I reported on another thread that after a long ride (app 170 miles) my GT was being unresponsive to the throttle and loosing power intermittently. It also got unusually loud when I opened her up a bit, similar, but not the same as the exhaust issue with the GTs. When turned off I also heard a 'scraping' when the tire turned, either rolling the scoot or just rotating the rear tire. That was Saturday. I just had time today to look at it this evening.
First, I discovered that the scraping was that the rear mudguard was resting on the rear tire. It is totally loose, it appears that the end of the mudguard was burnt off by rubbing on the tire for so many miles. As I was trying to pull it up to see what it wasn't attached to I noticed that the union pipe to the carb was off. Aha! I said, that could be the performance problem. So I loosened the clamp, reattached it and tightened the clamp again. While I was doing that I noticed that the air cleaner assembly (to which the other end of the union pipe is attached) was entirely loose...
Hmm, says Larry! So I went to the side of the scoot and took off the lower guard on the side and noticed that there were NO SCREWS holding in the Air cleaner box!!!! NONE, ZIPPO! There are supposed to be 7 of the buggers in there! There was also nothing going into the "bush" (per the parts manual) in the front of the air cleaner box!
I had the tire changed and a 16,000 mile check up done on it about 1200 miles before this ride. It appears I've been riding that long with nothing holding my air box or rear fender on! I find it very hard to believe that ALL these fasteners fell off on their own. I will need to call my service place tomorrow and have a talk. I don't know entirely how the rear mud guard attaches on the far side but I know on the air box side it is also held on with those screws. That's a butt load of fasteners missing. I'm gonna need some answers.