2010 Baja Warrior MB200 - Lil Blue

[philbo]

Ok, I don't know much about mini bikes but I've had my eye on the Mini Baja models as they can carry upwards of 225lbs.

This past Sunday I went to go check one out. I got it cheap as the guy knew it needed work, sold it to me for $100. He wanted $150 but he kept lowering the price himself to $100. How could I refuse??? :laugh:

Any how, he said he replaced the valve. I thought he meant the fuel valve but actually it was an internal valve and he said he didn't know how to adjust it. From what I was told by the Baja tech I spoke with this is not a common thing to happen. I thought maybe over revving the engine or something. I asked the guy about the governor and he said, "What governor?"

Ok, so that answered my question. I guess these go like 25mph but he swore he was doing 65mph ut: ...then the valve snapped.

Any how, here's Lil Blue in the van and some a shot after cleaning it up.

Needs some work but looks like fun.

 

[philbo]

Chris at Baja Motorsports emailed me a bunch of PDF docs for manual, parts catalog and engine manual as I'll need the head bolt torque specs. If the engine is no good, the price I paid is worth like the price of the tires if they were new and these tires are in really nice shape.

If the engine is toast then I see a replacement Predator engine at Harbor Freight on sale for $120. Will need to free up the rear brake. The guy said the clutch is like new as he bought it for a project that it didn't fit on.

I have to figure out the output shaft width and length and see what other size engines will work. There's a guy locally that does small engine repair that has a 10hp engine for $150 if I really need one. Hope I can just fix this one. Dunno if a 10hp engine will fit anyway.

From the first pic you can see the frame work under the seat, looks pretty beefy to me.

The second pic you might be able to see that the carb controls are messed up, like the arm for the intake is gone, and also the governor linkage is gone. Also the recoil started is missing but I do have a string that will be used to start it. It's sort of my anti-theft device with no recoil starter there! :laugh:

 

[philbo]

So, since there was no recoil started, you could actually grab the starter pulley and spin it, like really spin it like there was no compression. :doah: Eeek! The seller stated it just needed the valves adjusted. I was wondering why if the guy could replace a valve he couldn't figure out how to adjust them? I was hoping that there wasn't anything like cracked piston rings or worse. :surrender:

Any hows, the intake valve adjustment was way off as he mentioned. :smile: At top dead center, the intake rocker was really tight.

(TDC, to test take out the plug and stick a screw driver or something until it hits the piston, rotate the crank until piston gets up top and both valves are closed. Remember these are 4 strokes. Intake, compression, power then exhaust stroke. Valves should be closed at the compression and power stoke so TDC in between those strokes. :thumbsup: Rocker arms should be a little loose at that point.)

I loosened up the rocker locknuts and could feel the intake valve close against the seat but when that happened I noticed the intake rocker was angled up a lot more than the exhaust rocker. I did the valve setting, I think it was like 0.010" or something for both sides.

After the adjustment the locknuts on the intake valve locknut was not sitting low enough because once I adjusted the valves the locknut was too high on the stud so the top locknut wasn't locking and began to strip the thread on the end of the stud. So I took out the stud for the rocker arm and put a lock washer behind it to increase the height and now it locks pretty well. Engine has compression now! Dunno if this is the right way but it was way better than waiting for a ticking time bomb when the locknut falls off! I think it was a design flaw as far as the stud too short, I guess?

Found the pull start in the storage compartment and actually the engine started to almost start and sputter I put some starting fluid in it. At that point I had to go to work so I just left it.

I took off the fenders and will be stripping them down and repairing/repainting them. Will paint to probably the same shade blue. Will be repairing them and reinforcing the backside of the fenders with sheet aluminum flashing to strengthen them. Will be going to Harbor freight and picking up a spotlight to serve as a headlight. Will be adding LED turn signals and brake lights.


So far it's fun just working on it because it's actually a lot easier to work on than working on a car because all your parts of right there in front of you and it's pretty easy to access everything. Adjusting the valves was fun because I used to adjust valves when I used to work at Acura Boston on the little four-cylinder engines and this is one quarter of those engines since is just a one cylinder but it's cool that it has pushrods rocker arms and stuff like that.

 

[philbo]

Ok, went to Harbor Freight this morning and picked up some stuff, among all the stuff I got was a 55 watt chrome spot light to replace the missing headlight assembly. There was a video on Youtube showing a black Harbor Freight light and it worked with his stock electrical. Didn't know the wattage and was afraid 55 watts was too much for the stock set up but when I got there I saw the black one and it was 55 watt so I went with the chrome one. It's also a little bigger in addition to being more rounded on the back side. I liked the chrome better than the black, even though stock it was a black housing.

So I got a decent price. It was on sale for $11 then I got 25% off from a coupon the sales lady gave me so it cost me $8.25. Not bad. Hope it works!

Here's the black one, flat on back and 4 7/8" wide.

Here's the one I got, chrome and 6" wide. Will want to modify the mounting base to mount to stock base.

 

[charliechaindrve]

Good start :thumbsup:

 

[philbo]

Thanks! I figure since I know so little about mini bikes it might encourage another newbie to give it a try. :wink:

 

[joekd]

I hate to say it but no way is the lighting coil on a baja motor going to give enough voltage to power that light

Good starting point on the bike though, I tore the motor off my current warrior as soon as I got it and things got carried away from there

Not sure where in Ma you are but I am right on the CT/Ma border, dont seem to be on this forum much lately though

 

[philbo]

Oh well. At least it looks cool. :laugh: I saw a video on YouTube with a different harbor freight light that is 55w and it worked so I figured I would get it. It was missing the headlight any way. Now it looks nicer. Worse comes to worse ill swap out the bulb and put in a big led or smaller wattage bulb.

Yeah a new engine would be cool but trying to do things on the cheap. Just trying to fix what's there first and explore it as this is my first mini bike. Its fun tinkering with it.

I'm about 7 miles west of Boston.

 

[Shadow]

nice warrior
is that a maverick behind it

 

[philbo]

Thanks!

It's a '72 Dodge Challenger Rallye 340.

Lil Blue got its name because of the Challenger. The factory color is called Super Blue, aka Petty Blue. The kids called the car Super Blue so the name stuck.

Since this mini bike is little and blue like the Challenger, it's name is Lil Blue. :wink:

 

[philbo]

I actually haven't got it running as of yet. Just only to the point where it started to sputter as I had to go to work the day I was playing with it, so I assume it'll start up with some coaxing. Hopefully. We'll see...

It was late last night so I didn't try to start it but the plastic fins on the flywheel upon examination looked good.

I did see in the intake and the intake valve does look new. Got the headlight mounted and made a choke lever and sorting out the throttle linkage. Got the rear brake unfrozen and adjusted. Stop the wheel at least and no longer stuck!

 

[philbo]

Today being black Friday I saw that there was a special on the predator engines over at Harbor freight.

I had not yet started the engine on my minibike As I wanted to get the throttle cable hooked up to the carburetor first before trying to start it. I said well maybe I should try starting it and if it doesn't start up or run right then maybe I'll just get a new predator engine.

I went out to the garage and I put the ripcord on and after three pulls it started right up. There was a lot of smoke it first because the previous guy had put some lubricant in the piston chamber When the intake valve was changed.

I hope just the initial start up is a good indication that maybe this engine is usable. I don't have the chain hooked up from the clutch to the jack shaft at this point. I didn't know how things were going to have to run so I didn't want this to be a runaway bike. I'm so excited!!!

 

[philbo]

It was late, about midnight, but since the wife was away I closed the garage door and got to work. :laugh:

Made the throttle lever and got the cable hooked up so now I have throttle
control from the right twist grip. :smile: Engine seems to run smooth and idle well. Will hook up chain from clutch to jackshaft another day as I wanted to experiment with the light circuit.

Light circuit worked to my great pleasure! :laugh: From what I understand from the knowledgeable people here that this is AC power.

At idle it is about 8.9V then when I rev it up it gets up to about 20v.

The cool thing is that it can power the 55 watt light I got from Harbor Freight as I assumed after watching a youtube video of a guy who hooked up a HF light that I found out was also 55 watt. :smile:

I'll see what other fun lights I can hook up!

 

[philbo]

Gumpit made me thinking about a real gas tank for the Baja so I perused Craigslist and found a decent tank from a Honda QA50. The seller was a super nice guy and thank God he was actually driving up to Boston today for an appointment so I didn't have to drive about an hour to check out the tank.

The tank itself is in really nice shape (No rust inside!) and the seller took really nice care of it. It did come with the fuel valve but I have to see if it opens and closes ok.

I might use it in conjuction with the factory tank, maybe hook up a "Y" so both tanks can be used. Hopefully the factory tank will seal completely so fuel from the top tank doesn't go into the bottom tank. I'll remove the fake tank and put this one in its place.

 

[joekd]

Unless you plan 12 hour rides you won't need both tanks, the XR style tank on my warrior holds just over a gallon and I have never even come close to running dry even on the longest rides

 

[philbo]

I guess I'm paranoid. :laugh: Plus I'm heavy (225lbs) so I figure I would use more gas to move! :biggrin: Baja Motorsports has the factory tank on mine at 0.82 gallons. The previous owner put plastic bottles of gas in the fake storage tank for long rides I guess.

I was just "guestimating" based on my snow blower, like it might go about an hour or so on a tank I think. Had nothing else to compare it to.

The ultimate goal is to use this mini bike on Martha's Vineyard as we go there for vacations. It'll be like transportation there to some degree. Martha's Vineyard has a lot of scooters zipping about and the roads are very scooter friendly as they are pretty wide and straight. The cost to bring a car over is pricey but I figure a mini bike might be the cost of a moped so it saves me a lot. Also it'll be easier in high season if there is no reservation available for a car to go over.

They don't have many gas stations on the island so I want to make sure I have enough gas. The car ride from the ferry to the house we rent is like 20 minutes or so drive. I don't know how long this will take with the mini bike but figure I'll go less than 1/2 to 2/3 the speed if the car does 30-40mph and the mini bike can do 20mph.

Before the mini bike I was thinking of just using a bike for transportation but it would take like an hour maybe on bike and I might be tired after the ride.

We'll see what happens!

 

[philbo]

The front fender was almost split down the middle when I got it and I accidentally cracked the rear one when I was trying to hammer out the rear fender bracket as it was crooked. :facepalm: My bad!

I used plastic model cement to put in the cracks to bond the plastic then coated the cracks in and out with Shoe Goo. That stuff works great and dries pretty hard. I then took aluminum flashing and Shoe Gooed them to support the cracked areas and then also to reinforce the holes where the fender bolts go through.

Will be going to get some silver paint for a base coat then use a similar blue over the base coat.

I used Rustoleum silver paint then Testors Blue Metallic paint and they didn't play well with each other. :doah: Tested first on the inside of a fender.

 

[philbo]

BTW, my adventures in the LED vs incandescent bulb debate/experiments can be found here:

http://www.oldminibikes.com/forum/g...one-use-led-lights-add-brake-turnsignals.html

I might post some stuff here are well.

So I have the 55 watt driving light serving as my headlight. I found a 1157 tail lamp bulb and tried to connect it up. The original idea was to get a tail lamp housing using a 2057 bulb (it's like an 1157 but I think brighter) and that would serve as tail and brake lamps.

Nope, it ain't gonna cut it. :doah: When I hook up the bright element of the bulb the headlight dims dramatically and the bulb doesn't really glow that well and it comes on slowly. If I rev the engine up it's ok but you figure the brakes will be on at idle so this may not be the best situation.

I could go with a less powerful headlight but that's no fun.

So I think I'll try getting an LED light and try hooking it up. They are under $10 so I won't cry too much if I blow it.

I'm going to look into seeing if resistors might be the ticket to get these to work for the brake light. I saw something on the internet about this but there were no detailed plans to hook up everything.

For the turn signals I might use momentary switches and use the "manual" blinker method. :laugh: The LEDS won't get sustained voltage so maybe they will be ok.

Back to the store!!!

 

[butch63]

:drinkup::thumbsup:

 

[philbo]

Snuck out to the garage after everyone fell asleep. :wink:

Cleaned up some of the wiring. Just have the headlight and a small tall lamp that uses a 194 bulb for now just so I have something front and rear.

Adjusted the chain and aligned the rear tire. Pumped up the tires.

I didn't have a chain guard when I got the Baja so I was going to make one from a cookie tin to give it the "rat rod" look but it didn't fit.

My brother was throwing out a computer, so when in Rome...

Lil Blue-sponsored by Hewlett Packard! :laugh: