Modern Vespa

I just bought a used '01 ET2 for my wife and ever since I got it I've had trouble starting the thing. If it's been riden that day it will start up just fine with the electric starter; but if it's been a couple of days I have to rev the throttle all the way for it just to turn....pain in my rear and I feel like I'm hurting the thing.

Does anyone know what the problem might be and what I can do to fix it?

Thanks all!

Most probable cause: needs a new fuel tap. They're around $28-$30 and should take care of your problems.

While you are in there, if you see any cracking on the fuel line, replace it too.

Happy riding,

Len

Before buying a new fuel tap, try to blow out the old one, sometimes they are just clogged up.....

If it's been sitting for a while it probably has some bad gas in there and it's gumming up the carb. Try siphoning out as much gas as you can. Put a little fresh in and add some SeaFoam double dose. More won't hurt it. Run it almost out and put some more gas and SeaFoam in and ride it out again. This should work. I put SeaFoam in after every fill up and it helps. My scooter sits a lot since i have more than one. You can get the SeaFoam at any WalMart,auto or marine shop. Try this first and if it doesn't work go from there. It should do the trick. Good luck

Thanks guys, this is all great feed back. I'll try them all.

Any good suggestions on how to get to the fuel tap? I'm going to try and clean it out tonight myself, but I've never ventured out that deep. Perhaps someone know of a good tutorial...

Nevermind, found the fuel tap and was able to take it out. I cleaned it and there didn't seem to be any clogging, and looked in good condition.

I'm going to try and communicate this next part in layman's terms as I don't know the official wording: When cleaning I was able to blow in the fuel output, but when I tried blowing in the other output (the bottom nubbin') I wasn't able to. Is this a problem or is that normal. Perhaps it's clogged and I need a new one and that could be the reason my Vespa takes forever to start after not riding it for hours?

Greg531, this fixed it. I took the fuel tap out, cleaned it, and now the beauty starts up like a charm...even after sitting all night in the cold. Bravo!

Thanks all for the help.