250-500cc WR 6 speed swap ($$ cost thread)

Hey Guys,
lot of discussions on this topic now.. mostly folks are looking to do it themselves..

what about having shop do it for you? what would the cost of labor be? to install 6 speed in WR engine.
what about cost of sourcing all brand new 6 speed parts?

I am really interested in Supermoto my WR300.. and 6 speed would be major improvement, but I am not confident in my ability to completely crack engine open and put it back together.. especially if I am lacking some small parts.. washers..seals and spacers.

thoughts?

thanks!

I think parts wise youre gonna spend a mint on new stuff. The older stuff is out there and as long as you find stuff thats not shredded you should be good to go. As far as labor goes, that could be a scary venture if its a "new" Husky dealer. Somebody who has done extensive work on the Cagiva based Husky engines would be the ones to go to. I would have no concerns taking my bike to Chris at Toytech if I didnt want to do this myself.
I am going to do the swap at some point. I rarely need the 6th gear where I race BUT I enjoy working on my own stuff. I just have to get thru the 72 Honda CB350 project and getting my WR prepped for this season. Killin my budget.

Sourcing new parts will be well in excess of $1000 if you can get them all. More than just the gear clusters, you need the shift shaft, detent, shift drum and forks. It is far cheaper to just find one of the old models being sold as a bike and part it out. If you are going to have a shop do the work expect a bill of 4-5 hours in shop time if they have all the parts, pieces, and gaskets sitting in front of them. After my second time doing this I was faster but you don't want him trying to race book time.

You can do the work yourself if you aren't in a hurry. Just clear plenty of bench space and lay all your parts out in order of removal so you can re-assemble in the same order. Re-assembling the tranny into the cases is a bit nifty but don't get in a hurry or be afraid to take it apart to make sure you kept all the little needle bearings and spacing washers in place. You also might need to get some one with a set of case splitting special tools to press the cases apart. Do Not Bang on the Crank with your hammer. If you have a lot of hours on your engine it also a good time to replace the main bearings and seals. You will want to be able to press these out of the cases and off the crank without using a hammer too.

If I was nervous about the process, I would just pull your motor and take it down to someone you trust. I personally like working on motors and feel it is an enjoyable way to get in touch with your oily side.

Good info Wallybean. I want to source the parts and have them standing by for when I split the motor for lower end bearings/seals just like youve suggested.

thanks Wallybean!
this is why I am considering shop route.. I dont have case splitting tool.. (hammer worked fine before :-) but those were much cruder engines and my 09

I am concerned about sourcing small parts..especially if I dont know I need them :-)

this is more of an issue if I dont pull transmission from complete engine, but just set of gears and shafts from ebay.

in any case,
what's a reasonable price to pay for 6 speed?

I just did one from a complete 360 motor and other than gaskets I had to buy nothing for the swap. Everything I needed was in the 360.

+++1 to what Motorhead said! It is really easy when you have complete motor to work from.

You are going to want to find a complete bottom end as just finding a gear cluster only tranny will leave you short parts. I have bought several of these trannies over the years but not recently. If you can get into one of these trannies for $200 jump on it. Buying a complete bottom end would be in the $400 range but money well spent.

I have seen everything you need to do one on ebay. It would be a piece together job, but the parts are on there. Bill's even has a gear cluster on there that looks complete.

I ordered the shifter parts from a '02 from Hall's because someone said they had a shorter throw than the '93, but the parts were the same. Many of the part numbers are different, but there is no difference in the parts. So, that was a waste of about $100, but I have a few spares, I guess.

But, like I said, everything to do the swap was in the '93 bottom end. I did have to play with the shimming a bit, but was able to use what was there. I measured them with a mic and they were really close, so I fit everything up in the bare cases with two bolt and a couple of .020" shims to act as the gasket and it was tight on the counter shaft. I had a thick shim on one end and two thin shims on the other, so I ended up removing the thick one and replacing it with one of the thin ones. That gave me just a little bit of end play, so I was happy with it.

As far as a case splitter, I don't have a fancy case splitter, I use an "H" bar type harmonic balancer puller, always have. I have two long 6mm S.S. bolts that I thread into the stator plate holes, tightly, and pull it from there. The crank is the only place you should have any trouble getting it apart. The transmission end just needs a little wiggling.

Actually, my 2010 cases came apart without the use of the puller and the bearings stayed in the cases, so that was nice. I went ahead and replaced the crank bearings and seals while it was apart, but probable didn't have to.

It might be good to talk about the different options that are out there.

For example, another option is the wide ratio 5-speed that was in the older WR250s. According to the parts diagrams, that transmission had the same 1st gear ratio as our modern close-ratio WRs, but its 4th was equal to our 5th gear, and its 5th gear is like 20-25% taller than ours!

I've been on the lookout for one of these transmissions/motors. I've also considered just swapping out 5th gear, so that I would have a super-tall 5th gear for road and transit sections. The problem with this is that the gap would be REALLY wide between 4th and 5th, like going from 3rd to 5th on the normal (new) WR transmission. For guys who ride highspeed stuff, this would probably be really bad. I only use 5th for dirt roads and transit sections, so the big gap might be tolerable. It's under $200 for the parts, so I am definitely considering it...

I wish there was a 5th gear option that was between the new WR and the old (truly wide) WR ratio.

What are the years that are compatible for these different changes? It looks like the 6-spd 360 trans is compatible back into the early 90s? What about the 5-speed WR250 trans, what years are compatible there? I have been looking at 2000-2002 parts, but I assume the range is wider than that?

I think 99 to 2001 was the wide 5.

Not all the 2002 WR 250's came with the wide ratio 5 speed. So be careful there. You can use most generic flat case splitting plates with an H style puller. I have one that has a gazooogle of different holes and bolt alignments.

Another thing is the wide ratio 5 speed would be a great box for the 300 but is a bit gappy from 4th to 5th for the 250. It does have a screaming top end though.

Gazoogle. I like that term lol

It's like poofteth of a inch

i like the german torque wrench term........Gut-en-tight

Does someone know where i can find the selector/shift shaft, I'm needing this part to complete the swap process ? Please help.

Thanks!

Does someone know where i can find the selector/shift shaft, I'm needing this part to complete the swap process ? Please help.

Thanks!

Dunno if anyone chasin one but there's a bloke on FB from down under sellin complete(apparently) 98 wr360 6 speed set up. Says $350AU but sure could get it cheaper. All in exc cond(apparently)

It's on 'older enduro bikes for sale' page