84 500 AE question

Hi! I'm new to this forum and want to thank anyone in advance who may be able to help me with this problem. I am about 90% complete on a ground up restoration of an 84 500 AE. So far I've been correcting all the problems one would run across while doing a restoration, but have limited knowledge with the automatic transmission. I've noticed when I have the rear wheel off the ground and I switch from neutral to drive, the back wheel continues to spin and does not lock like I believe it should if it were engaging into drive. Can someone please enlighten me as to what's going on and if this is serious or not? I have had the engine completely rebuilt by a well-known gentleman who specializes in Husqvarna repair, and he said I am completely good to go, but have not as yet started it. This was about nine months ago. Thanks again!

Those things coast or free wheel until you get into high gear at which point even pushing the lever to neutral won't make it coast. Are you familiar with the centrifugal clutch on a chainsaw? Well it has few of those kind of clutches and a few one way devices often called sprag or freewheel. Like the Saab two stroke cars had and the next model a four stroke engine which came after that perhaps a model 96. I am sure it will coast in the forward direction I might recall some strange stuff if you push it in reverse though engaged in gear. I have never ridden a ae500 but it seems pretty much the same as a 430 auto as I have a couple of them or portions of them apart.

Like fran..k said I think your bike is acting OK. After you start it in neutral, warm it up so it will idle at a fairly low RPM before you put it in gear. If you don't get the RPM low enough the gearbox makes a nasty grinding sound when you start moving the gear engagement lever. If it makes the nasty grinding sound, then stop and lower the rpm a little more and then try again to snick it into gear. After it is in gear you can raise the idle a little if you think it needs a bit more RPM for a reliable idle. Then ride around and have fun.

I have a 420AE model and it has a little lever on top of the crankcase to engage the tranny. I am not sure if your bike has the same lever or not, but I think this procedure should work OK for you.

Thanks guys for your suggestions. It's good to know my trans should be okay. I do have a little knowledge of the auto from past experience. I had a brand new 81 420 AMX, installed an enduro kit and went riding. I had the bike about two months with about 250 miles on it, and broke two springs (I believe this is correct, it may have only been one spring) on the first gear clutch, thus stranding me out in the woods! That's all it took to turn me against the automatic, and within a short time after I sold it and purchased an 82 430 XC. If this transmission gives me any trouble after I start riding, I am just going to sell it and have someone build me a 6 speed bottom end. (If my wife lets me!)

Guys have talked about laying the bike on the side and changing springs but upon pressing the question to folks who have actually done it they kind of back track and say they just removed the pieces and limped home. I never had a spring break on the 420 but there was evidence of it. The 430 which is pretty much what you have for clutches and transmission broke one on two separate occasions, both were near virtually flat railroad tracks for either pushing or being pulled out. Eventually I had enough worn drums and springs to analyze and decided there were two hues of color to the front(first gear) springs the gun blue and the grey mottled and it always was the gun blue ones that broke. I carried a complete spare first gear clutch and a puller to change it and never had any more problems. Eventually all the linkage and swing arm bushings and bearings were beyond just re greasing and I gave up on it as it was half the cost of a ride able parts grade bike to replace them all and you could either have all needles and no seals or two seals and tiny needles but not what the engineers started out with. Now the taper for that first gear is pretty rough.

I won't say that first gear clutch assembly on the bike you have is steel on steel however I will bet the drum is steel and know both the drum and the shoes are magnetic. Which is worse than the earlier ones. So it is even more important to keep the amount of slippage at the first gear clutch to a minimum.

Regarding 500 AE

Hello guys,
I appreciate the query and feedback you all gave and felt relieved when I heard of another person with 500 AE and other AE Husqvarnas.
I saw you discussing the transmission operation of the 500 AE. I have an opportunity to purchase a 1985 500 AE that needs a new ignition coil. I have searched for this ignition coil on multiple Husqvarna sites and have not been able to locate one specifically for an '85 500 AE. Do any of you know where I may be able to find this information?

I wish everyone on this site the best of rides and good times with their machines.

Thanks for listening.

Quinn

Do you just not have one at all or suspect yours is bad? Somewhe on here there was a link to someone who repairs them with quite a nice essay. I can't find the link which I must have saved somewhere. If you went back enough years from where you are the resistance in the coil is different but most all of them are the same. Most are red some of the bikes seem to have about four maybe five wires come out of the stator and those seem to have a brown coil just from memory. The essay stated the first thing to do was make sure all the grounding between engine and frame and coil and frame are good. I don't know what the guy or gal that says it needs a coil did to rule out the possibility it is the stator instead. I couldn't find the engine supplement but the coils are on page F6 in the 1984 sheet and only the wr models have the brown coil so you need the most common one.

Fran