Cow Pie's Attempt at a Build Thread, ATC 200S

[Cow Pie]

Well, after spending a little bit of time here It seems appropriate to start a build thread. There is so much good information and maybe in some small way I could help someone else like others have helped me so far. This place is amazing! Smart folks, crazy folks, nubs (like me), funny folks, and the occasional teacher (started learning about The Red Pill, you guys kill me!)
My background:
I started riding,wrenching, and driving machines in the '70's and have never stopped. I especially love to fix them. My first bike was a 1978 Honda XL 185S and I was hooked on dirt riding. Moved on to a Maico 250, Bultaco 250, Suzuki 400, Yamaha TT 500, TT600, (2) Honda TRX250r, Suzuki LT500, Kawasaki Mojave with a 600cc 4 cyl. street bike motor, Honda Ascot 500, Suzuki LT50 (for the kids), then on to Harley's for a bit, back to dirt Polaris 400, (2) Suzuki 250 Ozarks, and another Suzuki LT50. I still have the LT50's for the grandkids and the Polaris and an Ozark. We love to ride, hunt, fish, camp, and shoot.

Then this little red devil came into my life. 1985 ATC 200S. I drove down the street to buy a little Datsun pickup bed trailer someone made and had out on the road for $300.00. Heck of a deal I thought. Talked him down to $200.00 and handed the cash over when he says, "Are you interested in an old three wheeler?" the farmer dude asks. So of course I had to see it. It was rough! He wanted $200.00 and said it didn't run but that it ran last summer. I said I would give him $100.00 and thats all. He accepted and I came home with this (much to my wife's consternation).


I'll continue the story when I have some more time but this is where the adventure has started and my introduction to 3WW... life will never be the same!

Thanks for the fun, you guys are a hoot!

[Cow Pie]

So I let it sit in my shop for several days contemplating on whether to tear into this thing or throw it on Craigslist and make a few dollars on it. Since I like to fix things and I'm a sucker for a challenge, I decided to keep it. After some webernet research I realized these are desirable and very cool. Looking around I landed at this site, dang! was I blown away. There's a whole darn community around these things... now I was hooked!
I like to plan things out so I made a list of what I saw that it needed and started pricing on sites and ebay. Not good! This is going to take some $'s. Seat foam, cover, rear tires, cables, recoil assembly work, all decompression parts (What!!! how much???) all of the plastics, paint/powder coat, brakes, wheel bearings, control levers... and I hadn't even got it running yet.

A picture the night I decided to keep it (I think I shared this before).


After reading several excellent posts here about getting these running, working on some simple fixes such as:
1) New spark plug
2) Ditching the funky, cheap plastic toggle switch mounted on the pseudo number plate and working on the harness cut off at the steering stem.
3) Cleaning the crud and setting the proper gap on the CDI pulse unit.
4) Cleaning every connection on the wire harness.
5) Cutting the last 1/4" off of the spark plug wire and reinserting the boot.
6) Draining all of the vintage '03 fuel from the tank and carb.
7) Perform a carb tear down, soak, clean, jet clean.
8) Drain the molasses from the case and add fresh oil.
9) Disassemble the recoil unit, clean, grease, rewind, reinstall
10) Pull until my shoulder quit and finger bled (seriously)

I had spark and then it ran! I screamed around the yard a bit, shifted through all of the gears, pulled a few wheelies, then shut it down after remembering that it had no brakes except for the rope you see in the picture that the dude tied to the front brake arm and through the missing lever pivot hole that you grab a pull on to stop. It actually worked a little bit.

Now time for disassembly and I really had no idea what I was getting into...

[350for350]

[QUOTE I really had no idea what I was getting into...[/QUOTE]

Yes but they're FUN aren't they?

[atctim]

Good on you CowPie. This specific ATC is the epitome of simplicity mixed with superior reliability Honda had in mind back in the 80s (the last decade where quality and longevity was in the minds of engineers!). I love the fact that you can tear these apart with such ease. One gas tank bolt, and 5 rear fender bolts, and the bike is basically naked for maintenance!

First tip - when removing the rear fenders from a 200S, only remove the 5 bolts under the seat, then loosen the grab bar bolts. the grab bar bolts pinch the fenders in to help hold them down. I can't tell you how many times myself and others get into the trunk and start un-bolting bolts that have nothing to do with the way the fenders mount. then getting the trunk bolts back in without stripping the eccentric fasteners - forget about that!

Cheers buddy!

[Cow Pie]

Good on you CowPie. This specific ATC is the epitome of simplicity mixed with superior reliability Honda had in mind back in the 80s (the last decade where quality and longevity was in the minds of engineers!). I love the fact that you can tear these apart with such ease. One gas tank bolt, and 5 rear fender bolts, and the bike is basically naked for maintenance!

First tip - when removing the rear fenders from a 200S, only remove the 5 bolts under the seat, then loosen the grab bar bolts. the grab bar bolts pinch the fenders in to help hold them down. I can't tell you how many times myself and others get into the trunk and start un-bolting bolts that have nothing to do with the way the fenders mount. then getting the trunk bolts back in without stripping the eccentric fasteners - forget about that!

Cheers buddy!

Too late! Thanks for trying though.
Nice to hear from more experienced members that these are worthy.

[Cow Pie]

So, tear down time.
As atctim stated before, I tried to remove all of the plastic bolts only realizing after that most were not necessary for plastic removal. Experience! I then started from rear to front working on the axle/carrier setup. Things went well until I encountered the rear brake drum. Unfortunately, this exercise was to portend efforts on the rest of my efforts. Stuck on, and I mean stuck! I used heat, penetrating oil, more heat, prying, heat, cold, slide , heat, puller, heat, then a combination of heat + puller + hard raps with a brass and it popped off. I saved the drum though. Experience! What a nasty mess inside there. Linings were gone, drum is terribly grooved, the precious kiss from Miss Corrosion abounds. There had to be a better way to do brakes and guess what? There is!

I posted a question on if there is a way to modify these to a rear disc and much to my pleasure, ironchop turned me on to atctim & Kintore's excellent write up http://www.3wheelerworld.com/showthr...ild-85-ATC200S on how to do that. Great info, great guys for sharing. Parts have been ordered! Still more to come...

Just got a bid for powder coating, can any of you chime in and tell me if this is a decent rate? Thanks

A basic estimate would be around $400. Here's a breakdown:

Frame - $160
Wheels - $120 ($40 each)
Upper fork, handle bars, other small parts - $120

The prices are for a single base coat. If you select a color we have in stock, there is no additional charge. If you want us to order powder, we charge for the cost of what we use. If you are wanting a candy or clear coat, there will be an additional charge.

We're scheduling a few weeks out, but we should be able to turn it around in a day or two. Let me know if you have any more questions and if you'd like to schedule to bring it in.

[fabiodriven]

Lmfao. You're going to fit right in here. Great thread!

[atctim]

I just had my bike completely powder coated and it was $400. Looking back, I think like everything else, PC has gone through the roof. Couple years ago - it would have been 1/2 that price.

Please keep this in mind when doing this project, you will have countless hours and tons of money wrapped up in something you might be able to sell for $1200 - $1500 on a good day. You have to get it in your head you are doing it for you. There is no meat on the bone in ATCs to make money refurbishing to sell. By the looks of the toys in the background of your photos - you are the kind of guy like us. Build it, ride it, keep it for good. I find redoing these simplistic machines to be very therapeutic!

[knappyfeet]

I always like to get my stuff started/running/turning/stopping/etc before I spend one red cent on anything cosmetic.....ie paint/PC/plastics/etc. Maybe there's something catastrophic with the internals of the engine (I hope not)....you know.

Good luck

[Cow Pie]

I just had my bike completely powder coated and it was $400. Looking back, I think like everything else, PC has gone through the roof. Couple years ago - it would have been 1/2 that price.

Please keep this in mind when doing this project, you will have countless hours and tons of money wrapped up in something you might be able to sell for $1200 - $1500 on a good day. You have to get it in your head you are doing it for you. There is no meat on the bone in ATCs to make money refurbishing to sell. By the looks of the toys in the background of your photos - you are the kind of guy like us. Build it, ride it, keep it for good. I find redoing these simplistic machines to be very therapeutic!

Exactly... I won't even begin to say how much time and money I have in that CJ7 you see, or that little '83 LT50. There is no part of this project that is meant to be an investment. You are 100% correct. Thanks for pointing it out.

[Cow Pie]

I always like to get my stuff started/running/turning/stopping/etc before I spend one red cent on anything cosmetic.....ie paint/PC/plastics/etc. Maybe there's something catastrophic with the internals of the engine (I hope not)....you know.

Good luck

Good advice. Good thing we've never made that mistake before, huh? Precisely why I fired it and ran it around the yard first. No smoke, good compression, no gnarly noises, shifted great. Engine is apart now... stock bore, no scoring, no taper, no bore upper wear ridge, crank good, rod to crank and rod to pin all within spec, cam and followers are toast along with the bearing surface for the cam in the head. Good head and cam on order.

Made this cool little stand this last weekend. I hate wrestling these greasy little wretches around!

[ironchop]

200S is one of my favorite trikes.

I'm 6'6" and 240+/- and mine could haul me around no problem. My friends would laugh me off when I went riding with them until I could could weave mine thru the tightest trails quads couldn't touch. It would climb near vertical creek banks five foot high no problem. You won't be disappointed.

200X topend hop-up parts like cams and high-comp pistons with fit in that motor no problem and can provide quite the torque and horsepower boost. From stock upgrade to full race, the choice is yours if you want to go that route. They are virtually the same motor except the S has an auto clutch and pull start rather than manual clutch and kickstart on the X. It's a popular swap to put the S motor in the X chassis BUT the cool factor of building a wicked hard tail S model exceeds an Auto X, as they are referred too, by far.

Checkout Web Cams or Megacycle for cam options. Personally, I like Megacycle. I built a pretty stout 200X. You can get 10.25:1 or 12:1 pistons if you like. That compression release will help keep you from tearing your arm off if you run a hicomp piston

Good to see more S models getting worked over.

Nice CJ-7. My first vehicle was a 78 CJ-7.

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[Cow Pie]

Warning: Don't type in Web Cams.com!

[Cow Pie]

More deconstructing:
After the rear axle/drum insanity, I moved towards the from of the trike. I took special care to label and bag everything into sub-assemblies know how precious most of these small parts are.



All went well until I started removing the last engine mount bolt. You know the one, don't you? That one at the rear on the engine, that's right, the lower one. How is it possible for corrosion to have that tight of a grip on a bolt? I twisted the engine, used a breaker bar being careful not to twist the head off, beat on it using a brass drift from both ends with the nut threaded on, twisted it again, heat, cold, penetrating oil... all over two days, mercy sakes! Finally, I got just the slightest movement from trying to drive it out, more twist, more raps the opposite way, more heat. Got it after three days of off and on work. I threw that bolt as far as I could when it came out. All mounts and connecting hardware were bagged and cataloged except for that spawn of Hades and Persephone.

I will spare more details on trying to remove the rear brake pedal because they are identical to the aforementioned. The pedal is trashed. I had no patience left. As I've stated before, it's not going to get used anyway... good riddance!

Currently, I am at 98% disassembled. The front axle/hub/brake panel are getting their revenge for the evils that I bestowed upon their rear brake pedal sibling. I have another post looking for input on how to separate what has become one. That assembly is still soaking in the solvent tank, stay tuned. Captain Weezy, ebay, or other kind souls, I might need more parts! Cheers!

[ironchop]

Nice work. I usually swab some anti-sieze up in all the holes in aluminum stuff that a bolt goes thru so that never happened again upon reassembly

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