Bad to worse, now it won't start

twsnagel · Post by **twsnagel** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 1:51 am

OK, so the sick little scooter saga continues.

Down from the high of my previous post, now my Spree won't start.

Here's the scoop:
It ran fairly well, but was a tad hard to start sometimes, and it seemed like it was idleing slow.

I tried to adjust idle and air screws as per technical manual, and didn't have much luck. In fact, I made it worse, so that it would start, and idle fine, but as soon as I gave her gas, she would bog and die.

So, the answer to everything in these forums seems to be "clean the carb". I followed the carb-cleaning instructions in the technical documents step by step, ensuring that a good clean squirt of carb cleaner went through (and came out of) every hole. I made sure I could see light through the main jet.

Reassembled the carb, set the air and idle screws as per instructions. I know that my petcock is stuck open, so no need to apply vacuum and fill the bowl. I did remove the bowl drain, to make sure that gas was flowing into the carb. It was, and I replaced the drain.

Now it doesn't start. I pulled the spark plug, and checked for a strong spark. The plug was not wet, so no flooding. The spark was strong. While the plug was out, I used a compression tester and tested the compression in my new engine. 130psi, so it's high and needs decarbonizing, but I would prefer to save that for a maintenance job once the engine is running. But obviously no need to think about rings or piston damage with compression like that.

Airbox is tight, filter is installed, I don't have screw for the middle, but that's covered with tape for now.

I'm stuck here: everything seems right, but it just won't start. I don't see how a carb cleaning can make it go from starting to not starting.

Any thoughts?

Thanks guys!

tjupille · Post by **tjupille** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 12:54 am

Any chance the kill switch is on? (ask me how I learned about that problem

)

Jamie_Miles · Post by **Jamie_Miles** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 3:37 am

If the kill switch were on, it would not have any spark at all.

First thing I would try, is get a can of starting fluid and give it a quick blast. See if it will start for a second and die. If so, you have a fuel problem. (DO NOT try to keep it running on the starting fluid or you will eat the rings)

If it still dosen't start, how old is the spark plug? My old Spree, the spark plug would last about 1,200 miles. It would appear to still have a great spark, but for some reason I had to replace it every 1,200 miles or the scooter would not run.

If you have air, fuel, and spark at the right time, it will run. I once had a carburetor that would simply NOT run no matter what I did. We tried it on like 3 perfectly good running Sprees, rebuilt it multiple times, and it simply would not work.

reckless504 · Post by **reckless504** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 12:30 pm

try taking out the spark plug, put a little gas in the hole, then try to start. you may not be getting enough fuel. check your reeds to see they are in properly.

twsnagel · Post by **twsnagel** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 1:17 am

Thanks for the help, guys! It's fixed now.

The trouble was that I wasn't lining up the slot in the throttle cable slider with the corresponding bump in the body of the carb, so the throttle was sticking wide open. (duh!)

Anyways, had a nice midnight ride though my neighbourhood.

My spree does 29 mph on the level, and I still have a bunch of things to do to it!

Now I just have to find myself some body panels!

Tyler