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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

1985 Husqvarna WRX 400

Skoalman

Skoalman

Husqvarna
AA Class
http://www.cafehusky.com/forums/att...ment.php?attachmentid=3751&stc=1&d=1266361265

Just put a deposit on this last night...It's a pretty interesting find b/c the front end he has on there is from an 86 (not ahrma elgible), and the original front end is the drum brake set up (ahrma elgible!!:applause:) that I'll be installing upon it's arrival. Got it for $750.00 from Ken Ruppert in Youngstown. He's got an 86 for sale too.
 

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Frog,

He said he painted the plastic...But I don't care -- it looks decent and it seem like a good solid bike...He went through the bike completely (motor, frame, etc..) and told me a very detailed history about it. He was going to scrap it and said he had some parts lying around and just decided to put it together...Looks clean and everything is tight. You can see some of Ken Rupperts restoration work (74 Husqvarna) on Phillip's Husqvarna-parts.com site. I guess 400's are my thing. These 400's have magic motors and there just stone cold reliable.
 
Yeah...I'm so stupid...I had to go and buy 2 more bikes during this recent east coast snow storm...Like I really needed them...Storing bikes at bro's house -- you're right Rick -- that's what little brothers with big houses are for!!:D
 
2 out and then 2 back in? I don't want to hear another word about room or lack thereof (dang - I sound like a woman/my wife). Hell, if it were up to me I'd have bikes in the livingroom.
Rick
 
Check the swing arm for cracks. If you have any questions I will soon have most of the answers. I am working on a 86 400 and have two 85 model arms and one 86 model, all with cracks somewhere. The 86 has bearing bosses so badly cracked they will need to be cut off and new ones welded on. The other two have had the cracks ground out and are at the welder now. Then off to Shot Peen after the welding. The chain adjuster bolts sieze in place too requiring a machine shop to drill out and put in thread inserts. Good luck!
 
Skoalman;78110 said:
These 400's have magic motors and there just stone cold reliable.
Click to expand...

Oh Great 400 Guru,
He Who Owns All 400's North of the Equator,
I bow in your gracious presence and humbly ask a diminutive question:

What's your opinion on 400 vs 430 for power and running quality?

Thanks, Mr. Skoalman.
 
Fritz,

Thanks for the tip. According to ken the bike was literally in pieces and he went through it bolt by bolt, so hopefully I "lucked" out. Keep your fingers crossed!

Oh Mr. Picklito -- it's funny that you asked that question b/c about a month ago I purchased as pristine used 87 430 head and cylinder in the event that one of these top ends goes "south of the equator." Now, what I've been told and what I've read about the 400 vs 430 is that the 400 has a little less torque but the overall powerband is better, because it's able to rev out more with alot less vibration. The H20 bikes are definitely heavier (266 pounds gassed up and ready to go according to an old test I read) but the motor in my mind deifinitely has all the torque I desire, but you can wick it up like a 250 on steroids...It's a nice combination. And luckily I do happen to have an 86 frame, rear shock -- and I think even a swingarm. I also know a few guys that were rock steady 400/430 vintage riders/racers who actually downgraded last year to 250's b/c they the 400/430 were wearing them out in the east coast woods. I think there is only one time when my bike put a can of whoop doo-doo on me and that's when I ran it in a modern harescramble in south (sandy) jersey...The suspension was just to soft for all that sand and it beat a brotha down...I finished, but I was hurtin' for certain!
 
Oohrah -- Roger that LTC...I will brief ya'll in the next few days about the pending changes... I see you're a few clicks down the road there in Alexandria -- Have you joined PVR yet -- Potomac Vintage Riders...great organization! Skoalman -- out.
 
I got the bike today...It looks even better in person...This bike is very, very clean...I don't know what he used to paint the tank, but man, it turned out great. Started on second kick. Strong motor and good tranny. Felt good. Did I mention that it was clean!

I'll guess I'll tell y'all now -- I sold the 83 WR 250 today as well. Turns out the guy who bought it doesn't live far from the guy who sold me the 85 WRX...So since he was coming to Maryland to pick up the 250, he agreed to pick up the WRX for me and deliver it to me. It was a good day.
 
Your 250 was a beaut, for sure, but so is that 400... you're lucky he didn't pick up that 400 and decide to keep it for himself!
 
So I asked Ken, the seller, what did he use to paint the fenders and tank and he said Krylon fusion for plastic. He said: "this paint will last a long time on the fenders & such but it WILL scratch up on the tank, Once a season wet sand the scatches (dry to rough it up) & repaint" Sounds like a no brainer to me -- at least for this bike.

I've got an old spare 84 WR plastic tank that Frog sold me, I might try it out on that one and put it on the the other twin shocker that I'm resurrecting...
 
Eric,

Wow, what a blast from the past.

Regarding the krylon fusion paint -- I wish I knew about the tank and could tell you how it held up. Unfortunately, I sold the 1984 WR 400 and 1985 WRX 400 and all of my extra 400 parts (ALOT!!) to Bob Bean, I believe in late 2011. I think I've seen him on here, from time to time. Loved the 400's (owned 3 WR's and 1 WRX) but honestly I just didn't want to deal with vintage watercooled bikes anymore. No problems with them, just wanted something a little less complex. Was always on the hunt for air-cooled 430's and now own a 1982 and 1983 430 WR.
 
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