• 2 Stroke Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Italy - About 1989 to 2014
     WR = 2st Enduro & CR = 2st Cross

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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

250-500cc '96 WXC 250 build/restoration

D

dhallilama

Husqvarna
A Class
ok, then... recently i started searching for a "modern" dirtbike for myself. i've had a long run of 60s through 80s bikes. i still have some and really like them, but wanted something with modern geometry/brakes/power/handling.

i rode a handfull of new(ish) bikes, quickly shying away from the 4 strokes (just not my thing). that left KTMs & YZs & Huskys. rode a '00 YZ 250 and really liked it. rode a couple KTMs and liked them. then while picking up a bike i bought for my son, i rode the seller's clapped out WXC. holy hell, i fell in love. everything felt right. that bike wasn't for sale, so i started looking for one. eventually came across a horse trade that worked out well... the lumpy piece of junk below.

IMG_20141213_132812.jpg


on the plus side, the bike came with a ton of receipts and claims to a recent rebuild. 2 kicks and it was running... a quick rip around the block confirms that it at least is functioning (and pulls quite hard).

so... time to pull it apart and fix the roached thing.

IMG_20141214_190507.jpg


swingarm bolt? yeah... it's got a bolt. real long bolt.

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also has spray paint. all of the spray paint.

let the stripping begin...

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oh dear... check out those motor mounts! someone fancied themselves a welder. they were not. (luckily, i am :) )

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in short:
every motor mount is jacked up.
every bolt taken off so far is a grade 5 SAE hardware store bolt.
i have only marginal faith in the motor so i'll at least pull the top end and check for crank play.


more to come as i progress further... though this is a side, side, side, project.
finishing the restoration of our 100 year old craftsman style house, have five kids (youngest is 4 months old), wife & i are both self employed... and i've got a cramped, very small garage full of motorcycles and a long-term '31 ford project.

me... i used to build cars/motorcycles professionally, now just do it as a hobby for myself. also a former building contractor. now i cuss at computers for a living.
 
those welds are pretty tough on the eyes :eek:

looking forward to your rebuild, hope all else goes a little smoother
i hate seeing the wrong fasteners, that's a beg deal with me someone engineered that and not the sales person at Ace or Home Depot
 
that roached together motor mount is at least there... more than i can say for some of the others...

IMG_20150222_202720.jpg


can't say i haven't seen worse (i build/ride old harleys, triumphs, etc)... but damn.
the only way i can think of breaking every single motor mount is vibration cracking from leaving fasteners loose. i don't know the story behind the bike, but i'm guessing it involves abuse, neglect and beer. then someone decided to "fix" it.
 
dhallilama said:
that roached together motor mount is at least there... more than i can say for some of the others...

IMG_20150222_202720.jpg


can't say i haven't seen worse (i build/ride old harleys, triumphs, etc)... but damn.
the only way i can think of breaking every single motor mount is vibration cracking from leaving fasteners loose. i don't know the story behind the bike, but i'm guessing it involves abuse, neglect and beer. then someone decided to "fix" it.
Click to expand...







the first time the fasteners were replaced with other than correct replacement the cascade began
you are seeing the end result of beer engineered, i drink beer from time to time, they abused it from time to time
 
i'm not opposed to grade 5 fasteners... the proof load & yield strength should be damn close to the metric 8.8 that i'm guessing was originally used... but the diameters. SAE <> Metric.

new metric fasteners are on the list. so is a right side panel (missing). i know DC isn't OEM quality by a long shot, but at least they've got plastics...
 
probably from the bike being run with loose bolts to begin...thats hard on the eyes...
on the positive side, just know thats a very good model, great chassis and motor. i have put some time and effort into mine and am very happy with it. they are built very well. as you can see, its probably amazing that its still running and working as good as it is. i ve torn mine apart to the trans shafts and back together again, any questions just ask. there are plenty here that are familiar with that model, and its actually quite abit like the newer model 250/300 made until 13/14......heres mine, a 95 360. same as yours just a lil more cc..good luck bringing her back!
Photo415.jpg
 
Once you get that thing all sorted out you'll love it I've got a 94 wxe 250 and it works great lugs pretty good and pulls hard and looking at your pics has helped me confirm my new rad and hose options
 
justintendo said:
and its actually quite abit like the newer model 250/300 made until 13/14.
Click to expand...

You would think so but it actually is not much like the new ones. I had a sweet 94 250, parked it next to my buddies 07 WR250. Things look close until you place the bikes side by side and nothing is really the same. Frame, motor, plastic, wheels, brakes, seat, sub frame... really nothing is interchangeable. I thought they had a lot more in common too.

Riding them back to back the 94 feels like a bike built for riding in the woods, lower, more mellow motor, more off road feeling. The 07 feels taller, racier, quicker steering. Both very good.

my 2 cents

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IMG_5107-XL.jpg
 
after riding my friends 08 wr250 i agree mostly....getting on a kdx, ktm, or other jap bikes makes them feel much closer gene-wise.
it is weird how much cagiva stuff looks the same but is different, and wont come close to swapping. then other things will bolt right up almost 20 years apart. but yes, all great bikes. the newer bikes feel much sharper which makes me like the older a lil more. i kinda like the fatter subframe too
 
Darn dude you are more ambitious then me!! But I will say I have ALOT of fond memories aboard a 1996 WXC 250!! I loved that bike! I also liked the right side up zokes with compression and rebound in one and on top! If I remember correctly AKA like my new Husky LOL... You may be a head of the game finding a low hour bike and using this one for parts. Your call. It could be made to be nice!!
 
I've started with bikes that were far more gone than this... plus I rarely ever see them for sale around here.

the motor has a replated jug, bunch of new parts thrown at it. it's a pretty good start for a cheap woods bike.

I'm not a competitive rider anymore... just like playing around with my kids, occasionally ripping through some single track, and desert whenever I get the chance (rarely). this bike should cover those needs nicely.
my other off road bike is a '77 Yamaha IT250, which is quite capable for a post vintage... and rips as long as there's no need to stop or turn like anything modern(ish). its a better desert bike than single track...

years ago (decades, actually) I spent a week riding a Cagiva 250 in Baja. loved that bike. jumping on a Cagiva built husky reminded me how great it was...
 
That extended swimgarm bolt is for your passenger to put their feet on**************************************** or doing tricks with.
 
slowly progressing with the Husky... other projects, kids, work, house restoration... bah.

stripped the frame... used some stuff called "green strip" which took care of the red, black under that and the factory white in one application followed by hitting it with a pressure washer.
IMG_20150419_195011.jpg


seriously dont know how they jacked up the motor mounts so badly... i'm cutting them off and fabbing up new ones

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if you look closely, you can see the case damage from some attempt at welding the motor mounts... seriously, it took me under 20 minutes to have the motor out of the frame; they couldn't do that?

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