Ice Bear Magnum Won't Start By ellpee (Read 1,246 times)

[ellpee]

New observation this morning -- the feed horn/tube from the air filter to the carb intake is very hard to get in place, and even then the clamp doesn't seem to hold it all that well. Any serious vibration and it wants to disconnect. Anybody have a solution for that? Any general advice about replacing the air filter entirely with something off EBay or wherever?

[crwford]

This was what I was saying Jim was a dealer and a repair shop. I have 3 Ice Bear Zodiac's 300 cc and Jim was the answer man every time I need help if he didn't have the answer he would go to Ice Bear and find out one sorry if I hurt any ones feelings.

[ellpee]

Well, I post here in the hope that Jim will see it and answer here so everybody, not just I, get the benefit of his knowledge. I only bother him directly when I get no results here on the forum. But answers from anyone are welcome as long as they aren't 180 degrees out of synch with each other.

BTW, the Magnum won't start again this morning, but since it started repeatedly yesterday I'm optimistic I'll get it going again. It gives some weak pops, so with further fiddling I expect I'll be able to start it again. I did resolve the air horn problem for now by heating it a bit with a gas match, which let me get it onto the carb and then clamp it down as tightly as I could. Did some googling for replacement 50mm cone-type filters to get rid of the air box entirely, but don't want to add any more complexity to things until I have the starting issue 100% resolved. Mystery wire still an unanswered question, though when I had it running yesterday that unconnected wire didn't seem to make any difference. Also took off the rear plastic and hosed off all the Ruidoso dirt road dust, but as usual getting it back on is a pain, holes just don't match up as well as I'd like.

[ellpee]

Started this afternoon. Had screwed down the idle screw because it wouldn't keep running at cold start, but evidently that kept it from starting when not so cold. (others with other ideas feel free to chime in). Anyhow, starts consistently this afternoon, have set idle to about 1500 once warm, hoping to find all good tomorrow morning. If worst scenario is I have to nurse the throttle until it warms up, I can live with that.

[gorj]

Any good mechanic should have fettered your issue out in no time. It is simple fact of fuel, and ignition delivered at the proper time. The first thing would be a compression test with a gauge. If that is good, then on to ignition and ignition timing. By the way, a spark plug can look good, but not fire under compression because the insulator on the electrode is shorting out. Sometimes all that is needed is a new spark plug! If that is in order, than finally fuel delivery. Even if a carb is defective, one should be able to spray some ignitable mist into the carb while cranking the engine and it should fire. A no brainer! Someone has missed the basics somewhere.  Good luck. Given your issues with finding someone to service your scooter, I suggest you learn how to do it yourself, or get rid of it. It is my experience that there are not to many qualified engine techs out there. New techs have to put everything on a diagnostic machine. They let the machine tell them what is wrong. Then they replace parts, even when the part they replace may not be defective. They have little or no comprehension of what is happening to make an internal combustion engine function! 

[ellpee]

Would certainly agree that the Kymco shop here in Tucson didn't earn their $200. And they insisted you can't do a compression check on a cold engine. I understand about metal expanding when hot, etc., but surely even a cold compression check will give some idea whether there's a problem. I did finally solve the problem myself, or so it seems at the moment, so if even I can do it that doesn't say much for their skill level. I also emailed five different guys on EBay who say they'll work on anything and do anything up to a complete rebuild, and not one of them even responded. So as you say and as I observed several posts ago, I would never again buy Chinese unless there was an actual dealer with a repair shop right down the road. But no, I ain't movin' to Millville, Wisconsin, sorry Jim.

Oh, and PS, trying to deal directly with Ice Bear, even to just ask a simple question, is a waste of time, another black mark for the Chinese scooter market. I even noticed on one of the on line scooter parts sites that they have entirely discontinued doing business with Ice Bear because of lousy service. Roketa wasn't all that great either.

[ellpee]

Oh, regarding that mystery wire in the enricher harness, wife tells me the colors are blue and black. Best I can tell so far, not having it plugged in anywhere has had no negative effect, but am still wondering about it.