1984 AE 500 restore

I just bought my first Husqvarna two days ago.
After doing much research and asking questions, here on cafehusky, I have determined the bike is a 1984 AE500.
I came across it by accident when I was buying two other bikes, a 1984 and 1985 Yamaha XT600.
The guy said he wanted $600, however I told him I would give him $200 and to my surprise, he said yes.

I didn't have much hope for it getting running, however today I electrical taped the broken intake flange, put some light air tool oil in the cylinder, kicked it over to see if the plug would spark. It sparked! So I put the plug back in and filled the carb tube with some gas to get the carb a little wet, kicked it over about 7 times and BOOM, IT LIVES!!!

After reading almost every post that has to do with the 500s here, I feel very confident I can get her back to her former glory!

What I plan to do; she needs new front and rear fenders, the frame and swing arm needs to be blasted or sanded down and then powder coated, the rear shocks need rebuilt and springs need powder coating, the engine needs to be soda or bead blasted and then painted. I am going to tear into the motor to see what needs to be done and also try to figure out the auto trans (very weird having an auto :-) ).
I figure if I can keep the total cost of the project (including the purchase price) below $2000, my wife will be happy that I am happy!!! So my budget will be $1800 for the restore.
Does this sound like a reasonable budget or am I dreaming?

I will post some as bought pictures after I am able to clean my garage up (get all the other junk out - the two XT600s and a couple of my other bikes) so I can start dismantling this beauty.

The one question I have is, the front shocks have rust on the chrome areas that the shocks would travel on. Is there any way to fix that by re-chroming, or should new/used ones be purchased?
I am sure there will be a lot of questions as I tear into stuff, so I am going to say thank you in advance for everyone's help!

Would forks from a 1986 400 work on my 500?
The CL add says 40MM forks 1986 400. Is $100 a good price?

Nice bargain find ! Need some cosmetic.
Check the auto transmission ( shoes, drums, springs, freewheels....)
Dont' forget to put a 1st clutch spring cover to protect motor and clutch cover .

The workshop manual for the 430 AE 86 which bottom end motor is very similar to 500 AE.
http://www.yourhusky.com/files/86-88-Auto-shop-manual.pdf
The 84 parts lists where you can find parts# for your 500 AE.
http://www.yourhusky.com/files/84-husky-parts.pdf

welcome to the greatest bike forum of all time... I have one thing to say about you and your new husky. You will forget about those jap bikes the first time you go out riding on your rebuilt 500. Guaranteed !

$200 is theft for one of the fastest accelerating dirt bikes ever made.

Hi mate, I am in the middle (or more accurately, the closing stages) of restoring the same bike.

One thing I would definitely recommend doing before you contemplate test riding it - take off the left side casing to check the condition of the main clutch springs. It;'s common that these break and if you try to engage the drive before you check the condition of the springs, you might end up causing more damage to the soft alloy casing.

If it all looks OK, like the clutch below, then sure, take it for a ride.....but getting yourself some kind of spring retainer as Michel has shown above will be a very good (cheap) investment.

People only stop riding auto huskies when they break a clutch and they cant afford to fix it. look inside first as ol mate says, there must be a reason why its parked up.

Thank you all for the replies!

I oiled all the cables, soaked the chain and then put it all back together.
I took the side plate off and did not see anything missing or broken, the springs feel tight when I pulled on them with a screw driver.

I fired it up and adjusted the throttle cable so it idled properly (put too much oil in the gas cause it smoked pretty good...)
I engaged the auto drive and twisted the throttle a little and it started to move. The brakes aren't the best that is for sure.
I live in a subdivision so I couldn't take it too fast, however I did get it into second.
I haven't ridden a 2 stroke dirt bike in about 20 years and wow did I get the bug back!!! Last dirt bike I had was a early 80's Can-AM 370 Qualifier. This Husky has a lot more power, however it sure brings back great memories of when I was a teenager!
I am pretty satisfied that she will be a good project with not too much wrong.


I am going to start tearing her down and get the frame, swing arm and rear springs blasted and powder coated.
I have a sand blasting cabinet at home and want to clean up all the smaller parts with that. What media would I use on the engine case and fins, I don't want to use anything too harsh, so what media would be recommended?
Also the front forks, the chrome has come off and has rust pits. Would anyone recommend bringing the to a chrome shop to restore them or getting new to me ones?
One thing I have not seen on the forum is, where can I get a rebuild kit for the rear shocks, preferably in North America?
Also where would I get one of those spring retainers?

I will post pictures as I progress and have a lot more questions I'm sure!
The 2 Yamaha XT 600s have been put on hold and into storage cause this Husky is going to make me smile a lot more when it is done!

Once again, thanks for all the replies, they were very helpful in determining how to proceed.

sounds like you have the bug pretty good....
be sure to check out phillip at husqvarnaparts...he has lots of stuff for your year. he isnt the cheapest, but everything i have bought from him has been great quality and correct...he makes a lot of stuff in stainless, like motor mounts and springs...he has lots of ohlins stuff that you can be confident will fit..hes pretty short in emails but very helpful over the phone

Husqvarna-parts.com

Perfect, thank you!!!

Download the parts manual from Phillip as it tells how long each particular bolt for what part it holds on. very important after you put all the bolt into a bucket and send them off to plated! get the footpeg springs, chain tensioner spring, brake arm and springs etc plated as well.

buy a bucket of 6mm, 8mm 10mm and a few bigger nylock nuts and throw all the existing ones away. I got the carb, brake arms and engine plates water blasted which brought then up nice. Satin Black etch primer did a great job on the motor and lastly, make sure you put dummy bolts into all the thread holes on the frame before powdercoating it and try to cover the shocker pins at the top as I had to sand mine down as the powder coat was to thick for the bushes to slip over.

also degrease the frame very carefully as the heat will have any grease anywhere melt and run over your frame. check the subframe drain holes....

also make sure you have bolts through the coil mounts as its hard to get an earth if its thick with powder.

you should be able to get a set of WR fork legs from someone here before undertaking the very expensive rechroming trip.

ps Phillip has (real) leakproof fork seals (unheard of on a husky)

enjoy and post plenty of pics, sounds like you've won the lottery there....

So I spent yesterday tearing apart the bike and all was good except I could not get the rear shocks off.
The 6mm allen bolt just stripped on both the swing arm bolts. I tried a hammer to knock them out, I tried vise grips to turn the bolt. All to no avail

Can someone give me some ideas on this? I do not have an oxy acetylene torch, only a MIG welder. Pic included so see what it looks like.

I spent a couple hours stripping down the motor and it looks very nice inside. It does look like there was an issue previously that someone fixed because the left case has grooves. I saw them before, however all the springs looked good so I figured it was from before. Pics in the next post.

The cylinder walls look very nice. I think after I get the whole motor torn down, I will measure the ring gap and piston to wall gap to make sure they are good. If they are good (and they look good), I will just hone the cylinder and put a new ring in.
Any issues with this approach? Any thing I need to know first?

I want to change all the bearings, including the crank bearing. Just because I am there and I might as well, as long as they aren't a fortune :-)

The swing arm needle bearings are completely shot and someone tried to weld the kick stand bracket... tried is the key word here. Looks like I will be breaking out the grinder and MIG welder for this one.

I was blasting all my parts that I could fit in my blast cabinet and my compressor quit on me. Looks like the pressure switch. It really sucks because I had just finished my handle bars and was moving on to the rest.
I wanted to get all except the frame and swing arm blasted, and then bring them all over to the powder coater. He said, if he just had to blast the swing arm and frame, he would charge me $200.00 to do all the parts including the lower front shocks. After calling around and speaking to other shops, that is a pretty good deal here. I spoke to a couple body shops and they recommended this guy so hopefully he is good!

I figured I would start looking for some tubes that I could use for my front shocks. I see some on e-bay and craigslist so now I am going to attempt to take the front shocks apart to replace the tubes.

More suggestions on what I should look for or look out for as I progress would be much appreciated!!!

Frame ready to be taken to the blaster/powder coater!


Someone tried to fix the kick stand bracket...


Handle bars blasted before my compressor decided to stop working. Time to buy a pressure switch...


I think this might just be a hone and rering rebuild with new bearings throughout. The cylinder looks very nice!

Here are pictures of the springs and case.
I would like to hear opinions on what to do. If the case doesn't leak, does it matter if there is all that scoring? I would think, it would make the case weak and may cause problems down the road?

auto clutch


The case


Right side



Thanks again all!!!

Considering the neglect the outside of the bike has been subject to, that cylinder & piston don't look bad at all.....nice one !

Wow the inside of your casing looks identical to mine - this indicates that they have had some busted springs trapped in there, just like mine. All the more reason to make yourself a copy of one of the various spring retainers to prevent that happening again. I've not had mine running yet but it sounds like that it's hit & miss with regards to the potential of the springs breaking on you - naturally caring for the bike by changing the fluid after each serious ride is a great idea, but if the springs are not the greatest quality, then they will break, sometime, sooner or later.....and that's when you'll be very greatful you've got your spring retainer in place