200 big red

[cattrapper]

i have a friend that has a 200 big red that has something crazy goin on. im lookin for advice on this.the thing will start an run great for a while mabee a month or more then the next time u try to start it,it wont start an doesnt have any fire he said the coil doesnt fire either.so he will leave it setting .he will come back an it might start right up or it may not start the next 10 or more times he tries,then all of na sudden he will try an it will start .it is very unpredictable.he also said that whoever he got it from didnt want a key so the ignition switch has been removed.so u just use the run switch an push the button. im not sure where to start. thanx for any help.

[kb0nly]

Replace the CDI unit by the coil, mine did the same thing, and its a pretty common problem. I did a dissection of the CDI box on here a while back. I found when mine wouldn't fire i could take the CDI unit off and smack the back side of it hard on the sidewalk a few times and then put it back in and it would fire right off.

The ignition switch being removed is not a problem, all it does is short the kill wire in the off position and turn on power to the light switch in the on position. So just leave it out for now and make sure the green and black wires that were to the switch are unplugged up in the headlight to rule them out. Also the kill switch on the handlebars goes bad sometimes, just take it apart and clean the contacts and get the dirt out, give it a little wd-40 and put it back together. You can unplug the black wire from the handlebar switch up in the headlight when it doesn't have spark, if it has spark then you have a bad kill switch.

But i still bet on the CDI. What year is it? My 84 i just removed the CDI and the round plug and put on a new square plug and a $8 CDI unit from eBay and away i went, been running flawless on that cheap unit.

[cattrapper]

ok i will check all this out when i get it to my house.thanks very much

[cattrapper]

im not sure on the year of it yet .

[Flossyb20]

If it's been sitting outside...pull the pull starter off and see if any water is getting back there. Behind your starter is your stator, any water in there wil cause the same problem...BUT, the cdi is a common problem for these, I would check that first.

[tri again]

I chased one of those for about a year.
AND I had a running 200es to 'borrow' known working parts from.

Could be as simple as nipping a little off the coil wire for the sparkplug
cap to screw into fresh copper.

Many have replaced the entire wire harnesses only to admit that the
old harnesses were probably ok but just by having to go thru EVERY connection,
they now magically work.