MOPED ARMY

OK, see why it died! Spark? wrong gas mixture? need new piston rings? Once you getting it running right it won't broke down for a long time. Crankcase gasket/head/basegasket/manifold gasket in good condition?

Gaskets all look good - I'm not leaking from anywhere on the engine (I did have a fuel leak from the petcock for a while, but I fixed that).

Please read my post, while I did bitch and complain, I also detailed everything I have checked. Spark is good as is gas mixture.

I put a lot of time and effort into getting it running 'RIGHT' but this thing always finds some NEW way to break down, just because I need some help here, doen't mean I abused my ped or don't know how to take care of it.

my damn puch is the same thing. i fuckin hate it, after 6 months of repairs i finally gave up and sold it for a 2000 tomos lx

If you were to search the forum for posts by me from early spring through late summer, you would see the agony my mobies put me through. I am glad I stuck with them. I love them now, and have 4. no other moped is appealing to me anymore. But the lows were really low.

It sounds to me as though your spark may not be strong enough to keep up with the constant flow of gas coming at it.

-Did you upjet?

-Bad Coil/Coils?

-Right Plug (I like champion L86c)

-Right Gap?

Or perhaps your condensor needs replacing (is it original?) my moby would stop firing after it heated up due to a old faulty condensor.

If you do not have this manual, it might help

http://mopedriders.org/article_view.php?faq=2&fldAuto=18

Good luck.

Italian peds are super easy to deal with if the moby is a lost cause

i feel the fouled plug. i just changed the plug in my 79 motobecane. you would not believe how much more power i could feel once i did that. i have only had the bike for like 2 months so i dont know how old the plug was, but personaly i had put at least 500 miles on it. once it was changed out no problems at all. bjerg, what set up are you running? is your bike all stock?

Ok. Just like the rest of the guys say...ignition- points AND wiring. I had a similiar problem like this as well, because the main terminal wasn't completley connected to one of the wires, and the main engine ground wasn't completely grounded to it's connector, just partially, so the spark was WEAK even with a new plug and would run very slow and flood/die/foul verrrrrry easily. check the wiring system 100% out.

-andy

Well, I'm going on vacation this week anyway, so I won't get back to it for a while anyway. ;)

I will go down to the dealer here and try a new plug, since it's no big loss to have a spare even with (apprently) good spark.

I'm pretty sure it's probably not the electricals though, I get good strong lights etc. as I pedal to start it, it just won't catch, start or actually run. and as I said, the spark does ignite regularly. Perhaps it's not strong enough?... I should check the colour of spark - white and blue are good and orange is bad, if I recall, right?

I know that testing the compression with your thumb is complete garbage (sorry fred), does anybody know a way to test it properly? I only really have a standard complement of tools available to me.

_________

This wouldn't be such a problem I guess if I wasn't dependent on it as my main source of transportation to anywhere beyond a quick bike ride. When this thing dies, I'm trapped in a town without much to do at all. If I had the money I'd still get a Targa LX, possibly kitted, as my faster "distance bike" (although I have some mods I'd want to do, those things are kinda ugly stock!) but I'd keep the Moby. If it broke down, no big deal. Sadly two grand is WAAAAYYY out of reach for me right now.

I guess it's no fun to ride when you're always afraid. Fearfully listening to every little sound, every gasp, every plink and wheeze waiting for the engine to give out... again.

I'm not a motobecane expert...but...I do know that they had a problem with some kind of cam that slipped inside the magneto which made the timing go crazy. It was a design flaw...and they had a service bulletin on it. That's all I know. You might want to talk to mopedlar...or mopedwarehouse about it.

I had a sort of similar problem a while back. My spark looked great, but it wasn't running well. Once i bought a GOOD spark plug gap from the auto store, i tried 5 different gaps, and found that .034" worked the best. Now my ped' starts on the first kick every time.

Mopeds are just like cars... I have a Puch Newport 2 that was well maintained throughout its life and is at 8000 miles and running as strong and reliably as day one. Many of the older peds may not have been well maintained, or even run without oil at certain times.