Husky 125CR Project almost done

[Ruairi]

Hello all
I have totally stripped down and rebuilt the little Husky almost to being complete again and ready to race. There are bits I have not done due to cost. e.g. tank
Please can someone help me with the following questions.
1. How much oil in each forkleg and what would you recommend?
2. Any ideas why there is so much space between tank and set? Its the same tank and seatbase and foam that came off the bike? All I have done is replace the seat cover. It didn't have this much space before I started meddling with it
3. Do I run it on mineral of Castrol R pre-mix?
Thank you

 

[Motosportz]

Cool bike / nice job

wild guess on the seat, are the brackets on the bottom reversible? Maybe there is a left and right side?

Any modern oil should work fine but people do like castor oils on hot air cooled motors with no power valves to gum up.

 

[grouty]

Have you got the leading axle forks or the black straight leg ? Can't see from the picture there. I will try and find your other thread to see.
The seat has slots in the rear brackets. Just slide it forwards as much as you can. The gap always did look a bit weird on these.
Did you go to the North Devon meeting this weekend just gone ?

 

[jimspac]

He has the leading axle forks.​

 

[Ruairi]

Here is a picture off the forks prior to my tinkerings. Leading axle. If someone can help with oil capacity then superb please!
Seat is as far forward as it will go. Might just be the way I have recovered it Who knows. Bloody odd.
No Grouty I didn't make the North Devon meeting.
One thing or another this year has not been good re me attending meetings
The next and only meeting for me this year is hopefully the Dorset in Sept. See you there

 

[grouty]

I would start with 220ml per leg and work your way up. My forks on both 390's are the same, and I run 240ml. I use 15wt in the 390's, but with a 125 it may be worth using 10wt to see. A great deal will depend on your weight and riding style. These forks also have a habit of sucking air and pressurising themselves. I drilled and tapped a couple of M5 holes on the top caps and fitted a pair of bleeders.
I will probably be at the next Dorset one. Whether I will be the non-riding Steward or a competitor remains to be seen.

 

[suprize]

save tapping bleeder holes, just slip a Schrader valve into the hole and silicon it in and then you can depressurise with the touch of a handy stick lying around.

 

[visiteur1948]

 

[visiteur1948]

 

[visiteur1948]

FRONT SHOCKS
WR 125 = clearance 240 mm =270/280 ml
CR 125 = clearance 300 mm = 220/230 ML ml
oil motor 20/30 w (husqvarna )
not air pressure !
but prefere DEXTRON III 10/15 W for me

pre-mix CASTROL R is good !
or BEL RAY /MOTUL ....
2% / or 2.5 % gas / and oil

 

[Bengt Husky]

Sweet little 125 there...been trying to work out what year it is..1980 ?

I think once you get the rubber under the tank it will move it up closing the gap a bit. We used to put a bit of extra foam in to stop your wedding vegetables from being dropped in the gap.

Funny people saying about air or no air in the forks..we did both. We had Schrader valves and blew the up to 3 psi. The factory told us it would make the seals work better, but it never did.

We ran them on Bel Ray back in the day and did tests and got to 80:1 with no issues. Castor R used to smell lovely, but gum the ring up a treat after two or three meetings.

We ran them at 40:1 on Belray. On all my Huskies now I use 40:1 Maxima 927 caster oil. They run fine on that if a bit expensive.

Love to see more pics when it's done...will it be at Farleigh for the VMXDN .

Cheers

 

[hvaloz2]

Its a 79 ...78 still had yellow tank ,silver wheel rims,32mm bing ,slim body gas girlings ....78 250 had wide body "gas girlings" whilst 78 390 had remote reservoir ohlins ......guess they had a lot of 78 frames etc left over because 1979 saw the start of the Tall 250/390 huskys except for the 125. Just had a look in my cycle world book "On Husqvarna" 1977-1984 [ they also did one for 1966-1976] and yep its a 79 ...even got the 17 rear wheel with 4.5 tyre which most changed to an 18" wheel from a 75/76/77 and fitted a 4.00 tyre. I cant see the carb should be a bing 32 even in 79 ...again most changed to 34 mikuni . Fork oil was 240ml as refill ....i used hydraulic oil that was used on the hydraulics of tractors because it was free! think it was around 10 weight . When me and my mate picked up our husky's from brian in late 78 they gave us each a small tin castrol r 30 or 40 ..[steve i cant rememeber who it was ! ..melvyn spree maybe ] anyway the 250 only lasted 3 outings before no compression ....ring gummed up solid ! had to break it to get it out changed over to castrol TT mineral oil after that at 25.1 ...and all good after .
Re the seat if you file out the U shaped bracket the 8mm middle seat bolt attaches to and weld on some extra tabs to the rear side seat base brackets you can move forward 20mm or 25mm without it looking bad with to much gap between rear frame loop and back of seat .

 

[Bengt Husky]

Cheers for that loz....maybe sounds daft but all the 125 Huskies I had were hybrids that the old man built and tuned so I couldn't tell what year it was by the colour of the tanks (most of mine were purple as there were loads of those in the stores and I had Ohlins from 1977) also As I was tall I had 250 frames made to fit by the old man.

We were also lucky that Brian let my old man tune them to within an inch of their lives...Pistons were ported so they only had a tiny piston skirt lefty. If the Pistons weren't changed every 3-4 meetings they used to sh1t their brains out

Still looking for the 125 works Husky I had in 1977 that was Roger Harvey's. I know it's out there somewhere

 

[Ruairi]

May I please ask for a bit of assistance on the following.
New chain fitted..........to tension correctly with rear wheel off the ground do I use the three finger rule on the swingarm chain slider?
Rear chain roller guide.......do I let the chain literally just roll on this lightly or should I have it at more of an angle so the chain "drapes" over it.

Thank you again all. Great forum and super helpful members.

 

[visiteur1948]

no tensionner =40/50 mm
with tensionner 20 mm maxi

 

[justintendo]

May I please ask for a bit of assistance on the following.
New chain fitted..........to tension correctly with rear wheel off the ground do I use the three finger rule on the swingarm chain slider?
Rear chain roller guide.......do I let the chain literally just roll on this lightly or should I have it at more of an angle so the chain "drapes" over it.

Thank you again all. Great forum and super helpful members.

i prefer to set tension with the rear swingarm loaded so i cant help ya there...
but on the rear guide, set it so it gently touches chain. its purpose is to guide the chain onto the sprocket, not really provide tension

 

[Chayzed Pilot]

Look at the top pic in post #15. This is the proper way to set chain tension.

 

[lankydoug]

pic #15 applies to nearly every bike made. The sprocket, the swingarm pivot and axle must be in a straight line on the same plane, then measure.

The easy way to do this is to put your chest on the rear of the seat and reach down with one arm and pull on the swingarm until all is lined up then measure with the free hand.

 

[grouty]

I find it easier to pop the lower shock bolts out and lift the rear wheel until the chain is at it's tightest (as mentioned above). Adjust the chain now so that it is not drum tight.
Refit shocks and bolts. Then I cut a small block of wood so that I can gauge the correct tension with no weight on the bike. Slip this in when you check the tension. Saves having to go through all the hassle again.

 

[Ruairi]

Thank you guys, Very useful and much appreciated.