Wednesday, November 12, 2008

I Need To Go On A Low-Carb Diet

With the heavy rain we have been having as of late (today, the Snoqualmie River has flooded several towns near me), I haven't been able to ride much. I've been starting the Elite and the other mopeds every couple of days, just to keep them warmed up. I was thinking about sending one of the mopeds (a 1982 Yamahopper QT50) to the shop to clean and repair the carburetor - in the forums this appears to be the major reason why these older mopeds won't start/won't run. I even saw one post declare that these carbs are the easiest to take apart and clean. I didn't really want to spend $50-$100 for someone else to do this, so I said to myself, "I can do this!" I shouldn't have listened.

It was fairly easy to take the carb apart - a few screws needed to be loosened, a couple of clamps removed, and the carburetor came off. I should have had a small bucket ready, as gas started dripping from the carb and the petcock (so, that's why there's an "off" position) onto the floor. Well, at least it smelled like a real man's garage now!


The hard part was putting it back together again. I should have taken more pictures, as in my excitement over successfully removing the carb, I went immediately to removing the jet, the float bowl, the float itself, and a few odd screws that seemed to have no known purpose to me. I bought some carb cleaner, gave everything a thorough cleaning, and I was ready to reassemble. While some parts obviously went back in certain places, I had forgotten where others went. So, back to the forums, where I got a diagram of the carburetor and was able to locate all but one odd piece that doesn't seem to be mentioned in the diagram.


I have an order in with the local Honda/Yamaha dealer for some replacement parts, which will take a week or so. Hopefully I can get the new parts installed and get the Yamahopper running real soon - if so, it was a great learning experience; if not, I'm thinking my next bike will be fuel injected!

1 comment:

Heinz N Frenchie said...

That sounds like a job for a rainy month not a few days. We are both mechanically chanllenged so to the shop we go. But we luckily got a 3-year warranty when we purchased our Vespas, it was a promotion run by Piaggio, so no worries yet. We have had them 13 months now and no real problems. At the end of the warranty we may look at the Piaggio mp3.