My day off came and I got the new locks in. Unfortunately I ordered the wrong kind.
I matched up pics of the current one to one on eBay and the correct one is on the way now.
Today I thought what if I I disassembled the current useless ignition lock so I could manually turn the switch? That works. I got the scooter started and the headlights work great.
I doublechecked all the required stuff and headed down to the insurance office to pick up the papers. It was going to be close but I could make it to the nearest bike inspector about 10mi away, then to the licensing office.
The bike was really running great. I loped along on the back country roads at about 45mph since they were a little rough. I managed to get the chicken strips down to about 2cm in some of those curves.
About 7mi out I was bopping along when
the engine died. I checked my rearviews, checked the kill switch, and found a place to coast off the roadway. Cranked but didn't even try to run. I suspected the CDI died or maybe some wiring popped loose.
I called my Dad who lives in the town I was riding to; we threw it in the back of his truck and brought it back to my house.
I tried a spare CDI. Nope.
I tried a spare spark plug wire. Nope.
I pulled the plug and looked at it; good.
While I had the plug out grounded on the block and cranked;
no spark at all.
I spent about an hour with the multimeter and YT videos. Worked my way back to the stator outputs.
Checked the wire taking ignition power from the stator to the CDI and it had less than 1v when cranking. If I understand correctly that should be considerably higher.
Of course I don't know what kind of stator is in it until I see it, and I don't have a puller. There are two barrel connectors and one 3-wire connector. The only ones I have seen with those connectors have been 6-pole stators which I understand are more common on 50cc scoots. Hmmm. They look like this (screenshot from a YT vid):
I could Amazon Prime a puller and 6-pole stator with the connectors as shown but I don't know if the stator would be right. I'm googling my brains out but can't reassure myself what stator comes on a TaoTao Evo/ATM150.
There are a couple of brick-and-mortar chinese bike shops in the nearest big cities (Dallas, mainly). I think I will call them tomorrow and see if they have a puller and 6-pole in stock. If no one has them I'll mail order the parts in and punt until
next Tuesday. <sigh>
At least I got a short jaunt on her today. Light at the end of the tunnel and all that.