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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

servicing the 1984 250wr??

Bigbill

Bigbill

Husqvarna
Pro Class
What weight and brand fork oil do you guys use?
Since the fork seals are good which I rarely see on used older bikes I'm not touching them. I just want to change the old oil out. How do I find out how many cc' s of oil the forks take?
I'm a 300lb rider so what weight oil? The springs feel great. If there shimmed already there ok.
I don't want it too soft but not too stiff too. I may need advise for a starting point for trial and error. In the past I used any fork oil. Now I want to do it right since I can get advise here.

What weight and brand of tranny oil do you guys use?

The rear shocks also feel ok too. Do you guys adjust the race sag or just leave them. I was going to measure the spring diameter first. I know they offer a 8.5mm & a 9mm wire diameter springs. But the stock ones feel close. To me the bike stays high when I sit on it.

Sorry for the dumb questions but in the past 13 years oils have changed lot. I look to you gurus for advise over asking anyone in the store.

The only bikes were I changed the rear shocks and springs on was the 78 250or & 79 390cr. I installed the longest shocks and strongest springs that progressive had at the time. Both bikes were perfect for me.

No bike setting or suspension change is perfect for me but if it's close I can ride it. The older vintage bikes weren't much adjustable like they are today. I rode Suzuki TS's in the beginning like what suspension? So a close adjustment is ok.
 
I run 20W in original unmodified damper rod forks. If Gold Valves are fitted I run 10W. The fun is experimenting to see what you like best.

The larger gentlemen should ensure the fork springs are correct for your weight without putting heaps of preload on them. Race Tech sell heavier for springs for the 40mm forks. I have also cut the original springs down to increase the spring rate. Work out how short you can go before coil binding will happen and then add some margin of safety.

Oil level of between 5 and 6 inches from the top of the tube with spring out and fork fully compressed will work well usually. Higher oil level gives a firmer air spring rate as the fork bottoms. Again experiment to see what you like for your riding style and tracks.

I run 80W Castrol VMX transmission oil in all my manual gearbox 2 stroke Husky's.

I am amazed a 300lb rider feels the stock 240WR spring rate is good. You should certainly measure static sag and rider sag to check your springs suitability for your weight. I suggest trying rider sag of approx 65 - 70 mm for the 270mm travel WR fork. Only use say 5mm preload max. Static sag should be about 40mm. The rear is 300mm travel and should have say 30mm static sag and 100mm rider sag. You can adjust the preload to get rider sag and the static sag will tell the story if spring too soft ....no static sag means spring is too soft and has heaps of preload.

Over to others in the cafe for their thoughts and experience with the 84 240WR.

Good luck. They are great bikes!
 
The suspension on my 84 250wr feels way better than my 83 250wr did. The suspension doesn't compress much when I sit on it. I think it was reworked already when the bike was purchased. I'd like to change the fork and tranny oil the test ride it.
 
Finally a post where I actually have experience. Maybe I can pay back just a little of all the help I have received.
I ride an 84 wr 250, although it has ohlins not betors. I purchased .50kg springs from racetech and like them alot. I have 20 wt oil and find it too harsh for the first 1/3 of the travel. I am going to try atf next. I had the shocks rebuilt by Drew at WER but not revalved (should have). I bought the yellow heavy duty springs, not stiff enough.
I have been running tractor hydraulic fluid in the trans, it was what the PO who is a diesel mechanics instructor ran. works good but counter shaft seal leaks. BTW I weigh 350.
 
ATF is~ 7.5 weight so after 20 I would go 15 or 10 minimum better yet put a bottle of 15 and 10 together to get 12.5 should be ideal.

gearbox can be either tractor fluid, ATF - F (the borg warner ATF) or Briggs and Stratton 20 wt oil. these are good cheap oils and just change them regularly. (lots)

No need to pay out for special "light weight" 90 gear oils they are nothing special.
 
"Yup I know there is a 500 in my future. I already purchased the compression release for it."

There is a man planning for the future:thumbsup:
 
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