Modern Buddy

As the owner's manual is totally worthless re. oil changes, except to note the intervals, which side is the oil drain plug on? The right side or the left? The right has a plug end which is on a horizontal plane with the engine whereas the left side has a plug end which is vertical with the engine. I have yet to try either one.

The oil filter is the spin-on type, same as my 170i. The one on my Blackjack has a hex head at its top for easy removal with the right size combination wrench. The one the Buddy dealer sold me as a replacement has a smooth head requiring a filter strap wrench. However, the way the filter is mounted it would be impossible to get a strap around it. So, it appears they sold me the wrong filter.

The owner's manual that came with the scooter shows a square paper element air filter accessed by removing a cover. My Blackjack has no such cover. Its air filter is a cone shaped all metal air filter easily visible from the side of the scooter. Was there a special owner's manual for the Blackjack which would have shown this metal filter or is this some sort of after market jury rig?

Thanks in advance,

Bill in Seattle

'09 150 Blackjack
'12 170i Italia stored in AZ so I can't compare the 2 and its one and only oil change was done by the dealer.
'08 250ie Alitalia Sport City 250

The 150 engine actually has two ways to drain the oil: a plug mounted on the left side, and the mesh-filter on the bottom. I use the bottom drain because being lower, it drains more thoroughly, and it's good to clean out the screen.

The filters for the Buddy 150 family mount next to the oil cooler. Yeah, a bit of a tight squeeze. Indeed, the easiest filters are those with a hex head. They wrench off easily. The other common filter has a slot in the top of the dome, so that either a specific tool (attached to a socket wrench) or the shaft of a screwdriver can be used to turn it. I've not seen any plain-bodied filters for the Buddy (or the Piaggio scoots), so yeah, maybe it's the wrong one.

And I'm not sure at all about the air filter being some square thing. The air filter box is on the left side, immediately above the CVT housing. It's got an oddly-shaped plastic/rubber and paper element. The usual websites (scooterworks, scooterwest, etc.) will all show you what the Buddy air filter looks like. No difference for the Blackjack. See page 33 of the Buddy owners manual, found here (the left-hand photo is for the four-stroke motors, including yours): http://www.modernbuddy.com/pdf/Genuine_ ... 25-150.pdf The paper element is held in a much bigger 'holder' that fills up the space of the air box housing.

If you've got something that doesn't match Genuine's description, posting some photos might help.

Looks like the drain plug question was answered.

Your scooter had the air box removed and a K&N filter put on to replace it. It provides better breathing and is the only way to really take advantage of a free-er flowing exhaust. You just need to be careful riding in rain with that setup and the carb needs to be rejetted when going to an after market air filter. Check your spark plug and make sure it's not white.

I left my airbox on so will let others chime in about cleaning/replacing a cone filter.

K&N? Yeah, that might essplain a thing or 2 or 3.