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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

1988 WR250 PISTON DILEMA

woodsguy

woodsguy

Husqvarna
C Class
I posted a thread before about my 88 WR250 not starting. I assumed it had decent compression because my guage told me so. Well I found out my gauge was lying after putting it on my KTM 300 EXC where it maxed the gauge out. The new gauge told me that it only had 30 PSI compression. Pulled the head and found what was left of possibly the origanal piston. All I can make out on the inside of the piston head is Mahle 130 or 138 with #67P19. Can anyone tell me if this is the origanal piston? The sleeve look's decent and I believe all the piston skirt chunks are out of the crank after flushing with kerosene. The connecting rod has play side to side but up and down only has very slight play. Husky-Parts say's there is no piston available for this year 250. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to find a replacement piston. I presume that a bore will be needed and the next size up piston required. Any advice would be appreciated I am fairly new to these kind of repairs but handy and willing to keep trying to save this otherwise great Husky.

Thank You
 
I actually had one of those laying around but a friend bought the bike and spares
they can be found, I'm pretty sure the dealer in my area actually has one if Halls doesnt
 
and as an FYI 87 and 88 are unique in that the stroke changed, so 86 and back wont work and the 250's after that were Cagiva based
there were no aftermarket ones when I was looking, and the Wossner and Vertex contrary to the listing don't work, but old school shops have them
 
Thanks Travis, just checked out the link and look's like I may be in business. I still think I need to measure to make sure I am not on 2nd or 3rd bore but it appears they have four sizes. Not sure if the origanal piston was a Mahle or not. It looks like it may have overheated once cracking skirt and someone just tput a new ring on it and threw it back in.
 
woodsguy said:
Thanks Travis, just checked out the link and look's like I may be in business. I still think I need to measure to make sure I am not on 2nd or 3rd bore but it appears they have four sizes. Not sure if the origanal piston was a Mahle or not. It looks like it may have overheated once cracking skirt and someone just tput a new ring on it and threw it back in.
Click to expand...

if you look at the four sizes you will see the differences are so small it does not make sense
these are for a Nikasil bore that you match the size to
they share nothing with an 87 88 Swedish 250
 
2premo said:
no
the 88 is Swedish and the 91 is Italian, they share NOTHING
Click to expand...
Yah sorry I was thinking cagiva 250 cause that has the same engine 88-91 and is the same engine in my 91 but he has the swedish husky. They are completly different bike so if i were you id compare that wossner piston to your and see if they even look the same.
 
"The sleeve look's decent and I believe all the piston skirt chunks are out of the crank after flushing with kerosene."
For your sake I hope your belief is correct. If you cant piece together a puzzle of every piece?

The connecting rod has play side to side but up and down only has very slight play.
There are specs for this type of play, side to side is normal but only within spec. Up and down does not sound good to me. For you to determine the measurements you will need appropriate mics and instructions on how to do so.

Can anyone tell me if this is the origanal piston?
If its the original piston is irrelevant. What matters is the condition of the bore, its diameter and if its round or oval. The upper portion of the cylinder (above the ring wear) should give you a good indication of the bore it last had (1st over, 2nd over, etc....)

I still think I need to measure to make sure I am not on 2nd or 3rd bore
That's a fact

I would suggest doing some serious research on this and acquiring the tools sufficient for the job if your set on doing it yourself. Don't forget ring end gaps and recommendations relative to forged and cast piston. Do your homework and enjoy the process.
 
My neighbor troy,
I certainly don't discount your suggestion about Halls, that's one way to get-r-done the right way. They haven't been in business this long for no reason.
 
woodsguy said:
I posted a thread before about my 88 WR250 not starting. I assumed it had decent compression because my guage told me so. Well I found out my gauge was lying after putting it on my KTM 300 EXC where it maxed the gauge out. The new gauge told me that it only had 30 PSI compression. Pulled the head and found what was left of possibly the origanal piston. All I can make out on the inside of the piston head is Mahle 130 or 138 with #67P19. Can anyone tell me if this is the origanal piston? The sleeve look's decent and I believe all the piston skirt chunks are out of the crank after flushing with kerosene. The connecting rod has play side to side but up and down only has very slight play. Husky-Parts say's there is no piston available for this year 250. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to find a replacement piston. I presume that a bore will be needed and the next size up piston required. Any advice would be appreciated I am fairly new to these kind of repairs but handy and willing to keep trying to save this otherwise great Husky.

Thank You
Click to expand...

The original pistons were MAHLE. If clean off the top of the piston carefully, you'll see the size stamped in millimeters. The piston is slightly smaller than the bore. I have a new piston kit for a 87-88 250cr. I can't remeber, if it's first or second over.
 
husky jim said:
The original pistons were MAHLE. If clean off the top of the piston carefully, you'll see the size stamped in millimeters. The piston is slightly smaller than the bore. I have a new piston kit for a 87-88 250cr. I can't remeber, if it's first or second over.
Click to expand...

the 87 CR250 is not the same piston as the WR250 they look very different, had a picture of them together but don't know where that pic is
I have a CR and had an XC while I had the CR so I can confirm first hand they are different
interesting you have one did you have a CR at one time, kind of low production with 350 worldwide distribution
 
2premo said:
the 87 CR250 is not the same piston as the WR250 they look very different, had a picture of them together but don't know where that pic is
I have a CR and had an XC while I had the CR so I can confirm first hand they are different
interesting you have one did you have a CR at one time, kind of low production with 350 worldwide distribution
Click to expand...

Your right they are different. I think the cr has 2 ports in the piston skirt. No I picked it up along time ago when I was trying to source a piston for my 88 250wr. I did eventually find a 1st over for my WR. The price was right so I grabbed it just in case. I bought a new 2014 300wr today picking it up tomorrow morning. I have alot new vintage and good used stuff. I'll never use and will be selling off after the big spring cleaning. Too many bikes and too many parts taking up space.
 
husky jim said:
Your right they are different. I think the cr has 2 ports in the piston skirt. No I picked it up along time ago when I was trying to source a piston for my 88 250wr. I did eventually find a 1st over for my WR. The price was right so I grabbed it just in case. I bought a new 2014 300wr today picking it up tomorrow morning. I have alot new vintage and good used stuff. I'll never use and will be selling off after the big spring cleaning. Too many bikes and too many parts taking up space.
Click to expand...

I still have an 87 CR250, it has basically no hours on it, if the price is right I would be interested
no hours means pretty much no wear, pulled the top end and it was as new, probably put 5 hours on it in the last 5 years
 
Thank You All for the advice. My motto has always been the same as what Troy said. Fix it right the first time. Phil from Husky-Parts recomended Stahls in Indiana and I have heard of Halls in NY. I am going to call them both today and just pack the head and piston up and ship it out to have it done right. Just can't seem to let it die and part it out yet. I spend most of my time on the KTM but love jumping on the Husky every now and then to bring back that two stroke thrill I grew up with when Huskies ruled the woods.
 
woodsguy said:
Thank You All for the advice. My motto has always been the same as what Troy said. Fix it right the first time. Phil from Husky-Parts recomended Stahls in Indiana and I have heard of Halls in NY. I am going to call them both today and just pack the head and piston up and ship it out to have it done right. Just can't seem to let it die and part it out yet. I spend most of my time on the KTM but love jumping on the Husky every now and then to bring back that two stroke thrill I grew up with when Huskies ruled the woods.
Click to expand...


are you saying they don't rule anymore :eek:
 
woodsguy said:
Thank You All for the advice. My motto has always been the same as what Troy said. Fix it right the first time. Phil from Husky-Parts recomended Stahls in Indiana and I have heard of Halls in NY. I am going to call them both today and just pack the head and piston up and ship it out to have it done right. Just can't seem to let it die and part it out yet. I spend most of my time on the KTM but love jumping on the Husky every now and then to bring back that two stroke thrill I grew up with when Huskies ruled the woods.
Click to expand...

halls is in Springfield Ill never herd of Stahls
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top