First Bike... what is it?

[JPG1911]

Spud, you said that the bike has a reliable clone of a honda engine, yet it appears to be almost the same bike as your sierra 200, which is a yamaha clone... i'm a bit confused here. Besides being air cooled, and apparently a little torque-ier (as evidenced above by larger bore and shorter stroke) are there many differences between mine and the 167 engines?

I welcomed a new baby girl, and a new high stress job on the same day 5 months ago, so there has been little opportunity for me to do anything other than dream about riding the bike. It is being stored in my buddy's garage so I have barely even seen it since I got it a few months ago. I had the afternoon off today and had a few hours to go over and fondle the bike.

I took my time looking over it, trying to take in all aspects of it's construction. I removed the left plastic side cover, and I removed the battery and put it on charge. I noted the location of various parts and components, and visually traced wiring - as best I could, and I took a lot of pctures. Regretably, I forgot to bring my multi-meter. After having looked it over extensively, I am quite impressed by some things, not so much with other things. I don't like that the oil filler cap is chrome plated plastic, I think I'm going to try to locate a metal one. I LOVE that there is a sight glass on the crankcase instead of a dipstick! No idea if this is common on motorcycles since this is my first one, but it's brilliant! The ignition switch had been tampered with, and there was no key so I ordered a replacement the other day, but all I could find was a generic one that is designed to be mounted in a through hole, it has plastic spring clips to hold it in place. This is it. The factory ignition switch on my bike is substantially more robust than the plastic replacement I ordered, it has a metal housing and mounts to a flange that employs a spring loaded steering lock deadbolt. The one I ordered will work for now, but I want to replace it with a stock or similar unit for obvious reasons - any idea where to purchase one? Since I didn't have a key, I removed the switch and cut the wires. I hooked up jumper cables from my truck and no matter which combination of the 4 ignition switch wires I connected, I couldn't even get the horn or lights to work, much less the electric starter. I did verify that the fuse on the pos battery wire is intact. I traced the wires back and found that the red wire goes to the CDI, the green wire is ground, the solid black wire appears to go to the ignition coil, and not sure where the black wire with white stripe terminates, thought it may have been for the clutch or brake switch so I shorted both of those - still nothing. I guess when the new switch comes I will plug it in and maybe at least get power to the accessories, I'll also bring my meter and check for continuity at the switch and report back, hopefully it comes tomorrow

I'm also VERY concerned about this



6 wires in, 1 wire out usually = no worky worky

no idea what these wires are, but the green side with 6 wires goes into the engine cover, so I'm thinking maybe magneto??

The VIN plate says "manufactured by Zongshen Group China, Imported by United Motors of America" When searching for bike specific parts, should I be looking up Zongshen parts, or UM? I have found several websites with generic china bike parts for 125-250cc dirt bikes, but as I am still not sure of what exactly to call this bike(still don't know the model name), I don't really know where to start looking. Several of the links posted in this forum for parts and manuals are from a few years ago and are now dead links. I did DL the Zongshen engine manual, and it will no doubt be invaluable as I dig deeper into this project

Thanks so much for your patience and support - how the hell did anything get accomplished by the DIYer before internet forums?

[JPG1911]

Humanbeing & weldangrind, do you guys think this is the original engine for this bike? or perhaps someone replaced/upgraded to a trike motor? Or is this one of those "impossible to say" scenarios. Just curious

[SpudRider]

Originally Posted by JPG1911

Spud, you said that the bike has a reliable clone of a honda engine, yet it appears to be almost the same bike as your sierra 200, which is a yamaha clone... i'm a bit confused here. Besides being air cooled, and apparently a little torque-ier (as evidenced above by larger bore and shorter stroke) are there many differences between mine and the 167 engines?...

My Zong has been modified quite a bit, so looks can be deceiving, JP. My ZS167FML engine is quite different from your ZS169FML engine.

Originally Posted by JPG1911

...The VIN plate says "manufactured by Zongshen Group China, Imported by United Motors of America" When searching for bike specific parts, should I be looking up Zongshen parts, or UM?...

I would look for Chinese, dirt bike parts, or Zongshen parts. Most of the Honda clone bikes use the same parts.

[Weldangrind]

Originally Posted by JPG1911

Humanbeing & weldangrind, do you guys think this is the original engine for this bike? or perhaps someone replaced/upgraded to a trike motor? Or is this one of those "impossible to say" scenarios. Just curious

I believe that to be the original engine, and it is definitely Honda "inspired".

The ignition you bought is the type normally found on a quad, but it'll work for your purposes until you find what you need. I have a new ignition switch with steering lock that might work for you, but that will depend upon the bolt spacing on your upper triple. Measure the c to c distance of the ignition mounting screws on the underside of the triple and LMK. The ignition switch I have might not have the same connector as yours, but that's no big deal.

The ignition switch works in the reverse of what seems logical. When you turn the switch on, you're actually switching the ground off (in addition to connecting the positive wire to everything). During testing, make sure the ground is removed, but be prepared to pull the plug cap to kill the engine, in case it starts. When the ignition switch is turned off, one wire to the CDI is connected to ground (not sure of the colour, off the top of my head). Some testing with your multimeter will confirm the layout of the ignition switch you bought, and you'll be able to transfer that knowledge to your wiring harness. BTW, ground is almost always green, red is positive.

If that needs more clarification, LMK.

[Weldangrind]

Don't worry about the harness from the stator at this point. My guess is that you have two harnesses coming from the stator, and the other one connects to the CDI, etc. The harness that changes to one wire is likely to be a shift indicator, which is not stock equipment on many bikes, and it's just fluff.

[david3921]

Originally Posted by JPG1911

I realize that the oil drain plug is broken and leaking, a new one will be here tomorrow, along with the clutch lever, clutch lever, brake pump, and keyed ignition switch.

Be very careful installing the new plug as the metal is very thin. This the same type that the Japanese manufacturers use on shaft drive pumpkins...I've broken a few.

And, of course, don't try to start it without replacing the plug. The gas looks pretty old in the filter so that should be drained before an attempt, also.

[JPG1911]

Ok thanks for the tips about wiring and switch, been out of town for a few days hence the delay. Update: I received a shipment from the parts supplier containing the oil drain plug/filter, fuel filter, clutch lever assembly, and ignition switch, however they separated the order for some reason, and I did not receive the brake pump or clutch cable yet. I did have a few minutes to install (connect) the ignition switch and confirm that the wiring clip is compatible, but did not bring the battery with me to test anything as it was still on the charger - good news; battery is holding 13vdc, so that is one less thing I will have to buy for now I hope to have some time tomorrow to go over and install the clutch lever assembly, and maybe the clutch cable and brake pump will show up tomorrow and I'll be able to install those as well. I'm also going to drain the oil and replace the drain plug, reinstall the battery and see if I can at least get it to turn over with the electric starter and get the lights and horn working, now that I have a working switch. I will measure the center to center distance on the stock ign sw bracket and take some detailed pics as well. I start my week of on-call tomorrow, so if work gets crazy, I might not make it back over for a few days. Thanks again guys, for all the help.

[SpudRider]

You are making good progress!