85 Spree won't start

bkitchen1015 · Post by **bkitchen1015** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 3:55 pm

Alright, I finally got my spree running great. It would do about 30-31, started up well, idled fine. Saturday I took it out with my fiance and we rode about 20 miles then it suddenly lost power. I let off the throttle and after about 30 seconds I pulled the throttle full open and it accelerated. By this time my fiance had gotten ahead of me and stopped so I pulled up next to her then stopped. I smelled plastic burning from the cover over the top end so I shut it off figuring it was overheating. I thought I heard a metal clunking noise as it turned off but I cant seem to find any broken parts. After waiting for it to cool down I tried to turn it on and no good. It turns over fine, it pushes air through the exhaust and pulls from the intake. The carb was cleaned again and I tested the spark plug. I tried starting it by spraying carb cleaner into the airbox but no good. Any Ideas? An additional piece of information is that it has new rings.

Kenny_McCormic · Post by **Kenny_McCormic** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 4:06 pm

Plugged carb? check for compression, throttling it after it bogged may have melted it.

bkitchen1015 · Post by **bkitchen1015** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:13 pm

It's not a plugged carb, I cleaned it out. It has compression, if I put my finger over the fuel intake I can feel it being sucked. It also will puff air out the exhaust. I am wondering though if I could have blown one ring or maybe both. Enough so that it would pull but not enough to cause ignition. Is there a good place I can go get a compression gauge?

Kenny_McCormic · Post by **Kenny_McCormic** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 4:54 pm

parts store

bkitchen1015 · Post by **bkitchen1015** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 11:40 am

I got a compression gauge and found that there was only 70 PSI compression. I took the head off and found that the cylinder/piston had some damage. It appears that some metal was introduced which melted and caused some buildup in the cylinder and some gouges in the piston. I also found a crack in the lower ring which was brand new. I was able to smooth the cylinder and I am going to get it honed if I can find somewhere to do it. Will the honda dealer hone the cylinder or is there a shop of some kind I could get it done at? The piston on the other hand may be junk. The worst parts were below the piston rings and the only damage above the rings was some metal buildup which I was able to remove. If the upper end of the piston is in fine shape is it still useable?