Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

I'll be the first one to admit the Aero is in really poor shape. I actually declined to get it at first, but as the price became as good as free, well, after some hesitation I said ok.

Now, it doesn't run of course, no title, and missing all the parts you don't see in the pictures.


The good: Tires now hold air. No rot, decent thread. There's spark! There's compression. Kickstart works - kinda, but engine is not seized. There's an ignition key, and it works. Horn works. Taillight, blinkers and brakelight works. Although no such lights, I just tested with a multimeter. Brakes all work somewhat.




The bad: Missing carb, no seat, broken plastics, most other plastics missing, no cooling shroud, fan is so brittle it's crumbling like bisquits, and fan has no fan blades left anyhow. No taillight. Front sealed beam burnt out. Starter is dead. LOTS of slop sideways in steering, and LOTS of slop in suspension front, missing bushings it seems, front wheel is also loose on it's axle, although bolt is tight. TONS of rust in gas tank. Cap was even rusted shut. Cracked speedometer lens, and a hole in it too.

Yeah, and my wife loves it. (Not)





















So I have fiddled with it a little, and ordered a carb off ebay. After looking at the prices at ebay for used parts for these, I have to admit I got a little discouraged, as it will become super expensive just top get this thing running. Not to mention fixing all the secondary things, plastics, cooling etc.

We will see how it works out.


Some more pics:







If someone could tell me what parts exactly I'm missing here, that would be helpful. As far as I can tell it's atleast fan, fan cover, and some sort of metal shroud. But is there suppsed to be anything more here?

Congrats? but I agree with your assessment of rebuild cost... especially using only the Bay..

If it were me, I would just keep this one for parts and patiently seek a more complete scoot to ride/fix...

Keep an eye on all craigs within reasonable drive distance in Houston... bet you find one for sub $500 within a month...

and go ahead and post on craigs you are seeking an older scoot.... mention Honda aeros, elites, etc... you might just get an email or two... I did ...

GL either way

Wow that is what I call a basket case that little guy will take a lot of eBaying. I agree with the idea of finding another scooter to go with that one. Now I think if you use some imagination and replace things like the deck with say wood or diamond plate aluminum and finish it all pretty like you can save a lot of money and have a more custom scoot in the end. Maybe make a more bare bones approach to the build and only replace the necessary parts for operation and fabricate some things and delete parts you don't need. I've seen a few projects like that over the years and they were cool. Some one just did a dirt bike scooter like that and it was wicked, blue knobbies and all. First get it to run with what you have, then you wont be wasting your time ordering parts for a lost cause. Don't run it for long without the covers for the cylinder and and fan shroud and new fan though. Give it a go it will be fun

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Lol, for parts? I hardly think there's even a single part onm this thing thats in nice enough shape for anyone to want it. And honestly I was to look for another one, it would either be a -85 or newer, or a different scooter alltogether. No this one is going to have to earn it's own keep, if it can't cut the mustard, or is it must the custard, it's not worth saving. Either it will be a runnner, or trash.

Actually i have looked extensivly, and there is absolutely NO aeros nearby. Closest was a 36 hour drive to phoenix. No other projects either, it was this, a Honda express 1977, or newer (and oldish) scoots for about 1000 1500 and up. I had a Yamaha QT once, and totally hated it, so not interested in the express at all. Has to be a scooter with body. ANd love the fact it has gas gauge, and electric start, and completely flat floors.

Actually the bike I REALLY wanted was the Honda SH50.

Have been thinking about that one for the longest time. But then after moving from Europe, I now realized, it was never sold here! Duh! I think it looks really utilitarian and cool. Almost as if no effort was made to give it flair, just practical. Completely the opposite of new chineese scooters.

Atleast I got the same headlight and color. LOL

Greetings:

I have a good 2-bolt fan you can have for free. *, I'll even ship it to you if you go ahead. Plastics will be the biggest challenge, but if there are enough parts to make it worthwhile to restore yours, all it takes is patience.

Update: This is what I got today, Chinese clone carb, fuel hose, 2 stroke oil, and some universal cables to connect to the carb.



Well the cables didnt work out, should have known better. Hooked up a steel wire with a hand loop instead, enough to pull the carb piston up and down.

Then I needed to get some fuel, a nice bottle of vermouth came in handy:


After kicking it for a while, I checked the plug. All wet. Cleaned and put it back in, kicked a few times, but nothing. Had nice good spark though.

Back in the day we used starting fluid on a spraycan, and decided to try that. Although I didn have any, so I found some electronic cleaner spray that said "extremely flammable" and gave it a good spray. Few more kicks, and it runs!

Within the next second, all mayhem sets loose! Debris are flying east and west, hitting me in the face and everywhere! The distance from my hand at the carb, to the ignition switch to kill it, suddenly seems like a mile!

Shattered!


The fan literally exploded! Good thing I was standing on the left side. This is what's left of the fan:


Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot!! Oh well, this got kinda exciting, adrenalin pumping and all! So I try fire it again. Dead. Little more "starting fluid", and it fires back up! It Idles nicely! give it some gas, and rpms go up as it should. Then within a few seconds major rattle at the kickstart, so I kill it again. Initially the kickstart was kind of seized, so I pulled the cover, and got it loose, but the spring came off. I just kind of stabbed it back in, and it worked, but I guess I should have attached it properly. Have to find out how it's supposed to be.

The worst engine internals I've ever seen, atleast any vehicle I've owned. Is there supposed to be grease in here? Or is it just dirt and leaked 2 stroke oil that accumulates?



I'm not experienced with variators, this is my first time messing with any, but it seems the parts are somewhat rusted stuck. The belt kind of just rolls freely on the wheels, but the wheel/tire never moves.

Well that was it for today, need to clean and inspect the variator parts and get kickstart back in order before next step.

Oh, the engine has been sittting for so long that the crank seals are totally dry, and squeeks when one turn the crank. Have to lube that a bit I guess. Is there a good way to do that? Just spray grease/wd40 onto the crank ends/seals?

A working fan would be perfect! Was hoping I could atleast get the cooling together properly. But for the plastics, I think this one is not going to be "restored" to factory condition. THe floors seems to be pretty much impossible to find in repairable condition, so without that, it's somewhat pointless to source the rest. I think I'll have a more practical approach, something that works, is purposeful, and looks acceptable.

Thats a little further down the road though, first need to asses all mechanicals to see if it's salvageble as a vehicle at all. But the fact that it runs, is a good motivator.

Oh, PM me about the fan, if you please

That's awesome you got it to run get a wire brush and an angle grinder and clean up the clutch parts and pulleys it will work better. You are on your way now you need to play with the jetting on the carb to get it to run up past 1/4 throttle without the airbox. I wouldn't spray the seals with wd40, it will wash any grease that is left off. If something is squeeking it should come apart and be cleaned of any rust properly greased and reinstalled. Rust tends to get in and take up the tolerances between parts and that can cause more than just a squeak. Keep up the good work bro

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I agree one should dissasemble before lubricating, however, I thought the crankshaft was pressed into the block/bearings so that it won't easily come out? That it needs a special puller I dont have, and might damage the bearings, atleast according to other posts on that topic on this forum.

I have to study things a bit more, I have the exploded view of engine and shop manual to read. The crank bearing sems fine otherwise, no noise in it after I pulled the belt. But before that, it sounded as if there was sand in the engine, guess that's the clutch/variator that needs lube then. So far so good.

Aslong as the crank is still good, and bearings, I think the rest can be reconditioned to an acceptable level.

I think this should be in the running for ....

Ghetto scoot of the year!

Keep the pics coming, congrats!

Pull the variator and clean it all with wire brush and clean it well. I have been reading that a ruckus variator fits in the aero 50 with some trimming so if its really bad you can replace it.

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i am parting an 83.

http://maine.craigslist.org/mcy/3685881300.html

Not mine but I figured I'd throw it out there for ya. Plastics look solid enough to work with.

That thing looks like it was in much better shape than mine. Problem is I'm in Texas, shipping will make it cost too much. When I say too much, my thinking is that if you end up paying as much, or more than a brand new chinese scooter, then it's too much. THey might be crap and poorer reliability, but with such an old honda and in such poor shape as mine, I'm sure thats still better. THere's no parts for the aero either.

Especially if your sending the whole engine I think it will be pricey. But otherwise he seems to have exactly what I need, and much better stuff than I expected. But no floors though.

The floor and the lower front valance/windbreaker is 1 piece in the 1983-84's. And I have zero front valance left. Could always make a floor, thats just flat and square, but the front valance, well there's alot of curves therel. LOL

tilstad wrote:That thing looks like it was in much better shape than mine. Problem is I'm in Texas, shipping will make it cost too much. When I say too much, my thinking is that if you end up paying as much, or more than a brand new chinese scooter, then it's too much. THey might be crap and poorer reliability, but with such an old honda and in such poor shape as mine, I'm sure thats still better. THere's no parts for the aero either.

Especially if your sending the whole engine I think it will be pricey. But otherwise he seems to have exactly what I need, and much better stuff than I expected. But no floors though.

The floor and the lower front valance/windbreaker is 1 piece in the 1983-84's. And I have zero front valance left. Could always make a floor, thats just flat and square, but the front valance, well there's alot of curves therel. LOL

For your floor board deck I think you are right just make one, that's easy to do out our wood or diamond plate aluminum, and would look spiffy either way. You could make those front windbreaker valance pieces that are missing out of aluminum sheet, or hey plexiglass or lexan, that would be cheaper and painted easy just make in one piece flat maybe or 3 pieces. long u bolts would to fit the down tube drill some holes in the sheet to attach to the threads of the clamps and bam. A couple pieces of flat bar could be attached with bends in them to have the plexi shape more like the contour of the old plastics and either bend to fit or bend the flat bar at the angles to use 3 flat pieces. Either way it would be cheap and easy to do with the most simple tools. Just my two cents worth.

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