• Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Sweden - About 1988 and older

  • Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

1976 360CR GP project

Finally had some time to pull the old girl apart..the top end was starting to rattle a little. I pulled the top end off, then the engine came out etc. Cleaned & repainted the frame ,cleaned engine & reinstalled. I have to say the early motor come out easier then the 78-80 motors.
 

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Put on almost new used rear mud guard & rear fender & for now went back to the original swingarm, repainted it & brake arm, pedal etc. Top end was still original bore & i maybe able to just replace the rings, got to check the gap.
 

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Be sure to check the piston clearance at the skirt. You should find .003 to .004 clearance if the piston is still good. I had the same symptoms on the 84 250WR. The piston had .008 clearance at the skirt and was the original piston. I had it bored and it did not clean at 1st over so it went out to 2nd. Luckily I had the piston on hand for another engine yet to be assembled.

Meanwhile I have been working on repairing the groove damage on 2 CR backing plates. JB Weld is working out well and I modified a body filler applicator to finish the bottom of the groove to eliminate the need to machine it.
 
Jeez, I hope you get rid of that red mud flap!! Other than that it looks good. I almost bought that bike. I just got a 78 cr250. Gonna do a clean up and paint. And I just bought a parts bike with some ohlins on it.
 
Ok, been a bunch of months since i've been able to play with the 360. I recently got a modified 78 from another Cafe member. Jim, made it so the tapered
bearing from the later year models slide right in.

Ok, so another round of mocking up parts, new frame, 79 WR forks & wheels, makes me think if i go with the banana swingarm, i'd need 16" c-c shocks
as the shocks in pictures are only 15".
The 79 forks as there set in the triples, now, allow 3/4" increase of travel over the stock 76 tubes with any extra 3-4 inches i'd still be able to pull them
down if needed. I'm just i eye balling things now, but at least the rear sprocket looks to line up with the chain guide on the swingarm. Last picture
shows current 14" shocks (one 1" longer then stock) & 76 stock swingarm & frame.

More to come.... Husky John
 

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The last picture shows nice balance between front and rear. I am sure the 79 WR forks are longer than the CR forks that were on my 78 Auto on the same type frame. As I recall,it had 10" travel front and rear

Of course I just saw the last picture is the 360 frame:)
 
Well, if I follow Husky's logic, then if I increase the rear shocks by 2" , then the front forks should grow by the same amount to preserve there intended balance.

Stock 76 360CR has a 9" fork leg length from bottom of triple clamp down to dust boot top, and a 13" c-c shock length. So if I go with a 14"
shocks I'd need to swap the forks for the 79 anyway , as the stock forks are at there max length already.

But then of course nothing is easy, as if I remember right the 79 rear wheel won't work right with the 76 swingarm, it's always something LOL
 
Use the 1976 wheel on it when you move the engine in. I did rebuild the full floating mount for a reason.....

Also you may want to use the upper tubes from the 360 forks as they are likely about 2 inches shorter and you will still have 9" travel. I noticed the same difference between the 35mm forks on the 78 WR frame I have and the 79 forks that were on the 78 OR frame I have.

Keeping it lower is the reasoning behind the 78 I am building . Target seat height:36" Max Front and Rear Suspension Travel 10" Max but quality travel Emulator front, Remote Ohlins back
 
Long over due update , last fall a fresh top end went on.

December i swapped the engine/air box/plastic/ to modded frame i got from Jim.

Last few weekends in between shoveling snow, i've mounted a fresh rear tire , nicer front tire & rebuild the forks.

Bike currently sports

1) modified 77 125CR/78 390auto frame modded to except tapered roller bearings along with fresh paint
2) 1979 390WR front end- freshly rebuilt.
3) 1980 CR rear wheel & brakes
4) Banana swingarm with 15.75 " long shocks
5) new rear fender & mud guard
6) fresh 2nd over piston
7) 80's stock handlebars

New number plates & swapping the shock springs - to dual rate ones, are on the slate for this weekend, along
with remounting the tank & seat.

more to come Husky John100_3544.JPG100_3545.JPG100_3546.JPG
 
Nope still using that Rustoleum Appliance silver...:cheers:

Like you guys further up north , i've been dealing with snow, but not as much, so re-painting
the fork legs, swingarm etc will have to wait til it gets warmer...if that even comes...
 
Weather getting better, so i trying fitting a chain on the old girl & realized without a lower chain roller there would be too much slack.

Lucky the 79 390WR frame i had , had one, but of course it's never that easy.

I first tried just swapping the 76 for the 79 rear motor plates, which of course meant removing 1/2 of what i had already assembled. But after removing the pipe, airbox , rear wheel & shocks, and fitting the 79 ones, the front lower motor mount won't line up right.

motor mount plates.jpg

So onto plan B, i had to drilling a co axle hole similar to what was on the 79 plate, but as luck would have it, the position wasn't the same, as
the motor cases must be different too.

Finally got it positioned right & back went everything , only took me a day & 1/2.

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Still glad i was able to mix & match different year Husky parts & make it work.

Husky John
 
I think Howerton's were bare or clear anodized aluminum. Stock 76 straight legs and 77 leading axle were both black. I think black would be suitable as the works Husqvarnas were predominately pre production prototypes.
 
I think Howerton's were bare or clear anodized aluminum. Stock 76 straight legs and 77 leading axle were both black. I think black would be suitable as the works Husqvarnas were predominately pre production prototypes.

I was thinking black legs as well too.


nice transformation. It's amazing how many parts interchange.

Yeap , that's why I love Husky so much , they always made improvements , but with the mind set (I think) to make things interchangeable...:banana:
 
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