Auto Bystarter??

[BigPapa]

Is the very small orifice in the bottom of the bowl? Looks like it has a very small brass insert in it.

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

That be the one. Tiny hole, easily clogged with fuel evaporation.

[BigPapa]

I'll check again tomorrow but I'm almost positive it was clear. What is the brass insert in the hole?

[patthesoundguy]

The brass insert is has the proper size hole in it. Its a jet of sorts. brass holds up better as the casting can get pitted easily where the brass will not and the keeps the size of the hole correct.

[patthesoundguy]

There is a very small orifice/hole in the float bowl housing, it is less than 0.016" in size, it allows fuel to flow from the float bowl reservoir into the chamber for the bystarter, this is very difficult to see unless you are specifically looking for it, check it, double check it , triple check it, as it must be open for the carb to work right.
I maintain a fleet of 12 Sprees and have owned 8 Sprees, every one of those twenty, starts easily without any fuss. BUT everyone has a spotlessly clean carb, many when purchased had very clogged carbs.

my spree was clogged up and it took quite a lot to clear that orifice. Lucky for me I had stumbled upon this forum before I brought my spree home and was aware of that issue. My express was a different story, it had been clogged from before I owned it. I had no idea. the thing neve ran rright. It took an hour or more to fix it. A fine numbered drill set would have been handy to fix it quick. I have them now and repairing clogged carb orifices are way faster now.

[tonysmith41]

For what it is worth....

I have an '88 SB 50 that had the same issue. This went on even after cleaning the carb repeatedly. I bench tested the bystarter and it seemed fine. What fixed it was a mixture of higher octane gas and Sea Foam. After running that through the thing for a while (20 minutes) the engine starts great. It also might have helped having a full gas tank. The old hands on this forum might say I have ruined the engine, hopefully it is not ruined.

Good luck.

[patthesoundguy]

You can't ruin a motor with seafoam and higher octane fuel. But it wasn't likley the the higher octane fuel that did the trick. Higher octane fuel doesn't do anything to clean your engine. Two reasons to use higher octane fuel are avoiding ethanol and resistance to detonation in a higher compression motor or one with lots of carbon build up. Seafoam is great stuff helps get rid of moisture in the tank and keeps stuff clean in the carb. Its also a fuel stabilizer.

[BigPapa]

Gave up trying to fix my Spree last fall but am ready to try again. I've looked through the entire 161 page manual. I cannot find where you adjust the idle air mixture. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[BigPapa]

My bad - Page 4-6 refers to the Air Screw and the Throttle Stop Screw. I'm assuming the first controls air and second controls fuel. When both are dialed in correct, it run great.....correct. The manual doesn't give a baseline number of turns for either screw. I'm sure it varies by machine, maintenance and age. However, I'd think Honda would give some guidance as to where (i.e. # of turns) to start. Help anyone?

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

Throttle Stop: Adjust to 1800 RPM.
Air Screw clockwise until LIGHTLY seated, then out 1.5 turns to start. Move by 1/8 turn increments and watch for peak RPM. Mine's 1.375 out for best idle, but 1.5 for best throttle response. Split the difference.

[BigPapa]

Thanks! But, with no tachometer, how do you determine RPM?

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

If you have no faith in your ear, you can do this.

[BigPapa]

Thanks!!