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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Almost ready for the build, located some killer Cond. NOS goodies for the 500

1Tuff500XC

1Tuff500XC

Husqvarna
AA Class
Well, just thought I'd share the luck I had. Might not be amazing to some, but it was to me. Very surprised some of this stuff is still out there, and can be located.

Will need to restore the correct XC gas tank for my bike, but for track riding, or shorter rides, or poser pics, I found an NOS '85 CR gas tank. Just couldn't seem to pass it up, due to the original NOS stickers, etc also attached from way back when.

Tank1.jpg




Definetly narrower than my XC tank too.

Tank2.jpg
 
My basket case '85 500XC arrived with the left side panel MIA, and I really didn't want to go with reproduction plastics, due to the variation from OE (unless I had too).

This and the tank, arrived this morning.

NOS 85/86 left side number plate / panel;

SidePanel1.jpg


SidePanel2.jpg


Still need to decide if I can restore the right side number plate and airbox cover, or if those need to be replaced to keep up with the other fresh plastics. It is a visious circle that way. Normally I've noticed on bikes, once you throw any NOS cosmetic stuff at a bike, stuff that isn't, or is reproduction, then really stands out. Have a line on the NOS right plate / panel, and airbox cover too.
 
Not NOS, but the closest I could find. Heck, who am I kidding, it's what popped up. Its not like I had a selection to choose from, just got lucky. Had been pieceing together an engine, one part at a time. For the price, this was such a better option.

Low hour '86 500XC engine, never had a wrench or tool on it. Forgot all the details, but it came out of WA, and the fellow had been sitting on it for a long time. The bike it is from, was originally owned supposedly by a Husky dealer, and after a year of use or so, the fellow needed the forks for another bike. Supposedly not run since before the 90's. Cylinder and piston look amazing with intake pulled and peering in, as well as peeking in the exhaust port, and slowly kicking through. Trans feels great, such that I can tell going through the gears and kicking through stroke slowly. Without pulling it apart, I can't confirm she's legit, anymore than I have. Plan is to put it in and put fuel to it, and see.

Still need corrrect carb, but real close to starting a build thread for the '85/86 500XC mutt. Still trying to get the original numbered engine case for this bike, but the guy has some issues, that I got the bike from.



86500XCEngine-1.jpg
 
Very nice indeed! PLEASE use a plastic tank sealer (inside) to keep the crap gas of today and higher octanes from browning it. VERY nice find on that stuff.

Joe
 
Joe Chod;140544 said:
Very nice indeed! PLEASE use a plastic tank sealer (inside) to keep the crap gas of today and higher octanes from browning it. VERY nice find on that stuff.

Joe
Click to expand...

Thanks Joe, appreciate it. Yeah, I was thinking about protecting the tank as well. Not sure if I can seal it like folks do on the tanks they then plan on painting on the outside, or what? If I use a dark sealer, it will just make it look dark on the outside. Will have to look into it further, as my bikes original tank will likely need painting.
 
Very nice! Love that white plastic... Motor looks and sounds great too! Great finds and happy to hear that you had sucess with HVA... hopefully the HVA problems are now behind them.


T
 
Yeah, I can't get enough of the original Husqvarna white plastic myself. I kinda tucked it all away for the time being, but keep going and taking another peek. Other than getting a little paranoid, after reading about anothers apparent recent issue with them, I had good luck.
 
I found a NOS tank for my 84 500CR @ Mid Ohio for $60! , so they still out there.

Husky John
 
Joe Chod;140544 said:
Very nice indeed! PLEASE use a plastic tank sealer (inside) to keep the crap gas of today and higher octanes from browning it. VERY nice find on that stuff.

Joe
Click to expand...

Yep, would be a shame for that nice tank to go brown like so many have, but I should think it'd take a couple of several years or so. You could drain it when not in use. That may help preserve the colour.
 
White Husky;140658 said:
Yep, would be a shame for that nice tank to go brown like so many have, but I should think it'd take a couple of several years or so. You could drain it when not in use. That may help preserve the colour.
Click to expand...

I will be doing anything and everything, to preserve the tank, and keep it from turning brown. That I assure you. Will forsure be draining, after every ride. Would also love to seal it from the inside, if I can use a product that is also light colored. So the sealer itself doesn't make the tank look darker. I do plan to use the tank though. May put a clear vinyl down over the OE stickers to protect them a touch more, as well.

Thanks for the concern on the tank, I too share that concern.
 
My brother has been looking for a tank like that for over 17 years. We even talk to the Husqvarna warehouse back in the ealry 90s thought they had one sent it to him it was 84. If you ever run it another like that let me know.
I have goten a buch of Nos plastic threw the Husqvarna warehouse just 2 years ago I had gotten a right hand shroud for my 87 CR. That stuff comes and goes seems like when there is some demand the factory will go and get some plastic made.

Guy
 
What is the Husqvarna warehouse???? I'm royally hooked on NOS parts, especially plastic, when possible to get and afford ofcourse.

If it's the 85 tank style like I have above, I think HVA factory possibly had more. I know they also had atleast one 87/88 style as well. I was just twice as stoked to see it had the emblems/stickers and was a complete assembly (minus petcock), new, that had been hanging out all these years. Heck, the gunsite emblem usually goes for strong money, each. And only the 86 stripe sticker is being reproduced, not the correct '85 style.

Had no idea that they were or still would occasionally produce more new parts. That kinda makes the term NOS interesting to try and use. Since I never apply it to any parts other than ones no longer made by the manufacturer. I do believe all of these new items I have, are very very likely, replacement parts stock that was made by Husqvarna Sweden and were simply handed over when they sold. As I've noted non Swedish stickers on certain things. I also think my parts all show shelf wear, that indicates to me, they've been around for a long time, waiting for me.
 
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