• 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.

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82 500cr Forks?

Benjamn

Benjamn

Husqvarna
B Class
Bought this 82 500CR, actually had it built. I have one day riding it for about 1/2 tank of gas at a local vintage track. I was "jumping" I use quotes because I was getting maybe 6" of air and it was bottoming both front and rear. I am by no means tiny I'm 250ish and 6'1 on a tall day.

I decided to investigate the forks first. The pic is for anyone who thinks I may be doing it wrong to speak up. I completely compressed the fork leg, no spring and cap off of course. 15" from the top of the fork tube to the oil. My research comes up with 165MM or 6.5". What should it be?

Part two of this is the left leg would not build any air pressure, using my Harley air suspension pump going for 10PSI just to check. The other picture is of the fork caps. The left fork cap has two baby socket head cap screws in it. I noticed oil under the top dust cover I suspect the socket head cap screws are not air/oil tight as they go all the way through the nylon cap. Is this a thing? or someones solution to the forks pumping up?

Sorry for the long winded post. Thanks for any and all input.
 

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should just have a single shraeder valve in each one. hard to tell what someone was doing with the screws added.. and yes the valves are simply to let air out as pressurizing any of the husky forks doesnt really work...just makes them harsh. you will want to run between 450-500 cc of oil in each fork. will have to drain and clean your legs, fill with a certain amount and see where you end up. will likely be around that 6.5 inch from the top of an empty compressed fork. will have to play with weights and volume to suit your taste.

at your weight, you will definitely need the proper springs front and rear. especially to get anywhere near the correct sag at the rear. these bikes can really handle and track fantastic once you do that, despite appearing built like farm equipment compared to the yz you have. yours looks to be pretty solid!
 
Drained the oil, all 300cc per leg of it, cleaned up the tubes and filled with the 450cc of 5wt just to start with. I'll see if it makes a difference before i chunck down for new springs. Mostly cause I'm slow anyway.

The nylon cap was broken at the thread and the two bolts put it back together with super glue. So much for the builder going through this stuff even if it was known that it was compiled of used parts. Makes me wonder what I will find elsewhere.

Where would I get springs anyway? Racetech?
 
Play with the fork weight (5W vs 10W etc) & amount before, going for new springs, as you may not need them, or you can go the cheaper
route & just put PVC spacers on top of the springs. Suspension is all about, making it custom for you, and good advise from justintendo...
 
Thank you. The 450ML put the level at 8" below the top with the fork compressed, no spring and the dampner rod installed. Also there were no top-out washers I am assuming they go between the spring and the cap?

Is there an assembly diagram of the forks available somewhere? I bought the workshop CDs offered from Husqvarna parts but they don't cover the forks.
 
Cut 10 coils off the springs . Will make the spring nearly 20% stiffer . I did . Theres is like 44 coils on them .
Cut a spacer from plastic pipe to fill the void . Cut one end of it to match the shape of the spring
And some slightly thicker oil . Its great now
It used to make the tire hit the guard if I grabbed a handful of front brake riding on flat ground
Make sure your top out washers are ok . The white plastic thing at the top of the damper rods . Quite often they swell and the ends over lap and do nothing . Just trim half a mm off the ends with a sharp blade until they can fit in properly
 
The rear end of mine was too soft it would squat too much under my weight and transfer all the weight to the rear wheel . So it just wheelied everywhere I tried to slide it
. I replaced the short springs with some other I had kyingvsround that were stiffer . I like it now
 
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