Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

I have an '84 spree that hasn't been run in several years. When I attempt to start it the electric starter is real slow and sometimes stops after a few rotations.... (sometimes the wires start smoking
too)
It's a new battery and I've tried two others. When I remove the spark plug it turns over at a fast/normal speed, but not with the plug in. The muffler was clogged with something, so I removed the whole exhaust pipe for now.. I do have spark and gas and it seems like it's just too difficult to turn-over with the spark plug in. What am I missing?

If your wires are smoking that isn't good! You probally have a short somewhere or something else. I recomend not letting them smoke too much, it's definately not good for your wireing.

agreed smoking wires is not good, but it only happens if I let it crank too long.. It just seems like the starter has to work too hard get it to turn over. If I can figure out why it's difficult to turn over, I think that will solve my smoking wire issue.

best bet is to try and take apart the starter motor and see if it needs to be rebuilt. If you don't know how to take it off I would suggest you look in the tech docs section and download the manual.

after re-reading your initial post I think that you have either a very weak, or dying starter motor. I definately would suggest either getting a new one, rebuilding it, or if it isn't the starter motor then it could be in the wiring somewhere.

Thanks... I'll start focusing on the starter.. One other note.. when I attempt to start it, the tailight dims. It basically looks and sounds like a weak battery (that's why I tried 2 batteries and then bought a new one), but it could be a bad starter too.

Is there a way to hot-wire it straight to the battery so that I can tell if it's the wires or the starter?

yea be careful if you let all of the smoke out it wont work anymore

Tailight dimming is ok, as long as it doesn't go out.

OK, tried two things tonight and back seeking help... 1) confirmed starter wire is seeing 12 volts when ingition pressed.. 2) disassembled, cleaned, and reinstalled starter... Still no change to my slow turnover.

I realize that the above don't entirely rule out a bad starter, but before I buy a new starter to find out and lose several days in the process is there anything else I should check first?

Is there any way to load test a starter?

anybody have any thoughts?

Before you spend money on a starter you might want to try finding a 86 or 87 belt cover so that you have kick start.

Just a thought, how easy is it to turn the motor over by hand? If you can't turn it by hand then something might be binding in the engine... berrings maybe?

We'll if the starter wasn't bad before, it is now... I fried it... I connected the battery straight to the starter.. it seemed to turn a bit stronger, but still not strong or fast enough to start it.. The wires got pretty warm, saw a few sparks, and eventually fried the starter.. Pulled the starter of to confirm... It's dead.

So why would this have fried my starter? Did I do somthing wrong or is this a sign I had a bad starter to begin with?

As to the previous question... the engine seems to turn over easy by hand. Haven't done this before so not sure what to expect but it seems to turn smooth. It does get more difficult as you move through the rotation as pressure builds inside the cylinder. Think this is normal, correct?

Definatley doesn't feel like anything is binding.

Can you kick start it or is that part of the problem?
BTW, you won't want to run it without the pipe, bad things can happen

no kick starter on this model..