Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

hey guys i've been reading your posts for a while, great site...

'86 spree, non Iowa model

anyways i have a question. i just picked up this old slightly beat up spree from a person down the road for me. 30 bucks because he just wanted to get rid of it. it was in pretty bad shape, but the engine isnt seized, fuel tank and oil tank have been semi-recently been replaced with new, have all the paneling and the electrical seemed all there, plus there was no battery.

The spree just seems to need : carb, choke, new starter motor, and a new battery. Well i just went to Autozone ("get in the zone, autozone".. lol) and picked up the 4-LB battery which is an exact match, and a 1 amp trickle charger. i charged the battery last night, and its completely charged (i checked with mulimeter) but i seem to have a problem with a short somewhere.

also, i twisted the ignition wires together (red + black)

the horn will not work, the lights wont go on, (i checked the horn manually it works) when i have it set on run. everytime i turn the switch from "run" to either of the top or bottom "offs" the fuse blows. now i dont have any turn signals hooked up, or the ignition coil wired so those wires are just hanging loose (but none are causing the short, they are all indiv. taped). I'm just not sure where my problem lies? anyone else have a problem with this?

YOUR HEAD LIGHT WONT TURN ON UNLESS U HAVE THE SCOOTER RUNNING BUT THE BLINKERS AND TAIL LIHGT SHOULD TURN ON... SIMPLY CHEACK THE LIGHT BULBS!

Hmm which fuse is it that blows.. the one that kinda randomly comes off the battery? Also you might try manually dissconnecting the the wires from the off run off, switch, there in the the front by the horn, cause i believe in run, the wires are discconected, and your problem might lie somewhere in that region. If not i suggest checking all the relays and cdi units etc. Also grab a copy of the wireing for the scooter, theres a post on here somewhere, and it helps a lot, has a few trouble shooting ideas, and tells you what should be at what voltage etc, and things you can check with your meter.

Does the oil light come on in the dash?

yeah its the fuse that comes off the positive terminal of the battery (the only one on the scooter that i can find).

I'll check your suggestion and post back what i find.... i do have a copy of the service manual .pdf, and i can't seem to find the problem, other than thinking it might be a short somewhere, but it would take forever to check all the wiring individually.... :-/

when the battery is hooked up, and switched in "run" no lights come on at all, horn doesn't work, and no check oil light either.

not sure if that ignition wires you twisted together is right... idk for sure.. but according to the wireing diagram. the red one is the fuse, so if your blowing it maybe thats why.. needs a ground or something, not sure, would have to go check for sure on my moped.. Also that fuse goes into the regular rectifier, so its possible theres a problem there too.. IF you need to check for shorts i suggest just useing a voltage checker, or the test lights, and jsut ground it and check all the hots while its off, amke sure you dont get any light or readings, and then again when its on and make sure you do get it where you need, like i said it could be some of your cdi units or relays rectifiers

Just do what I did - unhook every electrical component on the bike and then connect the battery and start rehooking up components one by one. When your fuse blows, thats probably the component with the problem.

For me it was a bad voltage regulator/rectifier

hey not to bad of a way to do it like that ..

ya i third that idea too

yeah i tried your idea and it worked great thanks.... it ended up being my ignition "hotwiring"...

i thought that from the service manual i was reading that black to red was ignition on, but it turns out i wired black/white to red, and it was basically a short ciruit drawing all kinds of current, blowing the fuse.

so i got the electronics going, my oil indicator works great, my brake light is stuck on (i have to fix the brakes anyways no big deal) the horn works great (much to my parents dislike, its 11:45 pm here in massachusetts), and the turn signals work great, well they did for a minute or two but i have to replace the turn signal relay, its all rusted out, no big deal.

only question was... i hooked up the fuel level indicator and was moving the arm up and down, but the needle on the "dash" wasn't moving at all... anyone have any idea why this is?

it looks to me like the fuel indicator arm assembly is in perfect shape, i dunno where the prob could be.

Needle on the dash has a slow response time... even if it doesn't work I'd get it running b/f you mess with it. Chances are it's fine.

yay, glad that works for ya... i wish my coil would do the same for me darn it hehe. good luck with the fuel needle..

the ignition coil is pulsed by the stator on the alternator right?

as in you technically would only need a kickstart, ignition coil, and spark plug to start and run the spree without the turn signals... brake light, horn.... right?

I was just gonna say. I read the first post and im like oh crap!! He twisted posi and ground together. No wonder!! Well in the future dont twist em!

yeah i had that moment too when i found out what i was doing...

now the only problem is that my brake light stays on all the time...

or maybe its supposed to? does it get brighter? what's the norm with brake lights...

The brake light will stay on all the time with the key on (if you have a battery connected) if you dont have a battery connected the light wont come on. Also it will come on when you have the bike running whether you have the batt connected or not. The light gets brighter when you use the brake.