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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Post up pictures of your vintage Husqvarna bikes!

I'm sure it would go as fast as you're willing to push it,16/50 gears 6th gear runs nice at 75mph.
But that Bike will NEVER see the dirt or much gravel for that matter.

Plan is to have one 430. That I can keep really nice and actually use every day if I want around town.
So it's got be street legal. If I'm going street, go Street all the way. Even put a Motomox Cush drive sprocket.
I'm going to run it around this summer as is. Then take it to the next level over the winter.

64299705216__96D4B54E-E897-40B9-9F5A-A8969580310B.jpg

Here's my '86 430ae converted to 6 speed and updated plastic. New Rod, Piston, Ports cleaned up on cylinder.
New Vape ignition, Dyno port pipe, V- force reeds, Mikuni TMX. NEW KYB Open chamber forks, Rear Shock updated by Ohlins USA.
It's actually set up for single track, but took it to St Joe State Park (old lead mining chat dump) for it's First run this spring

Runs 70+ mph across the sand flats pretty easy. Not sure top speed has 14/52 gearing

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIWYF7_8XOM


Here's the Single track I normally ride 70 mile loop

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcPm_LqO-vg
 
New guy on the block. Picked up this ‘88 250 XC. Sat in the seller’s cellar for a number of years until he listed it on the local Craigs List. I probably paid too much for it as it “wasn’t running” and “the clutch was stuck”. But it has relatively decent plastics, though not original. Doubt I would ever fully restore it. Would prefer to have a rider than a garage queen.

Got the engine running. Just had a collapsed fuel line. Pulled the clutch plates out, broke them free (they were all stuck together) oiled them up and stuck them back in, but the clutch still drags badly. It has aluminum alloy metal plates, which doesn’t seem right. Order a new clutch pack with steel plates from HuskyParts. Getting a new seat cover from them too. Replacing the noisy Answer silencer with an FMF turbinecore that will hopefully be quieter.

Here it is when I got it home this week

195D8331-4F8F-419C-8486-A0ACA64EF489.jpeg
 
New guy on the block. Picked up this ‘88 250 XC. Sat in the seller’s cellar for a number of years until he listed it on the local Craigs List. I probably paid too much for it as it “wasn’t running” and “the clutch was stuck”. But it has relatively decent plastics, though not original. Doubt I would ever fully restore it. Would prefer to have a rider than a garage queen.

Got the engine running. Just had a collapsed fuel line. Pulled the clutch plates out, broke them free (they were all stuck together) oiled them up and stuck them back in, but the clutch still drags badly. It has aluminum alloy metal plates, which doesn’t seem right. Order a new clutch pack with steel plates from HuskyParts. Getting a new seat cover from them too. Replacing the noisy Answer silencer with an FMF turbinecore that will hopefully be quieter.

Here it is when I got it home this week


Nice bike Really clean for it's age!

First thing is save a lot of time/trouble and get a Owners Manual and a Service Manual use the 1987 Workshop Manual

https://hva-factory.com/catalogue

The internal (clutch pack) adjustment is in the center of the pressure plate is important and needs to be done first.
Also check cable for stretching and then adjust accordingly.



I wouldn't bother with a new clutch yet. These things are know for sticky clutches if they sit awhile.
My 88 250 and 87 430 both stick a little until I warm them up. Use a good motorcycle oil that has the additives for clutch plates.
 
New guy on the block. Picked up this ‘88 250 XC. Sat in the seller’s cellar for a number of years until he listed it on the local Craigs List. I probably paid too much for it as it “wasn’t running” and “the clutch was stuck”. But it has relatively decent plastics, though not original. Doubt I would ever fully restore it. Would prefer to have a rider than a garage queen.

Got the engine running. Just had a collapsed fuel line. Pulled the clutch plates out, broke them free (they were all stuck together) oiled them up and stuck them back in, but the clutch still drags badly. It has aluminum alloy metal plates, which doesn’t seem right. Order a new clutch pack with steel plates from HuskyParts. Getting a new seat cover from them too. Replacing the noisy Answer silencer with an FMF turbinecore that will hopefully be quieter.

Here it is when I got it home this week

195D8331-4F8F-419C-8486-A0ACA64EF489.jpeg


they actually had aluminum plates OEM
let me know how the Turbinecore works, also the part number
 
Nice bike Really clean for it's age!

First thing is save a lot of time/trouble and get a Owners Manual and a Service Manual use the 1987 Workshop Manual

https://hva-factory.com/catalogue

The internal (clutch pack) adjustment is in the center of the pressure plate is important and needs to be done first.
Also check cable for stretching and then adjust accordingly.



I wouldn't bother with a new clutch yet. These things are know for sticky clutches if they sit awhile.
My 88 250 and 87 430 both stick a little until I warm them up. Use a good motorcycle oil that has the additives for clutch plates.
Thanks Jim,

Yes, scouted out the manuals (owners, 2-stroke engine, and parts manuals) and printed them off on my laser printer (double sided) and placed them into a binder.

I saw in the manual how the center adjuster works. It was adjusted wrong when I got it, with way too much play in the clutch arm. Adjusted it down to about 2mm play, which gives the clutch pack more room when the lever is pulled in.

Hmmm, too late on the new clutch. I already ordered the kit from HusqvarnaParts.com along with a new seat cover. I’ll keep the old plates in an oil bath. Maybe they will be worth trying to use in the future.
 
they actually had aluminum plates OEM
let me know how the Turbinecore works, also the part number

First I’ve ever seen that were alloy, and I’ve worked on a lot of bikes over the years. Oh well, hopefully the new clutch pack works better.

Turbinecore went on with some finageling. Got the 1 1/4” diameter inlet one from Revzilla (best price I could find)
The inside diameter of the end of the expansion chamber is about the same diameter as the Turbinecore. I used a short piece of the extension pipe as an adapter, cut a couple of slots in the side that goes into the chamber end, and then hammered it in tight, then slipped the new spark arrester on the other side with the adapter piece. I might try to tack weld the end going into the chamber end if it comes loose with vibration.

It’s not as quiet as I was hoping, but a lot of the noise emanates from other than the exhaust tip. These things aren’t particularly stealthy.
 
Your plastics appear to be original, why do you think they are aftermarket?

The tank wing shrouds look to be original. The two fenders are brand new, and appear to be Acerbis, I think. And of course the XC didn’t come with a headlight.

The rear fender is a custom cut affair and is bolted to the seat, so it all comes off together. Not bad, really. Makes getting the seat and rear fender easy to remove quickly, just two bolts.
 
Aluminum clutch plates were very common on these motors. I prefer steel, and swap them out any time I find aluminum. While I haven't really had a 'problem' with the aluminum plates, they do contaminate the fluid more quickly. The idea of aluminum powder "lubricating" a filter-less transmission doesn't make me happy.

This many years out, whenever getting new plates, it's a good idea to replace with steel.
 
First I’ve ever seen that were alloy, and I’ve worked on a lot of bikes over the years. Oh well, hopefully the new clutch pack works better.

Turbinecore went on with some finageling. Got the 1 1/4” diameter inlet one from Revzilla (best price I could find)
The inside diameter of the end of the expansion chamber is about the same diameter as the Turbinecore. I used a short piece of the extension pipe as an adapter, cut a couple of slots in the side that goes into the chamber end, and then hammered it in tight, then slipped the new spark arrester on the other side with the adapter piece. I might try to tack weld the end going into the chamber end if it comes loose with vibration.

It’s not as quiet as I was hoping, but a lot of the noise emanates from other than the exhaust tip. These things aren’t particularly stealthy.

Quick follow-up: the clutch pack I ordered from Husqvarnaparts.com appears to be made by Barnett. The metal plates are definitely steel, and the friction plates appear quite different, with more space between the friction pads. I installed them with the Torco MTL-L as recommended. The clutch pack is significantly thicker (about 2mm) overall. Adjusted the thrust rod in the center of the clutch. I’m optimistic that this clutch will work better.
 
Here's my new ( to me yesterday ) 1971 250 MI.

I'm planning on get it registered for the road in the UK, so sent off to the Husqvarna museum in Sweden with the engine and frame details. The certificate has come back that it was delivered to Los Angeles in 1971. I'm now wondering how this little 50 year old bike made a trip from Sweden to LA in 1971, and 50 years later ends up in my hands in Surrey, England.

It must have done a competition or two over there. Maybe a Baha ? Guess I'll never know, but certainly it's made me more invested in the old girl, so I'll be gentler with the spanners.

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My 1971 MI chassis
 

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