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haven't had a mini for a while, built two in the past, but i've been jonesin pretty bad for one... then this little guy fell into my lap for 'beer money'... i offered $50
1980 Yamaha LC50 "Champ", 49cc oil-injected 2-stroke, 2 speed tranny, shaft drive
it was abandoned in a friends garage 5 or 6 years ago, running when it was parked, but not since. it had been sitting, leaking oil, and untouched. they were joking about The Champ at work and i overheard the conversation. had no clue what 'The Champ' was but when i learned it was a little 2T road legal scooter in need of a home, i had to have it.
on the way home last Tues...
when we loaded it up into the truck, the pipe was drooling black oil all over the place. attempts to kick it over at home left my driveway full of blasted oil. thing would just puke it out the tail pipe. and i mean PUKE. wasn't sure if it was motor oil or just leaked down 2 stroke oil. the motor looked to be overfilled (yeah, again, uhhh) so i drained some out but it was pretty clean actually.
started tearing into it, what a complicated little machine! Yamaha must have been aiming for most complicated fucking scooter on the planet. it's got an oil pump with multiple hoses, vacuum fuel petcock with three hoses, auto-choke device in the head with tiny spring actuated thermostats that have four hoses, a check valve that sits off the carb. totally wacko. waaaaay overkill.
the petcock leaked badly. the internals are nuts. little diaphragms and crazy cut off valves with rubber gaskets, etc. a tiny vacuum hose with pull from the side of the carb would start the flow of fuel. way too complicated so off it came. straight gravity feed from the tank to carb with a fuel filter was the fix. i'll put a shutoff valve on it later. just a simple plastic one.
i had no clue if the mechanical oil pump worked but figured i would leave it in place before removing it in favor of straight pre-mix in the tank. poured in some fresh Amsoil Interceptor and hoped for the best.
i had spark and the plug was getting wet but i only got it to run for about 3 seconds, twice. opened up the carb to find the entire bowl full of honey. ancient gas. the slide was stuck shut by what looked to be crystalized honey. took the pilot out, basted the whole thing with carb cleaner and put it back together. now i had a throttle/slide that worked and hopefully enough clear passages to get the thing to fire. i was afraid to remove all the hoses and not know what was what after deep cleaning the carb so i only removed one from the check valve and the oil pump hose.
when kicking i could see the oil light on the dash illuminate so i knew the battery and electrics were probably functioning. amazing.
new plug, fresh fuel, a whole can of contact cleaner to even see all this stuff and we were ready to kick. pretty low entry fee so far...
SMOKE SHOW! we have liftoff. man was i pumped. ripped it up and down the street to clean it out. everything seems to be working! no seize yet so i let it cool down and looked everything over. all good.
my son and i ripped around the neighborhood yesterday 4 or 5 times with him yelling 'GO CHAMP GO'. hahaa. this thing is a blast. prob does about 35mph. the 2 speed tranny is really nice, good takeoff grunt then shifts into the cruising gear. smoooov. the suspension bottoms out easily but it's comfy to ride on relatively flat ground.
pics of how it sits right now. i need to get the lights working, give it a bath and get it reg'd for the road.
not sure if i want to start chopping it up and modify it or restore it with stock parts. they're a little hard to come by so not sure. Yamaha only made this model from 80-81. this bike was built Dec 1979. i've got lots of ideas for custom but for now i'm really diggin' the OEM look.
can't wait to pick up my first 12 pack on it
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Originally Posted by breakdirt916
