Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

Hey all.
Ive only gotten about two hours of enjoyment on this thing haha, its been very frustrating to get it running for a day and then have something else happen.

current issue;
was driving on a flat road without issue when it died with no warning signs. the motor sputtered a few times then nothing. i walked it home and checked it out.

....and no spark. starter still works, the motor is turning over. all connections look solid, but i realized that when its trying to start one of the sounds it previously made seems to be missing. I can't narrow it down to any specific sound, just something i noticed.

any suggestions?

Check compression. I'd suspect a broken piston and/or rings.

He did say no spark so I would guess that it has something to do with electrical. Maybe the CDI?

how have you checked for spark? hold plug up to head and crank motor

could be loose boot or coil, it will still crank starter regardless

could be cdi but unlikely if it worked fine before

sounds like something simple..

i know there is no spark because i took the plug wire off the plug to check it, and no shock.

i'll have some time this evening to look it over, i'm hoping its a loose connection somewhere as mentioned above.

Garretts_turbo wrote:i know there is no spark because i took the plug wire off the plug to check it, and no shock.

i'll have some time this evening to look it over, i'm hoping its a loose connection somewhere as mentioned above.

Don't go looking to get shocked your self, that s*** hurts!

To test for spark, remove the plug and with it still attached to the wire, touch the threads to some metal part of the engine block. Start or crank and you should see a blue spark in the gap of the tip. You might need some shade or a dark garage to see it. You also might need to move it around to different locations if the block is rusty.

I don't even like holding on to the coil wire with a bare hand. Use leather gloves or insulated pliers. If there's a crack in the insulation and you're the lest resistant path to ground, you're going to get a jolt.

i've shocked myself a few times to test for spark on purpose with this thing...its not nearly as severe as getting a jolt from a car; its more of a sensation haha. anyways i'm out to go fiddle with it some more. from what i can see all connections are solid...sigh. i'm getting really frustrated with this thing. if its not fixed look for it in the for sale hahaha.

new plug and plug wire/ignition assembly didnt help. my electrical skills have pretty much ran out.

any spree gurus in kalamazoo want to make some money and help fix this thing? haha

i know there is no spark because i took the plug wire off the plug to check it, and no shock.

Now this guy does it the old fashion way. Don't worry coolbeans, some people have a higher tolerance than others. Shucks, that's the way I check house current... not on purpose of course.

Now if this was an old points and condensor, I'd have you going in a few minutes, but this CDI thing is over my head. Basics is the coil is a primary and secondary field, and the collapsing the field is what makes the spark. We now need the gurus to tell us how to check the CDI which does the collapsing. Guess we also need to check for current "to" the CDI. It could be a simple broken wire.

it dawned on me to check the grounds as well, which i will do later today. a bad ground could have caused the sudden stall and no spark.
as for the CDI, the guy i bought it from said it had recently been replaced but alas, i dont know if he meant NEW or "got this off some other spree" haha

figured out the no-spark problem, turned out to be shorrt caused by the wonky wiring harness.
after that fun issue it still wouldnt start due to completely shot motor. took the top end apart to get to the piston and theres some serious heat damage to the piston and walls.


i got a non-running but complete spree off of craigslist for the motor....should be back up by the end of the week.

If the Spree you bought for the motor is red, I may have an interest in the rest of it. I'm in Saginaw, not TOO far away. I'm going to go with another SE50 motor on another Spree, I had alot of fun with my last one.

But I want a red one, if it's black part her out.

the one i bought is black, with good plastic. the seat is torn and the wiring is a disaster but the motor has good compression.
the guy i bought it from was a little backwoods haha, he was amazed that people still wanted sprees. he practically gave it to me. selling the plastic should cover the cost...