Express will not fire, act of god!?

Hey all, this is my first post here!

I've had my 1980 Honda Express for a few years now, and it has been running off and on mostly because of long winters and not much time.

Now I'm serious about getting it going though, and it just won't fire! Heres what I've done:

SPARK: It has spark, looks good and blue. New spark plug. There is 5000 ohms resistance at the plug cap. I have filed the points and charged the battery, doesn't seem to help.

COMPRESSION: It is a wind-up starter, so I think it cranks about 6-7 strokes per wind up and that brings me to 90psi pretty quick. About four more wind-ups(24 more strokes) brings me to 120psi, and it won't go much higher than that. Is that good/bad?

FUEL: I'm pre-mixing it for now instead of using the oil pump since the line is broken. There is definately fuel getting into the cylinder, after cranking it a bit and removing the spark plug, putting a torch up to it gives me some nice flames.

The thing that gets me above all this is it hasn't fired ONCE. And I've been fooling with it for a few hours each day for the past 3 days. I'm baffled and beginning to think there is a seperate universe inside my Honda's combustion chamber in which the laws of physics as we know it no longer apply... any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!


PS- I don't see how the timing could be off since I'm sure I haven't messed with it ever, and it ran fine 2 years ago.

Re: Express will not fire, act of god!?

Jap-peds=disposable lighters

I've had three jappeds. If you don't maintain them and they die, you're sunk.

Very hard to repair, hard to find parts, over-complex electrical with a poor quality battery...

A short circuit on that thing? the snake pit of wires under the control box looks like there's a darnb SCSI drive wired in.

I have 2 QT's and had one express (NC-50). I don't know your moped history-- I learned about mopeds on my express. it was a great bike. Once I rode a Tomos and then a decent Puch I realized those jappeds are fun, cute, slow and old. BUT they just cannot compare to a Tomos or Puch.

Plus, they're barely mopeds--- shaft drive, battery, oil soaked beltdrive, battery assist, no pedals at all-- everything says they should be scooters but they look too much like mopeds-- so they kinda sneak into "moped" catagory.

If your problem is electrical, you can do two things--

1. Make it even worse by doing it yourself

2. Possibly fix it yourself if you're good at re-wiring things like scalar interferometers and flux capacitors

3. Pay someone 45$ an hour so they can spend 6 hours figuring out the electrical schematics.

Yeah, sorry to be so pessimistic but my QT's are great but I really killed my express in an attempt to ressurect it.

Re: Express will not fire, act of god!?

Has it got FRESH gas? Old gas is apt to have moisture in it.

I'm guessing your carb is flooding out the engine. Bad float or satuck in down position by varnish from old gas.

Take a screwdriver and tap the float bowl with the plastic handle. THEN turn on the fuel valve and tap the bowl again.

Also make sure that injector line is plugged so no air is leaking into the intake pipe past carb.

Keep us posted? don-ohio

Express will not fire (petcock)

Man, I don't mean to treat you like an idiot, but....

less than 20 minutes after I bought my express I was on the phone with the shop-- this darn bike won't run

it was the petcock. doh!!!

if your TV doesn't work, check the plug!

I didn't mean for you to give up on your bike-- I just think that if you're not firing because of an ELECTRICAL issue not a fuel issue-- that might be a good time to find an electrical expert or a euro-ped.

Good for Don-- checking the basics-- I still have nightmares about the wiring harness on the express.

Too funny about the "wind & release" another bizarro thing you usually only see on Jappeds.


Re: Express will not fire (petcock)

dude recheack the plug. Even though it is new you could have fouled it. I know this because I was in the same situation with my puch. Make sure it is not wet. And test the spark again.

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