84 200ES basket case rebuild.

[Trapperpete52]

So far new parts have installed are New Ebay special carburetor, CDI unit per the switch to the new style found in archive, battery along with box and a pull start that was MIA ( not yet installed that). The wiring is a mess and still to be fully fixed. The good thing is when jump the solenoid it turns over well and has compression. The spark is blue but seems weak to me. My new throttle cable that came with the carb is too long as in when installed the thumb throttle is maxed open but slide is still bottomed out. Anyone know of a way to shorten it? Is there a way to install a new end once cut the cable off?

[350for350]

Be careful here. The cheap carbs are usually trouble if not complete junk. The fact that you're already having issues with it (even though it's just the throttle cable at this point) should be a warning sign. Maybe you can get the cable working right and then have no more issues, but I wouldn't bet money on it. A genuine carb isn't cheap, but once it's good, it's good.

[Trapperpete52]

Found on Ebay a throttle cable repair kit. I am going to try to get that to work at least long enough to make sure how deep this money pit is and if will be worth more time and money.

[Trapperpete52]

Good news kind of LOL. The beast lives! Got her to fire up and the wife rode it up the road a couple hundred yards. The shifter came loose as I was afraid it might. Some PO had welded the shifter on but wasn't the welder that he thought he was. At any rate it does run and may reduce myself to weld the old shifter back on just to make sure it is going to be worth the effort to keep fixing. It has a lot of blow by out of the crankcase vent tube. The cable repair kid did solve that problem and some spare parts left for more. Pretty cheap fix at around $8.50. I do have more questions. I see both manual as well as centrifical clutches for these 84 ES. Do they run both or were there straight manual models as well?

[wonderboy]

With regard to the clutches, the machine only came one way and it uses both.

The 200ES (and most auto-clutch machines) uses two clutching systems:
1. The centrifugal system is what disengages at low engine RPM to allow you to come to a stop (and not kill the motor)
2. The manual clutch system is linked to the shifter and actuates when you push on the shift lever

There is also a one-way bearing as part of the centrifugal system, and it is a common place to have issues. However, if you aren't having troubles with these, I'd leave them alone. If you have to change anything, I'd stick with OEM friction material if possible.

Are you having some issues that may be clutch related?

[Trapperpete52]

I am not sure yet as the shifter lever isn't operable at the moment. The wife was doing her torture test on it when it came off shifting into 4th gear. Said it was like went into neutral. Will pursue it farther but will be a couple days probably before can get to it. Thank you for the quick answer on the clutches.

Had a small window of opportunity and pulled a farmer fix. Welded the old shifter to the shaft and has all 5 gears working. Think the hi-lo-reverse had went between hi and lo on her. At any rate the beast lives so on to fixing other major malfunctions. Does anyone by chance know the size and length of bolts that hold the pull start in place?

[mendoAu]

Since I have a 84 200es I'll tell you right now that if you want a possible heart attack search for parts for this "almost" one of a kind. My best friends are taps and dies and a trip to the hardware store to get top of the line bolts/nuts etc. at a fraction of the prices you will find online. I guess if you are intending to restore it to "original" go for OEM parts but even they are often no longer available. Just for thrills check out replacement parts for that pull start assembly...have fun, you got yourself a real work mule there.

[Trapperpete52]

I sure have noticed that as well on the parts finding. not interested in making it a total factory rebuild more a rider that can be depended upon when needed. Hard to beat a good mule.

[ps2fixer]

As far as parts go, the 200E machine shared a lot of the same parts, the shaft drive on the ES is the major difference. Some of the other 200cc engines have similar/same parts too. For bolts, check partzilla.com for new oem if it's still in production. Any common bolt should be "ok" prices, odd one of a kind type of bolts are the expensive ones or ones that go out of production.

What's wrong with the harness? You said it's a mess, does it just need re-wrapped, or does it have bad wiring/connectors?

Good news about the 84 200es, it's the most common year of the 3 wheelers, so really the parts should be fairly easy to find compared to other 3 wheelers. If I remember right, over 100k was sold. The shaft drive with reverse is a nice touch over the 200e and the high/low range can be really useful. The 250es (and most newer work horse machines) came with a "super low" gear for first gear and Honda did away with the low range.

Since you mentioned blow by, I'd suggest a compression test, then test again "wet" with a little oil. Assuming rings are bad, the wet test should be higher compression. Service manual says it's 156 +/- 14 psi. Valves could cause low compression too.

Another thing to note is the mechanical spark advancement system under the "CDI" cover on the head. It's quite common for the springs to be rusty/broken. With it working right, it should be pretty peppy for a shaft drive 200cc machine. I drove one of these for years with it not working, and got one with it working and was amazing how sporty it felt lol. I have springs listed in the 3ww shop, part number is provided too if you wanted to order direct from Honda for cheaper. The rest of the advancement just needs to move freely since it's basically just a weight.

For the electric start, if all is working right, jumping Green/Red + Light Green/Red in the headlight (for the wiring for the starter button) should make it crank. If not check the 7.5 amp fuse on the red wire just off the positive battery cable. If that doesn't work, test the yellow/red wire at the solenoid for power with switch on (could just ground the Green/red wire to make it energize).

[mendoAu]

We are talking a 84 200es. Front brakes, rear etc few choices, ditto pull starter, ditto starter clutch assembly, ditto allot of things that only have some parts choices from some 83 and some 85m's. Scan the parts businesses and you'll find a sheetload of "no longer available" items for the 84 200es. But that is what keeps the running ones precious..HA!

[ps2fixer]

You can scan any 3 wheeler model and find there's a massive amount of out of production parts lol. Some things are aftermarket produced, but since it's a pretty tight niche market, a lot of things are not made, or it's more or less end user made, just look at the 3ww shop for examples. Common things like brakes etc you can get aftermarket easy, cables for the most part are all produced aftermarket too.

As far as used parts, 200es and 200e will be the most likely finds, 200m is a lot more uncommon machine, but does share a lot of parts with the 200es. Best thing todo when looking for a part is find it's part number on partzilla.com and look what else the part number fits. If you really need more options, sometimes you can go though the surrounding parts and find enough things matching to find another interchange. Like the 350x stator is a different part number 85 to 86, but stator + flywheel as a set is interchangeable between the machines because the case and crank are the same part numbers.

Over the years I've found a lot (like 6 or so) of 200es parts machines for cheap, like $100-200 in completely trashed shape. Most I could get running as long as the harness was together enough yet. Might be a valid thing to watch for if you have room for a parts machine. The little red wire coming off the battery positive wire is common to break which kills the electric start.

[sledcrazyinCT]

buy M6 x 20mm bolts for your pull start

[Trapperpete52]

Crap hit wrong button. Lost my post had typed up. The previous owner seemed to have a thing for silicone and filled all the pull start mount holes full to the top. Tried the make your own clean out bolt to little avail. Tap on order with long each shaft but will be 3 days at least before gets here. Still chipping away at it in my spare time. Replaced rear foot brake cable and hardware. We have brakes now and starts. Front brake is the next project while await my tap.

[ps2fixer]

Brake clean seems to remove red rtv/silicone pretty well, but it's a stinky nasty mess too.

Sounds like you have a broken bolt, I might have overlooked that part in your posts. If you can't get it out on your own, you could try a mechanic shop for automotive since broken bolts are common for working on rusty old cars, atleast here in Michigan it is. Careful on drilling it out, it's a real pain to drill a steel bolt out of AL. An easy out might work, but you might need to do some extra work to get the rust (I assume it's rusty) freed up. A good shock with a brass , or if it's sticking up a bit, you might be able to weld another bolt to it. If no go on the welder, heating it up then spraying with penetrating fluid can work pretty well sometimes, just don't melt the AL. or burn up wires etc.

EDIT:

Oh also that cover the pull starter bolts to is pretty easy to replace, might want to check replacement costs, might be worth while to just replace it.