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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

84 Husky 500 AE - Bringing back from the dead

S

speednutt

Husqvarna
B Class
Hello and thanks for allowing me to be apart of this great site. I have been looking over several of the posts for some time now and it is time for me to get my project under way.

I currently run a 92 Husky 360 WXE but have acquired a 1984 Husky 500 AE that has been in the family since 1988. It is pretty tough shape but since i used to ride this back in the late 80's and early 90's it has sentimental value to me. The other day i decided to dig into it and once I took the side cover off the transmission i about choked with how bad it looked. I also see why it was parked back then as a spring is broke.

Take a look a the photo and tell me if i should just throw in the towel now. I can clean it up and have all the parts media blasted to get them clean again. Do you think there is any chance of recovery for this trans? Keep in mind that i dont have a single dollar into this bike. I would have no problem putting a grand or so into it i can get it running again even if it is just an occasional rider.

Once again, thanks for letting me be apart of the group.

Nate - Central Mn USA
 

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Nate,
It can be saved. Once you get all the parts out and cleaned up you will have a better idea. But it won't be cheap. Figure you are going to need ALL new bearings and seals, possibly piston and bore job, possibly a rod kit. Also some free wheels. You just won't know for sure until it is taken apart. I like autos so I would say save it. If you don't want to, send it my way!

Marty
 
If say you take some wd 40 spray it on a section and scrub with a toothbush and then take a picture I will give you an opinion. I doubt the fluid last used was Exxon Univis J26 or similar in the Husky quart containers. That stuff might be an organic growth Kind of looks like non detergent oil use in a 50 year old tractor that still runs in a way. Take the cover off on the other side that removes the sprocket and the shaft with all the free wheel devices in it and see if they function as expected, then you can look in at the other shaft. You probably have a good engine if that is not corrosion.

I would suggest getting a new bike and doing some riding if your political climate is similar to what seems to be the direction here.
 
the side cover with the free wheel shaft and gears is missing. The family member i got it from took it apart 20 years ago and cant seem to find or remember where the parts are. So i will need to purchase the side cover and the output shaft with the free wheeling gears. anyone know where i could source those from? I have not spotted even one set of them in the last two months. I have found a CR trans that i might convert over to, then i will have a 6 speed, but i would really rather have the auto if i can find the parts.

Thanks for the suggestions thus far
 
I suspect the 430 water cooled automatic shares that freewheel shaft. If you get the parts sheets you could compare part numbers. Free wheels I think are about $150 each and the advantage of the 430/500 is there are two per speed. I think only two speeds have the freewheels as it does not coast in high gear. Probably simplest to just get another lower end or entire engine. I do not follow the parts for sale lately.

You could use your cylinder and head and perhaps the cylinder studs if you got a standard shift 500 xc, cr or wr for the one year they offered that.
 
I have been contemplating putting in the manual trans and then rebuild the auto as parts come available. Have been watching one for a while, just haven't pulled the trigger yet. Thanks guys,
 
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