I had a friend that is a truck driver and his boss
had a Honda 1980 ATC185S sitting under a tarp I asked
about it he said it runs good and starts on the first pull
and wants $400 or a desk top computer - I have a lot of
old computers - Lan parity [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] & computer repair - So traded
a P2 233MHZ Premo desktop with 64mb mem an 2gb
harddisk and 17in screen, if you know computers and
prices, I got the good end of the deal,

The 3 wheeler had ben setting so long the tires dry rotted
and the brake cables were rusted up - but no rust on the
motor - sum on the under side but not bad rust just the
norm from use - no holes - all fenders are good no cracks
mud flaps are good but sum were threw from the 25in tires,
head light is there but there is no lens but light blub
and good reflector are good - seat does need a new cover
and some metal around the edge of the seat plate has rusted
away - not that much - and tail light lens is cracked
and brakes are wore out

It starts on one pull - and it dont smoke

Here is the bad part

the OIL was burnt, came out like water , and metal shavings
no big shavings , So I changed the oil , ran it a few min
changed the oil again , small metal shavings

20w50 is what I use Do I need different oil?

Also its seams hard to find neutral but shifts good
except for neutral - sometimes I put it in neutral
and push it and it rolls a few feet and I here a small
click and it goes into first - whats wrong??

This is my first 3 wheeler any advice?

I have a manual on order, but no telling how long till it
gets here

 

i saw this happen 2 times, on 2 different bikes (my family grew up with honda trikes)
We have a 1979 ATC110. The problem was a bearing that holds the shaft that the gears ride on in the trans. the bearing went and started shaving gears off tooth by tooth. i just kept riding and riding, just beating it up cause i was young. Well i eventually had to jump start it all of the time cause i could not get into neutral. luckely i found a trans at an ATV junkyard for $20. never happened again and the bike is still here today.

the second bike is a 185 that we got from Uhaul after they stopped renting machines in the mid-80s. the same thing happened and it was becasue apparently that same bearing went but rather than replace it someone put a piece of pipe in place of it, shimming and trimming and pounding until it "fit"

it also could be much easier than that. the only problem with those machines is you never know who had them first or what they did and did not do to them. it takes a while, but once you get it going, that bike will last forever. great find!

 

Hay I put up a page with sum pics of the ATC185s
http://www.geocities.com/astro_van_1985

 

thats such a great machine. good luck with it
Andrew

 

thats a great deal for like a 90 dallor pc....good work dude!

 

No kidding, someone scored. Good luck!

Ron

 

thanks everyone

the shift problem has gone away - I bet it comes back -
and there fewer and fewer metal shavings, I ran it a day and
changed the oil, and a few shavings, and ran about a week
and changed it again even fewer shavings - I am worried
about the shavings - but a friend told me that - what
do you expect from a 22 year old 3 Wheeler - just ride
and have fun - I need to clean the carb out, its a little
slugish, I have tunned it up were it runs a little better
but I can tell the carb needs a good cleaning

I love this thing