• 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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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!

1980 360 Auto?

M

msmith345

Husqvarna
AA Class
Stumbled across this on CL.

http://kansascity.craigslist.org/mcy/4374000096.html

I've been toying with the idea of finding a vintage Husky and doing the vintage class on the Saturday race of some harescrambles. Sure, a McQueen replica would top the cool factor, but this popped up. I know next to nothing about the automatics.

Would this be a good base for a rider resto? I would try to talk him down from the price some, anyone have a ball park figure on what it'd be worth?
 
I don't know, and I have a feeling the owner doesn't really know either.

I'm not seeing much of anything pointing to a 1980 360 auto existing, but if I can get it identified and find some information on it, I might go look at it. It couldn't be more than 5 miles from my house, so it'd be worth looking at, but don't want to go in blind.
 
Ah, got an email back from him.

I've got the engine and frame number. He wasn't sure on the year.

Frame #MM107921
Engine #20770267

If I'm looking at things right, that puts it as a '79 390, sound right?
 
9 fins make a 390, no ?

Yes 9 fins make it's a 390, but the 78-79 390 top end fits on a 360, got a KTM gas tank so it's a real collection of parts.

I had a beautiful 78 390AMX, but the transmission never worked right so I sold it.

If you can't find an Husky Automatic mechanic, pass it up.


Husky John
 
motor number is an 1980 390 auto , so it's early 80 with a 79 frame (as that's the frame #), very common for Husky.
 
Thanks. That makes sense.

So, you say stay away based on it being an auto? I'm real tempted to go take a look at it after work tonight. I suppose I'll start digging through this side of the forum to see what I can learn about the autos, and what makes them so difficult to work on and what the wear items are. I know it's sacrilege for some, but if I were to get it and get it running. And the auto turned out to be a lost cause. Parting out that bottom end and sourcing one of the manual 390s to rebuild and replace it with would still be a viable option, right?
 
a manual will swap in, but i believe the jug and pipe is all you will be able to keep. the entire bottom end is auto specific..if the bike has good wheels and such it wouldnt be bad to get and later convert, but if they look like they need spokes or the other bits look beat up it may be better just to find a better bike more suited to your riding..a "mcqueen" bike would be much older, 70 or 71..81 and up are the larger chassis, more like a modern bike i guess...80 and earlier are kinda smaller, which i like in the woods..i guess it depends on what classes you want to run and how strict they are..
 
Yep, I know the McQueen bike in my head is the '70 400 cross... That would end up as a display in the living room though more than likely.

I went and looked at it, and really it was in pretty good shape. Turns out I knew the guy selling it. So, needless to say it's in my garage for quite a bit less than the asking price. So, we'll see how far I go with this, but I'm thinking cleaning it all up, get it running. The only racing I'd do on it would be the Saturday sportsman race at one of the local harescramble series. It's a 1 hour race and the only restriction on the vintage class is 1991 and older. It's really casual, basically guys taking the basket cases they put back together and having fun. Then they get on their new bikes and race for real the next day. So, it should fit that bill nicely.

We'll see, I might end up going all out on it, I don't know, I haven't done vintage before, but I tend to get wrapped up in things and go overboard.
 
sounds like a great deal even for just parts...the auto can certainly be turned into a weapon no doubt...ohlins with remote reservoirs should be easy to find if that one doesnt have em...didnt remember seeing reservoirs...my first husqy was a 79 wr 250...plush suspension with the factory ohlins...great bike and the worse conditions got the more the gap would close compared to a newer machine..they still have the formidable stability huskys are known for..ive never rode an auto but i bet that would help even more in bad conditions. im too scared to invest in one tho..
 
Yep, it's got the Ohlins. A little surface rust on the springs, the bump stops need replaced, but the shafts are straight and the chrome is good. So, that's a good sign. The suspension feels real plush, there's some dampening but not much. What surprised me the most is how light the bike feels. Not sure what I was expecting, the last air cooled bike I rode was an XR, so I guess I had a top heavy expectation.

The rear hoop has a crack that I'll need to weld up, but I haven't found any other defects in the frame. Some surface rust, but nothing deep.

First thing's first though, I'm going to get it ready to fire up and see about testing that auto. If that all seems like something to invest the time in, then I'll start pulling things apart and getting everything ready to ride.

But, that's gonna have to wait a bit. I've got a bunch of bearings to replace in my 250, and need to get a test ride in over the weekend to make sure I'm all set for the NEPG next weekend...and need to get a tube in the front wheel of the 360 so I can get it off my good stand and out of the middle of the garage...oh, and I've got to rebuild a bottom end in an RM250 tomorrow morning for a friend who's trying to race Sunday. Impulse buy during the busy time...smart move.
 
Make sure you have the motor at an almost dead idle before trying to engage the transmission,these Autos are sensitive on the shaft and engagement gears.
 
There are many threads on here about auto's and their care I should read them all before even trying to start the bike, they are great bikes but need particular care.
 
if you do get it running and you actually get drive..... remember one thing... there is no engine braking whatsoever on a husky auto.....

so before you look at the engine...service the brakes.****************************************:eek:
 
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