Good day. My kids have a TaoTao125 that we have been enjoying for a couple years. Things are generally pretty good. But we recently started having an issue I cannot track down. I have watched a ton of videos and searched all over, but our symptoms are different than anything I can find online. Hoping maybe someone has seen this or has an idea how to fix.

So it started out that it would start just as normal and then run for 5 to 10 minutes and turn off. I thought it might be the battery, as it required me to charge it every time it turned off. So I bought a new battery and installed it.

It fired right up. Ran for ten minutes and then the engine stopped, but the starter just started cranking and cranking, but it wouldn't start the engine. Turned the key off and it stopped cranking. Now this is where it gets strange.

I locked the brake on like normal, made sure the remote safety lock was set to let the engine start and gear was in neutral. AS SOON AS TURNING THE KEY, it started cranking. It shouldn't do this. I put the kill switch in the OFF (not running) position and it still cranks.

The only way to stop it from cranking is to turn the key off. I have created a video and uploaded to Youtube (sorry for camera angle, new to youtube uploads). Maybe it will give a better idea what I am facing.
I feel like this is more an electrical issue than a mechanical one. Probably one of the safety systems (remote lock, tethered kill switch etc) and maybe there is a way to simply bypass them. At any rate, any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

Right you now have two faults. First the engine stopping after a few min. This can be lots of things, tank vent blocked so it builds up a vacuum and stops fuel flow to carb. Or fuel flow to carb blocked by debris, allowing enough through to fill the float bowl slowly. Bike starts, uses what is in the bowl and stops, it then takes a while to re-fill. However most likely is a faulty ignition component it gets hot stops working and starts again once cool. This can be checked by having another plug handy, when the fault comes on, put the plug lead onto spare plug and check if it sparks when you spin the engine on the starter. If it doesn't you have to go through the ignition circuit tests, with the added problem that the fault could go away and everything test out as OK. Now the second fault. All that cranking has probably resulted in a start circuit part going wrong. Most likely is the start button itself, stuck but, as it has a remote, the remote box could be the culprit, or a wire in the start circuit shorted out. Some bikes wont spin the starter if the kill switch is in the kill position, most bikes will still spin over, just not start, so that doesn't mean anything. However the fact it still spins over with brake lever released does. It is possible both faults are linked and the most likely linking thing is the remote. Without a wiring diagram it will be extremely difficult to sort this, if you can find something on-line about how to bypass the remote box, I would try that first. Otherwise, when the fault is on, remove the thin leads to the solenoid, or, if it is a black box type solenoid unplug it and trace the thin wires back from the solenoid wiring plug. With ignition on they will have 12v across at the wiring plug but shouldn't, so trace them back to start button, remote, brake lever etc, there is a fault in there somewhere.

 

Thanks. Going to look for a wiring diagram and see what i can find.