i have found the impossible to fix. i am begging for help.please.....

[vegasbuddy]

now i have seen alot of sites that have 3 wheeler questions but this site by far is the most impressive.
tonight i have come to the cross roads of "do i sell it" or "do i keep it"
i have a 1984 Big Red 200es. Now i know what your thinking......But give this a look at before you pass over.
im sure that this one will have every one trying to figure it out....
Problem_______
about 3 months ago i decied to rebuild my familys big red. we are the first and only owners... bought in 84."my brother"
i replaced at that time
-entire rear end
-compleat front end
-fenders
-gas tank
it ran for about 2 or 3 mounths.ran like a top.it was awsome.
i decided to show my daughter how to ride.just into the barn.showed her wear the gas was.gave it a quick rev. and boom. it died.no spark. so i gave it a couple days.took a look at it. and deiced to replace these parts;
-cdi box (bought it from the dealer 225.00
-ignition coil bought it from dealer 60.00
put them on started right up. gave it a small rev. boom died.
took the plug out not spark. got a new plug no spark.
brought it back to the house got the clymer book out and started looking.at that time i replaced the following parts;
-stator
got it all together started right up first crank.took it out rode it for about an hour parked it gave it a kiss went home.brother goes out to ride with his son.goes to start it.guess what no spark.so i go back out bring home and decied to replace the following parts;
-regulator rectifier
-thumb on of switch
and now i still have no spark.i have run every test that is in the clymer book.and every test comes out fine.(went out and bought a fancy ohm meeter) i dont know what to do next. i grew up on this thing i can not let it go. and i can not let it sit there and die.if there is any one that might have some answer please let me know.alls i want is to ride with my daughter and the rest of the family. and now it seems that every one is counting on me to get this fixed. im stuck i have so much time blood sweet and tears in this now.and yes i said tears. i have no idea wear to go from here. please help me i begging any one.

[dcreel]

Check all of your wires, and plugs. Clean all the connections. Sandpaper them if they are rusty or dirty. Check your grounds for rust, clean them up with sandpaper too. It sounds like you may have a short.

[EarlyBronocGuy]

Seriously, I have restored/rebuilt 5 mid-80's Honda ATC's, they all sat out in the weather in somebody's back yard or out by the barn, all of them started up and ran just fine after I cleaned out the gas tanks and carbs, cleaned all the wiring connections, and fixed a few cut wires. I have never had to replace a single electronic component, and I trash on my bikes hard when I ride them.

You've got something grounding out or a loose connection somewhere. It's no fun, but I would pull the entire wiring harness out of the bike and inspect it carefully on a workbench. Check the insulation on all the wires, clean EVERY connection, crimp the female terminals a little tighter, verify continuity of any circuit that would effect the ignition, even wiggle the wires and connections while you're checking continuity to make sure there's not a flaky connection somewhere - like a wire that looks like it's crimped to a terminal good, but the conductor is barely hanging on. I had a bad connection from the spark plug wire to the 90 degree plug terminal on one bike that stumped me for a while, but I just kept checking things until I found it.

[tri again]

i got one just like it.
swapped all known working parts from gf's trike when she wasn't looking....still had the SAME
intermittent spark.

so I pulled the battery out to put in another trike and the s.o.b. started with NO battery in sight.

that may help you differentially diagnose it.

.

people get terminally frustrated and buy replacement wire harnesses and they usually admit the FIX
was prob due to the fact that they HAD to fool with EVERY connection..

and it works now.

you got me interested it working on trikes now..

almost as bad as a pizza commercial.

[tri again]

one more silly thought

check resistance of that right angle sparkplug resistor thing..see if theres , well, the correct resistance or some sort of continuity..not sure of the specs..

and heere's the joke, if you have enough wire, cut the last 1/8th to 1/4 inch off the plug wire. credit to earlybroncoguy

dont ask me why but that spark plug thing screws into the wire about 1/2" but SOMEtimes it can make all the difference in the world.

I've seen that work a few times and takes less than a minute and comes off your list of possibilities

[phil53]

check your neutral safety switch, disconnect the wire and try to start with the wire jumped to ground & ungrounded

[honda200x1987]

The one thiong you should never do is use jumper cables to start , this will fry electrical componets including CDI boxes, that is usually why they go out.

[4cylinders]

hey, spiders in the kill switch.

[SYKO]

You are exactly what the teach everyone not to be in school " A parts changer"..............

Why change a regulatot or rectifier, do you know what role they play in spark?

A CDI box, a coil????????????????????? WHY??

Did an ohms meter and shop manual tell you to do so? Clymer is alright but we have free OEM manual here on the boards for downloading.

I know your trying to do the right stuff but you probably have a simple problem and you spent hundreds on parts that had nothing to do with it.

All my Hondas' have original stators, coils etc etc.

You need to have someone help you with an wiring diagram and trace the power loss, lots of Hondas just need a ground and the spark goes BYE BYE!!








geeez dirt why dont you make him feel alittle bit better why dont you? I bet you push old ladys out in front of busses dont you?

so what if he spent alot trying to fix his trike havnt we all at one time? live and learn obviously it means alot to him so does it matter how much was spent to try to get it going?

instead of baking him in the sun why didnt you just give him some honest help.

[whyzee]

cmon DC...you probably know what the problem is

[muthey]

question does the 250 sx have a pulse generator unter the cover on the motor that says c.d.i., I have learned that the dust it builds up can make some serious waves with spark

[vegasbuddy]

what has me confused is that i don't even get a spark if i pull start it.

[vegasbuddy]

i have straight wired the entire bike. no more plugs all crimps and heat shrink. does any one now how what the reading is on the pulse genarator is as it turns. how much out put should it have????????

[muthey]

not sure on the pulse generator readings, but do this as well disconnect your alternator and stator plug and attach two wires to it connect the hot to the bottom of a car tail light bulb and the other wire goes on the outside of the metal, and give it a couple of pulls, if it lights up then you have just ruled out that part as good insted of going through the trouble of opening it up, after that you might have got water in the cdi and if you did you might need another one other wise clean the ruat looking dust out of the pulse generator area, and you could advance it a lil look where it has been mounted and loosen the screw on the metal ring if you turn the whole assembly to the left, it advances the other way retards it

[cbx1170]

I worked as flat rate jap tech 1970s to ~ 1997. I posted a step by step paragraph/diag here and at org. I used to follow for years. I found a lot of stators get weak and fail from heat-some intermit---- ARRGGHH pissed me off. cleaning stator area, rotor/flywheel removed, helps you wont believe what gets in there. I get kill sw out of system , good spk plug, suppresor cap ~5K ohms, ck coil resistance, then swap cdi box and then stator assy's. (very few coil fails even less pulser fails). 200ES 250 big reds may have some other misc stuff just isolate things like neutral sw etc.

[vegasbuddy]

yep there were cleaned them out and got new switches. but of course that did not fix my proplem

[plastikosmd]

Do you have power to the headlight? I had a silly issue with mine. I decided to park close to a wall with the front tire. I just bounced off wall and killed it. I went to start it a week later...no spark. Tried the usual stuff and nothin. Rolled it back and forth and while it felt like it was in neutral there was some sort of binding. Jacked up the rear and spun the tires when shifting it and got it to clunk into neutral. It seems something was hung up a bit. Started right up. Through all of this I had headlight power but no spark.

[vegasbuddy]

that accutally does not sound like a bad idea. ill give it a try and see what happens. did you ever find out what the real problem was? or was it just that it wasnt sitting neutral enough.

[trikebuilder30]

My opinion is that the timing chain could be not tight enough or worn.Sounds to me it is jumping time.Or it could be a faulty stator.......Rick at http://www.threewheelerbuilder.com/

[vegasbuddy]

i replaced the stator twice now so i can rule that out

[vegasbuddy]

just did that. took all the wiring off and ran continewtiy test on every wire. they all tested great. put the wiring back on still nothing

[Gag_Halfront]

The last one I messed with was an '82 but basically all the wiring for the front of the bike comes together inside the headlight bucket. When i was troubleshooting mine, I pulled the light, looked at the schematic and figured out which two wires to jump together to bypass all the switches and stuff. It helped remove a lot of variables. At the end of the day the problem ended up being a bad connection at the starter relay that was causing mayhem.

[cbx1170]

Ck the small pin connectors in the plug to CDI, corrosion can shorten them and cause bad connection. From memory pulser resistances are around 120 - 320 ohms static (or running) and very low Amps .1~.4A. Ck grounds engine bolts or use Radio Shack jumper wires with 2 alligator clips on ends to simulate grounds. Lay plug on head and have someone pull over while you move wires watch for spark. Unthread suppresor cap from coil wire 5,000 ohms. See if 12v is at Black wire into CDI box!!. Try an aux 12v battery if yours is dead.

[1985atc110]

Hey, I had a similar problem on my 110. I was ready to buy all of the parts you have listed here. Unplug your lights, both headlight and tail light, you can do this without having to resplice them. The connectors are bullet style, just pull firmly while grasping the CONNECTOR, not the wires. Replace plug and try to start. Mine was grounding out the bike, and the spark was burning itself. Good luck!

[AJZ_200X]

A little brash dont you think DC? This is like the 2nd time already in a month ive seen you run all over someone on the boards....give em' a brake would ya. He is simply trying to get some help. He is not a "professional" when it comes to trikes - a lot of are not on here. Just trying to figure out a problem

Anyway, I would try looking at the main wire harness to look for corrosion.