‘85 Spree - No start condition again

[Rideslikenacho]

How long has this thing been sitting? Bad gas?

Maybe a year then it ran for a brief minute and idled and now nothing. Wont even fire with starter fluid

[motormike]

How long has this thing been sitting? Bad gas?

Maybe a year then it ran for a brief minute and idled and now nothing. Wont even fire with starter fluid

This post is another reason I say the exhaust is plugged.

[Rideslikenacho]

How long has this thing been sitting? Bad gas?

Maybe a year then it ran for a brief minute and idled and now nothing. Wont even fire with starter fluid

This post is another reason I say the exhaust is plugged.

Tried starting with the exhaust off and it did same thing

[Meatball]

Check the reed petals? Its pretty rare they fail but I’ve had one petal snap off before and causing runability issues…but it was a cheapo reed valve that came with the china intake I bought. Ive also had the crank seal on the stator side pop out for no apparent reason. Also had (what I thought) was a faulty petcock that turned out to be a dry/cracked vacuum hose. Ive had too many weird ones to remember.

Heres a good one: I bought a Spree from a guy that couldnt get it running and when I opened the airbox there was a petrified yellow kitchen sponge in it. Even had the green scrubby stuff on one side. Lol

[Rideslikenacho]

Yeah good call I’ll pull the intake next and check the reeds. Definitely something weird going on because its getting spark and fuel just no crank. I’ll check those crank seals as well.

Funny story about the sponge! I have a old Yamaha that had a busted headlight and found a dead lizard along with several lizard eggs inside the headlight case.

[Bear45-70]

Or a bad starter solenoid not getting the starter to spin and it could be a timing issue as a spark at the wrong time will never start.

[Rideslikenacho]

Or a bad starter solenoid not getting the starter to spin and it could be a timing issue as a spark at the wrong time will never start.

I replaced the starter solenoid with a known good one after rebuilding the starter so thats working.

Just need to find time and check the reeds and crank seal behind the flywheel side next

[Bear45-70]

Did You check it again because I've seen brand new ones out of the box bad.

[Rideslikenacho]

Did You check it again because I've seen brand new ones out of the box bad.

Yeah its definitely sending power to the starter and starter is turning over. Has good spark as well.

I still need to check the reeds

[Rideslikenacho]

Checked and the reeds are good.

Pulled airbox off and that all looks good too

What would you check next?

[vintagegarage]

Sounds like he has enough help.

[Meatball]

Im still thinking theres an airleak somewhere. If fuel delivery is proper and spark is present….the air must be way off or you’d get ignition.

Maybe not “running” but ignition at least. Sputter, cough, puff..

[Rideslikenacho]

Im still thinking theres an airleak somewhere. If fuel delivery is proper and spark is present….the air must be way off or you’d get ignition.

Maybe not “running” but ignition at least. Sputter, cough, puff..

So when checking the reeds I also noticed the throttle cable going into the cap of the carb was not fully seated. Its been a long time but I believe the throttle cable is not oem either and the carb is also a chinese one. That said, there is probably a lot of air getting through that throttle cable to carb gap. It does not look like i can secure the cable to the cap with the circlip inside the cap though. And the rubber grommet on the cable does not make an airtight seal around the end of the cable and cap either. As a temporary test I electrical taped that gap with a lot of tape just to see whether that helps any. Did not have a chance to try and restart it yet though as I have the bendix out and need ro charge the drill battery to spin it over. I’m thinking that is letting in a lot of air.

[Rideslikenacho]

Tried spinning it over with that throttle cable to carb taped off and nothing, not even a sputter.

I’ll check the crank seal on flywheel side next.

I agree its acting like major air leak because it has spark and fuel and compression.

[motormike]

Tried spinning it over with that throttle cable to carb taped off and nothing, not even a sputter.

I’ll check the crank seal on flywheel side next.

I agree its acting like major air leak because it has spark and fuel and compression.

Answer me this: with spark, fuel, and compression, why wouldn't it still fire under a prime of fuel into the chamber?