HI,my friend bought a 1981 Honda 185s 3wheeler for 100 bucks a while ago and we got it running than tore it all apart to restore it and after we restored it we put everything back together and it got only little spark so he got sick of it and sold it to me for the same price he bought it for. I THINK I GOT IT TO Get good spark because I cleaned the connections and stator but and has blue spark but, it wont start and it has good compression but I don't know what its a post to be at. I ALSO clean the carb and adjusted the valves and me and my buddy tried pop starting it and we even put lil gas down the head and still wont start but it started once for 3 sec's. Do you have any ideas how to fix this problem because I want to fix it and make some good money on it. Thanks

 

Try to roll starting it, my 82 185s sometimes you've gotta pull it behind a 4-wheeler and have it in 2nd gear and let go of the shifter and then it will turn the motor over and it may take a little while also sometimes mine fires right up but then again sometimes it feels like I have to pull it forever

 

If you have good compression, your sure the valves are adjusted correctly, and the carb is working right the only thing I can think of is are you sure that the cam is back in time? To check this remove the small plug on the top of the left cover (is round and has a straight slot for a screw driver). Line up the "F" mark with the arrow. Remove the two screws from the timing cover on the top of the engine. The line on the cam should be just slightly to the right of the line on the timing trigger. (Just slightly means that they are off line by about the thickness of the lines themselves)

 

Had the same issue with 3 different trikes:

1st: ('84 ATC 200E) the problem with one was that the ignition switch was shorting out inside, so it would only run without it connected, (it had spark with it connected too, so that took a long time to figure out).

2nd ('84 ATC 200X) the problem was that the black wire coming out of the stator had dirty connectors, the ones up by the cdi were also corroded & after cleaning them up it ran great. (had spark even with the poor connections)

3rd ('82 ATC 200) Bad stator behind flywheel. I rode the trike every day for a couple years & one day it fired a couple tines & wouldn't start. Tried new plug, coil CDI box & pulse generator pickup without luck. Put a new stator on last & it fired up with 1 pull & has been good since. It also had spark with the bad stator.

If yours won't fire up with a shot of gas in the carb I'd say you have a spark issue. Try the easy & cheap things first but it sounds to me like you have a weak stator/coil or something along those lines...possibly a bad pulse generator pickup. I would be willing to bet that it's a bad stator because if it's got good fresh gas & the timing is correct (which it probably is unless you adjusted it) it has the exact symptoms my trike had when the stator coil was bad.


Easily overlooked easy fixes:

-sparkplug wire not connecting (loose end on coil or plug)
-bad sparkplug (I've had some new plugs that didn't work)
-rust behind pulse generator cover (says CDI on the side of the engine)
-loose timing chain jumped a couple teeth (make sure the "T" on the flywheel is at the top when the "0" mark on the cam gear is at the top).

*note: I have never had a bad CDI unit & had spark, I have experienced that spark=good CDI