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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

te 449 problem (another clutch drag issue)

C

cam

Husqvarna
A Class
hi guys i am in need of some help. i have a 2012 te 449 and have done approx 300km on it. for about the 1st 100km it ran absalutely beautiful and then all of a sudden the clutch drag got very bad to a stage where the bike would sometimes struggle to start and wanted to take off, it clunked into 1st gear very badly, struggles to change into 4th gear and extremely hard to get into neutral (really wld only go ino neutral when rolling very slowly) and also it is near impossible to site on the bike in gear with the clutch in and roll the bike back while on it.
The bike has had its 1st service at about 200km and the dealer adjusted the clutch lever so it was out further which made no difference at all, so i rang paul feeney group (australian importer) and they seem to be pretty useless just tried blaming the oil that was in it. They also seem to think the standard oil that was in the bike is the best for it which is what the bike had in it untill i got it serviced and it still did it with there oil. ive been getting contradicting stories from the dealerand paul feeney group, the dealer has even said its not right, but PFG seem to think its normal.
now what i want to know is what probs people have had with their clutches/gearboxes and also would love to hear from the guys who havnt had any probs what so ever so i can atleast know what the go is.

thanks in advance guys
 
There is no way for others to asses your exact troubles, a big issue with your clutch function might not be such a big deal to others. I can say the 449/511 clutch drags a little more than others and that might be due to it being crank mounted and it's faster rpm.... I can get mine into neutral from first with engine on but is easier from second with a half click down. I have never not been able to start my bike in gear. I generally know ahead of time when I need neutral and find it as I am comming to a stop... As the miles rack up on my bike the better engaging neutral is becoming or I am becoming better with my foot. :) maybe give her some revs with your clutch in every so often will riding to help loosen things it seems to be working for me ... Hope this helps
 
thanks rearwheelin. im not really trying to find the exact cause, thats the shops job lol. the problem im having is that paul feeney group are saying its normal over the phone to the shop and the shop themselves are saying that all the huskys do it but not as bad as what mine is doing atm. i am hoping to get a few replys from guys with 449/511 because the shop said they wont give up and would be good to go back to the PFG and say its not right look at these guys on cafe husky not having the issue as bad
 
Sounds like the slave cylinder is not fully working. Are you loosing any fluid? Sound to me like the master or slave is not moving full range and not completely disengaging the clutch. My TE511 hs over 3500 miles and zero clutch issues. i ahve ran several types of oil in it and notice no difference.
 
Welcome to dealing with the Feeney group. His rep is not good. I hope BMW punt him. His penny pinching ways have not helped the brand one iota
 
my 511 clutch drags a little with about 600 miles on it now. Also clunks when i put it in first. But I can find neutral at a stop and start it when in gear. I'd like to hear what becomes of your issue.
 
My SMR511 clutch drags when it is cold and difficult to find neutral. It's done 2200 miles and is still a bit clunky/notchy, the more miles I do the noisier it get when you compare the clutch lever in to out. Told by dealer nothing wrong , this is a common trait, but they could pack the clutch out if it gets worse. (what ever that means)
 
Same issue here. My 2012 TE511 has only 9 miles on it now and it has the same problem. Namely, hard to pull out of 1st gear (finding neutral), hard bang & lurch when dropping into 1st from neutral; when starting in gear, I have to hold it back...and forget about pulling it back when in gear with clutch pulled in. I phoned the dealer & the wrench said to let it "break in" & he'll look at it when I bring it in for its 1st oil change. I asked if I ought to try bleeding it out - he said that wouldn't help. I'll bleed it out this wkend - just have get info on what brake fluid to use.
 
Thanks for the replies guys, good news for me is the dealer themselves have been awsum and are not giving up on it and won't accept that it's normal. They compared it to their other bikes there and it's worse than them all. They have bled the clutch 3 times and say its a little better but not acceptable for a new bike in their words.

Motorsports- that's what the dealer expected the issue to be but unfortunately it was fine. Did your bike have no issues with the clutch from day dot or did u change or modify anything?

Gthe- your not wrong about the feeney group. It's a shame because the husky is a bloody good bike but isn't very popular over here and they are they main reason behind it. Let's just hope they head the hard word from BMW of lose the contract
 
Cam,

I have a 2011 TE511 and I have had no problems at all with my bike. I have done all the servicing my self besides the 1000km one where I got them to check the valve clearences. I wouldnt except the old excuse that its normal for a new bike. I have even changed the clutch and brake levers over to after market ones and I havent had issues at all, I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. Have you had a look at the adjustment on the lever itself there is an adjustment on the lever that determines the clutch pull. (You probably have just food for thought. It would be nice if it was that easy!!)

Gav
 
Mine does it too, about 40 miles now. It is getting better or i am, cant figure that out yet.
 
mine exactly the same too, but it's not bother me at all...sometime we should understand with the characteristic of each bike isn't always the same CMIIW
 
Mine has pretty much the same clutch issues. Neutral is pretty hard to find, it clunks into first and it will not start when it's in gear because of the drag. I only have a few hundred miles on the bike though, so I figured I would let the clutch break in a bit before I really worried about it.
 
I have just recently experienced this. I bought my 2011 TE511 with about 900 miles on it and up until last week the clutch was perfect. Now it will creep forward when I'm on level ground in first with the clutch pulled in. With the bike off and in gear it will hardly roll with the clutch in unless I really push hard. I used to be able to find neutral while running, now I can't. It is making routine shifting in the lower gears a pain as well. I thought it must have air in the line so I bled the hell out of it, but it did not fix the problem. The master cylinder seems to push fluid just fine when bleeding. I just checked the parts fiche and there is no rebuild kit available for the master cylinder, but you can buy o-rings and a piston for the slave cylinder. Has anyone with this problem found the exact cause? I know mine is not a break in issue because it has been working fine up until this point. Thanks in advance.
 
I would recommend you change your slave cylinder.
Just had my slave cylinder replaced under warranty. Clutch was very heavy and creaked through the lever when pulled in.
Also had same symptoms in getting into neutral and starting from cold.
It would go away for a while when bled but always came back.

Since it's been changed, it's still clunky but starts first press of the button now. Rather than the 3 attempts before it was changed.
Seems to drag at lot less.
 
Try thinner oil. Also helps with the air box blow by (oil in airbox). Read Tinkens oil posts in regards to the 449/511, good stuff there. I have little to no issues with my TE511 clutch after 4000 miles.
 
djdougiedoug said:
My SMR511 clutch drags when it is cold and difficult to find neutral. It's done 2200 miles and is still a bit clunky/notchy, the more miles I do the noisier it get when you compare the clutch lever in to out. Told by dealer nothing wrong , this is a common trait, but they could pack the clutch out if it gets worse. (what ever that means)
Click to expand...

I had a Yamaha Raptor 660 quad with the same issue. When cold if you put it in gear while holding the clutch in it would clunk and the bike would start moving. I'd have to rev a bit to shift back into neutral. Once the bike warmed up it was fine. That bike was like that since day one when I bought it new.
 
djdougiedoug said:
I would recommend you change your slave cylinder.
Just had my slave cylinder replaced under warranty. Clutch was very heavy and creaked through the lever when pulled in.
Also had same symptoms in getting into neutral and starting from cold.
It would go away for a while when bled but always came back.

Since it's been changed, it's still clunky but starts first press of the button now. Rather than the 3 attempts before it was changed.
Seems to drag at lot less.
Click to expand...

Were you losing clutch fluid? I was thinking slave cylinder as well, but my fluid level seems to stay the same. I will probably pull it off and check it tommorrow. I've seen both in this thread and others suggestions about changing the oil type, but my problem didn't exist until the other day and i'm running the recommended 10w40 oil. I went riding anyway and the bike seemed to get worse by the days end. It was a slow progression though, it did not just "fail" and no clutch. It acts like the clutch isn't fully disengaging. The problem definately didn't get better when the engine was warm.
 
Motosportz said:
Try thinner oil. Also helps with the air box blow by (oil in airbox). Read Tinkens oil posts in regards to the 449/511, good stuff there. I have little to no issues with my TE511 clutch after 4000 miles.
Click to expand...
- Thinner oil is key in the 449 for many reasons.

A couple of thoughts on this. The owner of B&B cycles here in Hesperia experienced the exact same issue on his race TC449 as you posted in your first post. His problem turned out to be oil thickness. He was running a 20w50 weight oil and needed to go back to a 10w40. The reason why the clutch is mounted on the crankshaft is so that it can dip into the oil twice as often as a normal counter-shaft mounted clutch. The clutch will drag until the oil reaches normal operating viscosity. Obviously if you run a lower primary number on your oil say 5w40 vs 15w40, your oil will reach normal operating temperatures sooner. Under normal operation, when the clutch is pulled, the fiber and pressure plates actually "hydroplane" on a layer of oil. If the oil is too "thick", then there will not be a sufficient layer thickness of oil to float on, as is the case when the oil is cold.

If thinning the oil doesn't work for you, Husqvarna has created a band-aid kit in the form of spacers. The spacers must be ordered custom from Husqvarna for each motorcycle and essentially will allow you to push the clutch in a little further, although I would be very mindful about how much it is leaving the clutch disengaged when released.
 
I can tell you that switching oil was a definite improvement. I ran the Castrol 10w-40 syn blend for first two oil changes (200 & 500miles). Though I was lucky and never had drag problems, it did chunk into gear when cold and didn't seem to pull hard until it warmed up.

I've been running Mobil 1 10w-40 for about 500 miles now and it flat works better all around. Granted the transmission has broken in, but I swear I could feel the difference on the first ride after the change. Easier to find neutral, and way better clutch engagement.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top