Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

monkeywrench wrote: wow this happened to me on my elite and come to find out it was the factory air filter box . it was leaking from the round tube coming from the carb to the box. they ware out and dryrot so i put another spare 1 on that i had and it runs tops, full throttle, no3/4 twist and bogg crap anymore these thing have to have the air filter box secured nice and tight no leaks and then they run great. thats if your bystarter is working ok .

The air box tube is perfectly good. Its very soft and flexible so I doubt it's that. The clamp is securing nice and tight. The filter looks brand new and feels slightly oily so that shouldn't be the problem. Unless it's not the right filter. It fits the air box perfectly but it's not very thick. All of the air box under the filter is just open space with the filter at the very top. The air box is new I was told by the seller. The lid is present and doesn't have any holes drilled into it and all 3 clips are there to hold it down.

I had a hard time getting the carb adjusted when I got it, then I had it running great reliablity wise, then I took the carb off to clean it due to rougly 55-60MPG I was getting. I put it back on and can't get the carb adjusted back again.

So I don't think it's an airbox issue or it wouldn't have run as well as it did but with low MPG. I was able to ride it WOT and got it up around 31MPH on a smooth road. I now wish I had left it well enough alone but oh well. I now know WOT = poorer MPG but it shouldn't cut the MPG in almost half. Must be something else going on since the plug is getting black sooty. Maybe it's the coil going bad?

Whats the needle clip set at? Is your airbox lid clogged up? How did you clean the jets?

Kenny_McCormic wrote:Whats the needle clip set at? Is your airbox lid clogged up? How did you clean the jets?

Needle clip is set at 4th from the top (factory setting). I made sure of this when I reassembled. The air box lid is fine.

Yes, I cleaned the jets. I followed the pictorial guide in the the help section on the forum here. I used a pencil to push out the main jet and I cleaned it and the rest of the carb thoroughly with carb cleaner, seafoam and compressed air (I don't have a tank, just a 12v compressor). The jet was pretty filthy when I took it out.

Its not a coil, something in the fuel system aint right. Check your bystarter. Your SURE the two holes in the airbox lid are SQUEAKY CLEAN? I though they were suposed to be tiny and round till I cleaned them out.

Kenny_McCormic wrote:Its not a coil, something in the fuel system aint right. Check your bystarter. Your SURE the two holes in the airbox lid are SQUEAKY CLEAN? I though they were suposed to be tiny and round till I cleaned them out.

I will double check the air box lid tomorrow.

How do I test the bystarter? Someone said use a battery charger though I don't exactly have one. I do have an RV converter in my travel trailer which does deep cycle charging and also powers DC 12v stuff (outputs 13.6V) so I could wire a cable to the bystarter and plug it in to an outlet in my trailer, if someone can tell me which wire color is which for +/- on the bystarter. It's an 84 model so it'll be easy with the metal connectors on the ends of the wires, not the plastic harness.

The air box lid is fine. Looks brand new. No obstruction at all in the two air intake holes.

Only thing is, its missing the screw for the airbox lid. All the plastic latches to hold it on are present though. But could that be the cause, simply not having the screw in the lid to help hold it down?

Once I hear back on how to test the bystarter I'll do that next.

Get a screw, any sheet metal screw around 1" long will work (they didnt use a machine thread screw on this part).

Should be able to hook you bystarter to a good 12v battery. Measure it before you hook it up. Hook it up to a battery and let it sit for a while and then check the measurement again.

If your plug is fouled it will run like *. Get a new plug or if you have an aircompressor get one of these.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=32860

It will save you a lot on plugs while your are getting it right.

Also if you clean it and it runs right it helps narrow down the problem.

michaelg wrote:Should be able to hook you bystarter to a good 12v battery. Measure it before you hook it up. Hook it up to a battery and let it sit for a while and then check the measurement again.

If your plug is fouled it will run like *. Get a new plug or if you have an aircompressor get one of these.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=32860

It will save you a lot on plugs while your are getting it right.

Also if you clean it and it runs right it helps narrow down the problem.

Which wire is which on the bystarter though? I would guess that green is negative but I want to make sure before I try it so I don't kill it.

I need to get a small air tank I guess. My 12v air compressor may not work right with that plug cleaner. There is a Harbor Freight tools store here locally and sometimes they mail me a coupon for percentage off. I guess I know what I'll be using the next coupon for. In the meantime I guess I'll just go by another new plug for sticking in once I test the bystarter.

Oh, there is one thing about the bystarter I should probably mention. It's missing the plastic cover that goes over it. Also, the main part of the unit is cable to swivel side to side while it's mounted on the carb. It IS securing down properly, but the unit itself is loose from the part that goes tight down onto the carb. I would imagine thats not supposed to happen and could be by it's not working, perhaps it's physically broken.

Hm.. still waiting for a reply regarding the color coding of the wires on the bystarter if anyone knows...

Green is ground, yellow is 12v positive.

-aseigler

I haven't been able to verify the working condition of the bystarter yet still. However, I think the plug is oil fouling, not carbon fouling. (Unless it's doing both).

And get this, the local Honda place say it's too old for them to work on. They refuse to touch a Honda that old. How pathetic is that??

Edit: Apparently that is normal procedure for Honda places to do, refuse to work on older models. I called one 3 hours away and he said the same thing. Due to lack of availability of new parts, and Honda not supporting it anymore, they refuse to work on them because if I take it in and they break something on it, they may not be able to replace it. Or if they do, total repair costs may be more than what the scooter is worth. So much for being in a better position with an old Honda vs a new Chinese scooter. At least with a Chinese scooter it would be NEW for a while before crapping out and not being able to find parts for. With an old Honda, it's already old and has problems and you still cant get parts for it and no one will work on it. Sounds like a Chinese scooter, huh?

You can get every part on that thing excluding the plastics.

Kenny_McCormic wrote:You can get every part on that thing excluding the plastics.

According to the nicer Honda place guy I talked to (3 hours away) that if a bolt breaks on it when it's in his hands, he can't get a replacement for it. That seems pretty extreme since screws and bolts don't exactly change much over the years. But I guess that was just his example. Supposing the bystarter is bad, I guess he can't get a new one. Or if he can, the cost might be might be 1/5 the value of the entire scooter. And then if it needs several other things, could add up to a $500 repair bill. By then, I would have been better off buying a new Metro on clearance with a warranty. I see his point but I also find it frustrating that not even Honda will touch it. If anyone would, you would think it would be Honda.

Well, I seem to have it running at least mostly properly now again. I just decided to not worry about how I'm setting the screws (ie: not stress about leaning it out from the air screw). I didn't change the throttle needle, it's still set on 4.

Seems like it's smoother than it did prior to the carb cleaning but then again I may also gave it tuned a little better. It seems to be idling okay. 1/4 throttle responds well. 3/4 throttle gets me about 27-28MPH but seems smoother now. WOT gets me up to 30MPH easy again. So FINALLY it seems to be tuned well enough to ride. If it gets 55MPG still thats fine by me. I've had to drive the the car for the past few days and have gone through at least $8 in gas driving maybe 40 miles tops around town. I will also try going easier on the throttle and stay around 28MPH since with city driving, 2MPH more doesn't exactly get you someplace very much faster, especially if it means it's hurting MPG.

If it leans out and freezes up and if I'm not dead as a result, I'll just I'll part it out for whatever I can get in parts. But I suspect it should be fine now. I didn't do anything other than adjust the 2 screws. However, the carb is wet with gasoline again. I suspect it might be from the throttle cable going into the carb,. It may not have an O-ring or something to seal it so when I do WOT, it leaks out from the threads. It has to be that or something else up high on the carb. It cant be the O-ring on the bystarter since I just replaced that earlier today.