2009 Stella 2T ~4700mi This problem started about a year ago, when the roads are wet, it would sputter and die like it wasn't getting fuel. Turns out it wasn't getting spark. It will run all day long when it is dry, I've even taken some 100 mi trips here and there. As soon as the roads are wet, it starts to sputter and I have no spark. After sitting for a few minutes, sometimes it will start up but only run a few blocks or a mile till it dies again. Kick start mostly but will turn over with battery (I just rarely use it) I've been stranded over 6 or 7 times in rainstorms for the past year. I have done the following to try and remedy the situation: 1.) Replaced the Coil/CDI (one unit on the 09' engines) 2.) Checked and cleaned/kept dry all electrical connections to the engine and resoldered and replaced some of the connectors (do this each time she dies on me and all dry and connected) 3.) Battery terminals are clean and tight 4.) I have bypassed the kill switch 5.) Rebuilt Carb and cleaned some usual oil/fuel from airbox Having fixed/replaced these items up top, I'm running out of ideas. Any perspective would be nice. Possible ideas: 1.) Replace Fuse or entire fuse holder 2.) Sell it
I don't know if you are including the spark plug wire in "all electrical connections" or it its captive to the coil, but if not..... I've had the same problem on my Beemer. It was a cracked coil, but you've already replaced that. I've also experienced it on an old car and it was a cracked distributor cap. Does it have anything like a kickstand kill switch?
The spark plug wire is part of the HT coil I just replaced. I have not replaced the boot on it but it was high and dry and worked for many miles until there is a hint of rain or wet roads. There is a kill switch on the bars which I bypassed to avoid that issue. There is no kickstand kill switch. I'm thinking it could be water getting into the flywheel/stator and shorting it out or perhaps a bad back plate on the stator.
I also have an '09 Stella, but have not had any problems like that because it does not rain in my state, at least not in the part of it where I live. Ask on stellaspeed.com. Something somewhere is grounding out when it gets wet.
I had a similar problem but it would stutter and stall out at random, not necessarily in the rain. When i would check the spark, there wasn't any. My buddy who was a vespa mechanic for many years took a look at it and found that it was a bad pickup on the stator. We replaced it with a new one and I haven't had any problems since.
Thanks! That is the #1 culprit at the moment. Not sure if/how water would be getting in there but worth a look. I plan to replace the cheap sparkplug boot as well just to work through cheap fixes first then spray around the engine with a bottle of water or hose to see if I can isolate possible causes. Also this is crossposted in Scootercentral (stellaspeed is no longer)
Try spraying some water on the back of the engine when it's running (like from a squirt bottle) at the point where the stator wires come out of the engine case. If that doesn't recreate the problem spritz the spark plug wire all the way to the plug. This sounds like a typical wire short that is occuring when water is introduced to worn, split or cracked wires. Had a similar problem on a Kawasaki 2 stroke that was due to a pinhole in one of my spark plug wires that would arc to the gas tank when it got wet. I find it a bit hard to believe that a wire would have cracked in only 3 years. It seems much more likely that either a wire has worn through or a fitting has gotten corroded..... Lastly, before buying a new stator you might pull the fly wheel and the stator and look for bad wires between the stator and the connector on the back of the engine. I recently had to replace several on my p200e- simply soldered new ones on, not hard. Hope this helps.
Hmm. For a minute there I thought stellaspeed was actually gone, but they just renamed it. All the old stellaspeed members and posts are still there. Most everything there is about performance modding. Anybody know of a good forum for stock Stellas, or for vintage Vespas where Stellas are welcome?
