Honda Big Red backfires, won't start. Please help.

[barnett468]

Hello

Great it would be good to know the infonmight help others reading the thread as well as myself for sure.


ps2fixer


I just miss read it sorry lol, it is 1:30am here .


Is it just because it's 1:30 am or because it's 1:30 am and beverage time, lol?

[tri again]

O.K, so I picked up a 1984 shaft drive Honda ATC the other day really cheap, it was sitting outside for 2 years but everything seemed to be in good shape. Anyway, I cleaned the carb, checked valve clearance, timing chain, timing, plug, fresh gas, etc..& all it does is backfire. I can pull it over & it fires but it wants to rip the cord out of my hands whenever it fires & pops really loud out the carb (I checked to see if the air filter/exhaust was plugged & they weren't). I got it to fire up once for about 3-4 seconds, but it ran really sluggish & died. Did the same thing again 30 pulls later. Now I can't get it to run at all, it just backfires every 5-6 pulls (reason I am not using the electric start is because the splines on the starter gear were stripped. I don't know if this matters, but the sparkplug I took out had a LOT of carbon buildup (the one the machine came with), so I put a new one in. The prevoius owner said he never had it running, but as far as he knows it was working fine 2 years ago. Sorry for typing a novel, any advice you could give me would be appreciatedThanks(I've got 7 hondas & never had a problem like this, even had one that sat in a field for 18 years that runs fine after a good carb cleaning).

Killer rope pull has been timing in my experience.
There MAY be a spring loaded timing advance plate running off the cam.
They rust, break springs or just get stuck in an advanced position.
Wicked hard to pull and aggravating as can be.
do you have a
service manual
?
if that's not it, it's a good thing to do a couple times a century.
Then again, I have 3 trikes that are misbehaving so my advice comes with a disclaimer.
You'll get it.
We always do.

[ps2fixer]

Hello

Great it would be good to know the infonmight help others reading the thread as well as myself for sure.


ps2fixer


I just miss read it sorry lol, it is 1:30am here .


Is it just because it's 1:30 am or because it's 1:30 am and beverage time, lol?

More along the lines of just being late, and I just came off a midnight shift that day. I'm one of the odd people that don't drink, smoke, or do any drugs. That is how I afford to buy so much junk all the time .


@tri again

That makes a lot of sense, I have one of the 200es machines and I think it might be stuck retarded (no pun intended lol). It just don't rev or overall run as well as a 2nd machine I picked up. It has a slight bit less compression, but besides that it is the same.

[kormos_93]

Well, I changed the CDI, coil, pulse generator behind the cover on the side of the engine. Nothing seems to fix this thing. I did not change the stator but it has good spark after replacing the CDI. It's still a b*tch to pull over & backfires yanking the rope down. I know the parts I put on are good because they're "borrowed" from my buddy's good running '84 ES. I'm beginning to think it's timing. I have a manual & looked at other big reds & the ignition timing appears to be in the correct spot. So I'm thinking maybe the timing chain jumped over a couple teeth or something??? Would it fire up for a 2 seconds (the longest I've gotten it to run) if that were the case?? The timing chain is sort of loose on one side but tight on the other....I found another big red that runs but is missing a ton of parts for $200. I'm seriously considering just throwing the engine in mine. So fed up with this thing.

[kormos_93]

I pulled the engine apart today. Turns out the timing was off by about 90 degrees, up at the camshaft. Anyway, I got it running & it runs crappy, but it stays running. & IT BURNS MORE OIL THAN GAS!! so it looks like I'll be buying that $200 parts trike. Wow, what a waste of time (at least I got it running).

[elevatorman]

Hang in there,we feel your pain.it will be worth your effort.

[ps2fixer]

$200 parts machine is a pretty good price . You can sell the unneeded parts and profit off that one :P.