86 Spree will not start.

[tbplayer]

Battery is brand spanking new. Compression was tested about a month ago at 120psi.

If i go to the honda powersports dealership and say "I need a new starter relay for a honda spree" will they have one, or am I bound for the buying/selling subforum?

[Spreetard]

brand new batteries die too. did you have to crank it a bunch before it gave up?? carb float needles are extremely suspect in old sprees. the last one i did had a tiny tab that broke off the float, overflowed the bowl. poor little thing was drowning in fuel. check the voltage of the battery check the vacuume controlled fuel valve. that is, after testing the relay.
Here's how to test ANYTHING on your spree.
http://www.hondaspree.net/phpBB3/viewto ... ?f=11&t=37

[Bear45-70]

Brand new batteries are not fully charged. They need a nice slow charge of about 24 hours at less than 1/2 an amp or 500 milliamps to be fully charged.

[Lunytune]

Have you tried the kick starter?
In the back of my head, I'm thinking of a problem a couple of months ago, of a guy who discovered his cylinder had filled with fuel and oil, and was basically locked up. Pull the spark plug and see if it will crank?

[tbplayer]

Sorry, should've been more specific. Brand new fully charged battery that I cranked a few hundred times and fully charged again.

Currently not doing anything with or without sparkplug. You just push the button and it makes a clicking sound.

Doesn't have a kickstart, perhaps now would be the time to put one in?

[Lunytune]

Sorry, should've been more specific. Brand new fully charged battery that I cranked a few hundred times and fully charged again.
Currently not doing anything with or without sparkplug. You just push the button and it makes a clicking sound.
Doesn't have a kickstart, perhaps now would be the time to put one in?

You've got the oddball year? I thought that was 85? I don't know what's involved in the conversion. There's another thread on that running now somewhere.

Back on point, if it won't crank over without sparkplug, my thought missed. Back to the drawing board of electrical problems. In the meantime, I think I may have a starter died on my 2001 SR, but I've got a kickstart and not too worried about it. I'm on the learning curve on that too.

[Bear45-70]

Sorry, should've been more specific. Brand new fully charged battery that I cranked a few hundred times and fully charged again.
Currently not doing anything with or without sparkplug. You just push the button and it makes a clicking sound.
Doesn't have a kickstart, perhaps now would be the time to put one in?

You've got the oddball year? I thought that was 85? I don't know what's involved in the conversion. There's another thread on that running now somewhere.

Back on point, if it won't crank over without sparkplug, my thought missed. Back to the drawing board of electrical problems. In the meantime, I think I may have a starter died on my 2001 SR, but I've got a kickstart and not too worried about it. I'm on the learning curve on that too.

1985 is the "no kick starter" year, if it has not kicker it is an '85 or someone removed it. I have all the kick starter parts and will install them when I have the engine out for the upgrades. You need the cover with all the kick starter pieces on it and you need the big gear on the crank, that the electric starter drives.

[tbplayer]

So I bought a new Starter Relay today and put it in after freshly charging the battery yet again. The engine turned over a couple of times very slowly, and then went back to the relay just clicking when I pushed the start button. Additionally, as I was pressing the button, I noticed smoke coming out of the relay, and it was rather warm to the touch. Still have no idea what the problem is and now I fear that I may have just blown $40 on a relay that I killed some 45 seconds after putting it in.

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

Just a hunch here, but try this:

Loosen your belt cover bolts about a turn and a half. Try again, hopefully your relay isn' toast. If it is, a relay's a relay. You can go to Napa with yours and ask them to scrounge. You may have to jury-rig a connection for the test, but at least it'll confirm or disprove my hunch that your cover gasket is compressed too thin or missing altogether. Then buy the correct relay. I think I may have one you can have for shipping. PM me later today.

[tbplayer]

Greetings:

Just a hunch here, but try this:

Loosen your belt cover bolts about a turn and a half. Try again, hopefully your relay isn' toast. If it is, a relay's a relay. You can go to Napa with yours and ask them to scrounge. You may have to jury-rig a connection for the test, but at least it'll confirm or disprove my hunch that your cover gasket is compressed too thin or missing altogether. Then buy the correct relay. I think I may have one you can have for shipping. PM me later today.

erm. Forgive my ignorance, but which one's the belt cover?

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

The gray cover on the left. Where your kickstarter would be if you had one...

Check and see if there's a black strip of gasket visible between the gray-painted cover and the engine cases. If not, you may have found your problem. The cover will pinch the end of the starter motor shaft if there's no gasket, preventing it from spinning.

[mousewheels]

Check out the starter too if you can. A shored winding in the armature can draw lots of current, yet the starter can still turn. Remove and bench test the starter. Good starter will spin surprisingly fast with no load.

[tbplayer]

Loosened the cover, nothing. Removed the cover and gave it a quick try, starter spins once or twice and then nothing.

It's worth noting that this scooter worked like a dream a mere two weeks ago, and then one day it just decided not to start any more, so if anyone knows of a problem that manifests itself suddenly rather than gradually, it's more likely to be that.

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

Starters and relays can fail overnight. Same for switches. Try spritzing something like brake or carb cleaner around the button? Proper dismantling and thorough cleaning may be indicated. If no-go, then what Mr. Mouse said above.

[Kenny_McCormic]

Sounds like you might have toasted the starter earlier. How long were you cranking at a time? How long of a break did you give it? The automobile self starter became possible when engineers realized it only needed a very short duty cycle(or in other words, starters are only meant to crank a good 2 minutes in a 10 minute period, in 15-20 second bursts).