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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

New here, '84 500XC

luckypabst

luckypabst

Husqvarna
Introducing myself and possibly rambling a bit...

I'm Chris and just began to tear into an 84 500XC (pretty sure it's an 84... last of the twin shocker) that I was given in trade for some labor. I was told it 'ran when parked' (don't they all) but it would run fine for about 20 minutes then die. I pulled the top end first thing and consistent with the other bikes I've been given from the same guy, this one had gotten a little water in the top end. Not terrible, it was salvageable with a simple honing. Piston is a +1mm Wiseco with very little time on it and the cylinder looks to have been nicely ported at some time. Going through the carb, I replaced the needle and needle jet with the same part numbers and found out that the needle had been heavily tapered with sand paper, so I'll have some tuning to do when it's back up and running.

So last night I split the case to start a full bottom-up rebuild... and had a gear tooth come out on the end of the drain plug. I need to confirm the gear stack but I think it's off the driven 5th gear. I also need to replace the primary cover, and those air-cooled covers don't seem to be terribly common, at least on ebay... I may end up welding the cracks and I also need to build up one of threaded bosses for the sprocket cover anyhow.

I'm on the fence between tearing the bike down completely and refinishing everything or just building a solid, reliable runner and skipping the cosmetics. I'd like to have all the white parts re-powdered, but then I'm left with faded wheels and a yellowed tank... and I don't want to put that kind of money into the bike.

Chris
 
When even i get a new Husky for possible rebuild, i always get the bike running 1st, then worry about the looks later. Actually if you can do
a minor cleaning & painting you'd by surprised how cheap you can refinish your bike.

Husky John
 
The Husky four strokes up to 2000 or 2002 that are kick start have a clutch cover that works, and it has the modern style small cover just over the clutch. You can buy them new still.
 
Good info there... no water pump housing on those 4 strokes? I've been looking only at the 2-strokes.

I usually get any bike running first but I took a peek in the exhaust port and saw rust so I went for the teardown. I can still go for the ultra low-buck runner or the creampuff semi-restore. I just don't think there's any room to recover my investment if I put a lot of effort into making it pretty.

Chris
 
The water pump housing on the four strokes up to 2002 was on the head, it ran off the cam shaft instead of the crankshaft. Here is a pictured of a 610 with the cover so you get an idea what it looks like.

sdc10938s.jpg


I think you might need the kickstarter and shifter too, but I know it bolts right on the air cooled two strokes. My friend Craig Hayes has these on all of his Huskies.
 
Build a runner and dont stress about the looks. When your up to arse in alligators and mud, the yellow tank will be a distant memory. Just get the mechanicals right as when you go out riding with a whole heap of punters on newer bikes, they will bag the crap out of you until the first bit of straight road then they will all be trying to catch you! Thats when you dont want to break down!:eek:

my KTM 300 will out drag most 450's so the 500 will hose anything that goes put put put;)
 
Ohmigosh! This is southern california not the jungle! No alligators or mud! lol... I figure I'll build this thing to play in the sand dunes. I am partial to function over form but I find increasingly difficult to pour labor and love into the mechanics while largely ignoring cosmetics. We'll see where it goes, but probably in the direction of a functional Mad Max apocalypse bike.

I have a replacement transmission en route. I need the left side crank seal and I'll be able to stitch the bottom end back together...

Chris
 
if you don't really care about looks I have seen people put a later cover on and block off the water pump hole
 
I see where you are coming from, i would love to spend weeks polishing my Plastics etc for that new shiny look but after a pretty good resto of everything bar the plastics, 1 good ride at the Harrow vinduro and it was a 4 year old bike again.
Frame and pegs paint worn, exhaust and barrel stained with mud, sidecases paint worn off etc etc. But what a great ride and she went like a rocket and did everything it was supposed to (except stop!)

you can check it out on utube, Bagshot vinduro victoria, look for the clown on 1 wheel;)
 
lot's of go but no whoa, scary stuff
try silicone on the plastic and WD-40 on the engine before you ride
 
mud on these surfaces equals sand paper (WD 40 helps when cleaning them ) but t he new truckwashes lift all that stuff off if you put some elbow grease in...again, i just give em a quick hose down and spend all the effort on filters oil changes fixing etc. Never been one t ohave the nicest bike at the start as its never made me any faster. Ive seen guys polishing theie spokes awaiting the start at enduros years ago and then seen them down the track with a derailed chain cos the axle nut was loose! I still have the "its a tool to be used for an outcome" attitude. not much use on presentation! but i sure admire the good looking work that gets done on these older bikes...
 
suprize said:
I see where you are coming from, i would love to spend weeks polishing my Plastics etc for that new shiny look but after a pretty good resto of everything bar the plastics, 1 good ride at the Harrow vinduro and it was a 4 year old bike again.
Frame and pegs paint worn, exhaust and barrel stained with mud, sidecases paint worn off etc etc. But what a great ride and she went like a rocket and did everything it was supposed to (except stop!)

you can check it out on utube, Bagshot vinduro victoria, look for the clown on 1 wheel;)
Click to expand...

I saw you clowning around on one wheel and could see the ear-to-ear grin all the way through your helmet. Having far far too much fun, not allowed!
Makes me sick while I wait for the snow to melt...and my bike to run. Not good for me to watch these videos in the dead of winter.
 
Check out the Castella vinduro 2012 clips that walkabout mick put up, some good footage of the last Vinduro in there... a very fast PE, RM and Cr as well as some nice old iron circulating. Mick does a good job on the digital. the downside was it showed that there is a bunch of fast young blokes that put me out to pasture!!:cry:
 
So if you allready have the Magnisium main cases split and there isn't any Gut Rot below the Crank then you have a keeper. When You supect water in a Husky that has been sitting a long time that is generaly what goes bad. You should really use the Crank pulling tool to put it back togeather but its been done with out it.
 
Was that for me? I have the tools but may have to come up with a left hand threaded nut for my crank puller. Unfortunately my lathe was built long before we cared about metric threading in the US...

Bottom end was nice except the tooth knocked off 5th gear. I have gears and seals coming... need to blast and paint the cases and I can slap the bottom back together. There was just minor moisture in the cylinder from improper storage, cleaned up with a hone. I would like to replace the piston ring but the cost is tough to swallow.

Any thoughts on crankcase alloy? I may end up brazing the damaged sprocket cover boss to avoid the cost and rarity of magnesium filler rod.

Chris
 
I would think that the left hand Nut would be avalable at one of the fasterner supply stores. My first Husky that was sold as ready to race but was ready to rest had a right hand nut that was forced on there! Others on this sight have the corect filler rod, however I don't think your going to get anywhere brazing it. If you have an old Magnisum part laying around it can be cut up into slivers and used for the filler rod.
 
For that piece, I just need to build up a section that's missing. I figured I could pile on some Silicon Bronze, mill it flat then drill & tap the hole again. It's almost not worth the hassle of tracking down mag filler. I have time to think about it... my TIG is out for repairs. I would slice up the primary cover once I have a replacement in my hand. Until that happens, the cracked cover has amnesty

Chris
 
By sproket cover I assume you are talking about the right hand main case. I'm not sure what the diffrence is between a 430 and a 500 maybe they are the same. However the Chain side is the one that gets the most damage so thats the one people are looking for. None the less there might be one avalable. The Clutch cover is one of the most in demand parts on a Husky. They come and go on e-bay in spurts. I got one last year in new condition with buy it now for $29 10 minutes after it was listed. I figured the guy mis listed it he had a lot of other Husky parts at normal prices. The cover is in enough demand that the Aftermarket has steped in and is produceing a replacement. Its avalable from DC Plastics. The Early ones were known for Alignment issues and they got a bad rap. Use the search here to find threads about them. The cover changed in 82 from the early ones, and in about 83 or 84 it got an extra Screw and was made a bit heavyer in the Kickstart area due to You 500 guys breaking them. The replacement cover has the extra screw and is Aluminum and probably weighs twice what the stock one is. If you look real close You can see it in my picture but its not like it looks much diffrent than the stocker. Your 84 500 is a pretty cool Husky to own, as in its a formatible weapon to go after the Maico 490 in vintage racing. Its air cooled twin shock and I think its got drum brakes so it can compete with bikes 2-4 years older. Huskys were not known for there turning and in 84 they changed the steering head angle wich fixed it. There are people who have changed there steering head on early bikes to make it the same as the 84. So what I'm saying is that Your Bike might have some Value when done, and You might want to spend a little more on the Engine to have a good foundation to build from. The rest of the bike can come later, one part at a time.
 
Thanks for the tips! I keep seeing a water cooled big bore bike listed locally that hasn't sold at 750 so that's had me down about the value of mine.

This one will certainly be mechanically solid. I've seen that primary cover at DC but it's not in my current budget... I'll just keep watching Ebay.

My replacement transmission came in today. I ended up swapping both 5th and 6th driving and driven gears, to keep all wear-matched gears. Also my driven shaft was damaged under 5th and 6th... looked like no lube for whatever reason. Good thing I bought a complete trans.

Chris
 
I think the twin shock 84/5 is a special beast as it was an in between model waiting for the single shock to be developed (i heard there was a last minute glitch discovered with the single shox which delayed their introduction til 85 /6..not sure in the truth of that rumour:confused: was some 30 years ago) so i would be looking at the bike as worth looking after.;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top