Hi all, I'm new around here but wanted to share my experience so far with my 2013 Super 8, which hasn't been that positive.
I picked up my Super 8 from a guy who bought it on impulse but his wife made him sell it as soon as she found out. I got it with 63 miles and I was able to transfer the warranty.
I had a cheap chinese scooter that sadly went up in flames but instead of buying another cheap china scoot, I decided to spend a little extra to get the Kymco quality but I'm still running into issues.
The main problem is the carb. When the engine is cold, it bogs down at 1/8 to 1/4 throttle and then at that point, even with full throttle, I can't get the scooter to move. I have to put the scoot on it's center stand and blip the throttle until the engine gets hot enough to where it doesn't bog anymore. I think all I needed to do was adjust the Air/Fuel mixture screw but this Kymco carb doesn't have one. I then decided that I wanted to open up the carb to clean it out but all but one screw stripped out at the head.
I was so over this situation so I replaced the Kymco carb with a GY6 carb I had laying around. The swap went well except the Kymco carb has a nipple that comes out of the bottom which is connected to a canister by the gas tank with a rubber hose which is tee'd off and connected to all kinds of other stuff. My old GY6 carb doesn't have this nipple. I just plugged that hose up but I think it needs to be open as I'll explain later.
After the swap, the scooter wouldn't start at first and it seemed like fuel wasn't getting to the carb. I eventually got it to start by taking the gas cap off and cranking it and the scooter started almost instantly.
The carb swap fixed the bogging issue totally and I took a 15 mile trip today and the scooter worked fine. It wasn't until I filled up the gas tank that I ran into problems again. On my way home from the gas station, my scooter stalled out. I got it started by taking the gas cap off and cranking it but the scooter stalled out again a short time after. I thought about that hose that I plugged up and I unplugged it and rode the scooter around for a while and it didn't stall this time.
I wasn't happy about my scooter stalling out with my old GY6 carb which even with the bogging issue, the Kymco carb didn't stall out so I spent some time with a dremel tool and managed to cut some slots into the stripped screws and then use a flat head screwdriver to get the screws out. I took out both jets and the main jet was fine but it looked like the pilot jet was a little clogged up so I ran a thin needle through it. But after thinking about it and realizing that the carb doesn't have an Air/Fuel mixture screw, I decided to throw in a bigger pilot jet that I had. It comes with a #35 pilot jet but I don't know what size the one I put in is since it isn't stamped. Although, I do think it is a #38. Btw, the main jet is a #102 if anyone's curious.
I reassembled the carb and got it back into my scooter and took her for a test spin. I think the pilot jet change might have fixed my bogging issue but it's hard to tell since the scooter wasn't completely cold when I took her for a test spin. I'll know for sure tomorrow.
My other problem is my front brake disc is warped. A new one is on order but it's been more than a week and my Kymco dealer still hasn't received it from Kymco yet. I really want to get this replaced because I think I feel the front brake "grabbing" at my wheel as I ride. I could really feel the "grabbing" when I'm coasting at a steady speed and I know something is up because I'm only getting 60 MPG even though I'm not ragging on the throttle. I know I should be getting at least 75 MPG if not more.
I hope I get these problems worked out because I bought a Kymco to ride, not run into one problem after another. I've had a few other issues but they don't affect how the scooter rides. I wonder if I would have the same issues if these were built in Taiwan and not mainland China.
