Andys FXR180 project

Hi there,
I just thought I would tidy things up on ScooterShack by creating a project thread for my scooter. Posted asking about a few problems I have had during this 4 year project but never really got round to creating a 'Project' thread so here it is .

I will just start by saying that this scooter is going to be fairly stock initially in comparison to some of the scooters I have seen on here so some may feel that its a pretty boring read. However, it will be peppered with photos so it should keep those of you interested that don't like reading too much .

I think I bought the scooter back in 2010 from Steve (aka MARSH)? The photo below is the day it arrived at my house via a friends transit van. I have established over time that the scoot was pretty much 98% all there. As you can see it needed a bit of work but that's what I bought it for. No better way of understanding your vehicle than to have to build it before you can ride it!



Well it wasn't long before it was in this condition.



I wanted to give the frame a going over with black Hammerite, establish what was missing and clean the engine at the same time. I also decided after seeing another Runner with a colour scheme that appealed to me that the wheels were going to be powder coated black. So this is the extent I went to on the engine clean.



Again, not massively impressive by the standards of some that I have seen on here, but better than it was. The wheels came back from being powder coated and I must say looked the business



At the same time I did the wheels I had the transmission casing painted white and after some advice about performance increase I bought an OKI 24mm flat slide carb and foam filter.



Its at this point that i got side tracked with other projects. Extending my garage & house, modifying my classic mini and my wife decided to buy an MG Midget. its not surprising this project is taking so long . There was a host of other things to this build but as its been picked up so infrequently my memorys getting a bit vague. Suffice to say the project was picked up again a week or so ago and i am all out to get it sorted, on the road and have some fun.

The following picture is just about as together as the bike has been since I have owned it. I set about matching up all of the panels to make sure everything was there. Needed to buy a few screws and fittings but all in all everything seems to be in order.



As you can see i have decided to go down the scorpion route as far as the exhaust is concerned. Next step was to strip it back again and concentrate on the cables, fuel and coolant system. The Electrics for the headlight assembly were not brilliant, but with a set of long nosed pliers and a bit of WD40 they work a treat now



A friend of mine machined the carb to fit the brass vacuum nozzle and everything was connected and primed from a fuel perspective. Next was the cooling system. As you have probably seen from a thread in the Workshop section I have had issues with the bleed screw on the thermostat housing. This was seized in and was damaged when trying to bleed due to the excessive force i applied



ordered a replacement from the local scootershop which didn't work. I am currently awaiting a plastic scullcap and hope to get it in the next day or so. However, it gave me great pleasure to start the scooter for the first time last night, all be it very briefly due to the lack of coolant. It would only be a matter of time before it seized (obviously), but its nice to know that as soon as i get some fluid in there i can have a play

I will try to keep this up to date as things progress and I hope to have the bike MOTed and registered with a UK plate soon. I do have some modification ideas for the suspension, but this will have to be done when finances permit.

Thanks for reading

Andy

 

Nice project. It is fun to get something in a basket, clean it up, and get it running. Very few things are as satisfying. It sounds like you have your hands full. The MG Midget will take as much time as the scooter. I bitch about my scooter, but you mentioning your wife's MG Midget helped put things in prospective. The damn MG knew when pay day was. It used to break the day after pay day regularly.
Good luck with the scoot. Nothing wrong with a stock scooter. I like mine that way personally, after all it is just the beer-grabber and neighborhood transport.

 

4 years already! .

 

Yeah, I can't believe it myself

 

Hi there.
Well today has been the progress I needed after a stand still due to being issued wrong parts and then having to wait for the new skull cap (which incidentally turned up in record time). Still had to go to the local scooter shop to get a few other parts (battery strap, fuel filter cap latch and a few small screws). Anyways, I managed to get the new skull cap fitted and fired the scooter up again. Whoop whoop



However...I do have a couple of issues that I could do with some help with.

The first is the electric fan. Whenever I connect it it starts working immediately so I have to disconnect. This is even when the ignition is off! Not sure if the fan should work when the ignition is turned off to carry on cooling If the engine is still hot like cars do? I would imagine not, but it's obvious there is power oblivious to the ignition!

The second is that although the scooter was running for some time (fan disconnected due to the above problem), the temporary gauge didn't move at all. The sensor on the scullcap was connected incidentally.

If anybody can offer any help on the above it would be much appreciated.

Andy

 

Had today off work so I thought I would try and work my way through a few issues that need sorting. Taped some of the loom up that had come unwound. And re rooted the front brake hose. Called the local scooter shop to order the fan switch and a brake light sensor. Decided to crank the beast up on a few occasions today. This is the result 2 stroke smoke! Better than fresh air



The next thing I wanted to sort is the hole in the seat box due to the none standard OKO carb. Wasn't sure how to tackle it but have gone down the route of fiberglass. Not finished yet, and it's probably not the best route, but this is what I have done...



Next thing was the rear mud guard. I noticed there was a fixing on the plastic guard, and another on the engine casing. Not sure what the part that connects the two together looks like, but I decided to save money and fabricate one myself. Used some sheet aluminum that i had kicking around. First used some cardboard to get the template right. Then I set too fabricating it. After an hour or so the part was fitted

 

Looking good! It's the std airbox that join's the hugger to that fixing screw. The fan will have power all the time, it's more than likely to be the fan switch faulty. To test the temp sender/ temp gauge simply touch the sender wire to earth, this should move the needle to max if working ok.

 

Thanks for the feedback Steve. I remember now you suggest it that the VX i had with the standard air box bridged the gap I have sorted with the plate fabrication.

 

Well I feel I am on schedule to get the scooter MOTed on Saturday. Re routed a lot of the wiring loom and located the starter relay on the frame.



Also swapped out the fan switch which meant draining the coolant of (again).

Anyhow, tomorrow evening and Friday should be enough time to get the panels on and give the final check over. Oober excited

 

Nice job. Good work on designing and fabricating the part to replace the airbox connector.
Fiberglass should work fine for your seat mod. Once it is filled and painted it will look good.

These are fun little machines to work on. Lawn mower technology is great fun, and even I can make occasional progress.

 

Yesterday evening I started off scratching my head about the slack in the throttle cable. All adjustments were out on both the throttle and carb ends and still there was play before the slide started to move. After some investigation I realised that the old carb had a nice little 90 degree bend before the adjustment screw where the new OKO didn't.

Not running the oil pump so don't require the pump cable so after some deliberation removed the Gilera cables altogether. Had a load of spare Vespa cables kicking around for my PX so I have modified one of those and it works a treat

 

Ok, so today has been busy to say the least! MOT booked first thing for tomorrow so deliberately put myself under pressure to get the darn thing done! Took the day of work to make sure I had enough time to get it sorted.

First thing I sorted was a very poorly looking part of the bodywork. At least half of the tabs used to lock the panels together were hanging off. So I started by plastic welding them as best as possible with a soldering iron. Next I used JB Weld after disturbing the plastic to add extra reinforcement.



Next I added an additional layer of fiberglass to the throttle cable run under the seat, then primed and painted it in black.



The rest of the day was spent cleaning panels, tweaking the electrics, matching up parts and refining cable runs.

Well I hope you all agree that it's turned out to be a pretty tidy ped ;-)

 

Very cool. From basket case to nice runner in only 4 years ;-)
It should be fun, and you know every part of the thing.
Enjoy.

 

EZ
Not exactly the power machine I was expecting. Been up and down a cul de sac and it needs sorting out, but it should be enough to get to the garage and MOT ed

 

I have been "sorting mine out" since it was new in 2008. I have to admit, I learned a lot and have made progress on making it a dependable scoot. It is not fast, but that is fine. I don't need to go faster than 45 most of the time.
For me half the fun is working on them. The GY6 provides plenty of opportunity for that.

 

Just to clarify, it's not a "Ped" but a scooter, Peds are 50cc. That's not a bad effort at all, very tidy! .
Get the carb sorted and it will be fine.

 

Passed the MOT . Failed initially on a couple of things but decided to pay the mechanic to sort. Just need a uk registration plate then I can start having some fun ;-)

 

What does MOT stand for? In the U.S. the individual states have DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) or DPS (Department of Public Safety) in Texas. Only a few states require safety inspections for scooters or motorcycles. Not California where I live. Once you get past registration (not easy) you are home free.

 

Ministry Of Transport Test ;-)