2018 Like 150i loss of power, hesitation - video attached

[dirtbag_surfer]

Hello everyone! Well here's my situation and I am not sure where to go from here to resolve this issue.

2018 Kymco Like 1501 with 11K miles. Ran great then started developing an intermittent issue with loss of power, roughish idle. missing under load. It was really random at first - could be warm or cold, last for a just a bit or for a long time. It def will stall if you open the throttle too fast but it generally starts right back up and idles. Sometimes it would be doing this and I'd stop and start it again and it would go back to normal running. Really weird. Now it does it on start up, all the time and seems to be getting worse

What I've done so far:

- Thinking it is a fuel issue such as a clogged injector, I ran a fuel injector cleaner through like three different tanks of gas. Didn't make a difference.
- Yesterday accessed the engine and sprayed the hell out of the inside of the throttle body with injector/carb cleaner. Didn't make a difference. Also at that time the air cleaner (tube) was disconnected so it's not a clogged air filter.

Based on that I'm still going with a fuel issue but have no idea what the next step would be. Please see the attached video. This was taken after I tried to cleaning through the throttle body. Thanks!!
 

[dirtbag_surfer]

Here's a vid I just took on a cold start. I let it warm up a few minutes and was able to get around residential streets and although it seemed to get better, it is barely ridable - as soon as you give it much throttle (without kind of nursing it) it loses power. Def fuel related imo as by nursing the throttle it will get up to speed and sounds fine. Thanks again!

Ignore the background sound at the start, a motorcycle was driving by on my street lol!

https://youtube.com/shorts/lFYiUguHBLg?feature=share

[dirtbag_surfer]

Update, had a mobile repair guy come out today and I think (hope) we figured out the issue. No problem with the fuel pump, it's working fine so then it was check for spark. Trying to ground spark was getting shocked through the cable and couldn't get it to spark on the ground point. Turns out that the clip that holds the end of the plug inside the cap had corroded out so the plug just sits loosely inside of the cap, it was basically held in by corrosion. I have a pretty strong suspicion that this is the root cause and why it was intermittent and got worse - that end of the plug should have a very solid connection and was getting bounced around causing loss of spark. At least I am hoping! I mean for sure it needs to be replaced plus a new plug. Is a NGK VB05F 120 cap a suitable replacement? Finding local parts for these seems to be a nightmare. Thanks!

[Ruffus]

Any 90° sparkplug cap will do. There are however two kinds of them.
One with a bigger snap-on spring within this cap, which requires those little round nut on your sparkplug.
The other one has a smaller snap-on innert and takes the sparkplug without this roundish nut, which is left off then.

[Stig / Major Tom]

Cool!
BTW where are you that you have a mobile scooter/motorcycle repair guy!?
Stig

[dirtbag_surfer]

I am in San Diego and he's pretty much the only one that provides mobile service that focuses on scooters although he will work on motorcycles as well. Good dude that knows what he is doing. Finding that the spark plug cap was bad was great and I am hoping that fixes it! I just picked up a new NGK cap w/resistor and I will be putting it in later today and will update what happens. I do know that there is no way that it could have run properly once we discovered the corrosion and the fact that part inside of the plug that  holds the threaded end of the plug had rotted away and the plug was just slopping around inside of there. I got a new plug as well and already test fitted it in the new cap and it fits like a charm. Wish me luck!

Cool!
BTW where are you that you have a mobile scooter/motorcycle repair guy!?
Stig

[Stig / Major Tom]

Once again - pretty cool!
And you're right - no way your scooter would run well with that broken connection 🙃
Fingers crossed there are no other issues!
(I'd love to have a scooter shop in my town or county!)
Your find is now in my "fault" memory......should future owners describe similar issues...hope I'll remember 😉

Stig

[dirtbag_surfer]

Success! It fired right up and runs perfect! 100% replacing the cap was the fix. Standard deal for most motors, right? You need fuel, air and spark. That is if there aren't other things like lack of compression etc. Just for the basic no-start after running fine checklist are those 3 things (and no catastrophic weird noises, blowing smoke etc lol).

The replacement NGK NGK VB05F 120 spark plug cap w/resistor for about 3.50 is the cure. Easy to find, I got mine at O'Reilly auto parts except the only bummer was a 3 day wait and an additional 8 bucks for shipping. Pretty sure that is a rip since I doubt sent it separately, it was probably just tossed in a box with the other parts orders. Oh well!

Anyway, thanks again and super stoked I'm back up and running!

Once again - pretty cool!
And you're right - no way your scooter would run well with that broken connection 🙃
Fingers crossed there are no other issues!
(I'd love to have a scooter shop in my town or county!)
Your find is now in my "fault" memory......should future owners describe similar issues...hope I'll remember 😉

Stig

[swoter]

Good news! Glad you got it fixed, and the little you overpaid won’t even be a memory in another 11,000 miles.