Consider the YZ490 Connecting Rod

I would be interested in a rod kit for the 500cc husky!

HVA sells them for £286, but for me in Norway that meens £286 + shipping ? and then you can multiply this amount with 1.25 (tax) AND THEN add £14.7 (fee to pay tax!)
and when I receive it I will have to ship the crank. pay for the job and pay shipping both way.. It gets expensive pretty fast!

I am reverse engineering the connecting rod and will create a blueprint to submit for a price that will be somewhat higher than their average price ($99 for rod, pin, & bearing). To keep the cost down for the lower volume of sales I will be asking them to provide the necessary machining ops to an existing forging they already produce.

I am only specifying out the rod that is used on 250, 360, 390, 80's 400, 430. I am not sure this rod will work on the 500

the 500 has its own rod, away from the others. to go through this would only be worth it to get the 500 rods, imho. the others are readily available

Kawasaki KX500 rod can replace 500 Husky,KX250 rod can replace 125mm Husky 250 mag rod

May I ask where (or who) you are in contact with? I am looking for a conrod for a Vertemati (shares a few genes with the 4t Huskys) with not much luck. Perhaps it is time someone reproduced rods for the Vertemati as well?

**Corrections Made**

I am going to be contacting Hot Rods Products to inquire if they can make required changes to existing product. I am researching for a current Hot Rods product for both the 2 rods previously asked about. I have found the KX500 con rod will work for the 500 2 stroke but with substantial mods required to the big end pin as the ID of big end bore is 1mm oversize for the application of the OEM big end pin bearing for for the 25mm pin used by Husqvarna. The pin would need to be ground down to 25.03 dia for the lengths thatpressinto the crank cheeks. The other changes for both rods I am looking at are adjusting the big end widths of both rods. I do not consider an existing rod viable if the required center to center dimensions can not be matched to with .5mm. The KX500 rod is that amount longer than the Husky 500 rod. It makes it in that respect. It is also uncertain as to how long Kawasaki will support the KX500 as it was last imported in 2001

For any rod they make you need to know the basic functional features of your con rod. You can search by center to center distance on their website www.hotrodsproducts.com You need to know the thickness of the big & small ends and whether the rod you are looking at is a 2 or 4 stroke application. They only list rods for The Jap Big 4 and KTM. Not even Husqvarna of any year

The reason I am looking for them to make a small run of an existing forging is because of the cost of re manufacturing an old product from scratch. Majority of domestic manufacturer do not make small runs of legacy product for a diminished market which vintage certainly falls into. Building forging dies require significant production run to recoup the cost of them. The benefit of using the output of an existing forging die does not require the development of a dedicated forging die. I have seen where Hot Rods potentially gets several similar products out of generic profile forging dies because the machined features make the rod application specific.

I may get turned down by them because I do not see support for custom application. But I will also find out the costs of the raw forgings as I have a contact with a local machine shop looking for work to fill the holes. I do not like the idea of having to bush ID bores to make them smaller as the rods they make have silver plated bores for sacrificial lubrication

I have modeled the con rods for the 82-up 250, 400,430, etc models and the 2 stroke 500 models. I will make prints for those shortly.

We have just been cleaned out of 500cc Husky Conrods!!!

I am getting some more made, but we will not get them until October...

I will be talking to the supplier about doing the 240/250/360/390/400/430 rod too once we are out of NOS ones of those.

Andy Elliott.

OK so I am new to the con rod issue, but slowly getting an education. What is the bottom line, I need to get my 82 250 XC on the trail again. It needs a crank overhaul and I am stuck on the con rod. What I have figured out:

I can get one from HVA-factory for a whole bunch of money
I can get one machined from Halls for around $350

Are there any other options?
What years and models are the same?
What makes them so obsolete?
Should I just not worry about this and fork up the $$

Brian: Forrest Stahl in Indiana has done hundreds of Husky rods/cranks. He provides exceptional service at reasonable prices. 765-284-7653
Last time I checked, huskydoggg didn't have the 250/430 rod kits, but he had rod kits for the 500s and older models for about half the price that the europeans charge.

Yep - they are in stock and I have just re-ordered more.

Andy

I posted a section on tips in the husky club magazine from Craigs years ago about a Yamaha rod that needed the lower end thickness ground so it could fit a husky 250 mag engine. I think they were a tad shorter but it worked I had one running.

What ever happened to the husky club and Craig?

It seems Craiag moved on to Vincent motorcycles. There was a link to his new intrest with the same format websiste.

Can you provide a direct link to what you reference. I have seen yamaha on a rod sticking out of a water cooled either 250 or 400 or 430 lower end.

Craig was trying to sell off most of his bike collection about a year ago and was not very active with the website

It was in one of Craig's husky club flyers were I posted it. I'm not sure if it's on his website. I crossed referenced a Yamaha 250 rod that was a tad shorter. The large end was wider than the husky end so we ground it on both sides to the
Husky dimension.

If you use a Yamaha rod, you may be able to use a Yamaha piston as I saw I mod using a Yam 250 piston in a n 82 250 engine. The pin to top on the yam was 5mm higher than the piston from Husqvarna so the user created some creative porting on the Yam piston that made a ripper out of the 250 Husqvarna

I can't remember the lower crank pin or lower bearing I found that worked too. I crossed referenced all the parts.

what makes them difficult is probably the fact that they last so long. it is not a very common item to replace. rods can last the life of the bike in a husky, if fed clean air and somewhat correct fuel mix

A)
Get a useable used crank
get an auto crank and get the longer pin new
get a used crank with the bolt for the ignition busted off and switch out your good crank piece
I could keep going but not as fast
get a used lower end
get a used engine
Get a crank with the correct rod and pin but for a different displacement study the parts sheets for same rod part number.

B) Pretty much all of the approx 82 250 have the same stroke up until 87 when it got longer. need verify for yourself For some strange reason I started out on a 500 because my friends went out west in 11,000 foot elevations, I tend to get multiples of what I have so not real knowledgable about the 250.

C) I won't answer this one the question makes a statement. I have bought some nice harley mirrors on stalks that were obseleted. That just means no longer for sale from Harley best as I know.

D) Yes you should worry. By the time a crank wears out the small gear on the back of the clutch is mostly worn way past whatever hardening there ever was. The hole the swingarm pivot goes into if not egged out will soon, etc.

To get a crank serviced one needs a reliable crank service to bring or send it to. It might be advisable to locate that first.

Auto cranks can have the drive taper fail. If the 85-86 crank will work a lot of those go down to engine case failure, more so than earlier ones. For me the choice was new crank $285 rod and pin kit available at the time $150*- then find and hire a shop. Some cranks were up into the $400's at the time.
Not sure if it is proper to jump on this thread or make a new one for this issue
Put a location
How many private message offers so far?

How to check a crank rod put crank in vice, put dial indicator against end of pin push and pull. so long as that timing side bearind didn't send chips into the mix should be pretty reliable.

Fran

there was a place called RPM [rapid precision machine] that made billet titanium rods used to see there ad in the classifieds in Dirt Bike