85 SX choke lever and reverse?

[rainbranchtyler]

I've riden my bike twice since I picked it up and I'm having a problem determining which way the lever must go to close the choke. I'm thinking it's to the left, because it looks like there's half of a faded arrow along the top of it. Also last night I tried it both ways, and with it to the left the bike didn't seem to want to go at all, but with it to the right the bike would start up for 4-10 seconds then quit. It kept doing this until I switched it to the left after it started, then it started fully. Then this morning it started no problem with it to the left, but it was much warmer (still below freezing so it took a few minutes of pressing the starter and kicking).

Now about the reverse, I thought to engage it you shift to neutral, pull in the rear break lever, hold the little button on it, then shift down. That's what the guy I bought it from said, and the reverse worked when he originally showed it to me, but I can't shift down. It feels like the break lever is really loose though, and it's not very strong, could this be the problem? Also can anybody tell me where the cable leads to before I bring it to the shop on Monday to look at it? I'm thinking of fabricating a little clamp with a lever on it that I can attach to the frame. The lever will use either a rod or a a smaller cable that will lead to where ever the cable from the button leads. Any thoughts on this?

[Howdy]

Choke: Lever pulled to the left is choke On ( for starting ).
The lever to the right is choke Off ( normal run position )


Reverse:
Left Brake lever in normal position ( Open ). Push the red button down and hold down until the lever is pulled back. Then shift down and the machine should go into reverse. 99% of the time If it don't go into reverse your either doing it wrong or the cable is broke / out of adjustment.
FYI, the lever pulls the cable and thus moves the reverse shift stopper / block ( my words not Honda's ). Once the stopper / block is out of the way it should be able to shift into Reverse.
Howdy

[wonderboy]

Look carefully at the brake lever setup on your machine. You should have two cables coming out of the perch. The top one is your actual brake cable. The bottom one is the reverse cable. Look under the brake handle and you'll see an extra moving piece there with the reverse cable attached to it. When you push the red button on top of the handle (BEFORE pulling the brake lever) all you are doing is popping out a little peg that catches this reverse lever. So when you pull the brake handle now, the reverse cable gets pulled.

Just follow this cable down the machine and trace where it goes. You should be able to follow it to the engine and see if it moves.

[rainbranchtyler]

Hey thanks you guys, I guess I just had the steps with the button a lever reversed. Also my button had a little washer sitting on it about halfway up that was preventing be from pushing it down all the way, it appeared to be part of a cap that had once sat on the button. Also the paint on my button is long gone, lol.