1983 ATC200E Big Red Full suspension build...the BBC

[oldskool83]

Machine was in sad shape frame wise...Buy sell trade got me this for $28 into it so far. Rear end rusted thru....going to make is a suspension BR. Yes another project not for the faint of heart out there.

1983 ATC200e...

[ScreaminRed]

I have an 83 200e, it runs and drives, but sure would be nice with some rear suspension! Good luck!

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[Footy]

This should be interesting! Looking forward to seeing this as it develops.

[ATC King]

A dual range transmission, fully suspended trike, will make a great trail machine.

[oldskool83]

swing arm mounts

[dieseldigger]

Are you going to build a jig to keep those mounts straight and true?

[oldskool83]

No clue. I have the a 300ex swing arm I can use to bolt together and get mounts parallel, digital angle finder, measure table, measure frame, set everything the same etc. I have the rear end of the OG BR I kept...it's good to bolt somthing to a use a fixture to weld rear up HOWEVER ..

UPON further inspection the BR carrier tube is rusted very bad at the seal areas after I removed everything. I have maybe 3/4-1mm of metal left at best. There is not enough material left to weld back up and return to size. It will burn away. I will have to buy another carrier in better shape or get a piece of DOM tube and bore ID to bearing size.

2nd problem - Will not be going farther with making new carrier mounts. (had made cardboard models and dimensions up to draw in 3D for laser cutting. The way the carrier mounts are onto the swing arm portion of the BR is less then perfect. There is only 1 adjuster ear on the left side of the carrier mounts on the frame / swing arm portion and its not centered. The rear axle will always cock and not be straight. I just do not like it. No point laser cutting parts that will require me to build a whole new swing-arm and carrier mounts.....so I started looking at my trx200sx, it is perfect for this BR swap. It's short and has nicer carrier adjuster fingers on it, bend on the fingers. I already have laser cut model files to make reproduction carrier plates for it too. All I need to do is size it for the big red bearing carrier OD. I think its the same but need to double check. The BR carrier is a good bit wider then then trx200sx one. Also the axle is a good bit wider too. If not I'd just use the trx200sx carrier and axle due to it being around same weight but I want to use the wider BR axle.


last problem, which is not problem is the BR has 1 axle race which is worn on the brake side due to junk over the years and bad bearing. It's .020" dia undersized. I will need to get it welded up and turn the race back to the 35mm which it should be (technical 34.98mm would be its slip fit size)

Going with e trx200sx swing arm swap allows me to do a lot of the same things I did on my daughters 200sx which I already have files for and drawings to make the parts. Less engineering, cheaper, faster BUY IT NOW on eBay or score another parts machine within an hour or so away.

ONWARD

[MrConcdid]

I have put a 200e engine in a 84 200x chassis. I have even considered putting a 200x front end on a 200sx quad, that would give you a suspended shaft driven 3 wheeler with reverse.
there are a lot of options out there.
good luck with your build.

MrC.

[oldskool83]

Already have a modified 85 atc200x. Already have a modified 86 trx200sx. There are many parts on these machines no one has. They were designed and either hand made or CNC made. I have done some really neat stuff to bring old bad designs into the current era of easy better parts. Plus cheaper.

Going for modified 83 atc200e BIGRED in my spare time.

[Homeless Dave]

I’ve been thinking about building a suspension 200 red for a while. I love the 200 big red, but my back doesn’t.


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[oldskool83]

I acquired a trx200sx swing arm assembly, should not be too long until that's all hooked up. My plans is to still use the BR bearing carrier and axle. I will have swing arm mounts welded on frame by end of year. I want something to do over X-mas break.

[oldskool83]

Fixed axle bearing journal that was .020 undersized due to dirt wear. Cut upper frame appart to allow clarke plastic tank to fit in properly. Built 85 86 atc250r rear rotor flange adapter. Next to weld up and send to powder coat with bunch more items. Onward to trx200sx carrier conversion plates and turning a new bearing carrier, not using that rusted up 2mm junk that's 40 years old. New steel was cheaper than buying more old junk. Milling new sprocket guard this week hopefully. Will be nice to bring a BR I to the last couple of 10 years century.

[oldskool83]

My rider quality fuel tank....I got this when I had my 84 for $70 or so. I will not deal with metal tanks. Plastic is king IMO. Yes it was sun faded and spray painted two colors. However for $300 brand new clarke or for the hours of sanding it was worth the gamble to me. I have about 8 hours in it total. I removed all the casting lines to help sand better. I will be putting different plastic on the machine so the color does not need to be a true dark red. It seems the vintage horse head clarke tanks have more of the mid 80's CR orange tint to them. I started with 100 grit and moved up the spectrum until 400. I was not too concerned about little lines or scratches. 1 good ride and it will look bad anyway. Bring on the rider quality stuff!

[oldskool83]

Centered axle. Checked where chain fell, new laser cut carrier plates soon here. Once its on weld table it's gonna get real quick. No rush here. Let's do it right the 1st time. Sadly the rear end really dictates where the tabs go onto the frame. I'm using everything trx200sx so we only have so much room to work with on the swingarm bolt. 1/2" total so that means 1/4" thick mounts...no they dont lie centered on frame rails. There was 3/4" difference which pushed axle to one side and offset chain. I have to move the mounts 3/8" to the left starting on the chain side.

Math is so run right?

[oldskool83]

Pegs done. TRX200sx to BR carrier plates done. New BR carrier done. Had to redo my swing-arm weld on mounts. Ended up being 1inch too short 1st try and the trx200sx carrier index's bit closer then the way the BR was designed. I used trx200sx because the swing-arm was about the correct length . Way easier than building a whole new swing-arm for the nightmare 200sx carrier plates that had no real flat spots to try and reverse engineer.

Per my dimension when the trike was still a welded together hardtail; I was very close to the rear of the sub-frame to the center of the axle distance. That was a straight dimension I got was 13-6/8" with carrier to closest of adjustment all the way in.
Per my test weld on swing-arm mounts I got 13-1/2". However I never passed right angle geometry in HS or tech school. SO 20 years later I learned the triangle is longer then that straight part. I added in 3" of lift for the shock travel I am figuring. I redid my math per solid-works and it gave me the dimension I wanted to hit, which was 14" edge of frame to center of new carrier (flat). I figured just a tad longer will be no big deal since I am going up just a tad in height. That told me how much more I needed to add to my new weld on frame swing-arm mounts. All files updated and sent over to my laser cutter. One thing can change the next, so do one thing at a time and recheck everything. Laser cutting is quicker and cheaper then milling this stuff.

1" OD tubing bought to build sub-frame / fix frame. Onward. Use your brain = make cool stuff.

Until next time.