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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

86 500 xc

It appears the leak was coming from rubber manifold to reed block. Looks like where the four dimples are in the manifold. Cleaned it all up and added high temp rtv silicone. Will find out tomarow...the crank case had a visible amount of gas in it so I sucked as much out as possible, with a suction tool. Then with plug out kicked a good 30 times before bolting intake back on.
 
There was just over a 1/16" of the flange touching the reed cage on top and bottom. More like 3/32". Thinking it will work but if it leaks it will get epoxy.
 
Got it fired agian. Took a cell phone video...poor quality.
The scilencer is not yet mmounted tight to the expansion chamber so there is a leak form that junction. Reed block seems to be sealing now. And most importantly the kill switch is working!
 
Finally worked up enough balls to test ride her again. All in all things went well. The throttle response is much more mild now. It revs more like I remember. Was able to idle and putt around at light throttle without spin ing the tire. That air leak that was causing it to be to lean apparently was also what was making it so unrideable. Rolled on the throttle on a patch of concrete and it just spun the tire like I was on loose gravel! It has crazy power!
Will post a video of a quick ride wen I have a bro around to run camera, asked the wife but she said she didn't want any part of it! That's when you kno your on to something!
 
Got to ride for a few minutes today. Did about 8 laps before the carb jets got plugged by crap from the fuel tank. (8 laps = roughly 2 miles). Mostly low rpm, off the pipe but second and third gear. Rolled on the pipe in third and it felt like it wanted to lift...may have to build a set of clip-on type bars for it, as these are a bit high and make the weight transfer to the rear worse.
I have to bite the bullet and seal the tank. Have been putting it off due to the 4 day cure time, before fuel can be added.
While the motor is running, i can hear the sprung lever that engages the kick starter(ticking in each notch)is this normal? Not obnoxiously loud but now that I know it's there I can identify the source of the sound. Would slightly rounding the edge of said piece quiet it??? Did I possible put it in backwards...worn side on he engage side??? Could this be the cause of the excessive vibration? I know they are known to vibrate but this one is hard to hold on to he bars at mid-high revs then clears...
 
sounds like you have the kickstarter preloaded a bit too tight...its trying to engage as you ride, and this will tear up assy....my golden rule is put an inline filter on everything...are you running a fuel line straight down from the tank to the carb? if so you will always have carb problems..
 
yup, just wind it a bit less...just a few splines...i dont have much experience lining tanks, but have seen some horrendous lined tanks where the liner fails...it may be a good idea to just change an inline filter every so often...probably have to blow the carb out again...i know those filters can look weird on a bike like this, where you are trying to achieve a certain look, but it will save you alot of time and reliability...make sure your motor mounts stay tight, and would be a good idea to loctite them if you havent...husky big bores are hard on them
 
Agreed on the filter. Look don't mean much if it don't run. I've lined a couple tanks on auto and 4x4 restorations at my shop. They helave held up. A lot has to do with the prep...any spots that arnt etched(satin grey) will not have good adhesion. Had it ready for that bit got to anxious and put some of our lovely CA "gas" in it now its all rusted again. Not even a month and it was almost full. Funny part is it rusted more where the fuel was vs air space.
The petcock and fuel lines will be upgraded. I had these part laying around from another project. Sure the tech inspection at the local strip will require it to have steel braided...
After initial fire up and rodeo MOST bolts , nut and screws on the bike got a good bath in red loctite. Rear motor mount bolt is a grade 8 of course. Fronts are stock huskys with nylock nuts, so they didn't get loctite. I did that once...loctite and nylocks don't mix well.
I need to add some rubber or leather washers at tank, radiators, and top and bottom of seat springs. I know it won't do much but radiators especially need some isolation. May have to adapt a stock rubber mount system there.
 
Use a longer fuel line and run a loop before it gets to the carb, any crap will be caught in the loop. (if you don't have a filter) cheap filtering
 
im thinking rubber mounts at the rad would be wise....they crack that way already, so mounted solid would be bad
 
Got the tank sealed. It took some elbow grease and muratic acid to get ALL the rust out. Rinsed with baking soda water to neutralize, then followed directions on the Kreem package. To do it right takes all day but I also did a hotrod tank at the same time so it's a more steady process, with less down time. Laid down real smooth.
 
Put the tank back on fueled it and kick and kicked and kicked. Turns out the crab didn't plug, the dang kill button failed and is stuck on kill! Took it off and smashed it with a hammer! How's it go...___me once...___me twice... It's not gunna happen a third time!!!
 
Yeah not even gunna run it till I get one. Learned my lesson, trust me. It made contact at the housing, grounding it. It will need to get a break away or "dead man" kill so might just do that now...or wait to mess with it till I get one.
 
Got a new kill switch. Didn't have the tetherd kind so just got a stock replacement for now. Also got a see through fuel filter installed. That way I can monitor what is happening with the fuel and will give me a heads up if liner starts to fail. So far the kreem liner seems to be legit. If it fails I will throw the tank into a bonfire and burn linner out. Hear thats about the only way to remove it... While I was at the local Yamaha shop I also picked up some pillow top grip. The clerk told me that wadding paper into the Handel bars would also dampen vibrations...thinkin I may just replace handlebars with solid stock or at least welding some weight into he grip area.
 
Think I have the tachometer adjusted to 1 pulse per revolution, its designed for 8,6,4cyl operation but has veritable resistors so I adjusted the 4 cyl resistor from .245 to .340(max) hope it gets me in The ballpark. Cool lookin old unit.


 
Question;
If I let the bike sit for several days it fires easily, 2 prime kicks holding the kill button, then one hard kick. I have tried a couple times to set the float level without success. Every time it just flows nonstop out of both overflow tubes. My question is, since I mounted the tank much higher than normal, for one of these bikes anyway, is it creating to much head pressure??? Or do I have something wrong with my needle and seat? it looks to be in good order without anything obstructing its closure... Any thoughts?
 
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