1987 Spree - no vacuum, same easy fix as on my 1986
Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2016 8:29 am
Last week, I bought a very pretty 1987 Spree that was not running because of a massive short in the electric system. The insulation was burnt off of every green ground wire from the front of the seat rearward, and the starter solenoid and solenoid pulg were a melted blob of metal and plastic. The only other evidence besides the burnt wires was that the small wire clip that is normally mounted under the top starter screw was missing; the starter looked like it may have been newer than the engine; and the main heavy red/white wire that goes from the starter solenoid to the starter had gotten against the exhaust pipe when the pipe was hot and the insulation had melted off the red/white wire, allowing the heavy red/white wire to come in contact with the exhaust system.
My post mortem came up with this theory as to the cause of the meltdown. A previous owner changed the starter and left the wire clip off of the top mounting bolt for the starter. That clip is supposed to hold the green and red/white wire bundle neatly away from the exhaust system. Without the clip, the wire bundle laid against the exhaust system. After a while, the insulation burned through, and the P.O. didn't know anything was wrong at this point. The next time he went to ride, he hit the starter button, and since the starter didn't turn, he held the starter button down until he saw smoke coming from the rear of the scooter. Then he called it quits and gave up. The last registration on the scooter was from 2011. I think the scooter had been sitting in storage for the past 5 years.
In any event, I neatly repaired all of the wiring, and spliced in a new used plug for the starter solenoid, installed a good used starter solenoid, and the short was gone and the engine turned over nicely. It would fire and run, but not idle, so I gave the carb a good cleaning, remounted the carb and installed a factory air filter as there was none in the airbox. I hit the starter button and the engine ran perfectly. I made a few laps around the block, then set the idle speed and mixture, and went for a fairly long test run, and came home with the scooter running perfectly. After looking it over, I set out on a long test run with quite a few WOT tests. Top speed was about 33 mph, about 2 mph faster than my 1986.
The next morning, I went to start it, and it started on the first turn, and ran for about a second or two, and quit. It acted like it wasn't getting fuel, so I squirted about a tablespoon of fuel/oil mix into the carb, and about all the engine would do is pop. The symptoms were exactly like the 1986 Spree I bought last year, that took me two weeks to diagnose. No vacuum at the intake manifold. See:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=31793&start=0 and the answer at the end of the second page in that post.
This time, without hesitation, I pulled off the belt cover, removed the nut holding on the drive pulley, slipped off the drive pulley, and sure enough the left crank seal had blown completely out of its seat in the block. I had a new seal sitting on the parts shelf, so I installed a new seal, seating it down to the lower edge of the chamfer with the correct size deep socket as described in the service manual, reinstalled the drive pulley and belt cover, and now the engine works like a champ again. A fix that took me two weeks last year to diagnose and fix, was now diagnosed and fixed in less than 10 minutes, so an old dog really can learn new tricks. Last year, I guessed that the seal in the 1986 had been blown out by the use of starter fluid. Now I think they just come out on their own when they get old and stiff.
In any event, if you have a spree with pretty good compression, but no vacuum, I think your first step should be to inspect the left crank seal.. easy to do, non destructive and less than a 10 minute job. Check the last couple of posts in the post I referenced above to see what your vacuum should look like if the seals are good.
My post mortem came up with this theory as to the cause of the meltdown. A previous owner changed the starter and left the wire clip off of the top mounting bolt for the starter. That clip is supposed to hold the green and red/white wire bundle neatly away from the exhaust system. Without the clip, the wire bundle laid against the exhaust system. After a while, the insulation burned through, and the P.O. didn't know anything was wrong at this point. The next time he went to ride, he hit the starter button, and since the starter didn't turn, he held the starter button down until he saw smoke coming from the rear of the scooter. Then he called it quits and gave up. The last registration on the scooter was from 2011. I think the scooter had been sitting in storage for the past 5 years.
In any event, I neatly repaired all of the wiring, and spliced in a new used plug for the starter solenoid, installed a good used starter solenoid, and the short was gone and the engine turned over nicely. It would fire and run, but not idle, so I gave the carb a good cleaning, remounted the carb and installed a factory air filter as there was none in the airbox. I hit the starter button and the engine ran perfectly. I made a few laps around the block, then set the idle speed and mixture, and went for a fairly long test run, and came home with the scooter running perfectly. After looking it over, I set out on a long test run with quite a few WOT tests. Top speed was about 33 mph, about 2 mph faster than my 1986.
The next morning, I went to start it, and it started on the first turn, and ran for about a second or two, and quit. It acted like it wasn't getting fuel, so I squirted about a tablespoon of fuel/oil mix into the carb, and about all the engine would do is pop. The symptoms were exactly like the 1986 Spree I bought last year, that took me two weeks to diagnose. No vacuum at the intake manifold. See:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=31793&start=0 and the answer at the end of the second page in that post.
This time, without hesitation, I pulled off the belt cover, removed the nut holding on the drive pulley, slipped off the drive pulley, and sure enough the left crank seal had blown completely out of its seat in the block. I had a new seal sitting on the parts shelf, so I installed a new seal, seating it down to the lower edge of the chamfer with the correct size deep socket as described in the service manual, reinstalled the drive pulley and belt cover, and now the engine works like a champ again. A fix that took me two weeks last year to diagnose and fix, was now diagnosed and fixed in less than 10 minutes, so an old dog really can learn new tricks. Last year, I guessed that the seal in the 1986 had been blown out by the use of starter fluid. Now I think they just come out on their own when they get old and stiff.
In any event, if you have a spree with pretty good compression, but no vacuum, I think your first step should be to inspect the left crank seal.. easy to do, non destructive and less than a 10 minute job. Check the last couple of posts in the post I referenced above to see what your vacuum should look like if the seals are good.