Headlight goes out when wheel is turned.

Took my first night ride, and low and behold my headlights goes out when I turn the wheel to the right as far as it will go. THe lights come back on when the wheel is straightened.

I looked at the breakdown and I can get to the wiring, is there anything more specific I could look for other than loose connections?

Thanks for your help, I know someone has some good info that will make this an easier fix.

Thanks a bunch.
Di:taz:

The scooter is a Phantom, motobravo, Leike manufacturer 2008 model

Sounds like it should be just loose connections. When, found, see if you can crimp the female end slightly to hold the male plug better then tape it up to be sure.

Hmm..wondering here if a lock-tight type of compound is made for electical connections just to help them stick together better.

Hey thanks for weighing in Dave. I'm gonna tackle it this weekend.

Di

There is something loose in the wiring department somewhere. Try the switches as the wires can tug a tad when ya turn. I hate elec probs cos they're sooooo tedious. So's it's fairing off and be methodical and take ya time. You'll find it. Please post when ya do. :-)

dianageorgina, I had a similar problem, just in my case the motor turn off.

I found that the steering column chafe the wires and that made a shortcut that turn off the engine. So start looking for that before grabing a voltimeter (I start with the voltimeter and didn't find anything couse that moment no shortcut going on)

good luck.

Sometimes the wiring under the scooter plastics is a little tight and can cause these kinds of problems. Take the plastics apart carefully and see if there isn't any extra slack to give!

CC

Thanks for all the tips. But oh my god I started to change the oil today and the spring is so tight i can't get the plug screwed back in. So I'm working the spring trying to make it less stiff. That's all I can think of right now. My smart ass neighbor said "now I bet you wish you could curse in chinese." haha.

Boy do I feel stupid. I looked at my scooter info and realized I was trying to put the oil drain plug, screen and spring back in the wrong order. Duh. China Moto save me from myself.

It's probably tacky to keep my own thread going but I'm doing it anyhow. I've been pretty quiet, it's just a lot going on, and I'm just now getting my scooter fixed and back on the road. After I got the oil changed and dealt with the electrical thing, I got the tool I needed to change the gear oil. The scooter developed a starting and running problem. It quit on me and I had to push it a ways. My neighbor helped me trouble shoot the thing and I was comfortable that we had narrowed it down to the vacumn fuel pump. I ordered the part from County Imports and the new part has four ports where my part has only three ports. The extra port is called a vent which poured gasoline when left unplugged. All right new part, same problem. I began looking at the vacumn line and discovered it was dry rot. All the other lines look new, but this one piece was dry rot and leaking air. I replaced it and 27 dollars and one week later I fixed my scooter myself. I'm proud of myself for doing the work, getting dirty, and not giving up. That's all I got.

Thats all good going, congratulations! I am renowned for leaving mechanical problems until I am totally stuck with no vehicles at all, usually when I am flat broke. I am not mechanically minded or very logical in my thinking and I am very easily put off by cold, dirt, grease etc. - but after decades of having to do it myself I also find it is often something small and obvious like a loose wire or pipe, and even more often by something I have done wrong myself, so I now use a digital camera a lot when taking things to bits! The mechanical mindset is not easily obtained for some of us - but you will have gained confidence now.

If you ever get the time and energy, it is a great trick to strip a vehicle down almost to component parts and see what goes where and then to do your own regular service. You get an eye for how things should connect at least and with some basic reading, how they work. You sometimes spot things that just don't look right and catch it before it fails or it might get you going one day when you are alone and remote. Try and find 'Zen in the art of motorcycle maintenance' to read, I am sure you will empathise!

Diana,

There's nothing wrong with keeping your own thread running. It actually shows more persistence than lots of other folks on here, myself included. :icon10:

There's very few more satisfying feelings than working through your own problems and ending up with a good ride. I fully believe the ability to ride safely increases with the amount of technical knowledge and hands-on experience you have with your wheels. The more intimate your understanding of the bike, or really anything for that matter, the more you'll appreciate the intrinsic value of the bike itself and be aware of it's limitations.

What you likely experienced on your scooter is not likely a fuel pump. Fuel pumps are often used when gravity can not be used to move fuel the carb (basically if the fuel tank is vertically lower than the carb, a pump is needed). Also fuel pumps will have electrical wires attached to them and usually are quite noisy.

What you probably have is a vacuum operated "petcock" (the valve from your gastank that connects to the fuel hose). The reason why these are sometimes vacuum operated is because it assures fuel is flowing to the carb ONLY when the engine is running. A little bit of vacume from the engine is used to basically "open" a valve at the "petcock" thereby letting the fuel flow. If the vacuum hose (from the carb to the petcock) is leaking air, then there will not be enough vacuum to open the "petcock valve" and no gas will go to your carb ... which equals you pushing the scoot. :icon10:

Lastly, if you're into reading, I fully support Jape's recommendation to read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" but Pirsig. A great book dealing with a wide range of topics and is usually found in the Philosophy section of your local book store.

Congrats again on your successful repair and keep up the good work! It only gets crazier from here! :thumbsup:

CC

Hey Carl, I've added that book to my Library list. I visit the Library weekly. Vacumn Fuel pump is the part description. Everything you described is exactly what happened. After taking the covers off I got a good look all the parts. Amazing that something so simple left me w/o my wheels. I have some great neighbors, so I survived.

Jape thanks for weighing in. I don't like to get dirty, but sometimes you gotta do, what you gotta do.

Thanks for your input. I appreciate the technical lessons. My confidence definitely got a boost. I still love my scooter. It is a lot of fun to ride and the weight is easy on my back. I had no problem pushing it. But I don't want to make a habit of it.

Di

I got a lot of work done on my scooter this week. It's at 535 miles and this is what I've done. The headlight situation finally came to a bifurcation point and chaos ensued. No power when the key is turned. Electrical is my strong suit and I like it. I start at the battery and check the fuse. Fuse is blown. I replace fuse. Bike runs. Blows fuse again. I remove the front cover and low and behold I find hanging bare wires. I save the wiring harness, and then my neighbor, a motorcycle guy, says "come here, look at this." The wiring harness was wearing in two places. I cover those with conduit and rebundle all wires and take the bind out of it. Steering is much improved.

This morning I replaced all vacumn lines and idling is much improved.

I purchased this scooter from a small dealer going out of business. I got it for one third of retail. His eighteen year old son did the dealer prep on this scooter. The problems I've had experienced can be traced to poor oversight, as opposed to any manufacturing problems.

Overall, I'm enjoying my first chinese scooter. It challenges me in a good way.

There you go! A bit of looking and thinking and fixing and you are on your way, safer and happier! A different feeling now to when the first fault kicks you in the guts. Well done.

It took me five weeks of intensive self determination to get my car going recently - in other words forcing myself to stay calm, not panic, not get the 20 pound fixing tool out, just look and think and then look and think again. Finally after using all the logic up and refusing all the very expensive options suggested by professional mechanics I replaced a couple of parts that looked worn - to no avail. Imagine the feeling then. I felt gutted as I am going through a 'broke' phase and not in any position to buy even a junker at the moment. But again I went and looked and finally found (through fortunate accident) that when a particular set of wires was wiggled at a particular time, the car worked! Fortune comes through persistence. Still the experts told me it was going to cost me a lot to fix and replace as this was a complicated setup but I used commonsense and managed a two dollar fix ... not perfect but functional. Well that is me, not you, sorry, and I don't want to seem patronising but a LOT of people get ripped off by mechanics and dealers, both male and female. If you have the determination to look and play your confidence grows immensely. You won't always win and sometimes you have no choice but to pay up, however you have saved yourself a fair bit of grief, diagnosis costs, labour costs, and fixed it yourself! That is priceless.

Right on.