1989 KDX-200: Budget Rebuild

[dfeckel]

There is a coil for the lights under the flywheel, but there is also a coil to energize the ignition.

[Mr. Wibbens]

BTW, is the water pump impeller supposed to be a little hard to rotate or is it supposed to move freely? It's off the bike right now and I installed a new water pump seal

Mines been tight ever since I replaced the shaft and seals

[KDXrider1989]

Took off the ignition coil and CDI box from my running bike and put them on the bike I'm working on, still got no spark. All wires are connected and intact. It more than likely is the coil behind the flywheel this will be my first time taking off a flywheel on a dirt bike, any tips on taking it off easily and reinstalling it? I don't have a flywheel puller or a flywheel holder, anything else I can use?

[chadr]

Don't try to remove it with anything other than the right puller. I believe this is the one I have and it works for my yamaha rt 180 and the kdx

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Flywheel ... 2175wt_939

[dfeckel]

I second using only a correct puller to remove the flywheel. I bought one years ago for a DT 250, and it has luckily fit everything I've wanted to pull a flywheel on, including the KDX 200 and my Husky 125. Get one, they're not too expensive, and it'll probably work on all your bikes.

[KDXrider1989]

looked it up on ebay, $13 for a flywheel puller with free shipping! My local Honda/Kawasaki dealer is open tomorrow so I'll call to see if they have one in stock that way I could have the thing pulled and inspected the same day... and hopefully running :)

[Fletch]

That's what I ended up doing, cost me 10 bucks and they took it off in 5 minutes.

[KDXrider1989]

got the flywheel puller today and what a great tool it is! The flywheel was taken off in a matter of seconds and I went in to see what's up. Found a leaking main seal and the ignition coil has a pretty sizable gash on it. The lighting coil looks a little roasted but not to the point where i don't think I could run lights on it, which I'm not. Lots of trash in there and on the inside of the flywheel, I'm gonna go and clean things up a bit once I'm done finishing this post. Flywheel key still looks brand new with the exception of a tiny bit of rust that I could probably just wipe off. Flywheel weight has "Moose Racing" printed on it, so now i know for sure it's aftermarket. Kept on looking around to see what else could've caused the bike to lose spark, so I looked up and found the wires going from the coil to be a little pinched, so I'll check that out also. Now here's my question: is the ignition coil done for and needs to be repaired/replaced? If so, what kind of tape is wrapped around it and what procedures would I need to follow in order to fix this thing? Also, what type of wire would i need to use if I need to replace all the wiring wrapped around it?

[KDXrider1989]

wires are fine, I'm starting to believe its that coil. Went to check if it's the kill switch, but popped it open and the spring flew somewhere and I can't find it. The spark plug hole at the top of the cylinder was open... what are the chances of finding it in there? God I hope not, turned the engine over a few times and it sounded normal. There's no way in hell I'm going to pop the cylinder off just to check if there's a damn spring in the side ports somewhere

[Fletch]

it's not in there it's not in there it's not in there.......
I hate when that happens

[KDXrider1989]

yeah, I REALLY hate it!! I had to take a two hour including dinner break just to calm down a lil bit lol, I'll go try to find it again in a few minutes. I think it's pretty obvious, but will the coil need to be replaced? I just need to be sure

[KDXrider1989]

pulled the cylinder off and looked into the ports and deep down into the crankcase... no spring (thank God) but on the other hand I lost a lot of time, so I'm still a little mad. Now about that coil...

[Julien D]

What's with that little gouge on the back side? Is that through any of the wires? It doesn't look burnt or anything, which is good. If you have a meter you can check the resistance on it.

[KDXrider1989]

I can see a few exposed wires that are cut and damaged, but it's mostly the tape surrounding it that got cut. How can I check resistance on that coil?

[dfeckel]

Get a digital volt meter, connect the black lead to one side of the coil, the red lead to the other, set the meter to measure resistance, and you should have very little resistance. The coil is literally just a single length of wire wrapped around a metal post a zillion times. So just imagine you're connecting the leads of the meter with a really long wire. There should be little to no resistance to current passing through it. If the wire is broken somewhere along its length, then you will have lots of resistance/no continuity, i.e., no current can get through the wire.

Please, someone with a little more knowledge of testing coils with volt meters chime in...

[Julien D]

with your meter set to Ohms, check resistance between white/red and black near the stator coil. You should have something like 300-450 Ohms. If it is much higher, you probably have a broken wire.

[KDXrider1989]

I think I checked it wrong, but I highly doubt this coil is still useful. I'll go ahead and replace this and get my spark plug coil and CDI box tested as well, just to ensure that it's only the coil (hopefully)

[dfeckel]

ARe we learning that there really is no such thing as a "Budget" E series rebuild? ;) I am. It turns out that the forks on my parts bike were bent! And the forks on my other parts bike have such terrible corrosion through the anodized fork uppers (it's a '94) that they are almost perforated. So eBay to the rescue, and hopefully I can get a cheap set of KDX conventionals.

[Julien D]

You after conventionals, or the 93/94 USD's?

[KDXrider1989]

well I've spent only about $130 on my build so far including the stator I'm about to buy today, but good luck on those forks! I'd hate to see my forks bent