AR's Honda NPS50/Ruckus/Zoomer GY6 Swap Manual

By Aston Slothrop

Everything you need to know to swap a bigger, more powerful engine into your '03-'16 Honda Ruckus. This digital edition includes over 101 pages and more than 51 detailed photos and illustrations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aston Slothrop
• Release date: Jan 31, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310940712

Book preview

Honda NPS50/Ruckus/Zoomer GY6 Swap Manual

by Aston Reynolds

Copyright 2015 Aston Reynolds

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Neither Aston Reynolds nor the Honda NPS50/Ruckus/Zoomer GY6 Swap Manual are affiliated with Honda Corp. or any of its subsidiaries. Honda, NPS50, Ruckus, and Zoomer are property of Honda Corp. and are used in this book for educational/entertainment purposes only. No affiliation with Honda Corp. is expressed, implied, or intended.

For permission requests, write to the publisher addressed ATTN: Permissions Coordinator at the address below.

[e-mail]

For questions about the book, its content, or author, write to the publisher addressed ATTN: Question at the address above.

For parts sales, call:

WrenchWorks

Denver, CO

[phone]

Table of Contents

1: Introduction

1.A: Building a faster Ruckus

1.B: About the GY6 engine

1.C: Tools

1.D: Sourcing the Ruckus

1.E: Sourcing the engine

1.F: Sourcing the rest

1.G: About the Ruckus community

2: The Build

2.A: Overview

2.B: Disassembly

2.C: Mounting the engine

2.D: Fueling the engine

2.E: Changing the hub, rear wheel, and axle

2.F: Exhaust bracket

2.G: Suspension & brakes

3: Before You Start Wiring Anything...

4: Building the Component Plate

5: Wiring

5.A: General information and best practices

5.B: Wiring tools & supplies

5.C: Stock ECU vs. custom harness and components

5.D: Introduction to wiring diagrams and techniques

5.E: Practical electrical fundamentals

5.F: Notes on stripping wire

5.G: Notes on crimping terminals

5.H: Notes on wire and heat shrink

6: Hands On: Rear Harness

6.A: Rear lamps

6.B: Choke

6.C: Stator and pick-up

6.D: Ignition coil

6.E: Fuel level sending unit

6.F: Front plugs

6.F.1: 9-pin

6.F.2: 6-pin

7: Hands On: Front Harness

7.A: Fuse box

7.B: Ignition relay

7.C: CDI box

7.D: Start button

7.E: Left side switches

7.F: Brake switches & blinker lights

7.G: Starter solenoid plug

7.H: LED driver unit

7.I: Stock resistor

7.J: Rectifier/regulator

7.K: Headlamps

7.L: High-beam lamp

7.M: Stock flasher unit

7.N: Rear plugs

7.N.1: 6-pin

7.N.2: 9-pin

7.O: Key switch

8: Grounding Your Ruckus

9: Powering Your Starter

10: Troubleshooting

11: Schematics

12: About the author

13. About WrenchWorks

1. Introduction

By the end of this book the first-time bike builder or mechanical newbie will have a crystal clear picture of what it takes to swap a 150cc GY6 engine of Chinese manufacture into an '03-'16 Honda Ruckus.

A mechanical newb armed with a set of cheap hand tools, precious few special tools, and basic deductive reasoning skills should be able to perform the swap in as little as a few weekends. However, I suggest giving yourself plenty of time and not rushing if this is your first attempt at anything more complicated than an oil change. If you're familiar with bolt in automotive engine swaps, the GY6 Ruckus swap should feel very familiar as you perform the various tasks required to complete it. The only thing that makes it more complicated than a typical automotive swap is you'll have to build your own wiring harness. You'll find all the necessary information to construct your wiring harness in this book.

This manual contains detailed instructions on how to build your own wiring harness, often considered the most difficult part of the GY6 swap. Schematics, often called pin-outs, for every plug on the Ruckus GY6 harness are included in this book. The harness depicted in this book plugs right into the stock Honda Ruckus lights, controls, and instruments.

[FIG 1]

(GY6 Ruckus front harness by WrenchWorks)

Note that using aftermarket controls or lights requires modification to the harness depicted in this book. A later version of this manual may include information on modifying the stock Honda harness and ECM to work with the GY6. If that's something you would like to see added, let us know at [e-mail].

If you've never picked up a wrench in your life, you're in for a very steep learning curve. If you're familiar with basic work on cars and bikes, this book will help you fill in the scooter-related gaps and, perhaps, successfully complete your GY6 Ruckus project.

As with all things mechanical, you are absolutely 100% responsible for the results you achieve using the knowledge you gain from reading about something, talking to someone about it, seeing it on TV, etc.

That fact remains as true as ever for this manual.

1.A: Building a faster Honda Ruckus

Honda built the NPS50/Zoomer/Ruckus to be a no-frills urban runabout. In stock form it succeeds brilliantly in this role. Owners rarely complain about the lack of under seat storage, and examples can be seen parked at bike racks all over the world. It doesn't hurt that the Ruckus looks really cool, humble even, and nothing like those other scooters (i.e. Vespas) that look so pretty and uptight.

The stock GET engine, as it's known, is so reliable people rarely replace them because they wear out or break.