Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

Hey all. Some of you may remember my whole story from about a year ago. My spree started running badly because i had been putting the wrong kind of oil into it. After I started to use the right oil it ran even worse. Took it to the shop a couple of times and after it came out it ran, you guesed it, worse. Its current state of repair is this:

I can start the spree with the ignition most days although it is bordering on quiting right away. I can then get resonable acceleration for 3 seconds or so until it slows considerably (to the point where my momentum accually pushes me faster than the spree) to get it moving again i have to throttle back to 0 then go back to full or it will sputter and roll to a stop. I have to do this 90% of the time and always when gping up hills. Top speed up hills is 5mph if that and on lvl ground it swings from 20 to 7 or so as i repeat my throttle procedure. You can start to see my suffering.

My last trip to the shop they replaced the spark plug, tightened connections, and they say they cleaned the carb. However the lack of any differance to me seems like they may not have done any more than sprayed some carb cleaner on it and left it.

So my plan so far is to do 2 things. First clean the carb as done in the tech docs section. second is to investigate if I need to clean my muffler. My real question is should I do anythig else as long as im going in there? I have the time to spend at the moment but not really the money.

One thing to note, a friend of mine swapped a 87 muffler of his spree to test if my muffler made the differance and we concluded that we couldn't tell the differance between them. Although it looked like the people he bought his spree from were also using bad oil so his muffler could be as screwed as mine.

last thing. i've heard some good things about this marvel mystery oil stuff. The same friend said he gained 2-3 mph speed from a bit in the oil and in the gas. Anyone else use this?

Well I'm not all that mechanical myself but from what I have been reading these things need three things:

1. Fuel and air mixed in the correct proportions
2. Compression of the fuel/air mixture
3. Ignition.

I would first check your compression and then I would check your air filter and your spark plug. Then you might try the alternative carb cleaning method of using that sea foam crap in the carb and running it for a bit. (Tech docs)

See if any of that works. Also you might take your crankcase cover off and take a look and see if your belt is worn, because a loose and stretchy belt or one that is too narrow will give you almost no power. I just replaced mine today and you could tell a huge difference in the belts when they were off and i compared them side by side.

There's a heck of alot of people more mechanical than me but i hope this points you somewhat in the right direction.

I'm wondering if the wrong oil didn't put some deposits in your engine or gum something up in there.

you know I didn't even think about the belt. Thats definitely worth a look. Thanks.

sounds like what happend to me not too long ago...

same symptoms, surging along with dying out, wouldnt go up hills. Turns out it was running quite lean due to a chunk of the inline filter i had got stuck in the main jet (thats why i say nay to an inline filter and just stick with the filter screen in the tank...manual doesnt even show an inline filter).

So that might (and i said might) be your problem...it running lean and all. Usually the belt deals just with top end and not the engine dying out.

I'll give that a look too. thanks.

ok so heres the update:

I popped the side panels and took a look around. When I got to the Carb I noticed something odd:
Theres a little 3-4 inch peice of tubing coming from the backside of the carb and going no where. Meanwhile there were 2 other places where a tube could go but there isn't one there. I decided I'd better leave that alone till I get confirmation that it is bad or good to have it that way.

Now I went and got a bottle of Seafoam and 4 small bottles of Marvel Mystery Oil. I added maybe an once each of seafoam to both the gas and oil tanks. I also added maybe a 1/4 once to 1/2 once of the Marvel oil. Then I started it up and took it for a ride. Quite honestly I was impressed. I accelerated fine and was able to maintain 25mph up and down all the lvl roads around. Didn't get a chnce to hit a hill but heres the funny part... As i was headed home I hit a pothole and it jarred the spree. I lurched and it lost power. I couldn't get it back up past maybe 15 and the sounds its made were back to the low loud "Braaaaa" that it made before I put the new oils in.

So... I think im making progress, but any ideas about that tube?

You need to just put the seafoam in and run the crap out of ur bike to get the deposits out.

There is one tube that is just a drain, not sure if that is the tube ur talking bout.


Read this procedure the 2nd one, thats the one to do with the seafoam.

http://www.hondaspree.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=3

1st thing...Follow the steps for the seafoam stuff in the tech documents.

2nd things...That one tube going nowhere out of the back of the bottom of the carb is the drain tube, There is another hole on the back of the top of the carb (looks like a tube would go on it), no...it is the vent for the carb, leave that alone unless it is pluged. Top left of the carb (near the bystarter i think) is the fuel inlet, run a tube from there to the top outlet of the fuel valve. First hole on the intake manifold is for the vaccume line, run a tube from here to the bottom outlet of the fuel valve. The other inlet on the manifold is for oil, run a tube from here to the fuel pump outlet.

Figure i'd tell you everything just in case.