What up all. it's nice to see an vibrant active community on this board. Hopefully it's better than some of the car ones I frequent haha.

Well yesterday I had one of those epiphanies that I was a 34 year old man-bro and could go out an buy anything I wanted. As a child, ALL my parent's friends' older children had three wheelers. Usually this meant a beat honda 200 sitting on flat tires in various states of disrepair, but still, I always wanted one. I was never allowed to have any ATV or snowmobiles, even though my buddy's would always drive their blasters and banshees and occasionally 250Rs over. It's now time to complete my childhood.

Quick trip on craigslist and marketplace and HOLY CRAP these thigs are expensive. I never dream a liquid cooled 250r or 350x could be $6-9k. There was not a lot around me that looked good. I REALLY wanted a Honda 200ES big red, but every rider was $2.5k and restored ones were $4.5k so I wasn't super interested. Anyways, I found an 83 Yammy only about an hour and a half from me, so I loaded up utility trailer and went to get it.

Old guy who seemed pretty honest; I work on my cars a lot, but I had never actually ridden one of these things, I had no idea what to expect and or what to look for. He told me it was his son's and that he put a new carb on it and replaced a couple brake lines but it needed some tuning. I have literally no idea how a carburetor works beside HaHA FuEL gO DUMP but no big deal I thought. I thought it looked great with all original plastics. The tires were dry rotted, but seemed to hold air fine, so who cares. It also doesn't have a fricken battery, which the guy didn't mention before. So I hand the guy $900 after driving it around a bass pro parking lot and take off.



I get he home, giddy with excitement




Take her out and sure enough, bogs past half throttle in any gear. OKey Dokey, time to use the youtubes and googlewebs to figure this out. I grab myself a mountain dew and a miller high life and throw some junk clothes on. Come back outside and the entire tank of gas is dumping on the ground out the bottom of the carb. Hmmm>

Well OBVIOUSLY there is something wrong with the carb, I tell myself and the exactly no one else that's in the garage. Throw a pan under here andf drag her in and get to work tearing down the carb





This dang carb is brand new. Turns out there is a secret compartment in the bottom too. I pull that off and there's the float. I measure it, its not even off by 1mm. Check all the seals, blow compressed air through all the various nozzles, jets and needles and put everything back together. I went and got some fresh ethanol free 03 octane. Blew out the fuel lines and checked the brand new looking fuel filter. When I am reassembling I notice the choke is stuck. WTF! Sure enough the plunger wont move and is stuck in the "on" position. Well, that would explain why it starts up in a nanosecond and then falls on it's face with much throttle. I bust it up the best I can with PB and then lube it with bike chain lube. Make sure its in the off position and reassemble.

I then installed a custom sound system, waterproof, weatherproof, solar powered!


And I'm off!


Took her around and probably pissed off some bow-hunters, learned how hard it is to trail ride with no front tire on the ground, and had some fun!



After about 20 minutes, she wasn't running well, seemed to bog down under throttle, it was pulling hard to the side, and I realized there was somehow even less air in either of the rear tires (LMAO @ 4psi)

PArked her and started ordering parts

https://audiaudioxenfree.imgur.com/all

Long story short, while I'm still pumped, I am kinda bumbed. For $1300, I could have bought a perfect one with every thing working that would have been a lot more fun. Every "need help" thread seems to have endless possibilities about what could be wrong, and parts seem really difficult to find. So to make a long story short, here's where I am at. i plan On continuing to update for SEO purposes just in case it helps any else out like me.

1983 Yamaha 200e sometimes I see it called 200ek, 4 stroke $900

- Seems to still run poorly after 10 minutes or so, zero torque in any gear
- Front struts are seized - I can't seem to find these anywhere, any help? Do I have to pay to rebuild? Doesn't seem worth it.
- Headlight doesn't work, switch also kills the motor when turned from "on" to "light", hmm, gonna have to break out the multi meter and see whats goin on.
- Tires completely shot, slime or fix a flat now oozing out of them, thanks dude
- Brakes completely inop, looks like adjustment might help, but rear pedal is maxed out and rear hand brake is just spinning and Im not sure how i can adjust it, looks like the fitting is broke and will be more $$ - sigh.
- muffler is pretty much shot, don't know how I overlooked this, cant seem to find a replacement
- Oil drain plug is completely rounded off, like, looks like a fricken circle. 12 point wouldn't even touch it.

- Purchased new starter choke cable and plunger off partzilla for $120 (holy crap, this is Porsche prices)!!
- Purchased new Duralast battery $100
- Purchased 3 new 25x12-9 tires off ebay for $150

I hate giving up on stuff, but I don't know how much more its worth putting into it. I am hooked on getting a nice one though so I may just go buy a 350x and a 200x for the GF/buddy, and sell this one, but I'm way to nice and don't really want to sell it with issues.