Okay, so I have hinted to the fact that I have been working on my scooter for the past couple of weeks, maybe months. There are a couple of reasons why this is taking so long:

1. I have never done engine work before, so I’m learning as I go. This requires tons of reading shop manuals, online sites, and running through news groups
2. I didn’t have all of the tools and parts from the beginning to do the rebuild. So I have made multiple trips to the scooter shop, hardware store, and auto parts store to pick up stuff when I needed it. And typically each trip out meant going to a couple of places before I found what I needed. It’s pretty hard tracking down 7mm split washers and nuts!
3. I get discouraged when I hit a wall, and tend to leave the project alone for days if not weeks. This first happened right after I dropped the motor out of the chassis. I’m not sure why, maybe it was I was a little scared to open it up. As if it was too complicated.

Anyway, tonight I finally got everything put back together and ready to fire up. But, when I kicked the starter for the first time I noticed something rather strange, the flywheel wasn’t moving. NOT GOOD! This is exactly why I had to rebuild the motor in the first place. After spending all this time I never fixed the god damn problem!

If you know me, you probably guessed right. The f-bomb was flying around in the garage for quite some time, and maybe a couple of wrenches too. So here I am right back at square one with a broken kickstarter! UGHHGGH!!!!

Nicole put it nicely, “well at least you should be able to rebuild it lot quicker now that you know how it’s done.”

That assuming this time I’m smart enough to check to see that when I get the kickstart gear in place that everything is working as it should before I seal the cases again.

Sweet that did it! I was able to get the flywheel off in a matter of minutes and the cases cracked soon after that. Once open I noticed that the kickstart spring was missing. Now this piece is pretty crucial since it keeps pressure on the kickstart pinion to make sure is stays put. Obviously, without this the pinion is able to move freely and end up falling off just as it did.

When I bought the scooter the shop said that it would do some work, like replace the shift cross and seals. As far as I can tell the seals look pretty new, so I am guessing they did the work and neglected to put the spring back in place.

Unfortunately, the scooter shops are all closed until Tuesday so I will what to wait until then to get the parts I need. I have to say I feel pretty darn good about my progress. Which definitely earns me a draft or two tonight at the pub!