Starting Woes and FIX

[1people]

Hi all,
I just wanted to give a breakdown of my starting woes on the 2012 Like LX.  It started the day after a trip from the store where the bike was running flawlessly.  The next day, no start....just the typical starter cranking.  Naturally I thought low battery.  After a day on the tender, I got the same cranking noise when I tried to start the bike.  For the heck of it, I drained the tank and added fresh gas...nothing.  I thought the battery (even on the tender) did not have enough juice so I bought a new YUASA battery.  Still nothing.  I ran through all typical starting scenarios....definitely a starting problem here.

I now thought it was a spark issue.  I took the plug out and reconnected the coil wire and layed the plug on the exhaust pipe.  When I hit the starter, I saw the plug was getting spark, so I ruled that out.  I really didn't think it was a solenoid problem b/c the starter was cranking nicely.  I even put thinner oil in the crankcase thinking the thinner viscosity would help turn the bike over...nothing.  I thought the valves may be too tight for the bike to turn over so I took out the trusty gauges, removed the cylinder head, rotated to TDC and measured....valves were spot on, no adjustment needed.

Just when I resolved to give the bike over to the shop, I thought i might examine the plug again.  I took a wire brush and cleaned it off a bit and put it into the cylinder.....hit the starter, and now got a little 'chug' versus the cranking starter.  I then immediately bought a new plug (copper for me) and installed.  Bike fired right up. 

From what I gather my short little jaunt to the store and back did not give ample time for the bike to heat up....repeated short trips built carbon on the plug and the bike acted like it was flooded (no start).  Even though the bike was getting 'some' spark, it wasn't enough spark to fire it up.  New plug and all is well.  I hope someone can benefit from this short story.

[Stig / Major Tom]

Thanks for your post!

Some questions:
How many miles on the scooter? Using oil?
How many miles in recent short trips?
Assuming good gas, good coil, good contacts, no oil consumption and healthy plug.....and the fact that a LIKE will turn 5000+ rpm even at low ground speeds - I am surprised that a plug could foul under those conditions!
I might suspect an oiled plug, or a 'bad' plug.
In any event, if your typical scootering might lead to a repeat of sooting the plug - I'd sure be thinking hard about putting in an Denso or NGK iridium plug. I would not change to a different heat range - just switch over to the iridium. They are constructed to maintain the same heat range as the standard plugs with the same heat range code.( this info comes directly from a question put to the NGK tech) They cost a bit more -& you'll never replace it in the life of your scoot - but that is not the issue - they simply do nice things in the old combustion chamber....and it seems you're having issues combusting at the start!
Again, thanks for your informative post!
Stig

[de dee]

the plug you removed was it the original plug, it probably was defective from the start,. the iridium s have higher standards,  last for ever,.  100,000 miles or more in my van,and runs like new,.

[1people]

Scoot has approx. 985 miles, uses no oil...I bought from the original owner and it is in mint condition.  I was given the 'break in' service record that indicates valve adjustment, oil change, bolts tightened, and new spark plug as the 500 mile service.  When I took the spark plug out and replaced with the new one, it sure as heck did not look like they replaced the plug....it looked original to me (also, there were no signs of a mechanic getting his hands on the coil wire, no disturbing of the surrounding components).  I suspect it was the original plug and probably faulty from the factory (gap did not look correct either).  I will probably switch over to the iridium plug very soon.

[Stig / Major Tom]

Scoot has approx. 985 miles, uses no oil...I bought from the original owner and it is in mint condition.  I was given the 'break in' service record that indicates valve adjustment, oil change, bolts tightened, and new spark plug as the 500 mile service.  When I took the spark plug out and replaced with the new one, it sure as heck did not look like they replaced the plug....it looked original to me (also, there were no signs of a mechanic getting his hands on the coil wire, no disturbing of the surrounding components).  I suspect it was the original plug and probably faulty from the factory (gap did not look correct either).  I will probably switch over to the iridium plug very soon.

I hope the new plug is a permanent fix to your strange starting problem.
The iridium plug should help if there is a question of fouling the plug - but you say the scoot is not burning oil so I don't think fouling was the issue.....and you would have seen the effects on the plug which had less than 1K miles on it.
Perhaps the stock NGK plug was broken and had a hidden fault which caused the eventual electrical failing.
Or perhaps the plug was dropped and had an inproper gap - but good enough to run the scoot well for a few hundred miles...then it failed to give a good 'Start' spark. This means an assemblier or a constructor dropped the ball.
Your sequence of events, and description of the things you tried seem to rule out most of the obvious possibilities (like plug wire not seated properly, etc.)
Please keep us posted
Stig