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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Well I couldn't help myself - 1983 500 XC

Motosportz said:
I dont have it but what would be the advantage to that?
Click to expand...

Probably the front end of that water cooled one has teflon bushings top and bottom where the one you have has a bronze bushing on top and I can't recall if it has anything on the bottom. There likely is a length difference since it is a wr 400 so unless you messed with the rear as well it would be hard for me to see an advantage.

Mine was/is quite cold blooded but I dont tamper with carburetors a lot. Perhaps 3/4 of a mile to get running right.
 
it looks good. the rear engine mount looks like its working, may need to overbore it, check the fronts as well they are notorius for shaking the mount holes into out of round submission.
Like how it has the hi power blue pipe mod as well..... Very very cool machine!! Keep us all up dated. Love those alloy tanks!! Hey you got a new WHT Husky too.
 
Motosportz said:
I dont have it but what would be the advantage to that?
Click to expand...

you would get disc brakes...they help slow the beast down a bit, altho i have heard you can get the drum brakes working well..just an option.
keep an eye on the front mounts, they really like to vibrate loose...the ss mounts from phillip are nice and some loctite is a help...
 
robertaccio said:
the rear engine mount looks like its working, may need to overbore it
Click to expand...

Whats does this mean? Just saying these oval the holes on the frame? Looks like the swingarm pivot is already doing that, will need addressed as some point soon.

robertaccio said:
Hey you got a new WHT Husky too.
Click to expand...

Almost put something like that in the title and thought I would leave it alone :) BTW I got a REAL white and blue husky not an imposter like yours :D Drag race ya for pinks and I'll only use 4th gear.
 
justintendo said:
you would get disc brakes...they help slow the beast down a bit, altho i have heard you can get the drum brakes working well..just an option.
keep an eye on the front mounts, they really like to vibrate loose...the ss mounts from phillip are nice and some loctite is a help...
Click to expand...


Oh duh! Going to leave her stock for now. We will see what becomes of this unwieldy beast.
 
Well OK, kinda stock...

20140304_090627.jpg
 
i can understand wanting to stay original, for sure...just making sure you know any swede front ends that use the 40mm forks will work as long as they are cr or xc...wr will be a bit shorter..im a fan of using the early disc brake forks on these as it keeps the look right but helps slow it down...really you could use an italian front end that bolts right on (as you know) but i think it would look a bit weird...
 
im sure you have a 2 stroke timing tool, having the advance set right helps out alot with starting...keeping the advance below 2mm or even set at 1.5mm will save your foot and/or sidecase.

dont forget the later italian thumper sidecases fit perfectly as well, altho they weigh a bit more..i like the kicker they use, as i have a hatred for the 'antler' kicker your bike has now...later straight swede kickers fit as well. im a believer that the straight levers put alot less load on the case as well...
 
I was looking at that kicker and side cover and thinking the same thing. Will probably do this at some point.

Q. can the 610 kick starter lever be used with the stock cases or do you need to do it all at once?
 
Motosportz said:
I was looking at that kicker and side cover and thinking the same thing. Will probably do this at some point.
Click to expand...
HVA andy sells a lil piece you can attach to the block so you can utilize the the extra screw behind the kicker..in my pic you can see mine is empty...:(...the 87 88 swedes have this extra hole as well to combat cracking
 
Motosportz said:
I was looking at that kicker and side cover and thinking the same thing. Will probably do this at some point.

Q. can the 610 kick starter lever be used with the stock cases or do you need to do it all at once?
Click to expand...
if you want to use the original case, i know the later swede straight kicks will work..altho you mill have to make a lil bump stop for the kicker to rest against..im not sure about the later italians tho...never had the kicker off that case!
 
The stock clutch cover will use any of the kickers from any of the '81-up bikes with the correct rubber or plastic bump stop. Craig Hayes uses the later 510/610 side cover with the '84-'87 straight kicker on all his bikes, but I have an '84 straight kicker on my stock '82 cover and it works fine.
 
Joe Chod said:
Dude....welcome to the "original Open Bike" club for Husq-a-holics. What you need?
Click to expand...


thanks. Pretty stoked. I've had a lot of big bores (CR480, KX500, WR400, etc.) but this is my first air cooled husky big bore. Love the look of that menacing motor! The more I look at and mess with this bike the less I see it actually needs. Very intact. My air filter and cage should be here today or tomorrow. then I need to ride it and sort it. Would like a skid plate for it. Read you comment on my other post about Drew dialing the shocks, will probably do that at some point soon.

- how much oil do the forks require? Would like to swap the oil out as they feel like they have little actual damping.

- Any of the brake shoes better than others? Want the best ones.

- the swayback bar mounts seem odd. Any handling issues going to straight up (moving the bars well forward) fatbar mounts?

- Clutch actually seems reasonable but are there any cable levers that make it better?

- There is one loose wire under the tank, it is yellow with a connector, is this a 12v feed? IE do these put out power? If so how much?

- Feel like I will be swapping out the kicker for a straighter 610 type if anyone has one they want to let go of.

- going to ride it once for a baseline and then install a Lectron as I love them and want to test and understand them better for vintage applications.

- Rear rim looks like it has a split about half way across, crack or more like a seem split. Is this going to be an issue? Can it be welded successfully (not by me :>)

- anyone make a nice modern looking rear brake peddle?

- HVA-factory makes some really nice footpegs, would like that of something similar. Thoughts? might just mod the stockers but really like big modern pegs.

Thanks all.
 
Motosportz said:
Man I'm really seeing why people get into restoring these. You can really make them look amazing. Like doing up a vintage car but EZer and its a bike so cooler :>) Digging the black wheels on this one.

bd5226515838434300658.jpg
Click to expand...
Some serious Husky porn right there!:love:
 
Black wheels on vintage bikes are lame. As for some of your other questions:

Fork oil, dont measure a volume, take the springs out, collapse the forks and fill to 6" from the top.

Any modern shoes are vastly better than the stock Husky shoes.

The handlebar mounts can easily be changed, starting in '84 I think they went to straight mounts, but the straight mount limits how far up the fork tubes can be raised in the clamps.

It is not uncommon for the rims to crack, and they rarely go all the way across. This is not a functional problem and the anodizing on the rims makes it VERY difficult to get a good weld.

Husky Products sold an aluminum brake pedal for the WR/XC, Phillip has them at husqvarna-parts.com.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top