1984 ATC 200ES Project thread

[Murray]

Hey folks, just joined the forum after buying a Honda 200 ATC Big Red after seeing some guys ripping around on 250r's and falling in love with trikes. I bought a beat up big red for cheap to fix up and ride before getting into the sport bikes. It's my first three wheeler and I'm happy to have a project to work on, but I have quite the laundry list of things I need to deal with.

- The cylinder on one of the forks has a hole in it. I'm hoping I can JB weld the hole and replace the fluid in the cylinder itself and things will be tickety boo.
- Battery needs to be replaced.
- Small gas leak on the tank that the PO smeared Bondo over. I should have guessed that there was a problem but when I picked it up he had pretty much enough gas to prove that it runs. Haven't decided if I'm going to use a solvent or weld it yet.
- Compression reads at 115 PSI, well down from the 156 PSI spec. The motor also burns a lot of oil and the smoke seems to be coming from somewhere around the block rather than out the tail pipe. I'm thinking that the likely cause is either a head gasket or piston rings, but to be on the safe side I want to just do a full top end rebuild. The motor is old and if I'm going to be taking it apart I might as well give it some love.
- The front brakes are toast. I tried to take the brake arm apart yesterday but I think there's a whole host of problems including the arm, cable and shoes.
- Rear brakes are good except for the fact that they're missing the brake arm. Hopefully I can get the part and the brakes will be fine. The foot control assembly is in good shape so I'm very hopeful.
- Quad in general is pretty beat up. I'm not planning on doing a full restore back to show room condition but I want to get it running top notch and looking good.

I made this thread to document my progress and share with anyone who's interested what I've learned over the course of working on this bike. I'll post some pictures of where the bikes at now and more when I finish and hopefully the results are night and day.

In the mean time does anyone know where a good place to source parts is? I imagine parts from Honda will be pretty expensive and I'd like to avoid that if I can. Also, if any of the more experienced guys have any tips/tricks I would really appreciate it.

Thanks! I'll have pictures up soon!

[350for350]

First, just to mess with you a little, you have a trike, not a quad as you say. If it's beat up enough that can't tell the difference, SELL IT! Now that the joking is over, do a "wet" compression test. Take out the spark plug, put a LITTLE bit of oil in the cylinder and do the compression test again. If the reading is higher than before, then your rings are wore, if not, it's likely a valve that's not sealing right. If it is burning oil, you should be able to see blue smoke coming out of the exhaust. If it's burning oil and there's an exhaust leak at the head, then you might see smoke coming out of the leak. Also be VERY careful welding on your gas tank. Besides the obvious fire hazard, the metal isn't very thick, likely thinner yet if it's rusted through, and you could make a small hole bigger really fast. I'm not too sure that you can JB WELD a fork with a hole in it. Other than that, have fun.

[Chopsaw]

The front suspension on a 84 200 es does not take oil . Are the rear plastics in good shape ? Do some snoopin around before you get to deep in that thing . You might just want to part it . Hope you got it way cheap .

[f76]

JB weld the gas tank leak. Welding will burn a hole straight through unless you know what you're doing and have the proper equipment/amperage. I've repaired gas tank leaks with JB weld and it works great and it is much easier.