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Thread: 1985 250es CDI swap help!

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Location
    Houston, Tx
    --
    7

    1985 250es CDI swap help!

    Hey y’all go easy on me I’m an amateur when it comes to these machines. The CDI went bad on my ‘85 250es Big Red so I decided I would convert to the ‘86. I ordered the red performance CDI that costs about 80 bucks because I figured I may as well get some performance out of the switch. I also ordered a Chinese pigtail to wire in to the harness. I used a diagram that I found on the internet (which I will try and insert in here) to match up the wires.

    The problem- after I got the wires all matched up according to the diagram, the bike ran but roughly. It sputters and surges. I’m just not exactly sure where I went wrong. Is it the hot shot CDI? Did I mix up some wires? Or something I’m not thinking of? Any advise or insight would be greatly appreciated.

    Here is the URL to the diagram I used. I matched up the colors to where they are shown on the ‘86 diagram.

    https://www.justbigreds.com/1985-1986-electrical

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    Edmond, KS
    --
    2,531
    I mat be wrong here, but I think that it's in the CDI that you put on. I don't think it would run at all if you mixed up the wring.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Stellenbosch, South Africa
    --
    179
    The 85 250es is very temperamental when it comes to the CDI, I have tried many variants of different CDI's on mine and she just didn't want to run right, the only one I could get to make her run right was the CDI from Mike's ATV: https://powersportssurplusllc.com/sh...atc-250es250sx
    I had to change out the original plug but that was easy enough, haven't had a problem since as she runs like boss. Been running this CDI for 2 years now, problem free and she starts right up every time.
    1983 Honda ATC250R
    1983 Honda ATC200E BIG RED (sold)
    1984 Honda ATC200X (sold)
    1985 Honda ATC250ES BIG RED
    1985 Honda ATC70 x 2
    2001 Honda TRX90
    2004 Honda TRX300EX (sold)
    2008 Honda TRX250TM
    1976 Suzuki RV90M (sold)
    1967 Vespa Primavera 125
    1958 Massey Ferguson 35

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Location
    Houston, Tx
    --
    7
    Thanks for the info guys. I’ll get a new CDI and see if that does it!

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