse is too strong to handle it causing it to blow to protect the battery and wiring causing the starting problem in your scooter.
How to repair your scooter:
There is only one fuse that can affect the starting of a scooter. Each scooter usually has a 30-50 amp main fuse (occasionally some motorcycles have 20 amps). It is usually located on the positive wire of the battery. Sometimes it's an in-line fuse and other times it's a regular fuse.
Check the main fuse and see if it's blown. You can tell that the fuse is blown by the presence of black material on the fuse or if the wires inside the fuse are disconnected. Replace the fuse if necessary. Any auto parts store will be able to identify the fuse you need.
If it keeps blowing, buy a small circuit breaker for a few dollars at any auto store and put the circuit breaker on the line until you identify the reason the fuse keeps blowing. A circuit breaker is like a fuse in the sense that it blows for a second, but can then be returned to its original position so you don't have to replace the fuse.
You will need to determine which wire is improperly grounded. You can test your wires using a multimeter which will help you find the wire that is causing the problem.
Indispensable products for repair:
Learn more about your scooters:
Here is an article that serves as a guide and helps you choose your scooter better before purchasing. For this, we give you the details on the characteristics and the different types of scooter.
