Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

have 78 Express which i am rebuilding from piece of rusted junk. i have it where it will start immediately, carry me up the block, but not back. just runs out of power, wont take throttle. i have checked compression cold, 75 lbs, and when stalled, 75 lbs. i thought it might be soft seizing or just heating up and losing compression. not the case apparently. clear gas line always appears full, so i dont think it is starving for fuel. plug burn is nice, light brown. , complete new top end - piston, rings, bearing, piston pin, honed cylinder. 1660 miles.

in a short time, it will cool off and get me back home. i am thinking that maybe some electrical gremlin is failing when hot.
it has old points and condensor magneto ignition system. Could be coil or condensor failing under heat, but thats not very
Hondalike.

any thoughts from anyone???

Does it have the original air box on it? If not, get one they will not run without it. If you have it look for cracks and seal them up. It will act this way until you do. I have played with several expresses and this is the usual symptom.

yes it has the original airbox and a new air filter. have several 86 Sprees and am aware that they are fussy about the airboxes. i am more inclined to think this is an electrical failure when the components get hot. i am going to pull the flywheel and see if there is anything askew with the points. the alternator coils are working because i get 7-8 volts across the battery at RPM.

this bike has a tiny rectifier under seat with coil, condensor, etc. the rectifier gets hot, but i think this is normal for rectifiers.

Yeah mine gets hot too, normal. Coil maybe starting to fail.