Another WRX saved from the scrap heap!

Got some more time with the bike today. Pulled the engine out and got the left side cover off to try and sort out the shifting. Started manually shifting through the gears, and it shifted fairly well, put the side cover back on and it still shifts well. So, I'm not sure exactly what I did, but glad it works.

The piston looks good through the intake, exhaust, and plug holes, and compression feels good. With my shifting problem resolved, I'm not inclined to do a full tear-down. At some point in the future I'll likely do a cosmetic restore, and will go through the engine in more detail then.

Unfortunately, I do need a new left side cover though. There's a bunch of damage around the water pump, and the PO had coated the o-ring with sealant to get it to seal. Also, there is a bit of JB weld holding the side cover together, you may notice the missing "u" in Husqvarna, more is visible from the inside.


Can anyone confirm if the shift return spring (admittedly that may not be the exact name) should be open like this, or is it sprung and do I need to swap it out?


For kicks, here's the photo of the i-links with new bearings and seals:

I got the swing-arm back on the bike with all new bearings/seals a week or so ago.

Question: When doing a bike tear-down (but not painting) do folks prefer to replace all of the rubber vibration dampers that hold on the radiators, or just the broken and/or damaged/worn ones?

I've been riding the '86 400 in my profile pic since the age of 14 (if there are any parents out there reading this, I would really discourage allowing a 14 year old to buy a 400 CC 2-cycle dirt bike, and then leaving them relatively unattended with access to large acreages of woods, there are plenty of stupid things to be done on a 125 or 250 until some measure of judgement has been observed).

I am looking forward to the different gearing of the WRX (closer ratio lower gears).

well you seem to have turned out ok i was on a 79 250 WR @14 and an 81 430 XC @17 but i was a 6ft+ 280 lbs monster kid

I wrestled 189 and 215 in high school, so I was big, but not a monster. I did play college football as a defensive tackle.
The decision to look for (and eventually buy) a dirt bike, was the result of outgrowing the 1960's Sears/Gilera 106 that I had been running around the woods with up to that point. The transition from a 106cc 4-cycle vintage road bike to a modern (at the time) 400cc 2-cycle was just a little rough. The list of things that I tried once is pretty long.

you are replacing the side cover because of that? the sealant was likely because they didnt want to get a new o ring i bet. nothing wrong with the rest of the case if you are going to ride it, maybe just some paint. i dont know if you are going for a concours restoration or not.
the spring you ask about often looks that way, if the shift lever returns ok, its likely an ok spring

For the water pump base, the outer lip is chipped quite a bit above the lower left bolt-hole (might not come through in the picture), also, the lower right bolt-hole is destroyed in a way that will cause the pump housing to flex up and create a leak if it's tightened down too much. There need to be two flat surfaces and an intact ring groove to make a seal.

I agree that I'm doing a fix, more than a restore, I have found a place that does some machining on the covers, so I'm going to see what they quote to get the cover up to spec. On an interesting side-note. Most of the "1984-88" clutch covers seem to have an extra bolt mounting hole above the kick-start shaft. I have an 86 cover from my 250 parts/project bike that may have to do the job if I can't find a true '85 cover, or get mine machined.

that too bad about the cover, makes you wonder what does damage like that? boneheads likely..
they added the extra bolt hole shortly after going to liquid cooling..so there are liquid cases without the hole.

The bike came with an HP exaust and home-grown radiator hoses. Something tells me they hit something with the left front, or put it down on bedrock. There was a period of time from the early-mid nineties through mid-00 when quality Husky parts were hard to come by, and keeping a bike going back then included a lot of 'fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants' repairs. At the end of the day, it wasn't all that long ago that it could be difficult to find some metric bolts in the US without driving to a neighbouring town. I still can't find M14 X 1.25 Nyloc nuts without going through HVA-factory (I eventually will, just waiting until I'm 100% sure of my order list before I do).

Overall, some of the stuff the PO did makes me shake my head. For example, one of the bolts that attaches the i-link to the swingarm was replaced with an SAE bolt, and they put a coil in the metric nyloc nut to get it to thread to the SAE bolt. I'm not sure if that's crazy or ingenious (PO had a shop full of SAE machinery, so he probably had the almost-fits SAE bolt on hand). The clutch cover isn't one of those things. I'm blaming the condition of the clutch cover on a wreck.

you are probably right..i guess im in a bit of a fantasy as around the time you speak of (late 90s) i bought the remants of a dealer out including a crated new 88 xc250..before i had the internet..lots of phone calls and brain picking to get parts! the internet has made things so much easier!
you are correct tho, much easier now to find stuff, thanks to some good sources in addition to past tried and true places like halls..
the SAE thing drives me nuts...no excuse...
thats the key with HVA factory..build up a nice order! then shipping is reasonable. i highly recommend the cast ignition cover. really nice piece and looks like the swedes had made it...

I've got another one for the Husky fans out there. As I've referenced in the past, I work on the 85 WRX and my 1986 WR 400 in parallel. So, on the topic of side covers, my WR kicker has been recoiling too far for a little while (not sure exactly when it started). So, while I was in the business of pulling side covers, I pulled that one and found this:


the spring is sprung too:


Even without a spring, the kicker still recoils too far. Being that I had 3 complete side-covers available to me, I started swapping parts to identify the culprit and it appears to be the shaft itself (16-11-677-01). Curious, I took a micrometer to the shaft, and a different shaft that works fine, and I can't figure out what the difference is between them.

The 86 clutch cover does have a steel sleeve for the kicker shaft, and the cover itself looks fine, so it's not the cover, and I feel like I've isolated the shaft. I'm just a little reluctant to simply swap the shaft and toss the old one in the scrap steel bin when I cannot objectively identify how or where the old shaft is out of spec.

Anyone have any thoughts? Should I stop worrying about it and just swap the shaft?

the number of splines you wind the kicker on the spring is critical.

i would have to check my stash of springs but i think yours looks ok? i have a bunch that have that step. in your pic it looks like the shaft if pushed in too far, allowing the kicker pawl to slip out past the guide plate? otherwise looks good..

Thanks for the observation!
I did wonder how the spring is two different sizes, yet compact and uniform along both segments without being manufactured that way.

As far as the pawl, I really think it's something with the shaft, as swapping the shaft works properly, but just resetting the pawl didn't. I will continue to experiment with the original though. If I can figure out exactly what is going on, then maybe i can avoid tossing a part that has some wear life left.

keep an extra pawl handy the big bores like to eat one every now n then

also check the needle bearing behind the kicker gear, and the idler gear as they can cause issues

Allright, I've got the cover cleaned up and put back together. Unfortunately, I cannot find the huskydoggg video to use as a reference when resetting the pawl. Does this look about right?


Also, for kicks, a pic of some miscellaneous hardware.

Hi Eric, I am just starting this thread but do see the Portland area 84 400 lc for sale, $750 and an extra roller's engine available...in the for sale column..if the moderator will ever ok my posts, grrr.

I did repost that to the CafeHusky for sale column, as I'd rather see it picked up by someone here, than a part supplier. I still have the same wife, who would not consider that to be a positive acquisition, and I better get to a point where I'm not spending all of my petty cash on one project before I pick up another.

Thank you for thinking of me though!

Question for the peanut gallery. Has anyone used huskymoto.co.uk (aka Lings Husqvarna)?

I ordered some parts from them on 1/29, a side cover and some bits and pieces.
They immediately contacted me to say that they didn't have about half of the bits and pieces, and they sent me a partial refund 2/3.
In the absence of further updates, a follow-up email sent 2/18 has received no reply.

So, has anyone dealt with them in the past? Is this typical (aka sit my butt down, shut up and wait), or is it time to start pushing a bit more?


As far as the bike goes, not much to report. I'm waiting on various parts, and a few part repairs. Although I've got the clutch cover back on my '86, both of my '400 pipes are out for repair. No pipe-ey, no ride-ey. I'd complain, but the pipes are at two different locations, and neither one is blowing the doors off, I guess that's the nature of the beast.

To answer my own question, after a while with no response, I reached huskymoto.co.uk through their parent company then they acknowledged that they did not have and could not get the parts I ordered, cancelled my order and refunded me.

Anyone got any experience with using a CR left side panel on a WR/WRX?
The WR version of the left side panel seems to be hard to come by, and expensive where available (this was the part I tried to order from the above company, they were listing it at half the price of anywhere else i could find it). There are newer/reproduction versions of the CR version of the part that are more readily available and quite a bit cheaper.The difference, from what I can see is that rear mounting hole is in a slightly different spot (accommodates the position of the mount for the silencer on the WR/WRX).