I've been lurking for a while trying to absorb the vast wealth of knowledge assembled here.
I finally pulled the trigger on an 86 Spree I found at a Garage Sale. Bought it (after some negotiation of price)
Original owner got too old to ride it and it has sat for years(with old gas in it, of course
Owners son said it needs a coil(no spark) and a battery. From this forum I have learned that these will run with a bad battery,
and I will check into the 'no spark' claim.
Thanks for a great Forum-I hope to be riding this soon!! Larry in San Diego
No trees have been killed in sending this message, but a large number of
electrons have been inconvenienced
Make sure the tail light bulb is good.
Starting a Spree with the starter motor powered by a fresh, hot battery
is far easier than trying it kick one with a dead battery...imho
Welcome newb...mm
RideRed <(2)Gyro S><Helix><Sym Wolf> "Live Large - Ride Small"
Also the headlight dosnt work until the bike is running.
If your getting no spark check your grounds and rectifier with a voltmeter and see if it or the coil needs replacing. A good trick for emptying the gas is putting the gas line in a container and applying a vacume to the other line. Its a long process and leave a little gas but works never the less. Much easier than fighting to get the tank off.
Use jumper cables hooked to a car and use the starter. Don't bother trying to kick start a million times until the bike is in good running order. Just be sure the vehicle youre jumping from is OFF and NOT running. You want to jump your bike using 12volts that your car battery provides and NOT the 14.4volts that a RUNNING car will give you.
I need to find some new haters...the ones I have are starting to like me.
you can even start a spree with a 5 amp battery charger as the battery is only 4 amps so any standard battery charger that is not a digital one over 4 amps should do it. I do that in the shop all the time with the spree. when checking for spark you can make an easy spark tester with a piece of solid wire I used some 12 gauge I had lying around but any stiffer wire will work, get a set of battery charger clips for around a 1$ and crimp them to the length of wire about 4 to 6 inches or so should do it then clip a new plug in one clip and the other to the head or a good ground and then you can bend the wire so you can always see the spark when testing. You can buy spark testers that are very inexpensive but this one you can really bend to see and also helps test plugs as well to see if they fire with another machine like a lawnmower or even a gas trimmer. You dont have to pull the plug on the other machine just pull the plug wire clip the tester plug in and ground the other plug. I routinely test plugs in a known sparking machine this way to confirm a plug fires outside of the cylinder. And yes a plug can spark fine outside of the cylinder and not fire once installed. Make sure to check the connections on the coil itself and the spade connectors can get loose and pop off on a big bump or when messing with the airbox. I have had the coil feed wires come off when I hit the railway tracks. squeeze the connectors so they fit tightly on the coil. also inspect the spark plug boot make sure its screwed in the the wire properly.
