Don'ts?......Carb and Airfilter help too!!!

[Tweeked]

Hey guys,
I'm getting an 84' 200ES tonight and plan on working on my trails and jumps on weds. when I ride. Since the 200es only has front suspention I won't be getting big air' on it, only hitting smaller jumps. I'm just wondering what are the main 'Don'ts' in jumping, pulling, mudding, etc. for none rear suspended trikes. Is it possible to bend the frame,axle, etc. because of ruff' riding and doing things its not made for? I would appriciate any of your advice guys.

Thanks, See ya.

-Mike

[King44]

My friend's brother used to jump that exact same bike...all I can say is unless it's already beat up, just stick to wheelies. In the 5 years of riding with him, we have never ridden a full day without his chain giving him problems...the frame or axle or something is bent and out of about 5 shops, none could get it right. Wheelies are always good though :)

[Tweeked]

In your post your say your could never ride a day without his CHAIN giving him problems ("...we have never ridden a full day without his chain giving him problems..."). The 200ES bigred is not chain driven, its shaft driven. Thanks though.

Is there anyone else that could give some info and tips?

Thanks, See ya.


-Mike

[mudfreak99]

My suggestion would be NOT TO JUMP THIS!!! i wouldn't jump this bike because you can bend something very easily.. nothing wrong with a little log hopping though... as for pulling, just make sure your cahin, rope, ect... is hooked to a good spot... not the rear end or something .... or racks.

[250SX]

you're only asking for trouble if you try and jump it. you'll bend things out of alignment & that's especially bad on a shaft drive machine. if you want to jump sell it and find a 200x. :D

Jumping is a bad unless A: the trike is so beat up you just dont give a sh!t about it, or B: the trike is a racing trike(which the 200es is not) jumping is bad on both shaft and chain drive, the 200es was sold with the option of shaft drive, so you find both shaft and chain drive 200ES's. I have a 84 200ES myself, it's really beat to hell,blown front shocks,beat up plastic,bad brakes,bent handle bars etc. I jump it because who cares if something happens, but I wouldnt advise jumping something you care about keeping good. just my 2 cents.

[Howdy]

The 84 Big Reds ( 200es ) were all Shaft drive. There was no option. The 82 and 83 Big Reds ( 200e ) were chain drive.

Howdy

Jumping is hard on the 200cc Big Reds. I wouldn't do it.

[Kilborg]

Problem: jumping poorly suspended trikes.

Solution: 250r, Tri-z 250, Tecate 3 250.

[PowerTrike]

Advise: Absolutly no jumping, i never have with my 84 bigred but do not ride too fast over little "whoopteedoos" (humps) either. Last summer i had mine pinned in 5th in the ditch trying to keep up with a dirt-bike hit a large one, BAM next thing i know i'm on the ground, trike sitting on its side, helmet busted, axle bent, tire off the rim, and the rack was bent. :oops: Now i'm just working on completing a big resto that it kind of needed anyway; new fenders ,straingt rack, paintjob, ect.

Great pulling and backroad machines though, plenty of torque, good for muddin. Just save jumping for suspension trikes. :D

[King44]

ahh i must have been thinking 83, my bad. I have a 250es, it has decent suspension but I'd hate to jump it...you'll never stop me from wheelying though!

[Tweeked]

Hey,
Thanks for all your help.

I just got the trike today and just got in from replacing oil, fuel, etc. It had been sitting in a garage for 1 1/2 yrs. When I was finaly finished I decided to try and start her. But when I opend the petcock I started to hear fuel splatting on the floor, It wasn't from a leak or anything, I trace it to two differn't tubes comming from the carb. One was about 8 in. long and the other a little more than a foot I suppose. What are these two tubes doing by letting out fuel from the carb? And what can I do so they won't let out fuel? Any help would be appriciated.

Thanks, See ya.

-Mike


I just attached a pic of a parts pic of the carb and circled to two tubes that I believe were letting fuel out of the carb...

[Da_Catt]

have you rode a 3wheeler with no rear suspension before. you can jump them if you can hang on. I had a 82 185s with no suspension and when jumping it just a little i would bounce when i landed. was kinda cool and the sand looking at my tracks. when you ride it you will find out that you will not be wanting to jump it very high at all.

[TimSr]

You need to take the carb off and clean it out. The floats are stuck. This is common when theyve been sitting idle for a long time.

[Tweeked]

TimSr,
So I need to clean out the carb? I've never done that before, I might mess somthing up...Is it easy to clean and repair? What do the floats look like, so that I know what I am in there to fix. Is there a certain carb cleaning fluid I should use, or can I use oil, wd-40 or some other lubricants?


Thanks for the help, See ya.


-Mike

[TimSr]

In your diagram above, #3 is the floats. When the bowl fills with gas, the floats will float up and push #14 (needle) up into a seat where the gas line comes in, shutting off the gas to the carb's float bowl. Either your floats are not floating up, or the needle is sticking, and not going up into the hole like its supposed to. Youve probably also got brown varnish all over in there from the old gas sitting in it, and any automotive carb cleaner, (such as Gumout) in a spray can will clean it up pretty good. Also be sure it sparys clear through all the orifices, and take out the brass fittings with holes in them to clean. The one with the single hole is the main jet, and the one that looks like a sieve is the pilot jet. Pilot jets especially are susceptible to clogging during storage. Your main concern however is the needle and seat, which is opened and closed by the floats.

[Tweeked]

I don't have the carb cleaner you recomended...Can I just use WD-40 or something like it? I'm out to install my new KN filter and throttle cable, If I have time I will dig into the carb. See ya


Thanks


-Mike

[Dirtcrasher]

Gas works well with a stiff brush, but the carb cleaners in a can dissolve the bad gummy gas even better. As far as for jumping, jump the hell out of it, it will not snap or break etc. Although unless you have a nice downsloping landing ramp you will boing boin boing all over the place. Common sense here - if you land flat it it thuds and your face almost touches the handlebars then your jumping to hard for that trike. I have a shaft drive 250SX The stock shock was blown so I put a metal bar there temporarily, it still got jumped. That picture of me jumping in the snow is now a 10 ft tall monster, I jump that too.

[Tweeked]

Hey,
Thanks for the reply.
I just got in from messing with my trike...Bad news, I wasn't able to install ANY of my parts, or even clean the carb in the 1-2 hrs I was out there. It seems simple to just replace the air filter...but no, It wont fit or something, what am I doing wrong? Theres barely a lip to slip it on, both the lips the same size as the filter lip...I removed the throttle cable down to the carb...And ran into problems there. I skrewed off the cap to the carb where the cable runs into and theres a spring and then the cable runs down to the bottom from what I see. How the hell do I replace the cable if I can't access the end of the cable?!?!...By that time I decided to move on and try to clean the carb out, well I removed the two bolts connecting it to the engine thing but it wouldn't come off, So I started removing these two bolts to see If I could pull the bottom half off the carb...Well after doing that It wouldn't budge. I have no clue what I am doing and NEED HELP...Its nearly impossible to remove the carb because the frame and other wires and tubes are in the way!! I would REALLY appriciate some help.

Thanks guys, See ya.


-Mike


Ps. I've attached another broken down pic of the carb...It would be nice if you could save that pic, then draw on it what bolts and skrews I need to remove in order to do the things I gotta do. Thanks again.

[Falstaff]

First don't panic. It's not that hard to get the throttle cable off.

1) unscrew the throttle assembly like you already did
2) the whole unit should pull out, you will be holding the throttle valve, spring, and jet needle.
3) you have to compress the spring with your hands towards the cap you unscrewed.
4) at this point the plate and jet needle with e-clip are loose, so let them fall out safely
5) now you will be able to see the slot the cable sits in, so just move it over and the cable is free

Does that help?

[Tweeked]

Thank you,
I'll go out and try that In a minute. But I still can figure out how to put the new air filter on, and how to clean the carb...I was just out a min ago and saw some engine starter stuff. It was in an aerosol can that you spray into the carb, I tried it but it didn't work. I'm going to try and install the throttle cable like you said and maybe that might fix some of my problems.


Thanks, See ya.

-Mike

:arrow: I still can use some help on the air filter and carb cleaning though, Thanks again.

[Tweeked]

Ok,
I just came in AGAIN...I did what you said but the throttle cable is basicaly frozen down in somewhere. I saw the little jet head sticking up and saw where the throttle end went into the carb, but after pulling quite hard It wouldn't even budge, I was affraid I would break something inside the carb if I pulled any harder so I stoped. Do you think the cable is somehow frozen somewhere? Is it Ok to drip some oil into the carb and try to free a FEW things up? Or with this mess it all up? Thanks


See ya.


-Mike

[Falstaff]

Cleaning carbs isn't too difficult either(not to be confused with ether which is the stuff in the spray can you tried).

First step is to take out the 4 screws on the bottom of the carb, then the bowl will come off. Sometimes the gasket seals down pretty tight so you might need to tap on it with a rubber mallet CAREFULLY.

Then you will get a good look at the guts of the carb. Take a mental note of everything you see here. Maybe even snap a picture, digital cameras are handy. Your main objective is to take every little piece out of there and clean the inside of the carb of any crap that may be found. This requires carb cleaner spray or I like to soak parts in solvent.

Take out all the little jets and clean them thoroughly with carb cleaner and blow out with air compressor.

They key is getting everything spotless and remembering how it all goes together.

Let us know if you need more help.

[Falstaff]

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/psshd/carbpicture/mikunicarb.jpg[/img]

[Tweeked]

Thanks for the picture of the taken apart carb but its not quite the same as mine.
It has 3 skrews holding on the bowl...I've gotten two off easily but the third is right between the frame and airbox, Its impossible to get to :( ...Even with a snake socket thing. I tried to remove the airbox in order to get the the third skrew but It just kept getting worse, the airbox is attached with 4 bolts where two of them are impossible to get to :( . And I still haven't gotten the throttle cable or air filter back on. I never thought it would take this long to do 3 simple repairs! I really don't want to take her in because the soonest time would be fri. or so and then the cost would be high too, and I would have to wait a week or so before getting her back. Does anyone have the same problem I have, not being able to remove the carb because of the frame and other non movable parts are in the way, what do I do? This is getting very agrivating, IF I can only get that carb out!


Thanks for your help guys, See ya.


-Mike

[Tweeked]

Will this work???

Hey, if I put some carb cleaner or something into my carb will it totaly fix everything inside the carb, and clean all the mess out? Or would I still have to remove the carb and all then pour the stuff in? I'm just seeing if theres anyway I can solve my problem with the "carb cleaning" and the "throttle stuck in the the carb" problems without having to remove the carb and all.

Thanks in advance, See ya.


-Mike

[Dirtcrasher]

Nope, each part has to be super clean - individually. I know the mechanic isn't cheap but how cheap are the parts you might damage by improper removal and installation. I'm layed off to bad you don't live in MA or I'd hook you up.

[Falstaff]

Take off whatever is necessary to get to the carb. The airbox almost always has to go and usually something else that's in its way. You will get it! Don't give up!

About the carb cleaner......imagine you have a dirty shirt covered in thistles or thorns or something. So you throw it in the washing machine. Well it turns out kind of clean but still has the crap floating around in the washer and on the shirt. So it is true for you carb. You must get it out/off and apart. Spend a lot of time on it.

[Tweeked]

Hey guys,
I went back to the trike and looked it over...It would take too long and I would probly end up messing something up if I try to fix the problem myself. So I called the cycle shop and the guy said they do service Trikes and will fix my carb and throttle cable for me. I'm hopefully going to drop it off there tommorrow if everything works out. Thanks alot for your help guys. I have one more question though, I still can't figure out how to replace the stock Airfilter with my new K&N filter. Is there a trick to doing this too?


-Mike

[Tweeked]

Hey,
I just got in from washing her off....Looks a little more shiny, here are some pix...Gotta love digital camera's :D !

[Dirtcrasher]

Nice machine, you'll enjoy it. Glad to hear you'll let someone more experienced fix it. The AF should just slip right on. My 250 SX filter pulls over the stock screen filter and it has an inner and an outer filter. I pull them seperate to clean them and then reinstall. The filter has a rubber area in front that clamps to an air box flange. My Blaster filter is also 2 pieces but they both have a rim of foam in the front which seats against the air box front flange. I don't know what you have, post pics or someone who understands your model can help.

Hey thanks for your help,
I've just come in from installing the air filter, It had a big ring that you tighten over the lip and then slip in the air filter, then tighten it a little more and its snug, thanks again for your help though. Well she goes to the shop tommorrow morning. I hope It doesn't take long so I can ride her fri. or sat. :-D


See ya


-Mike

[Tweeked]

Oops, I didn't sign in or something. The Guest was me.