Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

Ok so I have been chasing electrical gremlins around for the last two weeks trying to figure out why my 85 spree doesn't have spark. I started with the manual's checklist:

Faulty Spark Plug:
- Tried three different NGK plugs


Poorly connected or broken wire between...
- alternator and CDI (black and red wire) = continuous
- CDI and Ignition coil (black and yellow wire) = continuous
- CDI and Ignition switch (black and white wire) = continuous
- Ignition coil and Spark plug = continuous

Faulty Ignition Switch
-good, continuous between black and red wires when key is in the ON position

Faulty Engine stop Switch
- good, no continuity between black/white and green wire when in the RUN position

Faulty Ignition coil
- Replaced old one with ebay working one. All resistance values check out to be good

Faulty CDI
-Tried two different working ones, all terminals at proper specs

Faulty Alternator
- This is one I havent dealt too much with only because when i kickstart the engine, the headlight lights up. So I'm assuming something is working there. But maybe this could be a weak spot? I double checked almost all the wires i could think of.


This spree has not been run for about 6 months. When it was last running it, I noticed it was cutting out all of a sudden when I was riding it. I would be riding and then you would feel the engine decelerate rapidly like it miss fired. At the time I didnt think it was a spark issue because it started great, only when i was riding it did it cut out. After the winter, I rebuilt the carb and intake with new gaskets and a cleaned muffler. I checked compression before starting and it was perfect at 120 psi. I sucked a lttle on the vaccuum petcock with the carb drain screw out and fuel was coming out. The last thing to check was spark, and that was a big no go. Thus I am stuck in awesome weather without the ability to ride my beloved spree. Somebody please help!!!

You checked the wrong part of the ignition switch. The Red and Black wires are battery and battery has nothing to do with the ignition Check the other half of the switch. Make sure the Black/white wire is not grounded thru to the Green wire (ground.

The headlight is on a different part of the alternator as is the battery charging system and you have to check the ignition part of the alternator. Do the ohms checks on page 14-10 of the Exciter Coil. The exciter coil is where the power for the ignition comes from.

You also have not checked the pulse generator which is what tells the CDI when to fire. So also do the Pulse Generation checks also on page 14-10.

ignition switch checks out

Pulse generator resistance at like 125, so thats good.

When I went to check the exciter coil, I placed one probe on the black and red connector from the alternator and the other probe grounded to several bolts and frame spots, but couldnt get any resistance value. I thought this might be the answer, so I switched out the alternator for a spare I had and the exact same problem happened. Both alternators were tried while bolted to the engine. Do I have a ground problem? Am I testing this right? I tried quite a few spots on the frame I thought were good bare metal spots, but still nothing.

Is the Black with Red stripe wire disconnected from the wiring harness. If not do so, and make sure you are on the wire from the alternator and no the wire from the CDI (wiring harness). If you have no continuity you have a bad stator. You can check the stator off the motor by just using the metal frame (where the bolt goes thru) of the stator for ground.

Yeah the wires were completely disconnected from the harness. I tried two stators that I have and they both didn't have continuity between the black/red wire and the frame. I'm a little hesitant on saying that they're both bad, is there a way I can check resitance values between the white or yellow wires and the frame? Is there anything else to check before I buy another replacement part?

The bottom of page 14-7 gives the battery charging section of the alternator (stator) specs.

Ok I checked and on both alternators, the yellow and white wires both were continuous with the frame and within spec for resistance. Doing the same check on the black and red wire, my multimeter flashed a resistance value for an instant then went back to non-continuous reading. It did that for both alternators and whenever i retouched the probe to a ground location. Two bad alternators? is there any part of the harness i should check before buying a new stator? Thanks for all the help

On the chance there is a ground problem between engine and frame - check the Black/Red on the stator to the engine case.