I’ve just started working on my second Honda, a Honda Melody Mini that I bought a decade ago – give or take. Believe that bikes very similar to this one was introduced in other countries, under names as The Eve, Nifty 50 or Spree.
I used it as my daily driver for a short period, and I must admit that I have neglected it a bit since then. It has been standing outside for a few years, also during winter, and it has even been stolen once, where the thief also gave it quite a poor treatment.
I think that these pictures speak for themselves.
I started restoring it last summer, spent several hours trying to make it look decent once again. Started by removing all the dirt, and cleaned the shields. Quickly realized that a heat gun is a great tool, to make the faded red plastic come alive again.
I managed to get the engine running, after having put it all back together, but after only a few short runs, the kick starter got stuck. No matter how hard I kicked it (in retrospect it’s most probably not a good idea to use brute force on something like this), it wouldn’t move.
Furthermore it had begun to leak oil. I could not locate where it came from, but the oil pump was quite greasy as well as the rest of the engine. I gave up on it, and got busy with other things that summer.
Now, one year later, I’ve finally come around to take a closer look at it.
I started by removing the engine from the bike, and inspected the various parts.
Then I saw this, which might explain the oil leak:
A rather large hole in the tube running from the oil tank to the oil pump, which might explain why it was leaking oil, and why the oil pump and engine was so greasy.
I then removed the left engine side, to see what was going on with the kick starter. It didn’t look as if anyone had removed this for a few decades, lots of dirt.
The kick starter gear was completely stuck, not making it possible to move the kick starter spindle one inch. I finally managed to pull it out with a bit of brute force combined with a claw hammer. According to the schematics on CMS there should also have been a washer underneath the gear, which was missing.
I cleaned the parts, as well as the oil pump and the carburetor.
Removed half a piece of a remaining and very rusty exhaust stud on the cylinder, and drilled a hole and made some threads instead with a V-Coil thread repair kit. This should make it possible to tighten the exhaust properly with a pair of nuts and bolts, and then still reuse the old cylinder.
I then proceeded to reinstall the cylinder and the engine head, but sadly ended up breaking both piston rings. Rookie mistake I reckon, so a new post will soon follow on how to do this properly – hopefully.