Creative Mechanics...

[Billy Golightly]

Some people call it Jerry Rigging, Redneckin' It, Cobbing, and some people call it poor maintence...Whats the most "interesting" fix you've seen on a trike? I'll name a couple of mine and tell the stories.


#1: Beer can, siliconed, engine case patch.

I bought a Big Red 200E and a box full of engine parts for $200 several years ago. The timing chain jumped off and needed replace. Upon getting it home, and looking at the engine, I discovered a gob of blue silicone about the size of my fist on the back side of the case, evidently from chain damage. When I took the case off I discovered a hole about the size of 4 quarters, with a "Red Dog" brand beer can bent around the hole, and the silicone holding it on. The Big Red belonged to a Hunter, so what can I really say. Musta been a drunken trailside fix while 10 other guys stood around watching.

Number Two is the most interesting fix I've yet to see. This is one I discovered recently, and I will have pictures of it soon.

#2: Kawasaki Mojave bearing carrier and rear axle under a Big Red 200E (Complete with brake disc)

Now, I can hear you laughing now but I swear this is just the beginning. I get a call from my dads friend one day, and he says:

"Hey Billy, My cousin bought this threewheeler for $100, its a 200 something I think But its got a 4 wheeler rearend under it. Think you could come by and look at it?"

"Sure, Yeah, I can come by there tomorrow afternoon. Do you know which 200 threewheeler it is? There were several."

"Na not really"

"All right, I'll be over there tomorrow after lunch and take a look at it."

"Ok thanks Billy, Cya"


That day during lunch, I'm thinking to myself "How does that thing have a quad rearend under it, unless its a 200x?" I start to doubt myself and think he said it had a quad frontend on it instead. Little did I know....


The next day comes around, my dad and I go over there and checkout the trike. Its an 82 200E (Big Red). It is still in the trike form, no conversion. As I walk around behind it, my mouth dropped and I said "Whoa, Holy trailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro!" Here is what appears to me, to be a Kawasaki Mojave bearing carrier and axle under this Big Red held in place by 2 hose clamps, and a block of wood :eek: . Upon further inspection, nearly all of the frame in the area of the original carrier was rusted out, and had been recreated with small angle iron. I also noticed that the right hand side of the axle was about 3 inches further back then the left side. Not exactly tracking straight. Pictures to come soon of this "Gem in the rough".

[smokeyhonda]

I know duct tape holding together a headlight isn't rare, but how about a big square car headlight throughly duct taped to the mounts (82 200 honda) and wired in via the "twist" method. I discovered this on a parts bike I bought, thought the plastic was trashed and I was at least getting a good bulb!

[250rAL]

How about an old lawnmower wheel bolted to the swingarm to take up the slack in an extremely stretched chain? A friend of mine did this to his poor Suzuki 230E.

[timex69]

i found an egg in a gastank, i got the bike cheep cuz it wouldnt run cuz the egg was blocking off the gas flow.

[JoeSuzuki]

I had many experience with welded hubs and shafts, and let me tell you, ive never seen one that was straightly angled, they all seem to wobble when spinning.

[thehickfarmer]

ever hear duck tape holding the front end ??? yes it is unbelivable but true.. DUCK TAPE

[Wickedfinger]

The joker who owned my LT-R before me JB welded up the waterpump weep hole because it was leaking. I never noticed it because he actually did a great job filling it. For those of you who do not know what this is for - its there to tell you when your pump needs a rebuild by letting it leak a little before it lets go. This caused the pump seals to wear all the way through (because I had no idea they were bad) and leak into my crankcase, ruining my new kevlar clutch plates and the impeller.

[leprogle]

My friend's 185s, always had trouble with the recoil, so to fix it, he took it off!, he brought a large piece of rope with him (wrapped around his handlebars) and when he needed to start it, wrapped it around the flywheel, and gave it a yank (he also had to be careful to not get his pantleg caught in the spinning flywheel, while driving it. However this was never really a concern, seeing as how his footpegs had broken off, and he drove around on his bike indian style, cross-legged and just put his foot down to shift now and then. I don't know how he would have stayed on if he had to turn quick!!

[plkmonster2]

Lol, I like the egg in the tank! And the rear end story was great too. I got an old us 90 3 wheeler, I think it was a 74. I was riding it, and then the frame split in half, right above the motor. I'm like WTF??? I take the tank and fenders off, and the frame chunks taken out of it. The only thing holding it together was a piece of iron, and 2 hose clamps, lol. I'll post a pic soon.

[New2ATC]

on my sx, the guy I bought it ffrom rigged a lawn mower gas tank on it, because the other one had holes in it...a crapload of tape on it..

[hrc200x]

If this isn't a stock or aftermarket CDI for a '89 TRX 250r this is probably most rigged thing I've seen. I don't know what it is, all the partsfish pictures look like the CDI is supposed to be a square box, my R has no square box, just this thing:

http://www.boreal.org/~kimball/250rCDI2.jpg

[Billy Golightly]

Hey hrc now that I look at that, I'm almost 100% sure that is an LRD CDI box. They cost about $250 new and are suppose to give you better throttle response and a few more RPMs. Sure looks like one.

[hrc200x]

HondaATC: you might be right, maybe its a older version cause it looks a little different than this one, or possibly made by a different aftermarket place. Here is what I found:

http://www.mxatvracing.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/online-store/scstore/p-LRD200.html?L+scstore+rzkn7643ff0b9f0b+1046279733

[Yamada]

I buy a YTM-200 for 20$. But At this price I had the motor (with no carb) and the main frame ( no rear or front end) But I decide to make it work. So I took a TRX 125 rear end, I made a swing arm and bolt it on the frame. And i have 15" car tire. The carb is from a Honda CJ 360 and the fork too.

[thefox]

When working on my friends old honda ct70 I found the intake gasket was made from a cereal box, frosted flakes I think. Even though it didn't seem to be causing any problems I figured that it might as well be replaced.

[2strokepwer]

I bought a 350x with both rear hubs welded, gear shifter welded, front sprocket welded, and rear antifad locknut welded to the axle. i got it for $100 and sold it for $500.

[YAMAHA_Jim]

SOme people should not be able to get thier hands on a welder.
Anyways,I dont think I've ever rigged anything on any of my ATV's,except for swapping my rear brake cable for the parking brake cable.To me that wasnt a rig,it was a major improvement.
Back when I had my BMX bike I used to be the jerry rig king.One time the rear wheel bearings took a crap on a sunday.The bike shop was closed and I needed to ride.I removed what was left of the bearings and bearing cases and replaced them with 3 or 4 3/8 washers on each side.Then I screwed on the nut that held the bearings in there and went riding.The rear tire wobbled like crazy,I managed to ride and jump for about 2 hrs before the hub finally blew apart.lol That was an expensive fix lol.
I also made a silencer for my 1980 kdx80 using 3 inch PVC pipe and the right fittings to adapt it to the pipe.I beat Acerbis to making the first plastic silencer :) I used a soda can cut in half wih holes drilled in the bottom end for a baffle and fastened it to the end of the 3" pipe.It worked great but the can kept getting blown off when I raced it up.GMAN remembers that, lmao. I think I made 3 or 4 silencers for that POS.
From now on I fix things right so I dont have to mess with it on the trail miles from home.

[Yamada]

Your story is very cool Yamaha Jim. For my YTM-200 I take a ¾ inch water pipe for exhaust. It's take me two 90 degree fitting to go around the frame. And I made my silender from a 2x3 iron square tube. what sound come from that thing!!!!! And at night I see the fire get out of the exhaust. I think that i will rebuit it with 1" pipe for increase the air flow. And for the air filter I take it from a mitsubishi 1,5 liters engine.

[smokinwrench]

It wasn't a trike motor, but it was genious.

It was an Cat G333 (old 6 cylinder natural gas engine). Some guy made a complete head gasket out of a piece of intertube. It ran for a couple years. It must have taken forever to built the gasket. I'm guessing there is close to 50 holes in a head gasket that size. They said it never leaked any water either.

[ATC crazy]

My grandpa is a great 'rigger. He has windsheild wiper motors for power windows on his car. He has no AC in the car either, so he puts a cooler of ice in the back seat with a fan sitting in it.

He also has an 84 (I think?) 200S that he got from one of my great uncles in FL. It didnt run, so he had to fix it. Did you know that plain copper wire works pretty good as a spark plug wire?

I've also seen a 110 with one wooden fork made out of a dowel rod....no lie

[TimSr]

At Crow Canyon about a month ago, Garageboy came with his 200x. He found he had no back brakes so before going trail riding, we decided to bleed them. They started bleeding out but the resevoir was empty. Noen of us had any brake fuid so he put some motor oil in it. The oil was too thick, so I added some WD40 to thin it out a little. We bled them out, and had a good day of riding. I wonder if he has ever fushed that crap out of there and replaced it with brake fluid yet!

[YAMAHA_Jim]

I'm guessin auto trans fluid would be a good substitute for brake fluid also.Not as thick as motor oil and holds up under pressure.

This is a good topic that should be tacked up on the top of the forum.

Smokinwrench-I've made a few gaskets out of inner tubes as well on hydraulic systems, they're still in use 2 or 3 yrs later.

[TeCaTe_MaN]

i just made a gasket for my tecate's waterpump cover out of a coca-cola box

[ATCMedic]

ok I’ve got a couple that should be good for a few laughs:

#1 86 200x I bought for $450 that had a “bad transmission”. It kept ‘jumping out of gear” as you rode it. This bike still had the sprocket cover/chain guard on it, and once I got her home and took a closer look at it I noticed that the previous owner had allowed the worn out front sprocket to lose EVERY tooth on it. It was almost perfectly round, except for very small grooves. The chain would just have enough of a hold on to make it down the driveway or street, once you took it in the lawn it would start to slip and act like it was jumping out of gear. Interestingly, this same trike had a leaking countershaft seal. I found this out when I took off the worn out sprocket. “Hey, why is there all that orange silicone spread on there?”…. Once I peeled it all out I realized that the previous owner had pulled out (or lost?) the seal and made a new one out of silicone sealer!

#2 I think the Rube Golberg award for all of the trikes I’ve owned/worked on goes to the guy who was selling the “86 350X” that I bought several years ago. When viewed from 25 yards away it did look like a 350X. It had the right front end and headlight, the gas tank was right, but somehow something just didn’t look right in the back end of it. As I got closer to it I really started scratching my head, it only had one head-pipe! Walking around the trike I recognized that the frame/motor/exhaust was all 86 200x. The entire front end was 86 350X, my first thought was that it was an 86 200x with a 350X front end on it. I told the seller he had a 200x not a 350X and he proceeded to pull out a receipt for the new rear axle bearings that he just bought from Honda. The part numbers were for a 350x, so I checked out the rear end a little closer. I was floored, it was the whole rear swingarm/shock/carrier/axle out of a 250X quad! I felt that a complete running 86 200x engine and an 86 350X front end, tank and complete set of plastic was worth the $300 he was asking so I bought it and proceeded to put the parts onto the proper machines I was working on at the time. I will NEVER forget that machine for the rest of my life. I think I still have the 250x parts from that one.....

[hondatrikesrule22]

A lawnmower exhaust for a 110,and a piece of wire for a master link.

[leprogle]

My dad used to run a lawnmower exhaust on my old 185s, he also had one on his xl185s dirtbike, he said there was no difference, and it worked fine. however, the only stock part on BOTH of the bike's exhaust was HALF the headpipe, the rest going to the small lawnmower muffler was plumbing pipes and fitting. looking at the bike, you could almost think you were looking under a kitchen sink. and of course my dad thought that there was nothing wrong with it, and that it was just as good as a stock muffler...... :rolleyes:

[Billy Golightly]

My dad used to run a lawnmower exhaust on my old 185s, he also had one on his xl185s dirtbike, he said there was no difference, and it worked fine. however, the only stock part on BOTH of the bike's exhaust was HALF the headpipe, the rest going to the small lawnmower muffler was plumbing pipes and fitting. looking at the bike, you could almost think you were looking under a kitchen sink. and of course my dad thought that there was nothing wrong with it, and that it was just as good as a stock muffler...... :rolleyes:


Holy trailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro LMAO!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

[YAMAHA_Jim]

Teacate Man- How long do you think a cardboard(coca cola box) gasket will last with hottt liquid splashing on it? Waterpump gaskets are rubber or waterproof gasket stuff.It may hold at first but eventually the coolant will seap though.
Its worth the few bux to get the right gasket rather than loose your coolant and blow your engine.
Maybe I'm wrong???

[TeCaTe_MaN]

i think it will last a long time....it's not like theres a whole lot of pressure theres a little but not a bunch, it's still pretty thick and i torqued the bolts down really tight so it will either hold or leak slow, slow enough that i will notice, and ever since i made it every time i ride it i feel under the waterpump cover before i start it just to make sure there isnt a slow leak...been holdin so far, and i am going to buy a gasket kit real soon

[atcmatt]

On my first 200es and my first 250es both the frames had been patched up with water pipe the 200es had so many patches on it i was to scared to ride it, so i bought a new one, well the 250es wasnt as bad but was still so crap.....

Matt

[hondajas]

I bought a crappy Big Red (200E) for real cheap. So far I welded the right rear hub on the axle, siliconed around the head because it was leaking, siliconed the air box 'cause there's a hole in it. Also welded the front forks shut because they would fall out. One of the rear tires has some silicone on it to stop a slow sidewall leak. There's a wire from the carb mounted up to the handle bar for a choke cable. I drilled a hole at the bottom of the recoil housing to drain water because I continuously drive in water past the seat (it doesn't want to die!) The muffler is completely gutted out so it's terribly loud. There's lots of silicone everywhere to waterproof it when I'm in the water. This mahcine doesn't burn or leak a drop of oil. How? I don't know. I tell you this is one solid machine!

[Dirtcrasher]

Not an ATC story but....

My carbureted Toyota truck lost it's fuel pump out in the deep woods.

Towing was not an option. We drained some gas and put it in the windshield washer fluid resevoir and then stuck the spray hose into the carburetor. We got home by squirting gas directly into the top of the carb by pushing the washer fluid button each time it would start to die!

[JoeSuzuki]

I like that last, very ingenious, no joke, you very pulled a nice trick. Your rubber hoses must of been crumblin to peices after that though?

[Name Brand]

Had a crappy old lawnmower that wouldn't stay running. The carb wouldn't stay open enough so I did a quick fix. I stuck a small stone inside the carburator which kept the flapper valve from closing all the way. It ran horribly, but it ran.

[Yamahammer490]

Last fall I was riding with a bunch of buddies way up North, in the middle of nowhere. My Tri-Z overheated and blew out all of its coolant. Nobody had any water but one of the guys had a couple bottles of Mountain Dew, so into the radiator it went!

I rode the rest of the day without any problems. They still give me crap about having a Dew-powered trike.

[250rAL]

You should have drunk the Dew, "processed" it, then put THAT in the radiator. :D

[plkmonster2]

You should have drunk the Dew, "processed" it, then put THAT in the radiator. :D
Lol, :p Do the Dew! Lol. I sure would like to see a dew-cooled trike. LMAo

[Yamada]

the mountain dew might be flat after been running int he water pump.

[Yamahammer490]

the mountain dew might be flat after been running int he water pump.

Believe me, I just wanted some fluid to get me going. When I poured the Dew in I thought to myself "jeez, I hope this doesn't foam up and spew all over..." I could just see green foamy dew blowing out all over the place.

[Howdy]

By request here are just a couple I have seen in the past year.

The first one was on a 87 200x. This is a custom kickstarter. Only the bottom part is oem. The lever part is made from a metal rod. The person even went to the trouble of adding custom anti slip rings on the top part. These were welded on. If some one wants it make me a offer. lol

http://www.3wheelerworld.com/3WWSP/RedNeckKickstarter1.jpg



This item is a off of a Yam175. The person reworked the shifter linkage. They welded a different joint on it. The person was too cheap to buy the correct joint.

http://www.3wheelerworld.com/3WWSP/RedNeckLinkage4.jpg



This is another good one. I can't remember what machine this was off of. All I can remember is it was a Honda. This is a custom made hand shifter.
http://www.3wheelerworld.com/3WWSP/RedNeckShifter3.jpg


I have seen a lot of other so called fixes that rank up there. Just when I thought I seen everything I buy a machine off of a Redneck mechanic. lol
Howdy

[250rAL]

That hand shifter looks like a nice spear for your first rollover!

[leprogle]

This is the exhaust that came with the 200x roller I bought, he said he used to run it on his other motor that was in the running x.
he probably thought like my dad---hmm........$150 for an exhaust pipe from the dealer....or $3 from canadian tire!

[short4stuff]

hey howdy ... I think i will need to do something like that to my 175 shift linkage ... its screwed I dunno where to get one...

I have to move in like 4 inches up to shift gears and like 4 down to shift ...

[Howdy]

hey howdy ... I think i will need to do something like that to my 175 shift linkage ... its screwed I dunno where to get one...

I have to move in like 4 inches up to shift gears and like 4 down to shift ...

Trust me, this didn't eliminate the free play in the shifter. lol
Howdy

[UtahLugers]

Mountain Dew... lol I was up in the hills driving my S-10 Blazer around and the Radiator hose broke... we ended up using electrical tape for the hole and the other guy only had a 6 pack of beer... yup! Drove it home with beer in the radiator!

[3wheelrider]

This was worth the bump back-for some good laughs. Some funny stuff there! Too bad it didnt keep on...

[250rRoostmaster]

Mountain Dew... lol I was up in the hills driving my S-10 Blazer around and the Radiator hose broke... we ended up using electrical tape for the hole and the other guy only had a 6 pack of beer... yup! Drove it home with beer in the radiator!
I wonder if that's considered an "open" container? lmao

[250rRoostmaster]

Last ride at Florence my front sprocket bolt and crush washer somehow vanished, I ended up taking a heel-guard bolt from my buddies banshee and a big washer from my chain roller and got to riding again! Always bring tools on a ride!!

[Mosh]

2 am..3 miles from camp. A brother in law that is 6'11 and 330 lbs on a 92 LT250R loses his oil plug and trans oil as well. We only have Banshee's..Towing him back in Wellsville Mountains is not an option. A quart of oil in a back pack, and a fresh Tampon save the day..Weekend for that matter.
He rode it the next day and when he got home he had to pull the tampon out with channel Locks..

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m40/cosmicquads/IMG95201405169513084295506.jpg (http://s100.photobucket.com/user/cosmicquads/media/IMG95201405169513084295506.jpg.html)

[RIDE-RED 250r]

^^^^^ULTIMATE Suzuki slam right there!!! LOLOL!^^^^^ Love it :D

[greenhuman]

My mates, kids and I camp out on the beach near my place. None of us smoke and sometimes there's no matches or lighter for the fire.
I get a thin stick and soak it in the fuel tank. Then take off the spark plug cap and get someone to pull the starter while I hold the plug lead just off the head to create a spark. Put the end of the stick near the spark and presto.

[Billy Golightly]

My mates, kids and I camp out on the beach near my place. None of us smoke and sometimes there's no matches or lighter for the fire.
I get a thin stick and soak it in the fuel tank. Then take off the spark plug cap and get someone to pull the starter while I hold the plug lead just off the head to create a spark. Put the end of the stick near the spark and presto.

Thats some true MacGyver trailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro there...I'm gonna have to remember that one!

[atc007]

I have lubed up really badly neglected moving parts on the trail by pulling the dipstick and using it as a very easy oil dropper. Nothing I ever thought was really trick. But has made a lot of guys think it was genius.

[Bren_downe]

Toki dubbed this my "frankenshifter"
193655

[toki]

lol

picture this. a larger grown man on a 200e... with a lawnmower seat bungee corded down to the rear rack.... with his 15 year old son riding on that.... for 40 miles round trip.

yup. i sold a wheeler to them. sadly they killed it too :( i should have known better.

[Daddio]

One time when my son "1upfront" was drag racing his 250r it sheared the key on the flywheel. At first we weren't sure what had happened, other than the fact that it wouldn't start. It was in between rounds, so we were frantically trying to figure it out. Then I noticed that it wasn't sparking when it should, so we pulled the flywheel off and sure enough the key sheared in half. So I took the rounded part out of the crank and turned it around so the rounded part was sticking up and going into the flywheel. It worked pretty well for a temporary fix and he didn't miss a round.

[RubberSalt]

Some years back on a Blaster we had, it grenaded a piston. During the rebuild, we found a patch of JB weld the size of a half dollar on the bottom of the case! It didn't leak when tested!

A few years later, we picked up a couple more dead blasters for $400. During the tear down, we found just dumb, all over it. My favorite modification was the grab bar. Had some log chain :-D


Our generator came without muffler. The guy said it would run for a bit and then die. I took the carb apart and found brass floats. I dried them out and patched it with solder. It fired up and ran well, but loud. I grabbed some of that iron plumbing i read about here, and fabbed me up a pipe! I welded the old blaster muffler to it, it helps so much!