Please help me fix my 185s

[Blazer]

I just reinstalled the clutch lifter lever assembly as you recommended. The lever now has about 1/2 - 3/4" inch of travel. Prior to this it had about 3" of travel, way too much. Does this sound about right?

Thanks

[Vealmonkey]

Just make sure when you adjust the screw in, you just turn it in till it stops snug, not dead nuts tight. When You back it out the 1\4, it will barely have any play at all. Your shiter lever will probably have from 3\4" to 1" of travel in either direction up or down.
As for your gasket, you could get gasket material, not cork, from your local auto parts place. Take your time and trace around the gasket first around the outside and cut that out. Than make sure you mark and make a few holes to hold the gasket to the cover with several bolts so the gasket doesn't slide around. Then with the round end part of a small ball peen , you lightly tap around the inside edges of your cover until the gasket starts to seperate around the edges of the inside of the cover. Don't hit the edges very hard just many small light taps until it just starts cutting the gasket. It will take a while and you might have to get the tight spots with a sharp razor knife but be patient. And REMEMBER!, You are tapping against aluminum, hard hits will either mess up the edge of the aluminum or bust it all together. Please do not use blue rtv silicone sealant. If that stuff squeezes out inside the engine case it could get into your oild pump and clog it up and that would be all she wrote. While you have the clutch cover off, did you make sure that your oil screen was clean and clear? There are some dark looking "non hardening" gasket materials that should do a good job of sealing the clutch cover, but you have to make sure that the mating surfaces of the clutch cover and engine case are very clean so the "non hardening" form a gasket sticks. This stuff is very sticky and is easy to get all over everything and make a mess. Make sure both gasket surfaces get a light coating of the "non hardening" form a gasket and put them together. If you have to take them back apart, you will need to clean both surfaces again and reapply the stuff to both surfaces again. But don't use the rtv silicone gasket maker.

[Blazer]

Vealmonkey,

Thanks for the tip on making the gasket, it worked perfectly. Everything has been reinstalled, and it is running well. I still have some fine tuning on the carburetor to do, but that's minor.

I didn't spot any oil leaks. One thing I noticed is that I cannot shift back into neutral while the engine is on. Is this normal? As soon as I shut down the engine, I can move it back to neutral easily. Please let me know if this is something else I need to address.

Blazer

[Blazer]

I adjusted the idle and air/fuel mixture today. After lowering the idle, I am able to shift into neutral again. Everything ran great, right up until the rope to the pull cord broke.... the saga continues

On the bright side, I know much more about my machine. I'm bound to run out of stuff to fix at this rate!

[Vealmonkey]

It seems you answered your own question about the neutral. If you look, you can buy steel cable pull cord. If that breaks, you have problems. If you keep fixing all your problems, you're going to have to buy another problem child to work on. I'm glad everything is working out. Every different trike I buy is a learning experience. Have fun.