Kymco Electrical Mystery
 

I don't usually run into electrical problems so this Kymco Like 50 has me stumped. I ran some electrical checks to see what's up.

The plug at the starter relay. The hot wire back to the battery reads 12.5 volts, The relay trigger power only reads 9.5 volts when I hit the starter button. Here's the one fluke there. When I checked the wire that feeds power to the starter I would expect it to read zero since it's not connected to anything live, yet I get a reading of .1 volts to ground.

Second mystery. I checked power across both fuses with the key on. I'm only getting .3 volts across both fuses. I would expect at least one to read 12 volts assuming that the headlight, horn and directional signals were fuse protected. I wasn't touching the fuse I was touching the sockets so it isn't like the fuse is acting like a resistor or is it somehow?

I just got an idea about something. Think this over for now.

Never mind. The fused circuits are fine and pumping out 12 volts. I was testing them wrong. I called my Father, the electrician and former Triumph dealer, who explained what I was doing wrong.

Did you get this squared up?

John

He already found out what he was doing wrong and acknowledged it in an edit.

No. I haven't. I have to tell you this though. So not impressed with this thing so far. Electrical demons are one thing, using complicated means to run things is another. I have had some personal business come up so it's sitting right now. Short of a sledge hammer they made it darn near impossible to remove panels easily. It's like the scooter was never supposed to malfunction so access to the internals requires major surgery. I worked on a 50cc China scooter once. So much easier to deal with than this.

I'll keep you posted if I get it under control.

Try going to scrappydogscooter -- they have a rather impressive manual set that they can send out for a reasonable price on CD.

Also, I am a firm believer in rechecking the simple stuff -- I've beat my brains out to check the complex stuff only to find it was something simple. Have you had the battery tested for its cranking amp output? Most automotive parts stores can do this for free rather quickly.