• Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Sweden - About 1988 and older

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1986 WR 400 Crank Seal question

Steve Markham

Steve Markham

Husqvarna
B Class
I am trying to replace the crank seals on my 86 WR 400. I was told by someone with way more knowledge than myself that I could do this without splitting the case. I was able to get the seal replaced on the stater side, but when I tried on the clutch side I pulled off the plate bolted around crank shaft to the inside case expecting to see a seal, but saw ball bearings instead. Any guidance is greatly appreciated!
 
Need to split the cases to replace clutch side seal, only mag side you can do without splitting them, as you've already found.
 
Thanks! I looked through the many diagrams and see where the seal is now. How easy and accurate is it to do a leak down test yourself?
 
We need to inspect the tranny side bearing and replace the ignition side bearing when we do the crank seals.
If I don't bad karma kicks in and I end up doing the job twice if not right the first time.
 
Because of the age just replace the seals now and save yourself the consequences of an airleak once you start running it. Viton seals are the best since you do not want to split the cases twice. Phillip has them at www.husqvarna-parts.com. After checking prices at a few bearing suppliers, his price for them is competitive.
 
But if the crank bearing is bad by having play in it by not changing it, it's bound to air leak then seeze.
 
Bigbill said:
But if the crank bearing is bad by having play in it by not changing it, it's bound to air leak then seeze.
Click to expand...
no ones saying to leave bearings in that are bad..jim is saying to just replace the seals instead of a leakdown test..
it is unusual for the crank bearings to go bad however..they seem to last about twice as long as any of the transmission bearings. i clean em and run em if they are good. i do periodically check the mag side bearing so im not ignoring it for years. the ridiculous output side crank bearing is stout...
 
My initial start of the bike produced a TON of smoke, we drained a lot from the exhaust afterwords, and I initially had a hard time getting it started. All that led me to think the crank seals might be bad. Bearings looked stout on both sides, and I changed the seal on the motoplat side because I had a new one that came with the bike. Now however after running it, there is no oil dripping out either end of the exhaust pipe, and the bike starts fairly easy. I haven't procured a case splitter yet, but will soon. Any suggestions on where to find one?
 
When you strip it check the crank stub shafts for wear. They can create quite a groove in the shafts and no end of seals will cure the problem.
 
You know for the amount of work to split the cases. Your really talking about 60 dollars for three main bearings. Always change the spocket output
bearing because of built in seal. Maybe another 16 dollars. That would be two SKFs and ZKL double row main max capacity C 3 main.
 
Metric seals have the good red viton seals as well, they are nice to deal with too. I think they are in Indiana.
 
Steve Markham said:
My initial start of the bike produced a TON of smoke, we drained a lot from the exhaust afterwords, and I initially had a hard time getting it started. All that led me to think the crank seals might be bad. Bearings looked stout on both sides, and I changed the seal on the motoplat side because I had a new one that came with the bike. Now however after running it, there is no oil dripping out either end of the exhaust pipe, and the bike starts fairly easy. I haven't procured a case splitter yet, but will soon. Any suggestions on where to find one?
Click to expand...
the tusk universal case splitter we have discussed here works well..it will work on many bikes too. i use my own bolts for it but its solid. you will also need a "crank puller" or another tool to reassemble things again..i use the factory husky tool for this, but there is a tusk tool also. "eurotrash" also makes a reproduction of the factory tool.
i take it the crank has no up/down (radial) play? have you split cases before?
 
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