Michel Dufayard
Husqvarna
Pro Class
Do what you like !
-
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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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!
Aquiring an 85' 500AE, any advice?
- Thread starter mud
- Start date
Husqvarna
Do what you like !
Michel Dufayard
Husqvarna
Pro Class
The exhaust is a 400 wrlc 84.
Rossik
Husqvarna
AA Class
I too am about to get my hands on an '85 500AE and I've been wondering about a few things......at the risk of sounding ignorant, is there some kind of neutral mode for starting the bike?
Also, given the lack of engine breaking, I had an idea of setting it up with a later front end to include a disk on the front? If the fork tube diameter was the same, do you think this could be feasible?
Also, given the lack of engine breaking, I had an idea of setting it up with a later front end to include a disk on the front? If the fork tube diameter was the same, do you think this could be feasible?
Michel Dufayard
Husqvarna
Pro Class
Between oli blue cap and kick, you have the lever.
Put in N ( neutral) to start the motor, and then in D ( drive) to ride.
Put in D at low idle.
85 AE 500 forks are 40 mm diam., like 86-87-88 models.
dukkman
Husqvarna
AA Class
The 87 used a different left hand 40mm fork slider and a 2 spot caliper.
They also changed from a floating disk/fixed caliper to a floating caliper/fixed disk.
I have done this mod , 87 fork leg and a twin spot caliper with a honda wheel/ fixed steel disk , on my 86 wr and it stops like a modern.
They also changed from a floating disk/fixed caliper to a floating caliper/fixed disk.
I have done this mod , 87 fork leg and a twin spot caliper with a honda wheel/ fixed steel disk , on my 86 wr and it stops like a modern.
Rossik
Husqvarna
AA Class
Thanks so much dukkman.....I am still waiting for my bike to be customs cleared (I'm living in London and have just imported my bike from US) so I've yet to see exactly what work needs to be prioritised. But if you have time sometime, would you mind sending me a step by step description of how you went about it, what the exact parts list you bought was and any issues you had with it.
I'm not so technically gifted so I was thinking more along the lines of basically getting hold of a complete front end (from triple clamps forward) and just swap them out. Naturally this will probably cost much more than the way you did it........
And strangely enough, I used to go riding around Warwick & Stanthorpe area.......I remember doing a 2 day ride called something like Brass Monkey ride, it was back in the 80's?......was loads of fun !!
fran...k.
Husqvarna
AA Class
The automatic bikes in this section do not freewheel or coast in high gear. They have similar engine braking as a similar two stroke standard shift unless in neutral, first or second in the case of an 500ae.
Just talking about the conventional 40 mm forks. The rubber mounted handlebar triple clamps seem to have a different offset than the rigid mounted handlebar clamps I associate with 85-88 and the mono shock set up. I am pretty sure the axle to fork center is the same for all of them. The 85-86 floating disc and piston on each side set up has the bosses for the old drum set up on both legs. The dual piston on one side floatind caliper of 87-88 have the old mounts for the drum only on one leg and have quite a bit more parts inside. At some point they went away from bronze bushings in the forks and had teflon things top and bottom instead of only bronze on top. My 86 ae had the bronze and earlier disc but I think most in that year had the teflon. When I say teflon think of a ring of metal teflon coated kind of like a frying pan coating. I also have a suspition that the bore of the master cylinder changed though only got wrong sized rebuild kit to base this on. All husky stuff won't comment as to why one would bother with honda wheels. I will note the disc diameter is still less than modern and disagree with stopping like modern though 2004 is as modern as I go.
Fran
Just talking about the conventional 40 mm forks. The rubber mounted handlebar triple clamps seem to have a different offset than the rigid mounted handlebar clamps I associate with 85-88 and the mono shock set up. I am pretty sure the axle to fork center is the same for all of them. The 85-86 floating disc and piston on each side set up has the bosses for the old drum set up on both legs. The dual piston on one side floatind caliper of 87-88 have the old mounts for the drum only on one leg and have quite a bit more parts inside. At some point they went away from bronze bushings in the forks and had teflon things top and bottom instead of only bronze on top. My 86 ae had the bronze and earlier disc but I think most in that year had the teflon. When I say teflon think of a ring of metal teflon coated kind of like a frying pan coating. I also have a suspition that the bore of the master cylinder changed though only got wrong sized rebuild kit to base this on. All husky stuff won't comment as to why one would bother with honda wheels. I will note the disc diameter is still less than modern and disagree with stopping like modern though 2004 is as modern as I go.
Fran
dukkman
Husqvarna
AA Class
If you tap your old disk against a rock or the side of your trailer or something Frank you,ll understand why I went to a steel disk , the wheel is just there to hold it in the right place.
The honda disk is 15mm smaller than a 2004 KX Kawasaki on the od and the husky forks are softer so my bike stops as good as a 2004 KX Kawasaki [which is called a modern].
I found it easy to compare as I have both in my shed.
In Australia 84/85/86/87 WR forks were all 40mm , all had tefflon bushes and the 85/86/87 WR's all had the same internals , the 87 left fork leg has different caliper mounts but everything else is the same.
I have a set of 85 CR forks here with the rubber handle bar mounts and the only difference is the tripple trees everything else is the same.
dukkman
Husqvarna
AA Class
The monkey is gorn now but they have a good one at Rivertree which is a little east of Stanthorpe.
fran...k.
Husqvarna
AA Class
As to my last post. I might not be the most accurate guy on here, at least the edit function doesn't time out like most other forms I am familiar with.
I perhaps am a bit lean on certain years like 1987 which I just lump with 1988. I bought a 1998 te 510 from the origional owner still hav the origional reciept and had it registered, it came with a parts bike his buddy bought at the same time wr 430 that had hit something and ruined both wheels. Those 40 mm forks have a lot more stuff inside. Halls seems to understand and I have got parts there but had an unsuccessful episode at a local dealer.
Here is a link to a picture of the two different triple clamp offsets I mentioned http://www.frannyk.addr.com/cafehusky/88and83orsotopclamps.jpg
Again I might not have all that much 84 or dual shock 85 stuff just kind of assumed the older dual shock set up like the 500 ae came in had the more straight across clamps like the 83 very similar frame I am familiar with. And was attempting to respond to the fork issue.
I have had a drum front brake, the origional two pistons on one side and the one piston on each side on the 510, My comment about the mounts for the brake might be for the holes for the one piston on each 85-86 as I have the fork tubes switched. I have bent the husky discs in the 1998-1999 wheels but they straightened out better than I expected. I had a pretty good guard on the 86 ae 430 and never bent the disc, did bend a rear sprocket though.
Even though the 500 ae doesn't coast if you go fast enough to get into high gear you still can't downshift for braking.
Fran
I perhaps am a bit lean on certain years like 1987 which I just lump with 1988. I bought a 1998 te 510 from the origional owner still hav the origional reciept and had it registered, it came with a parts bike his buddy bought at the same time wr 430 that had hit something and ruined both wheels. Those 40 mm forks have a lot more stuff inside. Halls seems to understand and I have got parts there but had an unsuccessful episode at a local dealer.
Here is a link to a picture of the two different triple clamp offsets I mentioned http://www.frannyk.addr.com/cafehusky/88and83orsotopclamps.jpg
Again I might not have all that much 84 or dual shock 85 stuff just kind of assumed the older dual shock set up like the 500 ae came in had the more straight across clamps like the 83 very similar frame I am familiar with. And was attempting to respond to the fork issue.
I have had a drum front brake, the origional two pistons on one side and the one piston on each side on the 510, My comment about the mounts for the brake might be for the holes for the one piston on each 85-86 as I have the fork tubes switched. I have bent the husky discs in the 1998-1999 wheels but they straightened out better than I expected. I had a pretty good guard on the 86 ae 430 and never bent the disc, did bend a rear sprocket though.
Even though the 500 ae doesn't coast if you go fast enough to get into high gear you still can't downshift for braking.
Fran
dukkman
Husqvarna
AA Class
I have a set of tripples the same as your lower picture but with straight up handlebar clamp posts , not laid back like yours.
This puts the bars directly over the main stem. Threads on stem are stuffed so I have not used them yet.
The 86/87 disks here in Australia don't bend Frank they just snap a bit out. I have seen this twice and it's scarey to see. Imagine half your front disk missing and you don't notice it.
Mike