I was a little apprehensive about the starter motor and the rest of the
electrical system. When I had put the battery charger on before, I got no
response at all. Considering the scooter had been sitting outside for who
knows how long, the wiring might be in pretty bad shape.
Certainly the rat's nest of wiring under the seat was not encouraging.
I did a little internet research and discovered that the scooter was
actually 12 volts, and not six. So I set the battery charger to 12 volts and
hooked it back up. Nothing happened right away, so I started flipping
switches.
The tail light lit up. The first signs of life! Then I found
that squeezing the rear brake lever would make the brake light come on.
I kept trying things, and got the turn signals clicking also. I could hear
the relays buzzing at the lights turned on and off. The headlight would not
come on at all. I tried the regular setting and the high beams, but no luck.
The starter button still wouldn't do anything. I made sure the keyswitch was
set to on, and the run switch was set to run. The starter was totally
dead.
So I started pulling the bodywork off. I had to remove the seat and the rear
tub to get at the starter. It came off pretty easily, and soon I had the
cutest little starter in my had. It was about the size of a slot car motor.
I hooked up the positive side of the battery charger to the terminal on the
starter, and put the negative battery charger clamp on one of the mounting
ears. I made sure the charger was set on 12 volts and plugged it in. Wheee!
The little starter wound right up. So that meant I didn't have to buy a
$49 starter off eBay. (I had already checked the price).
I reinstalled the starter and hit the start button. Nothing. I wasn't
surprised. I figured there must be a starter relay, and I found it pretty
quickly. I couldn't hear it clicking when I hit the start button, so I thought
the relay might be bad. I pulled it off and put a nine volt battery across
the coil terminals. "Click, click". Okay, the relay seems to work. I put it
back on, and hit the starter button. Still nothing. Time to check the starter
button. I removed the plastic panels over the handlebars, and found that
the starter button connectors had been disconnected! Hmmm. I reconnected
them, with no luck. So I removed the switch and put the meter on it. It did
not appear to be working. I disassembled it, dumped the dirt out, sprayed it
all down with Red Lion contact cleaner (thanks ACDC), put it back together
and tested it with the meter. Success! I also took the time to look up that
extra connector on the internet, and found that you have to have one of the
brake levers squeezed when you try to start the engine. So I put the switch
back in, squeezed the back brake lever, and hit the starter button. This
time I could hear the relay clicking. But no starter motor. Fine.
The next morning Rob came by. Rob knows something about relays. We tested the output of the contactor terminals when I had the starter button pushed. It read 12 volts. But the starter motor wouldn't spin. Rob was suspicious of the relay, saying it looked like it had been soaked in water. So we opened it up. It was all rusty inside. We tried cleaning it up and using solder to replace some of the rivets that had rusted out, but the relay was just too far gone. That night I looked on eBay, and put in a $15 bid on a used relay. We'll see if I get it.