Post by Kenho21 on May 11, 2020 20:57:57 GMT -5
While I was at work one day, my girlfriend texted me a pic of a scooter in a dumpster asking what it was and why someone would throw it away.
Turns out it was a 1998 Honda Elite AF16... in rough shape. At any rate, being the kickass (and apparently enabling) girlfriend that she is, she pulled it out of the dumpster and wheeled it to our apartment at the time. We were in a tiny apartment awaiting our move to a newer, nicer, and bigger apartment. We had the Jog in the living room, the Zuma in the laundry room and in a million pieces and now the dumpster scoot sitting on the little fenced in patio for the winter. I figured I would get to it once we moved and I had my Zuma a little more squared away. That was back in early January and now we've moved and my Zuma is slowly getting there, so I decided to see what was up dumpster scooter.
My girlfriend had told me it was really hard to move when she rescued it and after I first saw it, I quickly realized the back wheel was locked up, but it seemed to have compression and turned over decently. The past week or so I've finally had some spare time to put into it, so I removed some of the plastic to find more spider nests and bugs of different sorts (some still living) than I've ever seen on a vehicle, let alone a scooter. It was super dirty and had not had any love for quite some time.
I inspected the back brake and found it was locked up. I took the wheel off, got the brake apart, cleaned and greased everything and threw it back together. Then I pulled the air box off, which contained what used to be air filter foam and cleaned it. Then, the carb came apart. It had a huge chunk of air filter foam wedged in its bell mouth. I got the carb apart the rest of the way, cleaned it up and put it back together. Then I kicked it over a couple times and it puttered to life, even with the old fuel in the tank. I only let it run for a couple seconds because I was in my basement.
Today, I finished cleaning up the air box, threw a battery in it and putt it mostly back together before hauling it upstairs and outside. Drained the fuel and added some fresh fuel, then tried the electric start for the first time. Fired right up! You'll have to forgive the satanic shine in my eyes and goofy sweats, but here's a vid:
Smoked quite a bit, but eventually calmed down mostly. Idled pretty well and sounded fairly clean running. Took a 10 minute ride in the freezing cold and it gets along pretty well! Speedo is not working, but I'm guessing it gets up to at least 40mph and I haven't even touched the CVT and I know the plug is super dirty. It's going to get a bath, new plug, and CVT inspection tomorrow, but man, for being a scoot pulled out of a dumpster, I love it!
Turns out it was a 1998 Honda Elite AF16... in rough shape. At any rate, being the kickass (and apparently enabling) girlfriend that she is, she pulled it out of the dumpster and wheeled it to our apartment at the time. We were in a tiny apartment awaiting our move to a newer, nicer, and bigger apartment. We had the Jog in the living room, the Zuma in the laundry room and in a million pieces and now the dumpster scoot sitting on the little fenced in patio for the winter. I figured I would get to it once we moved and I had my Zuma a little more squared away. That was back in early January and now we've moved and my Zuma is slowly getting there, so I decided to see what was up dumpster scooter.
My girlfriend had told me it was really hard to move when she rescued it and after I first saw it, I quickly realized the back wheel was locked up, but it seemed to have compression and turned over decently. The past week or so I've finally had some spare time to put into it, so I removed some of the plastic to find more spider nests and bugs of different sorts (some still living) than I've ever seen on a vehicle, let alone a scooter. It was super dirty and had not had any love for quite some time.
I inspected the back brake and found it was locked up. I took the wheel off, got the brake apart, cleaned and greased everything and threw it back together. Then I pulled the air box off, which contained what used to be air filter foam and cleaned it. Then, the carb came apart. It had a huge chunk of air filter foam wedged in its bell mouth. I got the carb apart the rest of the way, cleaned it up and put it back together. Then I kicked it over a couple times and it puttered to life, even with the old fuel in the tank. I only let it run for a couple seconds because I was in my basement.
Today, I finished cleaning up the air box, threw a battery in it and putt it mostly back together before hauling it upstairs and outside. Drained the fuel and added some fresh fuel, then tried the electric start for the first time. Fired right up! You'll have to forgive the satanic shine in my eyes and goofy sweats, but here's a vid:
Smoked quite a bit, but eventually calmed down mostly. Idled pretty well and sounded fairly clean running. Took a 10 minute ride in the freezing cold and it gets along pretty well! Speedo is not working, but I'm guessing it gets up to at least 40mph and I haven't even touched the CVT and I know the plug is super dirty. It's going to get a bath, new plug, and CVT inspection tomorrow, but man, for being a scoot pulled out of a dumpster, I love it!