Aero 50 back to life thread
Posted: Tue May 11, 2021 12:04 pm
When I was a kid, long ago, all of the cool kids were rolling around on 4-wheelers (before they were called quads) and 3-wheelers (now affectionately death on wheels). Thinking myself cooler than all of these kids, I asked for a 50cc Honda scooter and one fine sunny day my * self was gifted just such a beast. She was brand-new, straight from the local Honda motorcycle dealer, and in a period of 3 years I put almost 1,000 miles on her.
And then she sat for many, many, many, many years getting loaded into moving trucks and pushed from house to house. She last ran in 2012 and that was only to idle in a garage.
Now, with kids of my own who are approaching the same age I was when the scooter was gifted to me, it's time to try and bring her back to life.
Pulled her out of the storage building, dusted her off, and started taking body panels off. Drained all of the fuel, took the carb off and cleaned it, put in a new NGK plug, fueled her up....and the kick start was seized. Drive belt gasket had turned into epoxy so took some effort to get it pried off to inspect the gears and add some white lithium grease to the works. Put it back together without the gasket (need to replace one I get her going) and she was still seized about 3 of every 5 kicks.
Did some Googling and afraid driveshaft may be seized. Took the fan cover off and it spins freely, so (whew) that wasn't the issue. Additional reading and sounded like compression may be seizing it up and forum post recommended kicking without the plug in to get everything lubed up. Pulled the plug, kicked it 20 of 30 times, and it's now kicking freely but my garage floor is full of oil that was blown out of the plug hole and all over my scoot. Cleaned all of that up and got the plug put back in.
Kicked it a whole bunch more and, maybe I'm dreaming, but it sounded like it tried to run just before I called it a night. Ordered a new 3rd party carb, battery, plug, air filter, gas lines and clamps and went to sleep.
Will pick it back up when parts start coming in or anyone has some words of wisdom on something I may have failed to try.
And then she sat for many, many, many, many years getting loaded into moving trucks and pushed from house to house. She last ran in 2012 and that was only to idle in a garage.
Now, with kids of my own who are approaching the same age I was when the scooter was gifted to me, it's time to try and bring her back to life.
Pulled her out of the storage building, dusted her off, and started taking body panels off. Drained all of the fuel, took the carb off and cleaned it, put in a new NGK plug, fueled her up....and the kick start was seized. Drive belt gasket had turned into epoxy so took some effort to get it pried off to inspect the gears and add some white lithium grease to the works. Put it back together without the gasket (need to replace one I get her going) and she was still seized about 3 of every 5 kicks.
Did some Googling and afraid driveshaft may be seized. Took the fan cover off and it spins freely, so (whew) that wasn't the issue. Additional reading and sounded like compression may be seizing it up and forum post recommended kicking without the plug in to get everything lubed up. Pulled the plug, kicked it 20 of 30 times, and it's now kicking freely but my garage floor is full of oil that was blown out of the plug hole and all over my scoot. Cleaned all of that up and got the plug put back in.
Kicked it a whole bunch more and, maybe I'm dreaming, but it sounded like it tried to run just before I called it a night. Ordered a new 3rd party carb, battery, plug, air filter, gas lines and clamps and went to sleep.
Will pick it back up when parts start coming in or anyone has some words of wisdom on something I may have failed to try.