New Gio in Family - Report - Sorry for the novel!

TurboT · 06-14-2009, 03:22 AM

Hey Gang!
Want to share my latest Gio experience with you all, some of you may find it amusing and interesting all the like. Bit of a story so bare with me.
My brother and sister in law, after seeing my daughters Gio went ahead and bought a Mini Hummer 110cc for their son as a birthday present. (He's 5 and an animal on the thing, quite impressed by his ability on it but another story) My brother in law, decided to wait until the last night before his birthday to assemble as he figured he'd never keep him off it if he put it together ahead of time. Needless to say he underestimated the time involved and was up until 4 am wrenching on it.

I arrive at his place today with my Gio (he has 12 acres) for a day of riding and BBQ'ing, to find him putting the final touches on the machine, namely oil change and the like. Little guy is pumped to try it out of course. We get it all set to go, hit the starter and it turns over and over but no go. Couple more tries and still nothing. Here's where the fun started.

We check for gas flow through the carb. Gas in bowl. No starting.
We fiddle with the dead man connector at the back. No start.
We pull the plug to see if it's fouled, looks fine. Ground it on a bolt and no spark.
Pull plug from my Gio (which runs) and try it. No spark, no starting.
So, we're scratching our heads. My other brother in law arrives and we're all drinking beer and inspecting the wiring, connections etc on the QUAD. Of course, the owner of this little machine is now fuming that it won't run.
Brother in law number 2, who is a helicopter engineer and pilot, thinks it's wired incorrectly. He goes about changing the wires in the ignition harness. Still no spark.
After some more messing around and swearing, Mr. Engineer re-checks his wiring job and notices he didn't stick one wire in far enough, fixes it and WHAM, she fires up.

Can you believe this?! It has a QC PASSED tag on it, and it couldn't POSSIBLY have started at the factory, it was wired wrong. If not for my genius engineer brother in law, this thing would have gone back to Gio as a dead one.

Thing runs for a while, then the battery dies, and it won't start again. So, having a few too many pops, owner of quad sticks battery charger on it on 'quick charge' and damn near melts thing battery after 10 minutes...but surpisingly, thing still works and starts up and runs for 2 hours until the negative battery cable falls off hardware and all. Jimmied it back together and it was running when I left.

As for mine, it runs beautifully. Probably went for 5 hours today, with people on it of all sizes and shapes from 40lbs to 300lbs, still on original swing arm bushings/bearings. (knock on wood). Only problem I had was stupid 300lbs me riding it full bore over bumpy terrain and blew the chain off it, but that was an easy fix.

Guess the moral of the story is check your wiring if you can't get a spark, we we're all thinking it was a dead cdi.

yozalo · 06-14-2009, 11:35 AM

Any chance you might have pictures.

TurboT · 06-14-2009, 04:17 PM

No pics sorry didn't have my camera there, in hindsight wish I did.

06-14-2009, 03:22 AM	#1
TurboT Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Surrey, B.C., Canada Posts: 2,185	New Gio in Family - Report - Sorry for the novel! Hey Gang! Want to share my latest Gio experience with you all, some of you may find it amusing and interesting all the like. Bit of a story so bare with me. My brother and sister in law, after seeing my daughters Gio went ahead and bought a Mini Hummer 110cc for their son as a birthday present. (He's 5 and an animal on the thing, quite impressed by his ability on it but another story) My brother in law, decided to wait until the last night before his birthday to assemble as he figured he'd never keep him off it if he put it together ahead of time. Needless to say he underestimated the time involved and was up until 4 am wrenching on it. I arrive at his place today with my Gio (he has 12 acres) for a day of riding and BBQ'ing, to find him putting the final touches on the machine, namely oil change and the like. Little guy is pumped to try it out of course. We get it all set to go, hit the starter and it turns over and over but no go. Couple more tries and still nothing. Here's where the fun started. We check for gas flow through the carb. Gas in bowl. No starting. We fiddle with the dead man connector at the back. No start. We pull the plug to see if it's fouled, looks fine. Ground it on a bolt and no spark. Pull plug from my Gio (which runs) and try it. No spark, no starting. So, we're scratching our heads. My other brother in law arrives and we're all drinking beer and inspecting the wiring, connections etc on the QUAD. Of course, the owner of this little machine is now fuming that it won't run. Brother in law number 2, who is a helicopter engineer and pilot, thinks it's wired incorrectly. He goes about changing the wires in the ignition harness. Still no spark. After some more messing around and swearing, Mr. Engineer re-checks his wiring job and notices he didn't stick one wire in far enough, fixes it and WHAM, she fires up. Can you believe this?! It has a QC PASSED tag on it, and it couldn't POSSIBLY have started at the factory, it was wired wrong. If not for my genius engineer brother in law, this thing would have gone back to Gio as a dead one. Thing runs for a while, then the battery dies, and it won't start again. So, having a few too many pops, owner of quad sticks battery charger on it on 'quick charge' and damn near melts thing battery after 10 minutes...but surpisingly, thing still works and starts up and runs for 2 hours until the negative battery cable falls off hardware and all. Jimmied it back together and it was running when I left. As for mine, it runs beautifully. Probably went for 5 hours today, with people on it of all sizes and shapes from 40lbs to 300lbs, still on original swing arm bushings/bearings. (knock on wood). Only problem I had was stupid 300lbs me riding it full bore over bumpy terrain and blew the chain off it, but that was an easy fix. Guess the moral of the story is check your wiring if you can't get a spark, we we're all thinking it was a dead cdi. __________________ My Blogs: Chinese Motorcycle Blog A Man's Blog
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06-14-2009, 11:35 AM	#2
yozalo Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 330	Any chance you might have pictures.
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06-14-2009, 04:17 PM	#3
TurboT Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Surrey, B.C., Canada Posts: 2,185	No pics sorry didn't have my camera there, in hindsight wish I did.
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