Barn Find Deluxe

Sometimes you find crazy things. 

This was the headshield of a 1986 Honda Elite Deluxe 150. I bought it for $50 as a parts bike and after pulling some panels and hosing it down, It turned out to be really clean and complete.

I cut the Kryptonite U-lock off the rear rack with the angle grinder. I did it at night so it was exciting seeing all the sparks flying. I did the usual run down (spark/compression/fuel) and cleanup (empty tank, change oil, new plug, fresh battery) and it fired right up.

It did have some cosmetic issues. The visor was broken so I temporarily replaced it. I also fixed some broken plastic with what I call Frankenstein Stitches. This picture is from another bike but you get the idea. 

I had two semi-related weird issues with this one. What makes the Elite Deluxe 150 "deluxe" is the pop up headlight. I am not sure that there's any other scooter ever made that also had the pop up headlight which is prominently featured  (at about 00:22) in this ad for the Deluxe 150 featuring DEVO (awesome):

When I got the bike, the headlight did not pop open but was instead set permanently open. It worked but I was a little sad it didn't open and close like it should. The other problem was that the headlight worked but would short out while I was riding which made it impossible to take out at night. I fretted over the issue for a week or two frustrated at not being able to find the short. Then one evening as I fired it up just to ride up the street and back, I found that the short was in the start button switch. I could now control the light coming on and off. It turns out that the start switch, when pressed in, fires the engine and when pushed back out by the spring, reconnects the headlight circuit. I assume this is to not add extra drain to the starting circuit from the headlight.

The plastic tab behind the spring had broken and the switch was not returning to the open position so the headlight circuit was shorting out. I wasn't able to locate an OEM replacement switch at the time so I wired in separate generic switches for headlight and starter switch and was off and running. Except that the following day, the battery was dead. It had a full charge the night before and it didn't now have the charge to make the starter click.

I recharged the battery and rode it around and everything seemed to be fine but then the following day, the battery was dead again. I worried that I had somehow messed up wiring in the new switches or worse, that the engine was not charging the battery while running. On the plus side, I learned how to test the charge to the battery and it appeared to be working the way it should. That was good but I still had this problem of a drain on the battery.

I turned the scooter off and sat there to consider the issue and I noticed a sound coming from under the small front hood. I opened it up and listened and watched. The tiny motor that opened and closed the headlamp was working to close the permanently open headlamp. I am guessing the previous owner, in chasing down the phantom headlamp short, had misconnected the headlamp motor wires and found the lamp no longer opened. In hunting down the phantom short, I probably reconnected them correctly and after finding the phantom short, the motor began working again. It tried all night long to close the headlamp and in the process ran down the battery. I moved the little bracket that held the lamp open and it shut itself like a little robot.

That was a nice touch Honda. I appreciate it.