Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

I have an 87 SE50 that will start, run, and idle, but when you give it anything more than 1/4 throttle it bogs out and dies (unless you let up on the throttle). This is on the kick stand (not driving it). I've searched the forums and can't find anything that quite matches what I'm seeing. The bike had been sitting for a few years, and the gas was varnished, though not syrup-like.

Here is what I've done:

Flushed the tank
Remove the petcock, cleaned the tank filter and replaced
Verified fuel flow through petcock by applying suction to vacuum line
Cleaned the carburetor (made sure bystarter jet in bowl was clear as well) Removed every part of the carb, including throttle needle seat tube (tube between main jet and throttle needle)
Cleaned the spark plug (haven't tried a new one, but I get good spark)
Verified fuel in carb by draining bowl
Verified bystarter expands and contracts out of the carb
Heated the muffler up (cherry red) in case it was plugged (can blow air through it before and after)
Tried it with airbox on or off, including air filter (which is in good shape/clean) on and off - not much difference
Tried placing hand over air inlet on carb - that kills the engine
Checked compression - 120psi after about 10 kicks with engine cold (checked with carb off)

Bike only has 2000 miles and appears to be in decent shape otherwise. It seems like carb, so I took it off again, and let it sit in carb dip overnight (the first time was about an hour or so). I was pretty sure I got every hole and passage clear (compressed air, thin wire through the pilot jet, etc), but maybe not? Given it idles, I would think the smallest holes, i.e., pilot jetting would be clear.

Thanks for any help!!

is the nettle clip in the center???
what the air screw set at???
swimmingfree


By freeswimming at 2012-03-31

The air screw is at 1 3/4 - what the SM says is the initial setting. I did try adjusting that...not much difference, other than at about 1/2 or 3/4 turn out from closed it starts to run rough - like it's going to kill.

Not sure about the needle position - but I will definitely check tonight.

Also, when I had the muffler off, I checked the port - very much open, and piston looked good (no scoring) from what I could see.

Needle clip was in the middle position.

But it runs good now (on the stand, haven't driven it yet). Evidently leaving the carb soak for 24 hours did the trick.

data_guy wrote:Needle clip was in the middle position.

But it runs good now (on the stand, haven't driven it yet). Evidently leaving the carb soak for 24 hours did the trick.

Running good on the center stand means nothing, since it take about 1/10 of the fuel to make the engine run unloaded.

Bear45-70 wrote:

data_guy wrote:Needle clip was in the middle position.

But it runs good now (on the stand, haven't driven it yet). Evidently leaving the carb soak for 24 hours did the trick.

Running good on the center stand means nothing, since it take about 1/10 of the fuel to make the engine run unloaded.

It shows improvement since the first test that was conducted while on the stand. It may not apply much to how it runs down the road.