1988 400WR?

that clutch basket is shot. the ring gear is hammered. start looking for a new basket. trying to run that one is just gonna cause a lot of heartache and an empty wallet in the long run.

Already onto that WRX!

I rekon he's on to it. I racked my kicker round 1 tooth to many a while ago and when the motor stopped, it grabbed the kick starter. it happened a few times before I moved it back. I could see some clown going 2 teeth two many and having it rub on the clutch gear. would have made a racket...

Show us a pic of the k/s shaft end - on from the inside.... Has the corner broken off of it allowing the pawl to move out?

Andy

Hi Andy, these pics show what I believe is the cause of the damage, in the first pic, you can see the spring retainer plate, well this was fitted without the spacers that are meant to sit between the plate and the clutch cover, this allows the plate to sit too low in relation to the kick starter shaft, allowing the pawl arm section of the shaft to run outside the plate, or not making proper contact with the plate, this allows the kick starter shaft to rotate too close to the clutch basket and make contact with the teeth, the first two shots show the shaft in place without the spring so that it is seated as far as it will go into the clutch cover, in the third pic you can see the section of the shaft/pawl holder that has been able to make contact, to further complicate this, the spring was hooked around a hole on the clutch cover instead of the plate that is designed to retain it, therefore the spring had insufficient tension to return the kick start lever to the correct position, so the PO wound the spring one more complete rotation, which made the spring not only wind up on itself, but also provide too much tension.

When coupled with the first problem, this forced the shaft to over-rotate onto the clutch basket, then thirdly, the rubber bumper on the outside of the clutch cover is split, I don't know if this is part of the problem or a symptom, in other words, I am not sure if the split rubber also allowed the shaft to over-rotate or if the spring tension caused the bumper to split from the impact of the kick start lever snapping back against it.

So, the spacers are critical, as is the spring being installed correctly, and the condition of the bump rubber outside the cover.
It appears (as is all too common for me) that not one problem caused this unique situation, but three individual problems worked in unison to create it.

I have temporarily fitted some 2.5mm spacers under the spring retainer plate (once I removed the bloody screws with the heads ground off) and tested my theory, and now it works as it should, and the plate prevents the shaft from rotating too far forward and make contact.

If the spacers are too thick the plate will make contact with the kick starter gear, too thin and the pawl will not operate correctly.

Sorry if this was a little long winded and I hope it makes sense but I couldn't explain in any simpler and I think the photos help explain the problem.

Regards, Tony.

Yep - make perfect sense. Good diagnosis - we will have to call you Sherlock Holmes!!!

Andy

Haha, glad you could decipher my "war and peace" style post Andy!

I have an 88 model WR 250 that is in bits at the moment to assess viability for a restoration .

My Frame No's start ZHU WR250 1 JV , with the number following this being the actual ID number .

My 250 looks the same as your 400 ajcmbrown , except of course , the numbers on the sidecover .

Something to look out for on these bikes is the swing arm pivot surround on the swinging arm cracks and sometimes if not caught soon enough they break . Mine is broken on the non drive side , a piece is completely free from the swinging arm and the remainder is bent with a split forming along the bend . This will take some serious engineering work to fix to my admitedly perfectionist standards .

When I aquired this bike I did some research and that research also pointed to the issue of being one of the last Swedish built Husqvarnas . My memory on the research is not 100 % but I believe it went something along the lines of : The 1988 Four Stroke Husqvarna range all were produced in Varese , However most of the first wave or shipments of 1988 large capacity 2 Stroke WR variants were assembled in Sweden for shipment to Southern Hemisphere countries as the bikes were in demand for Enduro racing before production could be commenced in Varese . The source of this info was VMX magazine , probably in the region of 10 years ago the article was written, might actually have been part of the info in the 2003 Centenary article .I no longer have the magazine that article was printed in though .

Thanks for the info oldfatbeerman (great moniker!, could describe me!) I probably have that issue, I will have to dig them out.

I have checked the swingarm, all good there but that's a great tip for anyone considering one of these bikes.
Mine looks to have done very little work, or very little hard work at least, frame rails are good, fork chrome looks great, frame is in great condition and the plastics are even quite good considering the age of them.
I will buy some radiator shrouds, sidecovers and a rear guard from DC plastics if there is any good feedback from members here? Or are there any other manufacturers of after market plastics that are better? I bought a set for my 79 Maico that I was very happy with, got them from Rage Racing in the US.

If your plastics are good don't waste your time with DC plastic. Low quality plastic trash can material, and poor fit.
The only part they make that looks OK and can be made to work is their inner rear splash guard.
I bought a complete set, kept the splash guard and sent the rest back!

Thank you for the feedback Jim, I haven't had any personal experience with their products but reading between the lines of advertisers with statements like "will not fit like genuine parts" etc has caused me to question their quality.

Does any other manufacturer produce aftermarket plastics for our bikes?

Not to my knowledge! And never see it anymore on ebay. Took a few years to find what I have, a NOS set of radiator shrouds and 2 NOS splash guards.
To keep from using my new shrouds, I refinished a set of shrouds and number plates on this bike, It does have a DC splash guard and rear fender. New front fender from Halls.

That's a great looking bike Jim, they don't get to look that good by accident, lots of hard work has gone into it, the bike is a credit to you.
I hope I can make mine look 75% as good as that.
Tony.

If you want OEM quality plastic, the only place I know to get it is Phillip at www.husqvarna-parts.com . He has contracted with an injection mold company to have OEM quality reproductions made. I would buy from him if I was building a museum piece or something to sell for high value.. I would use the DC Plastics for an active rider. The plastic is what you pay for and you may have to drill your own mounting holes. I have wet sanded the DC Plastics I got for my TT500 and oversprayed with Rustoleum paint for plastics. Looks almost OEM with a little extra work.

Thanks for the feedback Jim, I have never used DC Plastics so I cannot speak from experience, but I do ask people who have used them for feedback either positive or negative so that I can begin to make an informed choice.

The issue I keep reading about regarding DC plastics is the "hit and miss" quality and finish of their plastic parts, some fit well, others will seemingly never fit properly without modifying the bike which is a backward way to get a result, the plastic should fit the bike, not the bike fit the plastic.

I also asked another supplier of DC products and his advice was that while some parts fit well and have a reasonable finish, the plastics he had seen for my model were below per and that he would attempt to have them improve the fit and finish to a satisfactory standard. If they do that, I would most certainly consider them, but when a seller can't even recommend them in their current state, that speaks volumes.

I think would prefer to find OEM used plastics that are solid and rejuvenate them than spend money on a product that may or may not fit, or have a reasonable finish.
If there were no alternative, I would probably give them a try, but not by choice.

I assume www.husqvarna-parts.com prices are a little expensive for a weekly rider?

Tony.

It lives! Finally I had all of the little "rats and mice" stuff to enable me to start this bike. Every time I tried to make some progress, there would be a part missing, very frustrating.

After fitting the tank and adding fuel (after draining the treacle out) it promptly spewed fuel all over the floor of my garage. It then dawned on me that one of the only parts of this bike that I haven't touched is the carburetor, very optimistic on my part!

After cleaning out the carb, including the gum that was preventing the floats from floating, cleaning all jets and passageways and refitting it, two kicks later and it fires and runs like it has never been apart. It even idles.

So my SEM actually works, at least to make it run in neutral anyway. I am quietly confident that it will be fine, even though it would have been a good excuse to get an Electrex or similar.

By this time of the evening it was too dark to give it a run around the property so that may be this evening's effort.

I am hoping to give it a good run over the weekend to sort any teething problems, unfortunately the Vinduro season has it's last event this season for New South Wales, might have to go to an event in Victoria if they'll let me run an '88 model.

So it has now taken almost 3 months to get to this stage, I feel it should be smoother sailing from here........

nice, as you know a swede is very reliable once sorted so you very likely have most problems worked out before even riding

Yep, my '86 was as reliable as my axe, it only ever needed 4 new handles and 2 new heads!

Seriously, that was a very reliable bike.

Tony.

Well I have now ridden this bike for a total of about an hour, I am using the Uptite pipe and it goes great! Maybe even a little too well, it has a major bottom end to midrange hit that takes some getting used to.
My '86 wasn't like this from memory, it was much more linear in it's power delivery, this is a little bit like a light switch, it just hits and goes, it does taper off as the revs climb but it is still accelerating at a fairly good rate of knots.
Is this the effect of the pipe? Or should I be looking at jetting and needle height to smooth this old girl out!
Ignition is set at 1.8mm btdc, with no kickbacks so far, the carb is stock, the only "mod" other than the pipe is the muffler, the PO cut it shorter by approximately three inches from what I can tell, was this a common mod or is it more of a repair?
Sorry for all the questions, it has just taken me by surprise a little. I'm unsure if this is a good thing or I will need to compensate for the sudden hit.
Tony.