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.

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.

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!

CC