1984 Honda Elite

This is basically all Woody's fault.

After being introduced to them in his thread, I knew I had to have a pop-up headlamp Honda scooter.  I set up a Kijiji alert (Canadian craigslist) and one day while browsing found a listing for 2.5 1984 Elites located near Thunder Bay. 1 complete and 2 completely disassembled. I messaged them and made a deal, then went to pick them up last weekend. Left home at 6:30AM and didn't get back until 1:30AM. I had a buddy come along for the ride, which was super cool of him.

The complete scooter was a lot rougher than I had anticipated and I probably shouldn't have made the deal, but when you drive that far you're pretty committed.

Loading up

The all important pop-up headlamp.

Unloaded the 1.5 disassembled bikes Sunday afternoon. Managed to cram everything into my shed. Tried to start the completed one but wasn't successfully. Mechanically everything seems to be there, but there's a fair bit of trim missing or damaged.

Today I brought the scoot to work and started to figure out what I've got myself into. Brought it inside to warm up.

To my surprise, it started right up.

Canadian spec Elites did not get the super cool digital dash US market Elites did.

It's got a pretty bad exhaust leak, which was a result of absolutely no hardware holding the muffler to the head, and the muffler being broken in a couple spots

In my pile of spares I only have one other muffler, and it's broken in all the same spots as this one.

Next I pulled the front end apart to try and fix the turn signals. Sometimes they would flash, sometimes not.

Cleaned up all the contacts in the switch

Better, but not perfect. I found that it flashes properly if I boost the battery voltage by revving it.

Also dug into the pop-up headlamp, which was unplugged in the up position. Plugging the motor back in made it endlessly cycle up and down, which was amusing.

Opening up the motor I found a solid state relay inside had melted down.

Luckily I have a spare that looks to be intact.

Right now I'm trying to see if I can get paperwork sorted out for the two that are in pieces. The assembled one I have everything in order. The other two are titled to someone no longer living.

Not really sure what I'm going to do with it. I'll need to get my motorcycle license to ride it as it's over 50cc (it's a 125).

For now I'll probably putter around fixing things up. The plastics are all in rough shape, cracked and cobbled together. It's missing hardware everywhere. Someone has done a sloppy job painting it and got overspray everywhere. So once I get it mechanically sorted I'll probably take it all apart and paint it (not red) with the best plastics of the bunch. In a dream world I'd get it painted to match my Prelude, but I'll probably end up rattle canning it white or blue.

Thanks for reading!

Did an oil change with some 10w40 synthetic. After I took a wire wheel to all that horrendous overspray. I'll do a better job later and really get into all the little nooks and crannys for but now it looks better.

Found more of PO's handiwork.

Dug out a spare headlight motor and checked inside. Found both of them have this gear broken

Filled it with plastic epoxy and then bits of ziptie before it cured.

Still playing with the adjustments to solve this issue. Hopefully this little clip embeds properly

Part of the issue is a weak battery and poor connections everywhere. It works properly if there's a battery charger hooked up feeding the bike 14V. 

Registered this scoot in my name. Doesn't look likely that I'll get titles for the other two which really sucks, but there's still a long shot I'm waiting to play out.

If I can't get titles for the othe rtwo I'll blow this one apart and go through it properly to clean up the overspray, replacing missing/loose/incorrect hardware, and clean all the electrical connections.

Right on!  There must be a (legal) way to get titles....

The title situation isn't looking so great right now...

So the two that are in pieces are titled to the father in law of the person who sold them to me. That guy died in 2016 without a will. The seller is married to the son of the deceased, and shares the same last name. I have nice colour copies of the titles, a bill of sale, and a copy of the death certificate with a signed statement from the son of the decease (husband of the seller) saying the scooters were inherited by the seller. The seller lives in the province of Ontario, I'm in Manitoba.  In Manitoba you just have to sign a declaration in the presence of a commissioner to get a new title made. In Ontario you need to go to the courts or get a lawyer to have an executor named, and that person can get the title transferred.

The seller is not interested in going through those steps to get me a title. 

So I'm trying now to see if I can get the province of Manitoba to issue me a replacement title with the documentation I have. Once insurance agency has declined, but advised me to try another with a slightly different tactic.....

Worst case, I still have the one that is now in my name.

In other news, I fiddled enough with all the adjustments to get this to happen:

Your fix worked - the elite can finally go to sleep

You have a good title for a honda elite? I dunno, sounds to me like that's whichever one you want to drive. 

Been messing around with this thing when I have a bit of time at work.

The exhaust was in several pieces.

It also had something loose rolling around inside. Extracted that chunk sitting on top there.

Broken mounting tabs

Welded it all up

It's much quieter now.

Replaced the spark plug and did a compression test. This is with a cold engine, spec is 183 +/-28psi warm.

Went through the pile of spares and found a better belt. The original is over 1mm narrower than the minimum spec.

Found a nice UNI filter in the spares, but some rodents filled it with seeds. I won't admit how much time I've spent trying to clean it out. Still not sure if I'm going to use it....what if a seed falls out and clogs the carb?

Left side all apart.

Changing the belt.

Grabbed all the variators I have and found the one with rollers in the best shape.

Cleaned it out and packed with fresh white lithium

Hamfisted PO damaged to the splines on the extra drive plate and there isn't a 3rd one in my pile of parts so the only good one is on the bike.

Rode it around with the airbox cover off and it had a massive dead spot at higher throttle angles. Also found an airbox where the screw anchors aren't split open, still have to swap it. I swear all my worst parts are on this bike and the two that got torn down were in better shape.

I've got very little experience with carbs and was pretty surprised that putting it back on made a huge difference. I suspect the carb on it isn't the cleanest so I grabbed a spare and went through it with mineral spirits.

Started with testing the "auto-bystarter" (choke).

I haven't swapped it on yet, hopefully it makes a difference. Too bad I haven't been able to properly test top speed/acceleration between all the little fixes.

Also did a valve adjustment. It's got this neat setup where you don't need to take anything apart.

Just set TDC through this little window

Then loosen the 10mm lock bolt, and push the adjusters away from each other, then back towards each other one graduation. One graduation is 0.010", which is spec.

Pretty neat.

Waiting on a gasket before I put the freshened up carb on.

After the repacked variator and newer belt, the clutch side pulley was pretty squeaky.

Took it off and saw some unhappy looking bearing type things.

Took it apart and found there wasn't even supposed to be holes there. It had lost all grease and 2/3 rollers. Here's some of the damage. As per usual with this bike, the pulleys from the "parts" bikes were in decent shape. One of the good used units on the right.

Seal collar on the good used unit did have  a bit of wear. This is where the roller on the original burst though. I repacked the grease and put the collar on in a different orientation.

Result is no more squeaks, and a much different riding experience! The engine revs higher and it has a much higher top speed. Ran out of parking lot to properly test.

Changed the transmission  fluid as well

Drained the fuel tank. Inside looks great, but the fuel was pretty yellow and stinky.

Got my order of Honda parts in. Put a new float bowl gasket on.

New fuel filter

Swapped out the carb with the cleaned up one

New air filter inside a good housing with intact screw anchors.

The little scoot runs better at cold start/idle now. I haven't had the chance to properly ride it yet.

One of the reasons was the steering got really loose. 32mm nut at the top was loose, I added some locktite for good measure.

Hard to make sure the handle bars are aligned because the front wheel is so tiny and obscured by the bodywork.

Changed out the turn signal flasher with another, signals all work well now.

Someone had painted the transmission cover and done zero prep so it looked terrible. I attacked it with a wire wheel, and the factory finish underneath is actually pretty good. I think it's a powdercoat.

Undecided if I should sand it down and give it a rattle can respray, or leave it as is. Thoughts?

Wire wheeled and painted the muffler with some high temp paint. I patiently waited the full 72 hours for it to dry before using it too...

De-greased the engine. Made a huge difference, I should have done this first thing. Went from ratty gross beater to clean old project. Feels so much better.

Put on a helmet and took it for the first proper drive since we finally had a warm sunny day.

Used my phone's GPS to track top speed, I hit 50mph with it in the limited space I have.

I was hoping to reach 55mph, I'm going to see what kind of CVT tuning I can do, maybe get a new belt and play with the sliders in my spare variators to see what I can come up with. I've also been searching around trying to find a cheap 250cc from a Helix or Elite. I think that would be my dream setup.

With COVID-19 I'm not sure I'll be able to get a motorcycle license this season, so now I'm debating do I put it away for next year and focus on my Challenge car, or start on fixing the cosmetics.

Run_Away (Wears Clogs) said:

I was hoping to reach 55mph, I'm going to see what kind of CVT tuning I can do, maybe get a new belt and play with the sliders in my spare variators to see what I can come up with. I've also been searching around trying to find a cheap 250cc from a Helix or Elite. I think that would be my dream setup.

 

 

 

Too bad you're so far away from Ohio.  I have a Elite 250-swapped Elite E I am thinking of dismantling, or selling whole.

In reply to eastsideTim :

That thing must be quick!

I can't imagine parting it out would be worth it vs selling it whole, but if you decide to part I may be interested in the complete drivetrain

Nice!  All these Honda Elite threads on here make me want to get one for myself.....

Apparently having a 3g Prelude makes one greatly appreciate pop up headlights!

In reply to Run_Away (Wears Clogs) :

I suspect you wouldn't have too much trouble tracking down a Helix or Elite 250 engine up there.  Mine's had a few hard dragstrip runs on it, too .  The wiring was the biggest issue with the swap for me, but it should be a lot easier going from one water cooled 4 stroke to another.