83 Honda 200E Ignition switch question from new guy in Arkansas

[ronnie72404]

Ignition Switch question on 83 Honda 200E. Someone before me hooked up car ignition switch to the Honda and trying to see what wire goes where. Has anyone ever done this or have any ideas?
Car ignition has 4 post such as Battery, Acc, Start and Ignition.
I have red wire hooked up on Battery
Black wire hooked up on Ignition
Red/yellow wire hooked up on Start (Not sure tis is correct??)
Nothing on Acc.
Honda Diagram shows a Green wire on E. (Not sure what E is)
and a yellow/red wire hooked up on HD or Ho (not sure what that is)
I am going to buy a ignition switch from e bay for this but would sure like to see if it runs.
Many thanks.

[barnett468]

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ok, i am not an expert on these but if you simply want to see if the bike has spark, you can do the following, it "should" work . . i think.

1. remove spark plug and lay it on the engine so it is grounded and connected to the coil.

2. unplug the coil wire . . it should be yellow with a black stripe.

3. connect a wire from the positive side of the battery to the post on the coil you removed the yellow wire from.

4. remove the wire on the starter motor.

5. connect a 3' long piece of wire to that post then touch it on the stsarter . . it should turn the engine over . . if it doesnt then the starter is likely dead.

6. if it turns the engine over, look at the spark plug to see if it sparks . . if it does, 90% of your battle is done.

7. disconnect the coil from the battery . . do not leave it connected for more than maybe 5 minutes with the engine not running.

8. if you do have spark you can put the plug in, connect it to the battery and try to start it . . i sometimes use flammable brake cleaner or starting fluid in the carb throat to encourage them.

[ronnie72404]

Thank you

barnett468
Here is what I have done so far. I hooked 12 volt car battery to pos and neg wires where old bike battery used to be and when I take screwdriver across both post of the starter relay it will turn over but not start. I had extra car battery around so that part was easy. So I ruled out starter. Now I pretty much know I need starter relay. I also sprayed carb starter fluid in intake but no start so I have found I do not have spark at the coil. So far I am guessing I need a starter relay and coil at the least and a regular Honda 3 wheeler ignition switch. Motor did turn over but no spark to plus means no run. I think I will try your idea out to at least see if coil is bad.
What confuses me is how to hook wires to car ignition switch. Thanks for any help you give me as I am learning.

[barnett468]

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no prob, you're welcome . . i see no point in buying a new coil until you do the simply quick and easy test i suggested . . even if you do not get spark at that point, it still might be your pulser or coil in your stator or cdi or a bad ground . .from what i have seen, 99.9% of the time, it is a bad cdi and lots of guys replace them with a $5.00 chinese one and they seem to work . . kbonly is the honda cdi expert around here . . if he is not around and no one else can help you with that, i probably can and will be glad to try but you need to try all the tests that anyone suggests.

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[barnett468]

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ok, i see you are going to try the coil test i suggested.

i dont understand what you mean about connecting a car ignition switch to it . . i am extremely familiar with car ignition switches so maybe i can answer a question about it.

n

[ronnie72404]

The 3 wheeler came with car ignition switch hooked up to it. The wiring diagram for the 83 Honda 200e shows 4 wires going to regular Honda ignition switch such as,
Black to Ignition
Red to Battery
Green to whatever E stands for (not sure where to hook this)
Yellow/red wire to whatever hd or ho is (not sure where to hook this)

The other two are what stumps me and feel this is my entire problem.

[barnett468]

The 3 wheeler came with car ignition switch hooked up to it. The wiring diagram for the 83 Honda 200e shows 4 wires going to regular Honda ignition switch such as,
Black to Ignition
Red to Battery
Green to whatever E stands for (not sure where to hook this)
Yellow/red wire to whatever hd or ho is (not sure where to hook this)

The other two are what stumps me and feel this is my entire problem.

ok got ya you are trying to use the wrong swotch that came with the bike . . sorry it just didnt sink in at first . . this is easy . . first you simply need a continuity tester to map the switch with . . you need to find out which pins are active in each key position . . once you do that you will know what wire onm the switch goes to what wire on the bike . . if you cant figure it out after you map the switch then i or someone else can tell you what tto do . . i will be around here today.

[barnett468]

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Because the bike has a separate factory starter button on the handlebars and no accessory position, you will only use 2 key positions on the automotive ignition switch.

You will not use the spring loaded start position or the accessory position on the automotive ignition switch.

Black goes to kill switch on handlebars which connects it to ground when switched to one of the two positions.

Green goes to the green wire on the kill switch on the handlebars and connects to the black wire mentioned above when the kill switch is switched to one of the two positions.

Red goes to the starter relay and has a 7 amp fuse in the line . . It then goes to the battery.

Yellow/red goes to starter relay . . A yellow wire T's off of it and goes to the light switch in the handlebars.

[ronnie72404]

Thanks Barnett, May get to try and work on it again today. Had bad cold last few days. I will let you know what it does.