Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

My neighbor just purchased a 1989 Honda Elite SB50P, 4400 miles, not running. I said sure I can get it running. Ha! Previous owner had fuel pump/tank petcock off and was no longer with the bike, said it had fuel/carb problem. Installed a new fuel petcock and pulled carb apart to inspect it, someone had this apart to as well it appeared and also put a new spark plug in it. Had new batt. as well. Fuel tank is spotless and filter as well.

With new petcock installed, no fuel at all is getting pumped to carb when cranking the motor over. Seems as if vacuum is low? Vacuum line is good and pulled reed valve plate out and that looks like its seating fine as well. There is some vacuum as you can see the reed petals and hear the sucking noise when cranking it over with the carb intake off. Running fuel directly into the carb float chamber inlet from a bottle, and a shot of ether, the scoot starts up and runs but in order to keep it running you have to restrict air flow at carb throat with your hand or a rag. Motor is just not sucking the fuel in. Checked the vacuum with a mitivac tester at the fuel petcock and it is about 5 HG Inches. Not sure what it is supposed to be.

Compression seems good, I didn't check it yet and motor sounds normal when running. Winds up and seems to have power. Crankcase pressure just seems low, that the carb and fuel pump won't suck fuel.

Any one out there experienced this or know where the problem lies? Any and all opinions are welcome. Thanks in advance for your help.

if you suck on the vacuum line on the petcock does fuel flow? sure you have the right side connected to the vacuum?
if all is connected correctly and its not flowing, soaking in gas for a couple of days is supposed to help loosen up the gunk.
BTW what does your gas tank look like? if a little rusted, make sure you use clear fuel line, and a filter to make sure it isnt clogging up your carb.

I am going to try sucking on the vacuum end on the petcock and will post results but the petcock is supposedly new. Fuel tank is shiny clean as new yet, and filter was clean/clear as well. Will report results of the suck test tommorrow but I don't think the petcock is the culprit. And yes, the lines are hooked hooked up correctly.

Greetings:

I had a bad petcock come right out of a sealed box.

Check yours first for flow with the fuel line disconnected from the carb.

If it flows, then connect it to the carb, pull vacuum on the petcock vac line again and see if the fuel flows to fill the bowl.

If the float valve in the carb is stuck shut, the fuel still won't flow to fill the bowl, might not even reach your inline filter because the air in the fuel line will pressurize and leave the fuel noplace to go.

Good luck!

Replaced o-rings on carb by spacer and recleaned the jets in the carb. Started and ran finally lots better but still stalled. Narrowed it down to a faulty nonfunctioning bystarter. Plugged the hole in the bystarter chamber with a penny (after someone suggested it) and it runs drives and idles good as new. Will see how it starts when its cold now.....

you may want to clean out the entire carb, if our scoots are notorious for one thing, it is gummed up carbs. make sure your idle circut is clear among other things... there is alot of info in the tech docs about this.