1984 500CR project

Ok, with all the other Husky projects being posted i thought i'd show
what i've been working on.

In 3/09 i traded a 1982 250WR Husky Project bike (junk) for a 1984
500CR from a young kid in PA. who was scared of it. The bike needed jetting work, but ran at least that's what i was told.

Any way it had more potential then the 82 250 i had bought as a parts bike for $125, & got running with min work.

So started my next project, i was already in the middle of restro on my
buddys 73 125WR & had bought a 86 510 for a $100 (soon to be a money pit). So i really already had more work than i needed, luckly my race Huskys were all pretty much all in tip top shape.

So as you can see the 500 wasn't in too bad of shape, had a title, sort
of ran, but smoked like a coal locomotive.

Here's how she looked when i got it & the bike i traded for it. View attachment 2975

John

got it running but not for long

1st came taking pictures (before) & cleaning the bike up .

As saw the intake boot was gooped over & of course there was no air filter & it had a car spark plug in it.

Bike ran but barely- it was running way too rich. I soon discovered the original carb was replaced some time in it's life with a flat slide 38mm (40mm is stock).
I felt rather than reinvent the wheel, i went back to stock settings, with a used 40mm carb. Lucky i was still able to find a new 40mm airbox to carb rubber boot & intake boot (reed block).

After taking the carb off a 1000 times,& learning more about jetting then i every wanted to know, i got the bike to running correctly.

But of course the story took a terrible turn ,soon after i made a few other runs to sort out the jetting. Right before that ting sound of a stuck ring the motor ran awesome- 4th gear power wheelies
the fastest Husky i've every rode.

Nice to see another project in here John

I'm still trying to figure out the mile long silencer on that 250 in the first Pic

T

the Frankenstein bike

Yeah, that 250, was really something, i bought it as a parts bike,for the gas tank & forks only,what a Frankenstein bike. Actually T, that's an original Husky silencer 79 or 80 WR with the extra long spark
arrester.

The rear suspension, was unique for sure,i believe it was off a 90's Husky,someone welded up a upper shock mount to the frame. Actually believe it or not it worked very well, i have to give the guy partial credit for trying to modernize his old bike.

As luck? would have it i decided to see if it had spark (which it did) & with a hour worth of fiddling i got it running. The darn thing ran really good to, so i just couldn't pull apart a running Husky.

The bike still had it's original twin shock mounts so if figured i'd put it aside til time permitted a full rebuild, til i saw the craiglist ad for the 500.

I still shake my head when i think someone would trade a 500 for a 250, but plot thickens, as of course you know it would.

i found a picture of the rear suspension

Here's a pic of Frankenstein's suspension, i also learned that a water cooled left side cover can be made to work on a air cooled motor. Check out the water pump blockoff cover. And yes someone painted over the original gas tank with flat black paint

Restoration is progressing

Ok, so after hearing that dreaded sound of a ring dragging, i knew someone hadn't told me the whole story about the insides of the this 500's motor.
You see i was told that it had just been freshly bored by some Husky guy in Ohio, i mentioned Rick Horvat & he said yeah that's the guy.

Well that was a partial B.S. story, yeah he had call Rick and got a piston, but he also he dropped the cylinder & broke off part of the front lower skirt off the cylinder liner soon after.

Rick told me 6 months later, he said, hey sent the cylinder to me and i'll exchange it for another & credit you the piston cost. Well mister 18 year old dumb head decides that skirt not important & puts the top end back on & runs the bike. Lucky for me he never got it running too long, so there wasn't any more damage then a snagged ring & the already broken liner.

As i already mentioned in another post Rick has a cylinder exchange program, you basically send him
your old stuff & he ships back a freshly bore / new pistoned jug ready to drop on with gaskets!

So out came the motor, we checked the lower end bearings for play, rod too, crank seals, all in great shape, thank god.

Here's a few things i learned along the way or at very least i already knew & put that knowledge to use.
1) Never trust what anyone says, when it comes to 2 stroke top ends, pull it off & check it
yourself , even if it's a good running motor.
2) The Husky 500 has it's own special throttle cable, others model ones look like they'd work, but they
don't let the slide drop all the way down. Get a new 500 cable so your not launching your bike down
the road at warp speed.
3) Like most big bore bike, they can sometimes be bear to kick start, always were MX boots, just for that
once in a hundred time it kick backs & whacks the front of your leg.
4) Make sure your kill switch works & your brakes work properly, there's nothing like screaming up
the road on the rear wheel, & finding out one or all don't work correctly.
5) The 500 unlike the 430 (which i also own-82CR) will hurt you, it's a cruise missile. Nothing will put
either a big grin or terror in your eye quicker than a 500 or larger 2 stroke.

Repainting the frame & basic clean up

While the motor was out ,i repainted the frame, disassemblied the
wheels,swingarm etc & cleaned & regreased everything.

Of course i'm still in the middle of 2 other bike projects so sometimes
progress is painfully slow.

Motor back in, carb/airbox & cables back on & adjusted. Shock springs repainted too.

it's getting there

I sanded down the tank & side panels (different ones off ebay) with grade 3 Steel wool, reinstalled along with the repainted pipe & cleaned the silencer with steel wool too.

John

Frankenstein's suspension

Michel,
If you'd like more pictures of the Frankenstein bike's suspension, i can't , i don't have it any more, i traded it for the 84 500CR.

But what i can tell you is, it was a simple bracket welded to the frame
for the top mount.

John

1 step closer to complete

Sporting new rear fender,self made numberplate decals, few more odds
& ends.

15 degrees F w/o the wind yesterday , so til it gets a little warmer,the new grips,race numbers,along with final jetting, have to wait.