Sunday, September 10, 2006

The "manly" way to fix things...

What do these two things have in common:
A ceiling fan

My Scooter

Give up? I'll tell you. These are two things that I have recently disassembled to find out why they wouldn't start. In other words, I took them apart so I could fix them.

But that's not anything new. That happens all the time. Most things need some taking apart for a repair. So, that's not what really makes these similar.

But this is: The On Switch

First...the fan. We've just moved to MD, and have rented a cool little townhouse. After moving in, I noticed that the master bedroom ceiling fan didn't work. I have strong tendancy to perspire in all temperatures and all situations and I enjoy the breeze from a fan such as this one.

I removed the cover and replaced the switch. I also took the chance to examine all the other parts (as if I knew what I was looking at.) After all my work, nothing. Fan still didn't work.

The next day my wife calls and says "Guess what I'm watching? (what?) The ceiling fan...spinning like crazy. There was a seperate fan switch on the wall, behind the shade.

Ok. Lesson learned, right? Occoms Razor and all that. No. Not even close.

Now, the scooter. Thursday, after a rather embarassing incident that I'd rather not talk about, (but that involves my throttle, a womans VW Golf, and my scooter being on the ground), my scooter wouldn't start!

I arranged a ride home, put the scooter in my truck and brought it home. The next day, I removed a few parts to get to the engine. Nothing seemed wrong. So, I removed a few more parts to get to more of the engine. Still nothing. Finally, I removed most of the body. See picture below:


After cleaning everything and replacing the spark plug, I gave up for the day. I posted my dilemma to a newsgroup. The answer came pretty quickly. "Try the kill switch" they said. "Pffffpt," I thought, as I walked out to try it.

Sure enough...the Switch was set to "Not Run" instead of "Run." Turned it back on and Rrrruuunnndddnnndndndndd..she started right up. The Black Pearl rides again!

Why didn't I think of turning it on?