Modern Buddy

My Buddy 125 has only 100 miles. I took a spill at low speed the other day, after which the starter would not turn. I could hear the solenoid click, but no starter action at all.

I have tried to kick start it, but that won't turn either. I removed the kickstarter housing and it seems perfectly fine.

I have checked the starter and solenoid and both appear to function. The starter will turn when removed from the engine, but not when it is installed.

It is hard to imagine my low speed mishap damaged the gearbox or engine, but it seems frozen none the less. The engine was running after the spill, put petered out on its own before I could hit the kill switch.

What should I check next? Thanks in advance.

Try removing the sparkplug then pressing the starter button to see if the engine turns over.

^^^ Exactly, engine could be full of oil or gas. Take the plug out and see if it cranks/spews out some fluid,

Well that was a great idea, but unfortunately it did not work. Starter still does not move, and I tried to move it manually, but stuck.

What should I check next?

With only 100 miles on it, shouldn't your Buddy still be covered under warranty?

Just out of curiosity, is the scooter sitting on it's center stand with the rear wheel off the ground when you try to turn it over?

Yes, on stand, and out of warranty.

Ok, but I have to ask, how can it be out of warranty and only have 100 miles on it?

Be that as it may, I'm supposing that when you removed the transmission cover, you tried turning the variator by hand or with a wrench and it didn't want to move that way either...

And just to see if I got this straight:
1) scooter fell over on it's side with engine running then slowly died and won't restart
2) electric starter won't turn engine over, but starter relay clicks
3) electric starter motor will spin when removed from engine
4) kickstarter won't turn engine over either and is frozen, won't move
5) removing the sparkplug does not help

Just for giggles, did you check if there's enough oil in the crankcase?

If it were me, I'd do these things in this order:
1) pull the transmission cover again and remove the drive belt to see if anything in the gearbox or clutch is preventing movement.
2) remove the cooling fan cover on the left side of engine to see if anything is jammed in the cooling fan preventing movement. If the scooter fell over on it's left side and onto something, then there is the possibility that the fan cover got jammed into the fan itself.
3) remove cooling fan and stator rotor to check for anything jammed between the stator and the rotor
4) remove the valve cover to check for anything amiss with the valve rockers and timing chain.
5) If that proves nothing, then remove the head to check for anything in the combustion chamber blocking movement of the piston.
6) If the engine still won't turn over even with the head removed, then I'm afraid the only other thing I can think of doing is a complete engine disassembly to see whats going on.

Best of luck finding the problem.

You could take the cover off the CVT, and spark plug, and put a socket on the variator nut and try to turn it. *


*I'm not a mechanic. If you try this be careful and go slow, but if you run out of other ideas it might be worth a try.

Fan and Fan Cover were jammed together restricting movement.

THANKS!!!!