'84 Spree fresh rebuild won't go uphill

[Raf0419]

Hi all. I've been lurking and reading for some time and I want to thank all of the great posts and posters because without them I would never have gotten my Spree running. Here's the lowdown:
Bought 1984 Spree about 2y ago for my wife to use as a "pit bike" at horse shows. It ran for 3months then died. It always struggled going uphill and spewed blue smoke like crazy.

Cleaned carb. Nothing. Burnt out exhaust in the old bonfire- still nothing. Figured I had no compression since I couldn't feel any pressure doing the old finger test. Replaced crank seals and decided to put 48mm BBK figuring it would help my low end torque and address the hill issue. Had the head milled so I wouldn't have to double up gaskets. Cleaned carb until I got the evasive "white light" through pilot circuit. Gapped plug to .025. Reassembled and I've got her running.

Right now she will hit about 24mph according to the speedo, but she won't climb hills without a running start. Top end doesn't concern me as this will be used on our farm and at horse shows, but I need some low end grunt. (Plus I won't have the best top end because I installed knobby tires to better grip the gravel and dirt roads.)

I'm still breaking in and carb tuning. At the moment I do not have the free flowing filter as Taz recommends. My rationale - At times I have to "choke" the air port on the air box to get it to fire. Though that was before some recent carb tuning. Letting her cool down to see if she'll consistently fire up.

I still need to do plug chops, but my main issue is the darn thing is WIMPY on initial acceleration. It will not make it up a steepish hill from stand still.

What can I do? Please don't say step up to a scoot with a variator. I'm aware this is an option and I'm capable of an engine swap as needed, but it just seems the spree ought to go uphill without my Fred Flintstone style help.

Where do I start? Free flowing filter? carb tuning? I've read about the needle position adjustment, but I can't seem to find a pic. Might this be my problem? Or am I just SOL because it's a Spree?

Thank you in advance!
Raf

[otto-man]

Sounds like you have to spend more time breaking in those new rings before trying WOT to climb hills!

[Raf0419]

Thanks for the input. I hadn't considered my part throttle break in as much of a problem. Certainly a good point.

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

You didn't mention rejetting the carb. I'm betting the plug is white. If the power is that bad, dont run it without a bigger Main, and set the needle clip to raise it to maximum.

[Raf0419]

Doh! Sorry I forgot to mention that. I did rejet with the main from Taz's kit.

Plug started out white, but I've now fiddled with the carb enough to where at my last check the plug was grayish with light black coating - though it was slightly wet when pulled. Honestly it's difficult to gauge the plug because I keep playing with my carb settings.

The needle clip location eludes me. Is it located beneath the slider thing?

So in raising the needle clip to maximum does this mean the bottom most position so that the needle sits at its highest position? I will look for it, make the adjustment, and report back. I will also try to post a pic of the spark plug in case it helps.

Thank you.

[mousewheels]

The needle clip location eludes me. Is it located beneath the slider thing?

So in raising the needle clip to maximum does this mean the bottom most position so that the needle sits at its highest position? I will look for it, make the adjustment, and report back. I

You've are correct regarding throttle slide and needle clip adjustment, here's a link to a pic
Throttle needle clip and adjustment - Link

[Raf0419]

Thank you for that. I made the adjustment and she's firing up without my hand choke technique. Progress indeed! Now, part throttle is a little rough so I have some carb tuning I do. Unfortunately it was ridiculously cold today and I had little desire to ride around long enough to warm the motor. Plus I suspect the cold may have been contributing to the roughness under part throttle. I will report back once I've had a chance to really fiddle. It will likely be mid week and possibly next weekend before I have more to report. Also starting to wonder if that free flow filter may now come in handy....

[patthesoundguy]

Was the airbox modified according to Taz Instructions with the kit? It needs the breathe or it will be too rich with the airbix in complete stock configuration. If its way too rich it will seem like it has some sort of rev limiter on it in the top end. It will likely not get peak rpm if its too rich.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

Keep in mind that a 20-degree temperature swing has tangible effects on "jetting". What works in 80 becomes too lean at 60, a little. Since you can't keep swapping jets every day, you have to find the smallest jet that doesn't grenade on your coldest riding day, and live with the rich condition during a warm spell. Come spring, jet down a bit.

[Raf0419]

I did not initially make the airbox modification because the scoot was run in too lean. Now it seems I'm getting adequate fuel and even have potential for a rich situation so I intend to either mod the airbox or go with a free flow filter. It's been unseasonably cold so Inhavent bothered with trying to tune the carb as I suspect I will need to retune once it warms this weekend. So I will place an order for the unifilter and wait until it's a little warmer before I try to dial in the carb. I'll keep you posted.

[Raf0419]

Quick update - So I've been riding the scoot back and forth to the barn with screwdriver in hand thinking I would need to make on the fly adjustments. I made a couple of adjustments early on and for now it seems I have the carb as dialed in as possible given my setup.

Since making the needle adjustment I've had no starting problems, but even at part throttle I noticed some hesitation as I approached 15-18mph. Seemed a little rich so I moved the needle one notch and the same problem surfaced albeit closer to 20mph. So that got me thinking the scoot may be starving for air which in turn made me wonder, "Why hasn't my Unifilter arrived?"

And that's when I realized my blonde moment. Evidently I placed the filter in my "cart", but never actually ordered it. I just rectified that, but until I receive it I will have little more to report....

[Raf0419]

Quick update. I installed the new air filter and noticed a huge improvement! That's what I get for not following direction I guess. At any rate, I'm still tuning the carb. Off the line acceleration is good. I haven't yet tested top end speed as I have one more tank to complete break-in. Didn't get a chance to test my hill, but at part throttle I'm now climbing the other small hill to the barn with no major loss of speed/power.

I have a "dead spot" at about 16-18mph. It just seems to hesitate some. Leaning the mix smoothed it the most. I also tried playing with the needle height adjustment height to smooth it out, but I didn't see much difference. I think I may be a bit rich so plug chops are next on the agenda. Thanks to all who posted and I'll let you know if I get up my hill.

[Raf0419]

Oh and Wheelman thank you for the jetting tip. I think that may be the ticket pending results of my carb adjustment party.