craigy
Husqvarna
AA Class
I bought a 2008 TE450 from an old riding buddy, he has taken up adventure riding and has a stable of KTMs (690 and 1190) as well as a Ducati Multistrada a new Guzzi and a Gas Gas trials bike. The 450 had been sitting neglected and hadn't been ridden since March, he does a lot of his own mechanical work and can be a bit shoddy. He assured me it had been running well when last ridden and it had a large (Acerbis?) tank, radiator guards, disc guards, silicon radiator hoses, an arrow exhaust, Trailtech Vapour speedo (the original is missing presumed smashed), Supersprox rear sprocket and a Shorai lithium battery. Anyway I got it very cheap so I was happy enough.
I got it home and set about getting it up to scratch. First thing was starting it up and riding it around the block just to check if it ran properly, it went well with no problems in performance noted.
I then set about cleaning it, the exhaust has about 3 years worth of baked on mud, the air filter box had a clean filter however the filter oil and dirt mixture was half an inch thick. I stripped it down and cleaned everything up enough so I didn't get covered in filth when working on it, this revealed the worn swingarm and linkage bearings, the bent subframe, the sloppy subframe nutserts and the missing nutsert for the rear mudguard replaced with a 10mm bolt! It also had a number of incorrect fasteners used holding the plastics on and the brake pedal was missing the tip which had been replaced with a piece of aluminium.
I sent the suspension off to be serviced, revalved and had the forks modified so hopefully the seals keep the oil in. Swingarm, linkage and chain roller bearings were replaced. Brake pedal was replaced with a 2nd hand item from eBay. Steering head bearings cleaned and repacked. Subframe straightened, nutserts replaced, the 10mm hole filled with a 10mm bolt centre drilled with a 5mm thread and loctited. Wiring loom checked over and some connectors replaced as necessary. Wheel bearings checked and found to be near new. Brake calipers cleaned and sliding pins cleaned and lubed. Brake fluid replaced. Rear tyre replaced. Nearly seized chain adjusters removed cleaned and anti-seized. Front and rear mudguards as well as headlight shroud replaced. Mismatched fasteners replaced with correct ones. Valve clearances checked, oil and filters and coolant replaced.
I rode it around the block a few times and it all seemed good however it is hard to test properly when you are limited to suburban speeds.
On my first trail ride it ran well for five minutes and started coughing and died, I restarted and manged to start riding back to the car when it cleared up and starting running properly, I turned around and kept riding and got into the single trail, this is when the clutch lever started to come back to the bars without disengaging. A few pumps and I had clutch again. A check of the master cylinder, line and slave revealed no leaks so it appeared the slave was leaking. Anyway I decided to carry on. A few moments later I had coolant coming out of the overflow bottle lid, Oh well probably over filled it I thought and then it died again. It would start and idle but wouldn't take any throttle or if you started with full throttle it would rev and pop/bang/miss and then die. I pulled the tank off and check for fuel pressure and the pump was working, pulled the spark plug and checked the cap all appeared OK.
A bit of pushing and a decent walk later I was back at the car.
I got home and did some reading here. I decided that even though it had fuel pressure the injector and fuel pump were likely suspects. I pulled the fuel pump out and found it and the filter were the originals, I ordered a chinese pump from eBay and found a 30 micron metal filter as well.
I spoke to Stefan my local Husky shop (R and D) and he suggested I check the connector and resistor that replaces the O2 sensor (it was OK) and I ordered a temp sensor as the original was still there. I also checked the coil anf cleaned the mounts ensuring there was a good earth and checked the ECU connector, cleaned it with contact cleaner went over the wiring loom looking for damage (none found).
I cleaned the injector and the spray pattern looked good, installed the new pump and filter and rode it around my house, all was well. I didn't replace the temp sensor as I like to do one thing at a time and also I noted the fan was coming on after a while as it should so I suspected it was OK. I replaced the clutch slave cylinder o-ring and fluid and the clutch is now fine.
So next ride, I went to a place that was mostly up hill for the test so if anything went wrong I could roll (mostly) back the car, I also took my other bike (KTM 125EXC) so I could still get a days riding in if the Husky failed.
Anyway 10 minutes in same thing as before except this time with the downhill it would run if I kept a steady throttle, I got back to the car (just) and it stopped and would idle but wouldn't take throttle. When I got back from the ride and it was cold it started and ran fine. Unfortunately I didn't take my new temp sensor with me so I couldn't swap it and test.
So I am suspecting either the temp sensor has a problem when hot or I have a stator or ECU problem. I will replace the sensor and try again, If it still plays up I will look at the other more expensive options.
Anyone have any other thoughts? Sorry for the long story I just wanted to get it all down so people could see the process had been pretty thorough.
In the past I owned and raced Huskies from 1993 until 1999, I had a 2 x 510 TE, a 510 roadracer, a 610 roadracer (supposedly built by Thomas Gustavsson and imported by Hans Appelgren), a 410 TE and lastly a 250 WR. I switched over to KTMs when the RFS models came out and have owned KTMs since.
I got it home and set about getting it up to scratch. First thing was starting it up and riding it around the block just to check if it ran properly, it went well with no problems in performance noted.
I then set about cleaning it, the exhaust has about 3 years worth of baked on mud, the air filter box had a clean filter however the filter oil and dirt mixture was half an inch thick. I stripped it down and cleaned everything up enough so I didn't get covered in filth when working on it, this revealed the worn swingarm and linkage bearings, the bent subframe, the sloppy subframe nutserts and the missing nutsert for the rear mudguard replaced with a 10mm bolt! It also had a number of incorrect fasteners used holding the plastics on and the brake pedal was missing the tip which had been replaced with a piece of aluminium.
I sent the suspension off to be serviced, revalved and had the forks modified so hopefully the seals keep the oil in. Swingarm, linkage and chain roller bearings were replaced. Brake pedal was replaced with a 2nd hand item from eBay. Steering head bearings cleaned and repacked. Subframe straightened, nutserts replaced, the 10mm hole filled with a 10mm bolt centre drilled with a 5mm thread and loctited. Wiring loom checked over and some connectors replaced as necessary. Wheel bearings checked and found to be near new. Brake calipers cleaned and sliding pins cleaned and lubed. Brake fluid replaced. Rear tyre replaced. Nearly seized chain adjusters removed cleaned and anti-seized. Front and rear mudguards as well as headlight shroud replaced. Mismatched fasteners replaced with correct ones. Valve clearances checked, oil and filters and coolant replaced.
I rode it around the block a few times and it all seemed good however it is hard to test properly when you are limited to suburban speeds.
On my first trail ride it ran well for five minutes and started coughing and died, I restarted and manged to start riding back to the car when it cleared up and starting running properly, I turned around and kept riding and got into the single trail, this is when the clutch lever started to come back to the bars without disengaging. A few pumps and I had clutch again. A check of the master cylinder, line and slave revealed no leaks so it appeared the slave was leaking. Anyway I decided to carry on. A few moments later I had coolant coming out of the overflow bottle lid, Oh well probably over filled it I thought and then it died again. It would start and idle but wouldn't take any throttle or if you started with full throttle it would rev and pop/bang/miss and then die. I pulled the tank off and check for fuel pressure and the pump was working, pulled the spark plug and checked the cap all appeared OK.
A bit of pushing and a decent walk later I was back at the car.
I got home and did some reading here. I decided that even though it had fuel pressure the injector and fuel pump were likely suspects. I pulled the fuel pump out and found it and the filter were the originals, I ordered a chinese pump from eBay and found a 30 micron metal filter as well.
I spoke to Stefan my local Husky shop (R and D) and he suggested I check the connector and resistor that replaces the O2 sensor (it was OK) and I ordered a temp sensor as the original was still there. I also checked the coil anf cleaned the mounts ensuring there was a good earth and checked the ECU connector, cleaned it with contact cleaner went over the wiring loom looking for damage (none found).
I cleaned the injector and the spray pattern looked good, installed the new pump and filter and rode it around my house, all was well. I didn't replace the temp sensor as I like to do one thing at a time and also I noted the fan was coming on after a while as it should so I suspected it was OK. I replaced the clutch slave cylinder o-ring and fluid and the clutch is now fine.
So next ride, I went to a place that was mostly up hill for the test so if anything went wrong I could roll (mostly) back the car, I also took my other bike (KTM 125EXC) so I could still get a days riding in if the Husky failed.
Anyway 10 minutes in same thing as before except this time with the downhill it would run if I kept a steady throttle, I got back to the car (just) and it stopped and would idle but wouldn't take throttle. When I got back from the ride and it was cold it started and ran fine. Unfortunately I didn't take my new temp sensor with me so I couldn't swap it and test.
So I am suspecting either the temp sensor has a problem when hot or I have a stator or ECU problem. I will replace the sensor and try again, If it still plays up I will look at the other more expensive options.
Anyone have any other thoughts? Sorry for the long story I just wanted to get it all down so people could see the process had been pretty thorough.
In the past I owned and raced Huskies from 1993 until 1999, I had a 2 x 510 TE, a 510 roadracer, a 610 roadracer (supposedly built by Thomas Gustavsson and imported by Hans Appelgren), a 410 TE and lastly a 250 WR. I switched over to KTMs when the RFS models came out and have owned KTMs since.
