It’s been a little while since I’ve posted anything new, so I thought I’d show you all what I’ve been up to.
After a lot of research, time and labor, here it is folks. An electric start 86 200x. Not a swap. This is a custom built, hybrid motor containing both TR200 Fatcat and 86 200x parts.
It’s not like the 200X is difficult to kick-start or “needs” electric start, but I did it because it was challenging and for my own personal reasons and experience.
Here is what went into it…
Custom assembled crankshaft split, bored, re-assembled and balanced by Tempe CrankWorks.
Basically, its the left side of the crank off a TR200Fatcat/TRX200SX and the right side off the 200X. This way, you maintain the manual clutch and kick start and essentially just add the electric start into the mix.
After getting the crankshaft back, I used a spare 200X motor I had for the build (If the experiment ended up being a bust, I wanted to be able to put the existing motor back in). Tore the entire thing down, installed the crank, then reassembled and rebuilt the top end.
The wiring was challenging because there is not a lot of space to hide all these extra wires on a 200X. I started with an 87 Fatcat wire harness and ended up redoing half of it to make everything fit where it would be logical.
Parts off the 1987 TR200 Fatcat
Left case cover. (Hard to find one of these thats not cracked on the upper right corner)
Flywheel
Starter clutch and reduction gears
Starter motor
Regulator/rectifier
Solenoid
Wire harness
I decided to use the 200x chain guard. It required some trimming and grinding but it worked out well and the case saver lines up nicely with the chain. (The fatcat chain guard would have been about .5” too far out, so the position of the case saver would have not been correct without adding metal to it or welding another piece onto it.) The case cover had to be trimmed by 3mm on the upper right tip where the bolt goes through so that the 200x chain guard would line up straight vertically.
For the battery, I used a battery box from a 2012 Kawasaki Ninja 250R (After reviewing many, this one seemed the most basic for what I was going for and it was $10.00, so I did not feel bad cutting it). With minimal cutting and drilling it worked out pretty good. Ended up building a mounting bracket for it out of aluminum to keep things as lightweight as possible. Installed some Honda grommets and collars in it and it was ready to go. It mounts behind the air box, under the seat latch area. It’s a tricky spot because of the latch and fender mounts, but I was determined to get it in there and keep everything as clean looking as possible. I also wanted to retain the tool box and did not want to do a “Goki” style mount where the battery replaces the tool box.
When I originally redid the bike a few years back, I welded 2 tabs behind the seat bracket to allow a smaller taillight (Tri-Z 250) to be mounted because it allowed more space for a license plate and bracket which at the time was newly required in AZ. I used those 2 tabs along with the airbox rear mounting point to mount the battery box bracket. So three bolts, and the whole bracket assembly drops down.
The battery is a Shorai lithium ion heavy duty battery. It was expensive but it works awesome. Originally, I designed it so that a Ballistic 4-cell lithium battery could be hidden in the air box, but the battery ended up being too weak. The Shorai has crazy power and is still pretty light weight.
For the run switch, I used one for a TRX250 and modified it to accept the 200x headlight connector. Finally, I installed a small LED light in the dash to indicate there is power when the key is on.
Thats it for now. If anyone wants more pics or info on anything, let me know.
I’d like to give a shout out to Shep1970 who is also working on a similar project as we have talked back and forth on this for a while.
DW
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Awesome job!
