Honda Spree Aftermarket Shock Replacement

[ddn]

Hey folks, just finished a restorification on an '86 Spree and thought I'd share something others might find useful. I thought it would be a shame to put the old, worn out, busted rear shock back on after everything else I did. I picked up this shock on Amazon https://amzn.to/2Gl5GCG $24 that was the right length.

To mount it, I cut the shock mount off the aftermarket shock, and used the threaded collar to weld onto the original shock mount from the Spree. You do have to sacrifice a Spree shock, but since they're mostly junk at this point it doesn't seem like a big loss.

It's not a *perfect* fit, as the larger diameter spring interferes with airbox and cylinder shroud, but all it took was a few whacks with the angle grinder and a little bit of re-molding the air box with a heat gun for it to all work nicely.







Your Mileage May (Of Course) Vary

[eclark5483]

I just use a 245mm Motoforce ST1.

https://www.scooterswapshop.com/product ... 45mm-shock

It's adjustable, and holds my 300+lb frame quite nice on a little Spree.

[Meatball]

eClark FTW...but you have to admire the resourcefulness.

Pics of the restorification would be cool.

[ddn]

[Meatball]

Sweet ride...looks clean!

[eclark5483]

Looks nice.

[ddn]

Thanks! Turned out pretty nice. I'm still chasing a gremlin where it'll start and run great, but then suddenly at part or full throttle just sort of bog down and lose power and sometimes backfire. It almost feels like the timing is changing but I checked the woodruff key and everything is solid there. Cleaned the carb as well. Other than that she's great.

[Electric Fuzzball]

Have you figured the backfire out? I just messed up my tune and drained my battery trying to get a solid idle and then fix my bogging/backfire @~24 mph.

I got too worked up because I had found the perfect idle and then messed it up trying to fix the backfire.

[ddn]

I haven't, and I'm really stumped as to why it's running so poorly. The latest is that it'll start on the lightest tap of the start button or kick, but then as soon as I give it any gas it dies. Once it warms up it seems to run better, but it's not right. My next experiment for today I'm letting the engine cool off completely and then disconnecting the bystarter to see what that changes.

Only thing I can come up with now is that I cleaned up the airflow enough and got enough extra compression out of milling the head that it's running lean and I need to go up a jet. It *did* seem to run better with the needle on the rich setting as opposed to standard or lean.

[Meatball]

Are you using an OEM bystarter or one of wonderful replacement jobbers from the internet?

[ddn]

Are you using an OEM bystarter or one of wonderful replacement jobbers from the internet?

OEM. I cleaned up the bore and lightly polished the brass insert so that it would move freely. It passes all the service manual checks.

[Meatball]

The condition you describe has the signs of an air leak. Have you inspected both crank seals? What condition are the o-rings in at the carb-to-intake spacer?...is said spacer installed upsidedown? If installed improperly, the openings will be mis-aligned and cause restriction. Are there any signs of a base gasket or intake gasket failure? Is there anything funky with your airbox like extra holes drilled or missing filter, etc...are you using the correct sparkplug with proper gap?

[ddn]

Crank seals, no, I hadn't thought of that. They were in good condition when I installed them, and I'm pretty sure they're installed correctly but I've been known to make a mistake in my life. Intake heat spacer o-rings are brand new and all is in good condition there. The airbox is totally unmodified with a brand new filter that has been oiled. I've tried to keep everything as close to stock and correct as possible.

The plug could get closer, I was running a BPR7HS because it was the closest I could get. I picked up a DIFFERENT plug today that still isn't the correct one and it actually seemed to run a whole lot better but I'm hesitant to call it a success. I'll get the correct plug this week. Gap has been correct, however.

[ddn]

The condition you describe has the signs of an air leak. Have you inspected both crank seals?

Figured it out. Thank you for the crank seal tip. That led me down the pressure testing route, which is something I wasn't aware of at all. I have way way more 4-stroke big engine experience than small 2-stroke.

Turned out to be a pinhole leak through a bolt hole in the intake manifold. Cleaning up the intake with the die grinder exposed a pinhole of porosity in one of the carb-face bolt holes. Inside the runner it was a pinhole, but from the bolt hole side you could see pretty major casting porosity.

What are the chances! Runs pretty much perfectly now.