restoring a Up-Tite 87 250 XC...

I took my '88 430 out for a ride yesterday. A beautiful day for a ride. Riding with my grandson on his '14 Husky CR 125, and his friend riding my Husky 310.
We had a blast.
Here's a view of Mt. Hood (11,250 ft elevation)...

Woaw ! Looks great !

Oregon is such a cool state, lil bit of everything to offer. I go to coos bay every once a while but not with a bike , (yet). Do you ever make it to the dunes? or Dune Fest?

Yes, great view.... not as big as Mt. Blanc though !

I haven't been over to the Dunes yet. I think I would have to get a dedicated bike for riding sand.
Yep, plenty of variety out here.
If you come out you should visit some other spots and even ride some.

Goggle oregon dune fest, its coming up soon. It offers just about everything you can do in the sand. I walked through it last year with my son and I just keep wishing I had a bike or my jeep with me.

I'm finally back working on the 250 after some time off traveling and riding...

I've got crank pressed in case and the gear shafts put together.
I'm now trying to put the shift selector drum in, but that neutral ball bearing and spring is a pain.

Anybody got a trick for pushing the neutral ball bearing in while inserting the shift selector? It doesn't seem possible.

I've tried what the manual said to do, but the spring is hard to push and hold in and slide the selector drum in.

man its been years but you gotta have it in 4 gear to get all back in there have no idea what the book says

you can put the primary kick engines together in any gear really, but neutral is easiest.
youll want to put the drum back in first, before the transmission. i have rarely removed the drum, but im pretty sure you can push the ball down with a little flat head screwdriver while you insert the drum from the other.
troy is thinking of the earlier engines that required a certain gear.

I just did this yesterday. What I did was push the spring into the hole as far as I could and used a pick in the other small hole (red arrow in photo) to hold it in there. This left the spring compressed enough so when I placed the ball in there it was already half in the hole. Then just reach from the underside, push the ball the rest of the way in as you insert the drum.

Thanks for the comments, guys.
I haven't seen anything in the '86 Workshop manual about being in a particular gear for this step. Maybe when I put the kickstarter in, it will have to be in a particular gear?

Mogly406, thanks for the help. Perfect.
I didn't notice the small spring hole last night, otherwise I would have worked it out.

Here's another pic showing the spring inserted and the small spring hole below it:

there is nothing about the primary kick engines having to be in a certain gear, altho the shift drum can be much easier taken out last, put in first..

I finally got most of the motor together... Cases together and cylinder /head on. As you can see, I've painted the cylinder and head with some color.
Apologies to all you Husky purists out there... I thought some color might highlight the motor. I can always go back to black.

I ran into some issues putting the motor together... simple things like putting the clips in the piston (took awhile trying, then pop - went right in) and sliding the cylinder onto the piston / ring... really tough to press the ring, slide the piston up, and into the cylinder --- tight fit. It's really a 2 person job.
Since this was my first motor rebuild, the next motor I do should go quicker. I hope!

Some more pics of the build.
Old piston vs. new piston


Piston on the rod... finally.



Close up of the new 1st over piston (66.69) in the cylinder...

black motor man those cases came out sweet. do the cylinder and head just like that........ nice resto !!!

Thanks, wrx.
The colors are an experiment. The cylinder and head were not ready for powdercoat with the cases, so I gave them some paint. Next I'll do them all in Sniper Gray.

Thanks, ruwfo. Ha, a Yellow Head!
I thought I'd try something different. I always thought Husky should have dressed the motors up a little more.
I'm still not sure... I'll see how it looks when in the bike frame with the surrounding bits.

just so yall know i was thinkin of painting my head before i saw this whataya think of gold to match the wheels