1987 Spree does not start cold

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tungxvu
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1987 Spree does not start cold

Post by tungxvu »

A friend of mine just gave me a 1987 Honda Spree, which is in really good shape. He bought it new and had been doing his own maintenance on it. The problem is he did not use it enough. It has a little over 2140 miles after all these years. When it ran, it ran great, but it has a very intermittent cold start problem. Every few days or so, it will just crank and crank and crank in the morning without starting. I have exhausted my troubleshooting skills so I am asking for help now:

1) First thing I did was to check compression. The O'Reilly loaner compression tester gave me 132psi.

2) I disconnect the fuel line to the carburetor and cranked the engine. There is fuel flowing out of the line, so the petcock valve works and is delivering gas to the carburetor.

3) I pulled the spark plug, grounded it against the frame and cranked the engine. There was indeed very strong spark from the plug. So I am getting both gas and spark

4) I changed the reed valve with the carbon-fiber valve I bought on Ebay. No luck!!!!

5) I pulled the drive pulley off to check the crank seal on the left side of the engine, since someone here had that problem before. The crank seal is still intact, so that's not the problem.

6) At this point, I am beginning to suspect the carburetor, so I took it out and cleaned it thoroughly with carb cleaner, small wires and compressed air. I paid particular attention to the small hole on the side of the carb bowl that feeds the Bystarter. That passage is absolutely clean, without question. I put it back in, and the thing started right away - Success right? Not so fast. It ran great all day only to do the very same thing the next morning.

7) I gave up, bought a new Bystarter on Ebay, installed it and it started right up and ran great all day. Then it does the same non-start-when-cold crap again in the morning.

At this point, I am out of idea. All I can say is very empirical. Every morning, if it refused to start, I have to pull out the by auto bystarter, sticks my finger over the bystarter hole and crank the engine. If I do that, it fires right up. If I now shut it down and reinstall the bystarter, it will fire up every single time all day long, until the next morning.

What's going on? I would appreciate every suggestion. I am about to order a new carburetor, but I am not sure it will fix the problem. So far, I have been throwing parts at it, and I don't feel like doing that anymore.

Thanks
1987 Honda Spree
Westminster, California
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motormike
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Re: 1987 Spree does not start cold

Post by motormike »

Sounds to me like you have rust and/or debris in the gas tank and it is finding its way into the pilot circuit.
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tungxvu
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Re: 1987 Spree does not start cold

Post by tungxvu »

Hi Mike,

Thank you. That made a lot of sense now. I will clean the carburetor and flush the gas tank.

By the way, is it possible to stick an inline filter into the gas supply line or will the restriction be too much for a gravity fed carb?

Thanks again for your help.
1987 Honda Spree
Westminster, California
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motormike
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Re: 1987 Spree does not start cold

Post by motormike »

By all means install a filter. I expect it will have no issue flowing sufficiently.
NEW hose recommended throughout. Ethanol and all that....motor
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tungxvu
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Re: 1987 Spree does not start cold

Post by tungxvu »

I just want to come back and report that the problem appears to have been solved by giving the carb a good dunk and clean, flushing the gas tank and installing an inline filter. It seems a dirty gas tank has been the problem all along.

Mike, thank you for saving me a lot of time.

Best,

Tung
1987 Honda Spree
Westminster, California
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