Looky my new $50 trike!

[Getmoresoon]

Hey folks. Thanks already and in advance for all the help I'm gonna get from you folks :p

Just picked up this '83 ATC185 from my co-worker for the goodly sum of $50. Needs a front tire and carb work, plus other misc cleanup.. but it's pretty much all there!

Carb was CAKED full of crud, but after giving it a boil cleaning, it looks quite nice.. all the passages cleaned up nicely. Only problem I have with carb now is fuel leaks out the drain / overflow hole.... I initially thought it was overflowing and the float needle wasn't sealing, but if that was the case then once I shut off the petcock the flow of gas out of the carb shoulda stopped! So now wondering if the drain screw isn't sealing/seating right. Thoughts on that guys?

But the good news is she pulls over nice and obviously catches/runs for a few sec.... will tune it up once I have it NOT spewing gas all over the engine.

The front tire's never gonna hold air again.. but do you think I can simply put a tube in there?

Some pics..
http://www.pbase.com/getmoresoon/image/120938023/large.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/getmoresoon/image/120938028/large.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/getmoresoon/image/120938026/large.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/getmoresoon/image/120938019/large.jpg

Should be loads of fun!

Getmoresoon!!

[theiizz08]

sweet find for 50bucks. i have one my self its a blast to ride welcome to the bords:welcome::beer

[harryredtrike]

if gas comes out even with petcock closed the petcock is malfunctioning.over flow is two things,incorect float level or stuck float pin.clean her up again and double check all settings to the manual

[MonroeMike]

Worth every cent, welcome to the forum.

[racer....X]

a little work and youll have yourself a nice ride.

[Yamaha_Rules69]

You could deffinatly put a tube in that front tire, if its not dry-rotted to the point you could fit your hand in there. I guess you could also try some green slime if its just small cracks. Nice steal for $50! Best deal I got on a 83' 185 was $60, but it had incorrect forks, solid and bent, and I had to replace the coil and clean the carb. Nice project!!!

[whipit]

not bad at all

[UlsterATCFan]

That trike looks fairly complete and original, best $50 you ever spent

[rdlsz24]

I believe the 185s has the metal tab in the carb that you can bend so the float pushes the valve up higher to stop the flow of gas. I have had to do this on several trikes. If the little tab is plastic this trick won't work.

Rob

[juggaloclownz18]

Ive got the same problem with my 200s that i just cleaned the carb on, except the petcock stops it when i turn it off..... The float and needle looked good when i cleaned the carb too, now im disappointed, I really wanted to ride my new buy..... Oh well i guess thats the steps i need to go through with a barn find that sat there for over 10 years at least i figure..... Good luck, check your petcock/fuel strainer would be my uneducated guess....

[Getmoresoon]

So parts hunting now.. is there anything I should be wary of? Found this post from a guy nearby... I'm struggling with the thought of paying $100 for parts from this guy when I bought the bike for $50 :lol:


"I HAVE A BUNCH OF SPARE PARTS FOR MY 200E. THE PARTS I HAVE WILL FIT ON ANY 185 OR 200 HONDA THREE WHEELER. I HAVE FULL MUFFLER TWO GOOD CARBS CYLINDER CAM VAVLES TWO TIMING CHAINS SEAT TANK TWO COMPLETE HEADS IN GOOD SHAPE AND A FEW OTHER ODDS AND ENDS"

Do most/all 185/200 parts between the years interchange relatively nicely? I noticed that the carbs changed over the years.. and settings / jets between the 185 and 200 vary a bit. The other parts should generally fit I think.. only bore size on the cyl head seems diff in the specs? Totally ignoring bottom end which has obvious differences.

Getmoresoon

[threewheelin-feelin]

the 50 dollar finds never get old...i found a 84 200s one time for $50 took it home and was riding it within a hour hehe

[Autophysn]

Wow! Your soooooo lucky! I am jealous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[riverrat]

I get all teary eyed when another trike gets rescued, good job!

[Getmoresoon]

Picked up a tube for the front today.. that was a bit of a challenge in this area. Only *1* of the 4 cycle places here had a tube to fit (or tire for that matter!). So, silly me figured I'd break the bead, pop in the tube air up and be done tonight.:wondering

Yeeeah.. riiiight!

Damn, that's a tough bead to break. Certainly wasn't happening by hand (ok, so the only other tire I cracked off was a Utility trailer tire.. who knew :D) so a quick bit of googling and we have the Redneck method of bead breaking... 2x4 and drive up on it. Yeah, well, now I have 2 nice pieces of 2x4, and the bead's still set :crazy:

Guess I give in and pay the garage down the road to do the tire for me tomorrow after work.

Fun times!

Getmoresoon

[TrailerRider]

Score!!! 185's are a friggion blast!! Have fun! Also just went thouggh trying to break beads on my sons 90 for new smaller tires (Insert son asking dad, how do I throw the back around more..lol) I pushed it down a little with a 2x4 and expose the bead a little. Shot some PB Buster in the bead and waited for 10 minues. Went at it agiain and it moved alittle farther. More PB on the new exposed area, 10 more and it started coming loose pretty good. I than sprayed it all around the bead and let it sit for 30 minutes. Went back out and they came off with a little force from me and my 12yr old son. Good luck, breaking beads on these little tires is harder I swear than car and truck tires..lol

[aldochina]

good score, i didnt see any pics though!!As for the 200e parts, the exhausts, tanks, and other things are not the same as a 200s. I have alot of 200s parts. Let me know what you need, I may have it.

[Getmoresoon]

Didn't see pics? weird... all in the top post.
I balked on the parts *deal*; some people have a different idea on what "serviceable" means than I :-)

[aldochina]

for some reason i got no pics! on the work computer, maybe that has something to do with it? I'll look again when i get home

[Getmoresoon]

Latest update!!
Grudgingly hauled my front tire off to my mechanic to get the bead broken... heh.. he couldn't either! Mind you, he was using a machine for a car tire. He's going at this point"I usually just cut 'em off...." I figure I'm hosed, load my tire back in the car and head off to the closest bike shop to my house (not my place of work..this plays out, trust me :-) )

So.. not only are they able to break the bead... as the guy's looking at the tire.. "Ya know, I think I have one of those upstairs..." !
How much?
"$50 or so"

!

Mount it please!

So for $62 total, I now have a NEW front. Chen Shin crap, but wayyyy better than ol crazy crackz. The play out part was I was calling for tubes or tires starting from the closest place to my work.. not to my house, and stopped once I found ANYONE who had anything to fit. Hindsight... if I'd started the other direction, I'd not have had to buy a $30 tube vrs a $60 tire. :lol: Live and learn!

Now part 2 of today's update... tore the carb apart again to see why I continue to burble gas everywhere. While I was at it, I decided to pull the Idle Mixture needle as I was gonna reset everything to factory defaults.. found it was a bit cruddy. Obviously my 1st carb job (boil it) was not as effective as hoped.. so pulled the pilot and main jet too. Pilot was still 100% blocked. so a bit more tlc on the kitchen table (My wife just LUVES me!) with some regular ol carb cleaner and rags, plus a bit of soaking and I have some very nice and clean jets. Nothing obvious for why she's overflowing tho... so reassemble and remount. NOW she fires up and RUNS REALLY well! YAHOO!!. The unfortunate end to all this is I'm still overflowing the carb.... a VERY close inspection does seem to show a track in the rubber on the float needle tip, so I wonder if it has just worn too much?

Any cross-references for that needle? Id like to find locally if possible, but selection here is always spotty at best.

Getmoresoon

[Getmoresoon]

IT LIVES!!!! Got the float needle yesterday.... also noticed the overflow pipe had pinholes corroded into it around the base.. there's my slow leak. Seal-All to the rescue overnight.

Bolted everything together couple hours ago... no leaks or seeps! Changed the oil (I didn't clean the centrifugal oil screen on the clutch side.... does anyone?), lubed the chain.. and started her right up! Idle is a little low, and I need to adjust the mixture, but she's running nicely... took a little rip around the yard for a blast! Needs brakes!!! :lol: My buddie who sold it to me says... "No one uses the brakes on these"... yeah.. I think I like the ability to stop faster than a drop in momentum gives.

But one grinnin camper here! WOOT!

Getmoresoon

[MonroeMike]

Glad you got it running.

[Getmoresoon]

Thank YOU very much for the manual. Helped big time.

[1983HondATC185S]

Hey folks. Thanks already and in advance for all the help I'm gonna get from you folks :p

Just picked up this '83 ATC185 from my co-worker for the goodly sum of $50. Needs a front tire and carb work, plus other misc cleanup.. but it's pretty much all there!

Carb was CAKED full of crud, but after giving it a boil cleaning, it looks quite nice.. all the passages cleaned up nicely. Only problem I have with carb now is fuel leaks out the drain / overflow hole.... I initially thought it was overflowing and the float needle wasn't sealing, but if that was the case then once I shut off the petcock the flow of gas out of the carb shoulda stopped! So now wondering if the drain screw isn't sealing/seating right. Thoughts on that guys?

But the good news is she pulls over nice and obviously catches/runs for a few sec.... will tune it up once I have it NOT spewing gas all over the engine.

The front tire's never gonna hold air again.. but do you think I can simply put a tube in there?

Some pics..
http://www.pbase.com/getmoresoon/image/120938023/large.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/getmoresoon/image/120938028/large.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/getmoresoon/image/120938026/large.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/getmoresoon/image/120938019/large.jpg

Should be loads of fun!

Getmoresoon!!

That's great! I bought the same year and model trike for the same price and about the same condition last November. I completely stripped it to the bare from and just got it back together last week. Posting pics soon!

[1983HondATC185S]

In response to breakin the old tires off the rims, I couldn't believe how stubborn they were either! I ended up cutting my old tires off with an air powered cut-off wheel. There are like 16 steel bands that run around each tire bead. I first cut off the tire itself with a razor knife, leaving only about an inch of rubber around each side of the rim. Then I shaved off some more with the knife until I could see about a 3 inch section of the metal bands. Then I used the cutoff wheel to CAREFULLY grind away the bead. I ran the wheel parallel to the rim's outer lip in order to prevent cutting into it. It takes some time, but it's better than payin the shop the $30 they wanted just to remove my old tires.

[rickybudz]

$50 bucks! Score! The tire thing sounds like something I had went through recently! Those particular beads are a MF! I took them to my local tire guy. He tried the machine, to no avail. I took all THREE of my satanic beaded tires home with my tail between my legs. Then I too ended up with about 14 broken pieces of 2x4s in my driveway, and still no broken bead! The next day, my tire guy calls me and tells me he found something to get er done(His words)! So I took them back and he pulled out this big 6 foot chisel looking thing with a slide weight on it and it worked like a champ! I don't know what it was called and it was a crude method, but worked great!

[mopar_man]

$50 bucks! Score! The tire thing sounds like something I had went through recently! Those particular beads are a MF! I took them to my local tire guy. He tried the machine, to no avail. I took all THREE of my satanic beaded tires home with my tail between my legs. Then I too ended up with about 14 broken pieces of 2x4s in my driveway, and still no broken bead! The next day, my tire guy calls me and tells me he found something to get er done(His words)! So I took them back and he pulled out this big 6 foot chisel looking thing with a slide weight on it and it worked like a champ! I don't know what it was called and it was a crude method, but worked great!

It's a slide hammer. I've had to use one with every ATV wheel I've had to break down. I think it's even mentioned in the service manuals to use those. :P