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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Rebuilding a1985 cr500... got some questions

The access road is called miller lake road and is paved for a bit then turns to dirt then the rubicon is turn off up the trail.
 
Any info on this bike's clutch and maybe answers to why it failed? Before it was a very grabby and jumpy clutch right at the end of the lever pull then suddenly while riding it just went to the bar and I needed to tightened the adjuster all the way out for it to semi work and now the clutch has a very weird feel to it. Some sites say bent clutch push rod or just worn plates. The clutch was super jumpy and grabby before so i think the plates are just shot.
 
the lever on the case operates a cam type item it's probably shot
they are available
if you can't find one next trip home i will dig one out
 
yup, the cam is often worn, sometimes the bore of the engine case the cam rides in is shot. roll the pushrod on a plate of glass to see if its bent, altho unlikely. the basket and its bearing can also wear out. its important on these to also have the play properly adjusted on these on the pushrod as well. need to perform a good visual inspection
 
By the way, what is the recommended lever play for this bike i kinda left it alone but it sometimes needed adjustment. The clutch was always messed up and jumpy sine i got it. But not unrideable . i think my plates are warped and shot also along with the cam. Is the clutches on these bikes supposed to be smooth? Or are they just rough by nature?
 
I would think the clutch is supposed to be smooth. There is competition in the motorcycle business. That cam was a simple half round perhaps up to 84-85 or so and then got a champher. If one welded up the worn spot where the cam meets the push rod and went back to half round it would push the rod better in my opinion. I have purchaced a piece of bearing bronze to sleeve that bore but not sure I will ever get around to doing it. If you study the sheets for the next section, older single cam note a busing was added at the bottom, or at least it looks that way to me. You can replace the seal with a sealed bearing on that shaft which I do but the wear is more at the bottom in my opinion. They added more plates or the stack had more but thinner plates at some point all I hear done for feel. Have you had the springs out and compared them. That has the five spring basket and the most displacement of anything they offered, add to that I believe the cr had a different (turns clutch slower) than the other 500 model like xc so yes perhaps the design is at or past it's practical limit.
 
I have yet to tear into it. I am going to very soon. How do you remove the clutch actuator arm? I removed the setscrew but it wont come out. Is there a certain position it needs to be in?
 
I just tore into it a bit. Pulled water pump cover and shifter in preparation to pull the side cover when I get the chance. The impeller looked decent (I didnt know it was plastic) but the water pump shaft definetly has play so looks like Ill be replacing those bearings. Inside the cover itself there wasnt much corrosion but behind the impeller there is quite a bit of gook. Is it normal for the seal to be somewhat embedded in the case? It looked like it would take some doing to remove. Ill see what the other side looks like when I pull the cover. It also looks like someone added silicon or something right behind the impeller to improve the seal which probably means the seal is failing. Greattt. Also to make matters worse. Husqvarna parts is closed till the 20th so I wont be riding for weeks! How come husqvarna parts always closes for weeks at a time? Lol
 
The clutch actuator arm just pulls up once that set screw thing is taken out. It forces the seal out in the process.

The shift lever is left on the shaft when I take that primary cover off. Same with the kick starter. Those water pump bearings are standard, actually the same as on my lawn mower wheels, the rear brake lever, the roller in front of the rear sprocket are some things that come to mind. One is a double sealed one that you take a seal off of. The silicon may have been added to keep coolant from getting into the primary drive/transmission. There is a weep hole I believe between the two bearings I forget whether it is to let oil or coolant escape, I think the oil is stopped by the seal of the bearing. All of this just from memory and not re examining the parts.
 
the stuff that looks like grey jb weld by the pump is factory..if there is something else, then someone was already in there.
i highly recommend a motion pro clutch cable, they seem to really improve feel and keep things smooth. the pull should not be rough.
i also feel its important to run the original style magura clutch lever, as they have better mechanical advantage and get a "full pull". i also run the rubber boot and keep a bit of belray waterproof grease on the pivot of the lever.
as long as everything is right internally, i run very little play at the end of the actuating rod in top of the case, maybe 3-4mm at the very end. this needs set before the cable is installed.
to remove the actuator, remove the set screw and using a pry bar, pop the whole lever and shaft up out of the case. probably want to put a rag on top of the case to avoid damage. a quick short motion works better than slower.
 
you don't remove the shifter, water pump or kicker on these bikes, just pop off the water hoses and undo the casescrews. keep an eye out for the needle roller in the kicker bearing it sometimes stays on the kicker shaft and then falls off into the box. I don't even drain the oil, just throw it down on its side.

remove the clutch cable from the actuator and then adjust the actuator lever freeplay using the adjuster on the clutch hub. you can wind it in so that the bars lever adjuster is right back in giving lots of adjustment. about 2 - 3mm is the go for the actuating lever freeplay I think. sort this, check how it goes again and if it still plays up, you will need mechanical intervention!
 
I just pulled the water pump to check it and make case removal easier. So I dont remove kicker or shifter? I looked up the kicker mechanism online and figured it out for myself that it doesnt need to be removed but shifted i thought you did. Thanks. Ill update after i pull the cover in a few hours.
 
You have a case puller right ? the cases are a press fit as the crank presses in both sides on main bearings.

Just to note the bearings in the cases are not a press fit. but drop out when you heat the cases and lightly tap in when heated again. I have a small oven as this is gives even and
controlled heat.

You can search here in cafe for examples. Still like a true Husky made tool the best.
 
Even the side transmission cover requires a puller? Im not talking about the center cases and crank removal just the clutch cover.
 
14363783250731842150537.jpg disks are shot good thing I have replacements. All the other components look great. This is my first swede husky as some of you may know and I am amazed at the quality. Each gear is heavy enough to go on a tractor. This thing will never die! Built to last.
 
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