• 4 Stroke Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Italy - About 1989 to 2014
     TE = 4st Enduro & TC = 4st 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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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!

Preventative rebuild or just ride it....

ripnriding

ripnriding

Husqvarna
AA Class
Ok..purchased new to me, third owner 2007 TE 450 last January. Valve clearance was tight on both exhaust valves in spring..adjusted and ran fine. 50 hours on of enduro riding, mainly single track and some moderate fire roads. Oil changes and air filter changes religiously every 5 hours or less. Began to start rough in fall...3 of 4 valve clearances tight. Ajdusted and running beautiful but winter weather keeping it tucked in garage.

Bought with mileage over 10000 km. Starts solid and no metal in screens or magnet on drain plug. A small weep from gasket at base of cylinder head and transmission...not leaking excessively ie, no need to add oil (have sight glass). Bike has had a rekluse clutch from the get go....probably reason why it's still going strong. So..the big question...no knocking or unusual sounds etc...should I just do a Top end as preventative? I know..I know...OHR will tell me to ride it till she won't ride no more hehehehe....just looking for some opinions, perhaps some objective things to check to truly determine if it is time for a rebuild. This thing is a tank and hope to put another 50 plus hours on it this season. thanks in advance
 
Maybe a leak down test. If ok I would continue to ride. The unknown is the previous life. If ridden gently maybe good for another couple of years. The old TE motor was strong particularly the bottom end.
 
Ahhhh the winter with a bike sitting in the garage gets the mind in overdrive to prep for next season..
OlderHuskyRider said:
Open up the starter, check to see that it's clean.
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OHR,

What should I be looking for? As probably the most experienced (high mileage TE) on this forum...straight up question...if I were on a budget...replace top end and put faith in the bottom end for the remainder of it's life or...just suck it up and have a full rebuild done to ensure motor is strong for a few more years..I don't have any metal shavings in filter during regular oil changes. 3 of 4 valves have needed clearances reshimming with exhaust valves being extremely tight (negative clearances) last adjustment. Shop indicated at least one valve should be replaced....Rebuilding top end would include replacement of valves? Recommendation of titanium or stainless steel? Lots of questions and always appreciate your "cut to the chase" opinions. Snow is flying and accumulation of the white stuff is on the roads so.....going to take this out later today and listen with a neurotic ear ;) Thanks in advance
 
All they will do is sell you on work to be done.

Get a long screwdriver, place the tip on the engine while running, put the handle in your ear, move it to different spots on the motor, listen for clicking/clanking sounds.

Unless your specific bike has a specific problem or was mistreated in some way that compromised a specific part/bearing, I say, ride it until you hear some weird sound, but that's a pretty extreme position,
 
10,000 miles is lots. Good to know its still running strong. I'd recommend Zip Ty (Tinken on this site) about suggestions for rebuild.

Oh, and preventative maintenance is always cheaper than if something fails.
 
Planepower said:
10,000 miles is lots. Good to know its still running strong. I'd recommend Zip Ty (Tinken on this site) about suggestions for rebuild.

Oh, and preventative maintenance is always cheaper than if something fails.
Click to expand...

It's 10 000 km so a tad less than miles ;) Consulting with Rob Lang of Langs offroad for some advice and wish he were closer than a 4 hr drive. most likely order parts through Rob and have the build done locally at Ktec cycle here in Kingston Ontario.
 
Shout out to Woody's cycle! They got back to me and provided some great advice re replacing the valves as the Ti valves were poor for this year. Recommends replacing gasket, valves and a couple hours labour. Also good news...only 1 hour away vs 4 hours away. We have some amazing Husky mechanics in the region but other than Woody's.....too long of a drive for a guy who doesn't have a truck or trailer...may have to change that in future. Anyone else aware of the Ti valves being poor for 2007 TE's?
 
Do a compression and leak down test. I surely wouldn't rebuild a motor that isn't dropping metal shavings unless it fails either test. Do not just have one valve replaced. If you're gonna pull it apart, get it done right! Maybe throw a fresh set of rings in it while it's opened up?

Unless you are racing or taking a back country survival trek into the badlands by yourself, it would be sort of extreme to go splitting the cases for bottom end work.
 
Huskynoobee said:
Do a compression and leak down test. I surely wouldn't rebuild a motor that isn't dropping metal shavings unless it fails either test. Do not just have one valve replaced. If you're gonna pull it apart, get it done right! Maybe throw a fresh set of rings in it while it's opened up?

Unless you are racing or taking a back country survival trek into the badlands by yourself, it would be sort of extreme to go splitting the cases for bottom end work.
Click to expand...


Thanks for all your help guys. Love this forum! Decided to take my rig to Woody's cycle (closest Husky expert in Perth ontario) and have him properly assess and replace what is needed. Don't race and no big survival treks in the works ;) Looks like a much more favourable light at the end of the tunnel. Now...just came back from a mt bike ride with my home made studded tires and the snow is falling strongly enough that the Husky is going for a little subdivision tour hehehehehehe...I'm calling this a self diagnostic ride ;) Rubber side down all****************************************
 
I have bad news for you the ONLY year of huskys that had bad Ti valves was 2004 so if woodys was a husky expert they really should know that. The 2007s did have crappy radiators stock. The real question is what size of shims are in the motor ? Stock should have been 2.35mm. If the shims are close to that you probably do not have a problem. The shims come in .05mm increaments by the way so a 2.25 shim would be just fine. The 2004s had 2.35mm shims and they were considered to be going away once they got below 2.00mm and were done at 1.70mm. Replacement valves for that motor run 49.95 just so you are aware when someone is taking advantage of you.
 
Agree...have heard absolutely NOTHING but great things about Rob lang. Trying to get all the info I need to make the almighty decision for top, bottom, or both to rebuild. Pushed the button for a millisecond and went out for a snowy ride yesterday....makes it hard to justify a complete rebuild at this stage...processing it all and will make a decision early Feb ;)
 
Boom...Rob Lang from Langs Offroad got back to me with a pretty good quote for all the parts needed for a fresh top end! Should have the parts to my door (FREE SHIPPING :) in a couple of weeks. Trust my local mechanic, Ross at Ktec and should have errrr all put together for March!!! Also ordered an aftermarket fuel screw and clutch lever to the following...

Piston
4 valves
valve spring kit
Valve guides
All seals & gaskets required
OHR....look good?
 
My 08 TXC finally needed a big end bearing at ~950 hrs ... ~25,000 CLKS... No babying the engine with new oil after each ride and the only thing I did with the bike was try to keep it < 10K on the RPM scale ... I'd say, do not try what I do ... I'm a non-professional dirt bike rider.

I could tell after the rebuild (piston/rings from a used cylinder with only ~20 hrs along with the rod-kit), that the bike was down a little on HP before the rebuild.
100_1972.JPG

You don't wanna know how far Angeles City, Luzon is from my house in Danao City. That's the Angel-Witch bar across the street ... I was there, once-upon-a-time, every happy hour for the free pizza...
100_1245.JPG

I've got 3 other Huskies to take the load off this warrior now...

On a ride a month or two after this one was over, I got in a race, on the street, with a 200cc(?) Rouser street bike .. I whipped him but I'll always believe that few miles at higher 10k RPMs, is what did the rod in ... It never knocked or anything but the oil filter screen filled-up with metal once and I parked it and split the cases..
 
still waiting for parts.....apparently on backorder with the valves being the holdup.....finally a good time to have snow around here...makes waiting a little easier to take. I just hope Rob Lang from Lang's Offroad isn't getting impatient from my weekly calls and emails inquiring on status....arrrrrrr
 
Waiting on those parts is not uncommon. I've found Rob to be superb, too bad he is so far from me, but still just a phone call away for parts.
 
Planepower, I hear ya. Would never speak ill will of a shop that has a challenge accessing parts due to the challenges with inventory/shipping from suppliers. Rob has been great in breakdown of a quote for top end parts and has quickly responded with availability on parts that he has in stock. Just getting antsy as the weather here will result in many others, like myself, who want to get their bike in to the local mechanic (Ross from K-tec cycle) in prep for spring...and it is 5 plus degrees out today.....;)
 
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