OK Buddy at work has a little 2007 Chinese brand 40cc 2 Stroke Mini Crotch Rocket bike for his son, states the bike isn't running all that great, seems to be fouling plugs or not accelerating like it should. Owner states he think he mixed the Gas/Oil mixture a bit too rich.
Why God, Why did I say I'd take a look at it.
So I get it home and find the opinions of these bikes are accurate, horrible quality, rick shaw type build, something I wouldn't let a kid ride but....
Prior to doing anything I start it up in the yard give it enough gas for the Centrifugal clutch to kick in and took it for a little cruise down the street, to me it seemed to be running OK, if anything it didn't completely rev out.
First I pull the bodywork, the tank, and drain the fuel. I then pulled the plug, the porcelain was a nice cinnamon color , it's a bit Oil fouled so I cleaned it completely. Next I pull the Air Filter and gave it a light cleaning, it was pretty clean to start with. Pulled the carb off, took it apart cleaning it with brake clean and compressed air. I also raised the needle clip from the middle, going up 1 to the second from the top.
I put it all back together and the Buddha Loves You wouldn't start, finally after messing with the Petcock it would appear that it was vapor locked or something because when I pulled the line off and opened the petcock fuel barley dribbled out, yet when I loosened the gas cap it flowed freely? I messed with the rubber plunger gasket inside the cap and that seemed to help, though the hole that should have been punched out in the center of the cap itself wasn't fully punched through, the indentation was there so I made a pin hole through the boss already there, problem solved there. I refueled it with my 32:1 Cam II (110 Octane) Maxima mixed gas out of my KTM.
It took a while to restart it but I finally got it going but it was having trouble idling, rather it wouldn't, the minute you let off of the gas it died out, it didn't hack and cough to a sputtering stop, it would just idle all the way down to off unless you had the throttle cracked open. My next move would prove disastrous.
I get the bike warmed up and take it for another cruise down the street. The bike seems to be revving cleaner and higher and I got up to a pretty good clip. I turn around and head back up the street but halfway back the bike seemed to drop into a higher gear, even though it's centrifugally operated, there are no gears? One minute I'm screaming the piss out of the little motor the next thing I know it seems to go into a Overdrive gear, revs drop and I motor onwards, about a hundred feet later the bike locks up and skids to a stop, the rear tire won't move?
I carry it back into the garage with the sinking sickening feeling in my stomach, knowing I had just ceased the motor, like this guy is going to have me do the work now on his Hyabusa that we've been talking about after I blew up his sons Mini.
The tire is completely jammed, pull start wont budge? bike won't roll, Argh...I pull the plug, not metal of anything on it, it's still pretty clean but is developing a nice color, not lean looking at all. So scratching my head I decide to pull the chain, and clucth cover to see what was up in there. When I pulled the cover off I noticed a inch long piece of the end of 1 of the 3 Clutch Shoes (Mini looking brake shoes) had broken off and jammed under neath the other shoes. I pulled it out leaving 2 full and 3/4 of a brake/clutch shoe left intact. Once removed the counter shaft sprocket was able to be spun again, Phew, I guess.
I put it all back together and it starts up, still won't idle but hey the motor isn't Ceased like I thought it was so cool. And seeing how it wouldn't idle prior to my ride, where I think I broke the clutch shoe it don't think the idle issue and the broken shoe are related, though if I think about it, it does make sense, perhaps the shoe was already broken or something and it dind't have the holding power at idle and would die out?
Anyways, why dear god why do I take these little projects on?
The bike does seem to run better, but what should I tell the owner? Should I tell him I suspect the clutch shoe was broken prior? Tell him I broke it? I know he'll be able to tell the bike is running and carberating better, but will this little broken ear of a clutch shoe be a problem down the line? Should I even tell him anything about that and just let him know the other things I did, IE Clean Carb, Plug, Filter, new fuel and adjusting the Needle?
For all I know it was busted prior and causing some of the issues?
Anyways, any info, insight or thoughts, on any of this?
perhaps the needle adjust ment had somehting to do with teh idling prob?, idk, the clutch being fubar, cant say wherther it was like that, or if it went to hell, on your ride, either way it would have went to hell, with you on it, or him on it, or his son on it. :dunno_white:
def tell him the clutch shoe needs to be replaced its his kid thats riding it. your doing him a favor by working on it so don't bring it up that it broke with you on it just tell it was giving your problems took it apart and noticed its broken.
if it locks up on the kid and he gets hurt your going to feel pretty bad so just tell him it needs to be done
Quote from: Mdow on August 02, 2008, 09:47:13 PM
def tell him the clutch shoe needs to be replaced its his kid thats riding it. your doing him a favor by working on it so don't bring it up that it broke with you on it just tell it was giving your problems took it apart and noticed its broken.
if it locks up on the kid and he gets hurt your going to feel pretty bad so just tell him it needs to be done
agreed, if you dont tell him, AND it does lock up, and kid gets hurt. your liability level went to the moon. ( considering you were the last person to turn a wrench on it )
Man, I would just tell him most of the truth. You were working on it, took it apart, and found the broken clutch.
I just got off of the phone with the owner and he was totally cool about it, didn't sound thrilled but he understood it was an unexpected result of trying to fix his problems.
He thanked me more than a few times for working on the bike and stated order what ever you have to and take as long as you need.
Pretty cool...
Hope you have a line on parts for it... they are hard to come by.
We have to laugh at people that come into our shop looking for Chinese parts, you just cant buy em everywhere :thumb:
Yup. Gotta love the "brand new from China junk" - without a well-equipped machine shop and the desire to work on a $#!++& piece of junk, it's obviously a case of ride until something breaks (that won't take long) and then you are screwed, as there is no dealer, no parts distribution, no parts stocked by any of the parts houses - and why would there be, when the "brand name" changes every other week, and the content of any given build depends on which batch of cheap junk the "manufacturer" got in that week.
Quote from: scottpA_GS on August 03, 2008, 08:19:41 AM
Hope you have a line on parts for it... they are hard to come by.
We have to laugh at people that come into our shop looking for Chinese parts, you just cant buy em everywhere :thumb:
Within 1 minute of online searching I found the a Stk. Replacement Clutch Shoe Assembly out of California....Well see if I have any troubles getting it here, I ordered it today.
Quote from: DoD#i on August 03, 2008, 08:49:03 AM
Yup. Gotta love the "brand new from China junk" - without a well-equipped machine shop and the desire to work on a $#!++& piece of junk, it's obviously a case of ride until something breaks (that won't take long) and then you are screwed, as there is no dealer, no parts distribution, no parts stocked by any of the parts houses - and why would there be, when the "brand name" changes every other week, and the content of any given build depends on which batch of cheap junk the "manufacturer" got in that week.
Oh it's definitely Beer Can materials and Underage Slave Labor quality throughout. Looking the bike over for other flaws that I'm not instructed to fix I notice iit's missing a foot peg, where the foot peg screws into I see that the threads are pulling out. So I figure the thing rattled loose, he tried tightening it, and being such cheap metal he pulled the threads right out....
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: order up a custom decal for it in mandarin chinese which would translate into CRAP or JUNK or the like