I have noticed that my decompressor cable on my TLR200 as melted through as I had no heatsheild on the new header pipe that I fitted to it. I didnt have a heatshield so tied the cable slightly away from it until I made up a heat sheild but it musthave touched it or got pushed against it with my leg while riding. Anyway the question is this: Can I just remove the cable.?If I do will it do any harm? I know it will be harder to kick but to be honest I am used to kicking over far bigger engines without using manual decompressor lever. so being harder to kick doesnt realy bother me. Cheers

The "valve lifter" is there to take the extra strain from the engine as much as making it easier

to kick over,, if you chose not to have it conected you risk mis-shaping the circlip on the kickstart shaft,

this will cause the kickstart to slip, which is a very common fault. You have to split the engine to change the

circlip.... so my advice is to get it conected again.

Scrumpy

Ok, thanks for the advice Scrumpy Jack, Taking that into account I will not remove it (I hav'nt removed it, I was considering it but will not do that now). Its only done 3800 klms it would be a terrible thing to have to risk doing such a nice engine such horrific injury all because of a cable. Thanks again.

Hi all....hope this helps........

The cable position is a design fault by Honda even with the heat sheild fitted it still melts, a modification I have done to my 250 which works really well is I sleeved the cable with a...............................................................................

................................ this completely stops the cable getting fried

Looking at the possibility to manufacture this modification and supply it....

Cheers

S.

Edited December 8, 200718 yr by 250TLR

Thats a great idea TLR250, I did infact tape some foil heat resistent tape around the point of the cable wich touches , but I havn't ridden it since then so I dont know if this will solve it or not but your idea is much better & looks neater.

i used my xl 185 engined special for 6 years without a decompresor cable, but after a few missed kicks it finally seized, so after a strip down found the 1st gear on layshaft all teeth angled off to the right, coresponding cog on shaft a bit worn, gear idler missing tooth, and corresponding gear on clutch worn, also casing where the kick stop goes to fully round, broken casing as well.

luckily had alll the bits in spares, but if you had to buy new, approx

Make up a cable to a lever on the handlebars - a proper valve lifter lever can be bought or just cut down a plastic push bike lever. Use the kickstart to find compression, ease it over using the valve lifter and et voila easy starting.

Starting is much easier this way, the added bonus of a simple push or roll start when pointing down hill is also a bonus.

In my opinion the automatic valve lifter is more trouble than its worth and is the first thing I would throw away !

Yes it appears to be a bit of an anoying thing really. I suppose I could just leave it alone, but from what you say of your XL185 engine hondanut, I will definately leave it on, I didnt realise it could cause such damage in the longterm, I thought it was just to assist in kicking it over & that was it as far as it's function went. Thanks guys.

Thats a neat design & looks to be very effective. The engine looks nicely done too if I'm not mistaken.