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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

1972 WR250 the beginning

consolidated my Husky projects together in my new shop! Small progress: forks mounted, bars & controls, and front fender. The other project is my stalled '87. I thought I was going to build a 4-stroke until I realized that it's a different frame! Too much 70's influence where 1 frame fits ALL motors.
 

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Got the clutch apart...not too bad the usual plate edges. Lucky this one has steel plates and I have a spare one to swap out to the best parts! Taking the barrel tomorrow to get bored for the piston. Also, found 2 NOS Hi-Point motoplat connectors (the big ones). Still need to find: coil, airbell, rear hub and pipe (yikes, that's alot of money!). Thinking it might be cheaper to buy a Indian repop tank vs. having mine painted, thoughts?
 
Still need to find: coil, airbell, rear hub and pipe (yikes, that's alot of money!). Thinking it might be cheaper to buy a Indian repop tank vs. having mine painted, thoughts?
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Sounds to me like you need to establish the purpose for the completed bike and then a budget. Don't know about others but I find the fun is taken out of a restoration/refurbish project when I start throwing money at it with no idea of how much its going to take to reach my desired end point. I don't mean to sound harsh, just reasonable.
 
Crashaholic said:
Sounds to me like you need to establish the purpose for the completed bike and then a budget. Don't know about others but I find the fun is taken out of a restoration/refurbish project when I start throwing money at it with no idea of how much its going to take to reach my desired end point. I don't mean to sound harsh, just reasonable.
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dont end up with a bunch of bike just shy of puberty
 
As a retired beancounter, I'm all too familiar w/ budgets. Sorry if I'm complaining too much about missing parts and costs. At the end of the day it might cost the same or more to buy someone else's restoration, but I will have had the enjoyment and new knowledge gained : )
 
As far as having your tank repainted, I don't know of anyone reputable. I've used John at Vintage Husky for many project put its my understanding he no longer paints tanks. If you search "vintage motorcycle tank repainting" you'll find many links.

Five years ago I paid $450 to have a tank painted like yours and $350-$400 to rechrome it, then add in the cost of shipping. Today I wouldn't be surprised if you had to shell out $600 to $1200 bucks. So the Indian tank looks pretty tempting from a cost standpoint but its not a very good looking tank to me, but then there are those who don't mind, or can't tell the difference. Just personal preference.

Knowing up front what your going to do with the completed project can help guide your purchase decisions.
 
 
Exactly Chris, the price of these repop Indian tanks seems almost too good to be true! I guess the big question is: do they hold gas ?
 
I have a couple and am happy, when I sell a bike with one which I haven't Yet, I'll offer the Original Too.
But even dented and faded they are not cheep!!
I suspect I'll have those for a long while or until visitor1948 starts working in the USA!!
He has Mad Skills!! But mostly with the Aluminum tanks.
And like Crash says originals and re pops are slightly different and an original with the heavy lifting done is a sight to behold and really sets a restoration off. But****************************************!
Guys on this site and a few others are the only ones who will look for the stamp on the ear!!
Great Luck!!
 
Well, one step forward, two steps back... machine shop called and stated that they didn't think they could get a nice bore w/ the damaged base. Also, my +.10 piston didn't allow for enough clean material and they recommended +.20 (it was at standard, but looked like it had seizing.).

I'll drink a couple of beers and reassemble the clutch later today to make myself feel better : )
 
Clutch went back together really nice. I'll wait until I know the clutch is adjusted correctly before bending the tabs. Tomorrow going to lap the motoplat rotor w/ grinding paste. I'll be on pause for awhile as I search for a better cylinder. Need to wire up my Norton for the Motogadget I bought.
 
This clutch modification would certainly make it easier to assemble the clutch but I have to wonder why it took Husky until 1975 to add this to their clutch design. :thinking: I see these Honda dowel pins are available on partzilla for $2 ea.
 
Thanks Vinskord, I'd forgotten about the Wade Summers article in the Husky Club Newsletter (#13). I 'think' I actually did that to a previous Husky. Thanks Crash, I ordered them from Partzilla today!
 
I did that mod to my 450 and never felt a difference. But my hands are old weak and calloused!! I think I also use nylock 6mm nuts instead? or with the tabs. CRS!!!
 
DeathFromAbove said:
I did that mod to my 450 and never felt a difference. But my hands are old weak and calloused!! I think I also use nylock 6mm nuts instead? or with the tabs. CRS!!!
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I don't think this spacer mod is meant to make the clutch pull easier, I think its meant to make the clutch assembly easier since the metal locking tabs are not used and to create an even preload across all the springs. The even preload is suppose to allow the pressure plate to move up and down evenly.

After sleeping on the addition of the 14mm spring spacers I considered the info in the Husky shop manual. It notes that the pressure plate should be checked for even clearance on all sides when de-clutched. It also notes to tighten the nuts down an initial 8-9 turns indicating the factory finds this a satisfactory starting point for the spring preload on new clutch plates and discs. I know that its the nature of a spring to loose its rate as it ages and this raises the question, in 1972 were new springs equal in rate? And what are the clutch springs rate 52 years later?

I've always used the 8-9 turn recommendation on all my new clutch plates and discs and a half to full turn more on worn clutches. I also hookup the clutch cable to the motor and to a handlebar mounted lever and tweak the spring nuts so that the clutch engages fully when the handlebar lever is released a little less than halfway. I've doubled check this several times by sitting on my sloped driveway with the bike warmed up fingering the clutch in and out and noticing how much lever I need to hold the bike on the sloped driveway.

I think the bottom line on these older bikes is to make sure the gap between the pressure plate and top clutch plate is the same all the way around when de-clutched, before putting the side case on. Then to check the clutch function to make sure its working well before hammering it on the first ride.
 
And another thing! :D

When tweaking the spring nuts on my clutch builds to achieve an even pressure plate gap, the nuts where never all tightened down the same amount. I'm not convinced at this point that the addition of the spacers is a good idea on these old clutches.
 
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