So, your sooter has arrived and you're ready to ride, right? Nope, not just yet!

When you take off the cardboard, you'll see something like this. Depending on the seller, there will be some assembly required. Some scoots, like this one, require that you attach the front wheel, gages, luggage rack, etc.

Save the cardboard and foam wrapping, you'll need this later to put the plastic panels on.

The first thing to do is get it out of the metal crate without damaging it! Start by taking all of the top bolts out first and remove the top angle iron.

Next, remove all of the bottom bolts on the vertical supports. You may find that the handlebars might be attached to the supports, cut the attachment wires and carefully remove the wire and protective covers on them. The scoot should/will stand on it's own, since there are four more attachment points on the bottom.

I like to free the scoot of it's metal prison before continuing, so with two people, one balances the front of the scooter while the other cuts and removes the remaining support wires. Next, the helper unbolts the front axle bolt from the frame and slides it out, saving all the removable parts - this will free the front wheel. Now both pick up the scoot and place it on firm ground on the center stand. Most all smaller scooters will stand up fine without the front wheel, but a cardboard box under the floorboard will make sure it won't fall forward. Scoots larger than 150cc will require support, since they will tip forward.

Before we get started, look for the accessory box with the battery in it. It may be in a box on the step-through, or under the seat. Follow the directions for adding the electrolyte to the battery and put the battery on charge with no more than a 2 amp charger. We'll need to have this fully charged a little later.

Now it's time to attach the front wheel! If your scoot came with the front wheel attached already, skip to the next step.

First, remove the protector from inside the disk brake pads if it has one. Then, slowly guide the wheel into place. The disk on the wheel should slip between the disc pads. There will usually be a metal spacer that goes between the axle hole on the wheel and the front shock on the disc brake side. While you hold the wheel and spacer in place, have your helper slide the long axle bolt you removed from the framing in step one through the shock, spacer and front wheel. If all is lined up properly, it should slide through, however, sometimes it'll only go half way. 

You must get the axle beyond the shock, spacer and into the wheel by hand. If it gets stuck beyond this point, a few blows with a rubber mallet will take it all the way through, but be gentle!

Once the axle bolt is all the way through, put a drop or two (not too much!) of blue Loctite on the axle threads and put on the washer and nut (some scoots have a bearing on both sides) . The manuals usually call for about 35-45 lbs of torque, but I always torque to 75-80 ft lbs to ensure the axle has seated properly. Some scoots ship with the attachment nut on the end of the axle, while others have a different nut in the accessory box. Make sure you know which one you have!

Now once the front wheel is attached comes the disassembly - time to remove ALL of the top plastics. What we want to do here, is be able to get to every mechanical part on the scooter. It should look like a bare frame like the picture to the right. This is the first and most important step in the PDI !

If this is the first time you're disassembling the plastics on a scooter, it can be quite frustrating, but just take your time, do it in a well lit area and take a lot of pictures as you go! Most of the plastics are held in place with small screws and one attaches to the other, however, there are some that will fit together with small slots and tabs in addition to the screws. Go slowly and tug on the plastics to find the next attachment point and you'll get them all off! On some scoots, like the MC-54 for example, the entire rear section can come off as one piece.

A little trick I have to save a lot of time and confusion is a having a box of Ziploc baggies on hand. I put all the screws from each panel in a separate bag and tape it to panel, this way when I reassemble the panels, I know what screws go where.

Make sure you have a tube of good commercial grade outdoor Silicon window and door sealant ready, because we're going to use it virtually everywhere ! It's also a good idea to get a can of black Rustoleum paint and some fine sandpaper as well. 

First we'll start with the welds - check every frame weld on the scoot for rust. You'll probably find at least one or two places where rust or bubbling has started. Sand these areas down to the metal and paint them with the Rustoleum . Unscrew ALL OF YOUR GROUND WIRES that go to the frame and check them. Recently there has been a rash of connectors that have been assembled with the ground attachment PAINTED before it was attached. If yours is painted, sand it off, reattach it, tighten down and then paint it.

Next, we'll move on to the electrical connectors. There will be a lot of electrical slip connectors all over the scoot! I start from the front and work my way back. Pull each one apart; they should NOT pull apart easily, and if they do, a little pressure on the female end with a needle-nose pliers will tighten it up. After you rejoin the slip connector, put blob of silicon across the outside of the connector's plastic cover, from one side to the other - this will prevent them from coming apart. By doing this, you will alleviate ALL of the electrical gremlins so many folks have with these scoots. You can also check things like the speedometer cluster, make sure all of the screws where the electrical connectors connect to the cluster are tight and cover them with a blob of silicon as well.

You'll also find a lot of gang connectors , or little white boxes with more than one wire plugged together. I like to open these and make sure all the prongs inside are in the right position and none are pushed in. If they are, a needle nose pliers can pull the pin up easily until it snaps in position. I then carefully and slowly close them again until they snap closed and then put some silicon on both sides of the outside of the connector. Next, I look for grounding straps, or where wires attach to the frame with a screw. You'll usually find anywhere between one and three of these - check for tightness and cover in silicon.

NOTE: Many scoots will have some gang connectors that appear to be unplugged, and there is no other matching connector near it to plug them together. Don't worry about these! These are optional accessory wiring for things such as Alarm systems, Stereos, trunk lights, etc. All china manufacturers use generic wiring harnesses and not all wiring will be used on your scooter.

NOTE: Check ALL wiring routes and look for unsecured or dangling wiring! Use some small tie-downs to secure them to the frame where necessary. Loose or dangling wiring can rub on the frame and short out. For wires and hoses that attach to the engine, be careful not to take up the slack, since the engine, by design, pivots with the rear suspension.

Now with the plastics off, it's time to check every single screw, bolt or nut on the scoot! I take all the screws out, one-by-one, apply silicon and screw them back in.   

The Chinese like to use what they call Speed Nuts to fasten a lot of things down on a scooter, and sometimes these can be problematic. First off, remove them one-by one, and once removed, give the rounded end a little squeeze with the pliers. Not so much to crush it though! Next, squeeze the open end together with your fingers and fill the space between the metal with silicon. Now slide the speed nut back on to the area it was on and make sure the larger hole is on the screw side. The goal is for the speed nut to be tight and some slight force needed to reapply it.

I like to keep a big blob of silicon ready on a piece of cardboard so I can just dip my screws in it before screwing them on. If you find one that is stripped, or the screw does not tighten, you can re-bend the small hole to tighten it up, or simply buy a box of new ones from any auto parts store. I have never had one I couldn't re-bend and reuse.

I also take out every permanent bolt in the same manner and apply a drop of blue Loctite to the threads and reinstall them. If you don't want to get as anal as I do, just check to make sure they're all tight. However, ALL of the bolts on the exhaust should be removed and reinstalled with Loctite on them, as well as the plastic wheel covers (fenders) or they WILL come out! A lot of folks go out and buy lock-washers to use on the bolts as well.

The next step is some preventative maintenance. We'll start by spending about $20 and replacing the following:
    1) Fuel Filter
    2) Fuel lines - ALL - They tend to be low quality and crack and kink easily. Also, the cheap China hoses disintegrate from the inside out, so you wind up with small pieces of rubber in your carb! Since different scoots use different size hoses, you can snip off about a 1" piece of each line to bring to the auto parts store and match up the inside diameter. I always use a 1/4" replacement with a 50psi rating for the fuel and 3/16" for the vacuum lines. Changing over to screw clamps is also a good idea. 
UPDATE NOTE, 07/10/2008: DOT regulations now REQUIRE factories to use SAE certified fuel lines for the 2008 models, so you may not need to replace yours, however, the Chinese like to fudge, so I'll replace mine anyway. 
    3) Vacuum lines - ALL - Also usually very low quality and sometimes much longer than necessary, usually 3/16".
    4) Hose clamps - Recommended

Now, get out the flashlight and look inside the fuel tank! You might find things like, animal droppings, plastic wrap, Styrofoam flakes, paper, etc. All of these things WILL decompose and cause you big problems later on! Styrofoam bits are a regular problem and they disintegrate within minutes of filling the tank and then gums up the fuel filter.

Next, we'll remove the sparkplug wire and make sure the wire is properly attached to the boot and that you can see the wire attached to the screw inside the boot itself. While we're here, you can remove the sparkplug and check the gap. See your owner's manual for the proper gap setting. Reinstall the plug, but be careful! If it doesn't tighten all the way down by hand, you have it cross threaded - a common mistake! On some engines, you can start it in any position! Make sure you have it in right and tighten it down by hand. Only tighten it slightly with the plug wrench, you don't want to strip it. 7 ft lbs is enough pressure. When you put the plug wire back on, you should hear a series of clicks when you push down until it seats all the way.

Now that we have finished tightening all the nuts, bolts and made sure all of our electrical connections are tight and sealed with silicon, it's time to dump out all the crappy fluids in the scoot! Remember, most China crate scooters DO NOT COME WITH REAL FLUIDS! They come with shipping/storage fluids only. Flyscooters, CFMoto, Lance, TNG and Taiwan scoots are the exception to this rule.

I'm starting with the water, if you have an air cooled scoot, skip to the next section.

This example shows a CFMoto 244cc engine . On the right side of the scoot you'll see the water pump. Unscrew the drain plug and take it all the way out. Then take off the radiator cap up above. Once all of the water has drained, I drain the reserve tank with a wet-vac. Then I put the wet-vac in reverse and blow air through the reserve tank which blows the excess fluid out of the system.

Now put some gas in the tank. I like to put one ounce of Seafoam to every gallon of gas so that any varnish in the carb will be destroyed. I also like to use a small piece of the fuel line I removed earlier and hook it up to the carb. Then with a small funnel, I pour a little gas in it to prime it, remove the temporary line and reattach the regular fuel line. This makes the first fire up instantaneous.

Temporarily hook up the battery, the two red wires to the positive and black or green to the negative. I then put in some radiator flush and put a garden hose in the radiator on very low and wait for it to overflow, twist the throttle a few times and start the engine. It may take a few tries to get it started if you haven't primed the carb, but never crank the engine for more than 4 seconds at a time. If it doesn't start, wait 20-30 seconds and try again. Do not overheat your starter or it'll burn out! 

Start the scooter and let it run for about 20 minutes. Once the water is running clean out of the water pump's drain, turn off the scooter, take out the garden hose and let the pump run out dry.

Next, put a small amount of Loctite on the clean, dry bolt and reinstall it. Torque the bolt to 7-10 ft lbs, but do NOT attempt to tighten any of the other bolts on the water pump! They are torqued from the factory with Loctite already. You can check them with some slight pressure on the ratchet and see if they move, but not too much pressure! If you feel a " pop ", you broke the Loctite seal and have to remove it and reapply the Loctite!

Now, get a good brand of anti-freeze - Any good brand made for aluminum engines will do. The common polyethylene glycol (yellow) is not good to use on aluminum engines. Ask the auto parts store for a recommendation if you don't know which one to buy. Some you'll find at the auto parts store will be under the names of Sierra & Prestone Low Tox among others. It should say formulated for aluminum engines on the label somewhere. The proper mix is 50/50.

Slowly fill from the radiator until the the fluid comes to the top, and then fill the overflow half way. Now with the radiator cap off , squeeze the bottom hose several times very quickly. You'll notice that the radiator will now need more fluid - refill it. Repeat this process with the top hose, and then the bottom again. Keep doing this until the radiator takes no more fluid. 

Start the scooter and let the engine heat up to the normal operating temperature with the radiator cap still off. You'll see the fluid drop yet again - keep it refilled as you go. If it doesn't drop, race the motor some and the thermostat will open and level will drop. Again, but this time gently, squeeze the bottom and top hoses to make sure there is no air in the system. If you have water hoses on your carb, remove the top one and check to see if fluid comes out, if not, leave it off and squeeze the bottom hose again to burp the air. Once water starts coming out of the carb hose, reattach it. 

Now you can turn off the scoot and put the radiator cap back on, but before you do, apply a little motor oil to the gasket with your fingers. You'll want to recheck the level after the first 10 miles of normal driving and add any fluid if necessary.

ALL China scoots come with inferior shipping oil. Some folks like to keep it in for 30-50 miles, but I like to dump it out right away. Depending on the size and model of your engine, you may have one or two oil plugs to remove. We'll start by removing the dipstick. 

Place a container under the engine to catch the waste oil, and then remove the bolt under the motor and drain the oil.

I clean these parts with some spray carb cleaner and put them aside for the moment. If your scoot has a kick starter, go ahead and give it one good kick with the key and kill switch off. This will cause a bit more of the oil in the engine to come out of the drain hole.

Next, with the oil now completely drained, put the screen inside the spring and reinstall it in the engine with the drain plug. You do NOT have to over tighten the plug! Not only might you strip it, but over tightening can cause leaks as well, so go gentle on the plug!

With the plug and screen reinstalled, place a funnel in the dipstick hole and add your oil. For the initial break-in, we're going to use a good grade of petroleum oil, such as Castrol , 5W-30 weight, or straight 30 weight - 750ml or 3/4 of a quart is the norm. DO NOT OVER FILL! Check your oil with the dipstick, but don't screw it in. I do not use any synthetic blends during the first 1,000 miles.
NOTE: I use the hard break in on my scoots and dump the 30 weight oil after 25-30 miles. I then add 15W40 Rotella-T diesel oil for regular use. If you're not doing the hard break in , use the Rotella-T oil.

The first thing you want to do is remove the CVT cover. It's silly for me to take a picture of mine since they are all different. What they do have in common is either 2 or 3 bolts holding them on, mine has 2 in the middle of the cover. If you have a kick starter, you might have 6 bolts around the edges, plus you'll also need to remove the kick starter as well (note the way you remove it and reinstall it the same way) , but most scoots with a kick start will have the fill and drain on the outside.

You might have to give the cover a whack with a rubber mallet the first time you take it off. Some factories use a clear glue spray for ease of installation, but it pops right off. Be sure to handle the cover gently and make sure you remove it slowly, ensuring that you do not damage the gasket, not that it's really necessary.

Once all of the oil has drained, turn the back wheel a few times and then reinstall the bottom bolt. Now check you owner's manual for the proper oil to use. I use 75W90 synthetic gear oil.

There are many different ways to add the oil to the top hole, but I find that the oil I buy has a nice long tapered nose on it, so I just clip off the end and stick it in the top hole and squeeze the bottle. You'll know when it's full - the oil will start to run out the top. At this point, remove the bottle and you'll see the oil coming out the top hole.

You're now ready to reinstall the top bolt, but be careful! Again, these bolts are problematic and prone to stripping, so snug it up good, but not too tight!

If you have the CVT cover aligned and seated properly, there will be no movement if you try and move it back and forth. Don't tighten the screws all the way until the cover is fully seated, and then hold it in place with one hand and tighten with the other. Do not tighten it so far as the gasket starts to deform. The gasket keeps pressure on the screws so they will not back out.

NOTE: After changing the anti-freeze, engine and gear oil, clean and dry all areas and remove any excess fluids. After your first mile of driving, check all areas for leaks.

Tire pressure is a personal preference , and I do it slightly different. I ride on a compacted dirt patch and look at the tracks in the dirt to see how much tire contact there is with the road. I then adjust the air for the most contact, but not so low as the sidewall can buckle under. On my scoot, I have the rear wheel at 29 and the front at 30, both have a max pressure rating of 33psi. Other factors, such as riding 2-up would require a pressure adjustment as well.

NOTE: Tire pressure must always be checked when the tire is COLD . A hot tire will give you false readings!
NOTE: You should also replace the valve stems as soon as possible! They are inferior and tend to crack and blow.

I usually just reinstall the seat and seat bucket at this point and take her out for a spin! This way I can check for any leaks and make any necessary adjustments easily. Once everything feels okay and the scoot rides and runs well, I park it again and start the reassembly process. Make sure you use the photos you took earlier to identify where and in what order the panels go on. Watch for plastic tabs that join the panels together, and make sure you use silicon on the speed nuts and screws! You don't want to have any rattles or lost parts!

If you have followed this tutorial in whole, you'll find that you will have a solid running scoot that drives nice and does not have any of the typical rattles and loose panels.

You should budget anywhere from 4 to 8 hours for the entire process, and take your time! If you do it right the first time, you'll have many thousand miles of problem free scootin'...

This tutorial is a work in progress and is not complete. Please check back often, since there will be more steps added throughout this summer, with better pictures as well as video tutorials of the entire process!