1970 400 Cross

Just finished her up for NORRA


Not really a "resto" but complete tear down, new forks, billet rear shocks, fresh engine.

Still has original MSR desert tank (and untouched original Tank), Malcolm Smith skid plate, and Malcolm smith leather tool pounch for the rear fender.

Enjoy!

Rob

We were running 5th overall (including new bikes) through about 800 miles. The Bing carb started having issues on day 4. I stopped for a down rider (compound fracture) and timed out on that stage, which caused us to miss the cut-off for the last stage to La Paz before the trucks came. We still ride it the 120 miles in.

We had to remove the air cleaner to keep it running in the last 70 miles of day 5 into cabo, and it ended up seizing a few miles from the finish.

We made it though! It is such a handful to ride! lol
Rob

What a ride one thousand miles would be on a 45 year old dirt bike knowing what modern day technology was capable of. Back in the day the guys that raced Baja didn't know any better but to ride a 70 400 today 1000 miles would be quite an experience, especially knowing how plush and powerful modern bikes are.

I wonder what caused it to have problems and subsequently seize. An air leak in the intake or base gasket is what comes to mind especially since the carb wouldn't work properly with the air cleaner in place.

Any pictures of the bike after 1000 miles of desert?

I would guess the air filter had clogged with dust and was stopping the motor from running. Removing it solved that issue, but then allowed the dust straight into the motor, eventually causing it's demise.
But 1000 miles in that heat and dust on a 1970 Husky ..... you and the team deserve a medal !

Surely they tried to cleaned the filter before finding out that wasn't the problem.............but yet you never know. Also wouldn't dust just grind up the ring and sleeve causing a loss of compression rather than causing the piston to seize? With as many bikes as George at Uptite has worked on over the decades I bet he's seen the result of not running an adequate air cleaner.[/quote][/quote]

no air cleaner would make the A/F mixture leaner i would have thought, and at high rpm for extended periods seizure sounds about right to me.

The carb was flooding out or something and saturating the air cleaner with fuel. This would cause it to NOT idle but run wide open just fine. The opposite of a "clogged" air cleaner. And why none of us thought about the root cause.

So, it would run on the pipe great, then when we would let off the gas for corner, or check point, or whatever, it would die. Then, the rider would kick it about 1000 times before it would fire again.

Every night, we would adjust the float, or mess with the jetting, or whatever....and clean and swap the air filters...so everyday at the start, it would fire on the first kick, and we thought we had it it fixed! Nope.

It was an accident that we figured it out, and by then it was day 5 and we had wasted so much time troubleshooting it, we finally had to pull the air cleaner and go for it.

I'll try to find a pic of it at the finish. Still looked great. I don't think any of us crashed.

It was a lot of fun, and EVERYONE loved the bike!

Pic of me that was in this issue of dirt sports.

Oh, it's got a Mikuni on it now! Lol

Pic from the mag, and the actual pic

And I know running with no air cleaner is dumb....I was on the chase bike with Kevin the last 70 miles and made the call. The sweep truck was right behind us, and we made time (with me pulling Kevina few miles with the chase bike, then handing the chase bike over to my 14 year old son, and he pulled me the last few blocks through Cabo, then I pushed it across the finish) by about 10 minutes. That's how close we were to DNF'ing officially.

Rob

If you're racing, whatever it takes to finish is not "dumb"! anything can be repaired after, claiming 2nd place may never be a possibility again, great thread!

Decided to get her back together and race Norra in 2016. Making some improvements (carb, front forks, and new wheels) and going back to get my 1st place trophy!!

All post pics on here as the process starts if anyone is interested.

Rob

Oh yes please

of course we're interested!

OK..... Engine back from the builder, frame stripped down, primed and repainted, new black wheels getting laced up, new plastic (all of us signed each piece of plastic and took one home last year), and assembly has started!

I am also building a sweet 1997 KX 250 to run in the 2 Stroke only class.

Plus, a friend of mine and me are racing his 2014 KTM 500 in the Modern class!

Yes, we are taking three bikes down and a total of 9 riders including my 15 year old son!

Pics are coming!

Also,

I searched around and found that 74-76 forks are the best to use, so I found a beat up pair and sent them to Vintage Husky to get re-worked. I guess this will probably be the single biggest improvement on the old girl!!

Pics.

I love the way the kx250 (now a kx300!!) is turning out!

I am writing a book called "A Thousand Miles of Dust" documenting the 2015 and 2016 NORRA races on my Husky. It also includes some desert racing history, how a kid from Missouri got in to it all, Building of the bikes, and some pretty funny stories. My other book (Fiction) is e-book only, but I will get this one published with lots of full color pics!



if anyone is interested, I created a Facebook page called "Vintage Husky's" I would love to have more pics on there! I know I am not the only one who likes these old bikes!!

Rob

Heres some desert racing pictures.

http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/vintage-husqvarna-desert-racers.29894/

http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/vintage-husqvarna-desert-racers.29894/#post-270474

http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/vintage-husqvarna-desert-racers.29894/#post-270475

http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/vintage-husqvarna-desert-racers.29894/#post-270476

http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/vintage-husqvarna-desert-racers.29894/#post-270477

http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/vintage-husqvarna-desert-racers.29894/#post-270478

http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/vintage-husqvarna-desert-racers.29894/#post-270480