Replace Throttle (MQI-GT and maybe others) faster way

[Ken Clark]

I have an MQI-GT. I’m on my third throttle (since 2021 and over 15,000 miles – not really complaining). I’ve done the replacement job the hard way in the past – open the back pedestal cover, open the handlebars/dash covers, replace the throttle, put things back together. I found a faster way for this third throttle. Remove the bar end plug – Allen/hex screw, 5mm IIRC, loosen a bit then pull straight out. Remove the small plastic piece just inboard of the throttle – it’s a single screw, then the piece pulls forward with a bit of jiggling. That gives you access to the hex screw for the throttle itself. Loosen that screw, pull with moderate force, and the throttle will pull outward of the bike, with drag on the cable. Just pull enough to verify that. Remove the two other screws on that side of the handlebar/dash cover, but only to loosen things up (and you might not even need to do that.)

Remove the top six (three on each side) plastic screws for the back-side of the pedestal. Remove the two screws for the helmet hook. Remove the key lock *cover* (it rotates counter-clockwise till it stops, then gently pry alternate sides with a flathead till it comes straight out – the key hole itself does not move!) Now you can pull back the back-side pedestal cover by pulling straight back. This only gives you about 8″ of room, but that’s all you need. The cables are held together at the neck of the scooter by a velcro fabric patch, and maybe a cable tie.  If there’s a cable tie, cut that, and open the velcro wrap.

You’re using the old cable to guide/fish the new cable.  This sounds a lot more complicated than it is, and it’s *much* easier and faster than the full disassembly/reassembly.

The throttle cable is a smaller cable, that ends about 8″ down in a three-wire white plug.  If you tug on the throttle itself a little while watching the wires, you’ll probably see the throttle wire move.  There’s a small tab on the scooter-side of the wire connectors that you push in while pulling the throttle side to separate the connectors.

Here comes the trick – de-pin the new throttle’s connector (pictures to follow).  Inside the white throttle cable connector, you’ll see a yellow inner piece.  That inner piece comes out.  It’s a lock for the wire pins.  If you look closely, on each flat side of that piece, there’s a small slot.  You can use a small screwdriver or pick to pry that piece out – it’s easy to do.  Don’t damage it (though if you do, the one from your old throttle is the same!) and set it aside.

If you look into the connector now, you’ll see three flat metal blades.  On each of those blades, there’s a side that’s tight against plastic and another side with lots of space above it, but – looking closely – a small plastic piece.  That plastic piece is a latch.  When you put the pins into the connector, that little latch holds the pin in place.  To remove the pins, you need to put a small tool – straight piece of paperclip works, or very small screwdriver – into the space between the latch and the pin.  Then push the latch gently up, and pull the wire out the back of the connector.  The first one will be hard to figure out, but once you get the feel for it, the others will be easier.  Set the connector body itself aside.

Go back to the cable on your old throttle, pull the throttle out about 6″, and use some cutter to cut the old throttle cable at the throttle itself.  Pull the throttle off.  Pull the cable itself another couple inches to give yourself room to work on it.  Using electrical tape, you’re going to connect the old cable end to your new cable’s pins.  Put a piece of tape on the old throttle cable, so about 4-6″ of cable has a piece of tape going lengthwise, with the tape piece continuing for another 6″ or so.  Adjust your new cable pins so they lay on the tape but aren’t exactly side-by-side.  The narrower your final product, the better.

Fold that tape over so your cables are wrapped with tape.  Now take more tape, and starting a bit higher (inboard) on the cable than your other piece of tape, spiral it down your set of cables, tightly, ending a little past the other end of your tape.  In the end, you should have the two cables looking kind of like one, sticking out your handlebar end, attached with electrical tape.

Now you’re going to pull the combined cables into the scooter.  You want to do a bit of pulling back and forth to make sure things move.  Should move with a bit of effort, but not a lot.  At worst, you’ll have to do things the hard way and disassemble the dash, so don’t worry too much about some resistance.  When you’re convinced things are moving, pull the cable from inside the scooter pedestal, trying to reach up as high into the neck of the scooter as you can.  You may also want to push on the handlebar side of your combined cable just a bit – any more than a light pushing and you may make it worse.  If you hit a spot where things stop, try moving the cable back the other way a half inch or so then pulling again.  You’ll probably hit one spot, when you’re almost through, that’s particularly hard.  If you taped it well, you’ll be OK, just give it a bit more force.

You should find that your cable comes the rest of the way.  When you get the taped part into the pedestal, stop and position your throttle as you’re pulling the cable the rest of the way.  Carefully remove your tape, and you’ll find the pins are just fine on the new cable.  You can use the old cable connector end to see how your cables should be positioned.  As you put them in, you’ll feel a slight snap when the pin gets past the lock.  When you have all the pins pushed all the way in and locked, you can put back the inner yellow plastic lock.

Reconnect the connector pair, tighten your throttle hex screw, turn on the scooter, make sure it’s on the paired stands with the rear wheel up, and try the throttle.  You should find the rear wheel spins up, with no errors on the display.  You may still see the “check engine light”, but it’ll go away after a few starts.  If it doesn’t work right, verify you put your pins into the connector in the right positions, and the pins are inserted all the way.  You may need to pull the pins back out if they weren’t in right, and put them back.

Now you can reassemble the scooter.  Remember to wrap the velcro wrap around the wires first.  Remember to make sure your throttle position looks right before final assembling that part of the dash/bar-end.  Remember to leave a bit of space between the throttle and bar-end plug as you put the plug back in.

The last time I did my throttle replacement, it was a full-day job, getting all the screws back in for the dash, keeping careful track of which screw came from where, and finding new screws in odd places I needed to take out.  Putting things back together was a slow pain as well.  Using the old cable to fish the new one like this had the scooter back together with the new throttle in place in about an hour.  A tremendous time savings.  Sometimes an experiment goes right!

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