Ruckus Starts Cold, Won't Start Warm, Doesn't Reach Top Speed...
03-05-2018, 04:36 PM
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Ruckus Starts Cold, Won't Start Warm, Doesn't Reach Top Speed...
Hi guys,
I've got a 2007 Ruckus with about 3000km on it, and it was running like a champ up until a couple of months ago, when I had a bit of an incident.
I wanted to change the radiator fluid out for the winter season, and I went to twist the radiator drain bolt, which is made of plastic and snapped right off on me. Since this scoot was my only means of transportation at the time, I decided to ride it to a job interview the next day before being able to change the drain bolt out - this was my mistake. The radiator seemed like it was still sealed at first, but once I rode it a little ways I noticed it was slowly leaking rad fluid. Stupidly, I continued to ride it, hoping that it would be alright until I got it home later. It wasn't. The overheating light came on, and at that point I started shutting the scooter off to let it cool down, intermittently riding short distances until I got home. The overheat light did come on a few more times during this process, so I'm not entirely sure what kind of damage that might have done.
Anyhow, after that I noticed that I had lost some acceleration power, and that when I let go of the gas the scooter immediately felt as if something was "pulling back" on it. That's the best way I can describe it. It feels kind of like an engine braking effect, but it wasn't there before, and it actually doesn't happen every single time I let go of the gas. Also, once I've slowed down almost to a full stop, the drag will suddenly release, and the scooter will roll freely again.
This was going on for about a month or two, and during that time I opened up the clutch/variator housing to see if anything in there looked unusual, but it all seems fine. So, I kind of just let it go and kept using the scooter here and there.
That was all well and good up until last month, when I started having trouble turning the scooter over. Now, this is sort of peculiar, because the scooter starts up perfectly fine first try when I'm starting it cold. It only refuses to start once I've been riding it around a bit, which is what's really throwing me for a loop. Usually when I've had ignition problems with scooters, they've had a hard time starting up cold, but then work fine once they're all warmed up - so in my experience this is all backwards.
Given what happened with the radiator fluid, and the unusual nature of the problem I'm having now, I was hoping someone on here might be able to point me in the direction I need to be going. I don't want to just start taking the whole scooter apart to try and find whatever the issue is unless it becomes totally necessary to do so, and maybe there's some common issue that I'm just not aware of...?
Any input you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks a bunch,
- JT5K
I've got a 2007 Ruckus with about 3000km on it, and it was running like a champ up until a couple of months ago, when I had a bit of an incident.
I wanted to change the radiator fluid out for the winter season, and I went to twist the radiator drain bolt, which is made of plastic and snapped right off on me. Since this scoot was my only means of transportation at the time, I decided to ride it to a job interview the next day before being able to change the drain bolt out - this was my mistake. The radiator seemed like it was still sealed at first, but once I rode it a little ways I noticed it was slowly leaking rad fluid. Stupidly, I continued to ride it, hoping that it would be alright until I got it home later. It wasn't. The overheating light came on, and at that point I started shutting the scooter off to let it cool down, intermittently riding short distances until I got home. The overheat light did come on a few more times during this process, so I'm not entirely sure what kind of damage that might have done.
Anyhow, after that I noticed that I had lost some acceleration power, and that when I let go of the gas the scooter immediately felt as if something was "pulling back" on it. That's the best way I can describe it. It feels kind of like an engine braking effect, but it wasn't there before, and it actually doesn't happen every single time I let go of the gas. Also, once I've slowed down almost to a full stop, the drag will suddenly release, and the scooter will roll freely again.
This was going on for about a month or two, and during that time I opened up the clutch/variator housing to see if anything in there looked unusual, but it all seems fine. So, I kind of just let it go and kept using the scooter here and there.
That was all well and good up until last month, when I started having trouble turning the scooter over. Now, this is sort of peculiar, because the scooter starts up perfectly fine first try when I'm starting it cold. It only refuses to start once I've been riding it around a bit, which is what's really throwing me for a loop. Usually when I've had ignition problems with scooters, they've had a hard time starting up cold, but then work fine once they're all warmed up - so in my experience this is all backwards.
Given what happened with the radiator fluid, and the unusual nature of the problem I'm having now, I was hoping someone on here might be able to point me in the direction I need to be going. I don't want to just start taking the whole scooter apart to try and find whatever the issue is unless it becomes totally necessary to do so, and maybe there's some common issue that I'm just not aware of...?
Any input you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks a bunch,
- JT5K
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