Motorcycle Repair: CB200T Starter Switch Assembly

Question
Hi Bill;

I have a 1975 CB200T with the problems listed in your article Always ON = Always a problem- Honda Starter Button woes.

The starter switch, micro switch has failed and needs to be replaced.

The part number for the 1975 CB200T is 35150-389-671 which is unavailable.

However I can buy a 1975 CB360T starter switch Part Number 35130-377-P00 .

According to your article these parts are the same, the only difference is the length of the wire?

Is this true?

Best Regards

Kevin McRae

Answer
Kevin, electrically most any starter switch will work, however the big issue is that you have a mechanical front disc brake, which needs a special brake lever/bracket and part of the starter switch.

The 377 switches are all designed for bikes with hydraulic front disc brakes, which use a separate brake lever attached to the master cylinder and not the starter switch.

The switches related to your bike's integral brake lever bracket are from the CB125S series circa 1974-77 or so....which also used the cable-disc brake setup.

35130-383-670
35150-324-761

What complicates the problem ever further is that the 1975-on bikes had automatic ON lighting circuits which were not used previously. This applies to US models, specifically. I don't know if the bike you have is a US version and if not, whether it has the same lighting system in Canada.

35300-370-740 is a switch for the CL360 which has an integral lever bracket.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1975-Honda-Scrambler-CL360-CB-CL-360-throttle-right-swit

Another aspect of this issue is that the lever brackets for cable operated brakes are threaded for the cable adjusters. CB200T models don't use a cable adjuster. You might be able to bore out the hole to fit your cable if the bracket thickness will allow that. The other option is to use an earlier model switch with On-Off headlight function and rewire the lights to work with that switch instead.

Part # = 35300-456-670
Part Description = SWITCH ASSEMBLY
Model Count = 5
CB175-K7 1973 175 Super Sport 175 Street
CL175-K7 1973 175 Scrambler 175 Dual Sport
CL200 1974 200 Scrambler 200 Dual Sport
CL350-K5 1973 350 Scrambler 350 Dual Sport
CL450-K6 1974 450 Scrambler 450 Dual Sport

So lots of possibilities, but no easy answers. Most of the RH switches for many of thesed bikes seem to be NLA now. In a worst case scenario, you could add a separate switch to the handlebar just to run the starter function, but you have to deal with the headlight function still.

Bill Silver