1987 CR250 Rebuild

Found this sorry looking Husky for sale on ebay, I wanted an 80's style dirt bike and liked the look of the old Gal and thought what the heck!

On collection the thing fired up about second or third kick, although the bike wouldn't rev out at the full throttle I new that was just a really lean induction and could be easily sorted. She is a bit rough round the edges but definately has potential. What do you think?

Looks like a great starting point for an easy restoration. From here looks to be an XC model. CR had WP upside down forks and a powervalve.

Yes she looks like a XC to me also. If it is a 87 CR it should have a power valve. I love my 87 430 CRs,the late 80's bike are really nice.

For the sake of comparison, this is my '87 CR250

Hi dirtaddict / photoguy.

Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

Yes this bike is a little bit different, thats for sure. When I got the bike home I started trying to I.D. it just to see what I had acquired. Visiting all the usual sites etc. Turns out the frame number corresponds with the 1987 250 CR format on http://www.husqvarnaoutlet.com/frame_engine_id_list. The motor serial number begings with 2131, so I am going to hazard a guess that it is 240 cc top end withe close ratio transmission. I am not too bothered about the forks, I can live with them as long as they work on the track?I would prefer to have the quicker motor though! . Is that a powervalve?



Anyways, I started to strip the bike and discovered more oddities. The monoshock linkage is not definitely not the one in the parts manual that came with the bike and the nordisk wheels have 10/85 & 12/85 on the rims.



This bike may have been built up from spares, just before the Swedish factory shut up shop!

Oh yeah, I found the source of the of the lean mixture, perished rubber induction manifold. Well it is 24 years old , or is that 26 !?

That is a CR engine. The cover on the right side of the cylinder is housing the powervalve. Now, get that cover off and see if that stuff is connected and works.....if so, you've found a rare bird. This is the only Swedish model so equipped, and it was more an afterthought than solid engineering. It is electrically operated via a solenoid and the linkage parts and valve itself are quite fragile. It took me four years of contacting Husky dealers around the world to finally find a valve for mine. Pretty sure it's the last new one on the planet. Need a couple of linkage joints, but I think I can make them. Someday I'll get to workin' on it.......

A while back, Hall's had a brand new '87 CR250 on the showroom floor for sale. Seems it was found new in the crate somewhere and brought it to them to sell at best offer. If memory serves they were asking $8,000

Yes that is a really rare bike only 350 87 250s where made. The forks thing is strange but some one may of taken the WP 4054 forks off. Great find you got yourself a really rare bike!

Guys,

Thanks for the information, I am learning lots here as I am brand new to Husqvarna! I had no idea these bikes were so rare.

I took off the cover and found the power valve and wiring are gone! Will this effect the performance of the bike? When I replaced the inlet manifold the bike fired up immediately and was crisp and responsive at the throttle, the compression is also really good.

I hope this is all just minor because the frame has gone for powder coating and the shock has gone for a rebuild I want this bike to look good.

Thanks for your help

It'll run fine, just won't have quite the bottom end that it could have. That's the way mine was also. The previous owner had just put a fresh top end in and since the PV parts had disintegrated they reassembled it without. I got the leftovers in a box, and since I'm obsessive about that kind of thing being correct, I went on a search for the missing parts. Finally found the valve itself in Australia, but I have yet to install. I suspect my solenoid my be bad also, but it's been a couple years since I messed with it. Maybe you can contact the previous owner and see if they have any of the bits leftover. If they do, and you can't use them, I would buy them.

And........if you did find you don't like the way it runs, needing more bottom, you can always fit an XC or WR cylinder to it, it'll drop right on. So yes it is just a minor issue.

If you have any questions when you put her back together give me a shout. I did a nuts and bolts resto on one my 87 430 last year. That CR was the thrid 87 I have done a total resto with. If the power is like at all a 86 CR 250 you will be happy with it. My brother has had his 86 CR since the early 90's and its been a great bike. I like because it dosn't have the vibration as the 430's do. He put a WP 4054 fork on it and WOW what a change! That made the bike a whole lot better for MX.

Good Luck With Her.

Amazingly i found this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300469369432&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT . I emailed jackscycle requesting a transatlantic trade, but they didn't reply. These cylinders are rare here in the UK,
the same goes for WR & XC parts, very hard to find. It's a shame there is no year on year top end interchangeability with the 1986 250 cc bikes! I am the same as you Dirtaddict, if a rare part comes up it is worth trying to obtain it, even if it is on another continent LOL!
I will at some point get stuck, so Photoguy, thanks for the offer mate, I will be in touch! nice one...

I got the frame and shock spring back from the powder coaters and I am pleased with the end result



The shock went to a guy who makes a living tweaking road racing legend John McGuiness's factory backed Honda superbike. He works for HRC (UK) HM Plant Honda so he knows his rebound from his compression and all that He sent it off to a uk importer of everthing Ohlins to get an accurate match of the internals. Anyway, the shock has been rebuilt with new guts, revalved and regassed and now should perform just as Husqvarna had intended.



This is a big difference from the day I got the bike, as you can see from the first photo of the bike, the bike sits low at the rear end doesn't it? Well, this is because the bike had absolutely zero sag at the shock and had worn out needle bearings at both the sides of the swingarm and at the shock linkage, not lick of grease in sight!. The bike would be almost impossible to ride over rough terrain in this condition, never mind getting any power down! All bearings have been exchanged for fresh items and now rotate freely. I couldn't find the original FAG bearings with grease orifice in the closed cup shell, so went for 8 bearings instead of the designed 4, thus allowing clearance between the bearing shells for grease ingress. Works a treat...

Unforntunately lack of maintenance has led to the chain eating the underside of the swing arm close to the pivot point, I don't really want to have to weld it but is has gone right the way through and made a small hole.

Anyway, I am going to carry on with her. I have been in touch with Rich Daly at Dynoport in the US and got one of his revered ceramic expansion chambers on order! Not the purist's cup of tea I know but thought the bike deserved a bit of BLING I did offer this work to some of british pipe builders but never had a response So thanks too Dynoport, top stuff!!!

It's a shame there is no year on year top end interchangeability with the 1986 250 cc bikes!
Just picked up on your project.Looken good so far. I have a nice complete 87cr too.As for the topend the 87 is a long stroke motor.It will not work on a 85/86 and vise versa.I do have a topend left over from a 87 parts bike I picked up I would sell-sorry no power valve.

Hi Auto,

A shame indeed, but I guess there is still the option of finding a complete 86' motor & tranny and swapping it over , it should go straight into the frame, right? I am not sure my later exhaust header would work with the earlier motor's cylinder exhaust port though, or even seal correctly, anyone? Then there is carburation and ignition of course!!!

There is a greater availabilty of the 85/86' 70mm piston kits compared to the '87/'88 bikes. I have scoured the net and found only two options for mine, which are 1.0 & 1.5mm oversized! I could be interested in your top end, thanks for the offer, can you post some pictures of it?

The 85' - 88' 250cc engines look to be based around the same crankcases and trannys? The clutch is different as of '87 though.
Do you know anything about using the larger 86' 400cc top end, crank assy with 240/250 bottem end. I have this heard this has been done before, would it involve a major parts exchange and clearancing of the cases?
The bike is coming on slowly any tips appreciated, Thanks

Chris

The 87 motor made real nice power,till the power valve failed.That didn't take very long to happen.As for putting a larger topend on,I think you have to remove a crank case web to fit a larger crank.I tell you ,after my power valve failed and there was none to be had I ran the bike with out it.Still made good power.If you have everything you need to put together a long stroke 87 250,do it.You'll have a nice bike,and maybe the power valve stuff will show up for sale.

Great! What sizes do you have? Thanks for the response Huskydoggg!

I

I dismantled the rear chain guide to discover three very worn rollers, roller spacers and only one 'partial' wear plate.



So I got out the fret saw, found some 3mm perspex sheet and set about copying the shape of the original plate. After snapping around 8 fret saw blades and a bit of swearing this is the result.



Add some 30mm rollers, new bolts and enlarge the bolts holes to 8mm and the guide is working again!



So the triple clamps were a little ugly looking, lots of paint chips and dings all over them! So I saw how good these yolks look after a bit of sanding and polish and lots of elbow grease!



This should match up with the new pipe pretty well

Got the forks stripped down yesterday, I was amazed how easily they came apart. I sent the forks botoms off for media blasting, so they should come back tonight looking brand new...

I tried to freshen up the rear brake plate by using domestic grade paint stripper. This softened the paint but didn't make it blister away from the metal. So then I gave the 60 grit sand paper a go, this gave better results, but I couldn't get into the tighter areas well enough. The third picture is the result of sand blasting and then a session of glass bead blasting.



Freshened fork bottoms after glass bead blasting.