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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Specifications on 500 rod

Connecting rod is machined and ready for final machine work. Machinist came by and got the bad crank to fit it to and my good one. Lower crankpin diameter is going to be bigger and wider with side washers also.Crank cheeks will be machined to accept wider rod. Lower pin bore on con-rod will have additional lube "grooves" as general opinion that is the reason alot of 500 rods fail. I-we, have alot of time and resources into this project and hope to recoup some of it with fixing others. We are doing this as enthusiasts and hope to be able to do it for a fair price to keep some great iron running! Service or parts will not be on any "bid" sites :thumbsup:
 
How far off was the kx500 rod and pin kit?

You didn't say anything about the roller and cage.

I guess some folks want a new rod kit installed. It seems to me that the crank wheels are pretty simple and making new ones of them to accommodate another rod and pin kit might be the way to go. I do know I got a parts engine once a 250 and it said Yamaha on the rod. My experience has been that when the rod lets go the kick starter gears have recently been replaced most notably the one on the back of the clutch and oil is leaking out from around the bearing at the chain drive, not through the seal. That sprocket bearing isn't the only which just drops in and falls out of the cases. The crank bearings in my experience have always been tight.

Fran
 
Kawasaki connecting rod is 145 mm center/center. Husky 500 is 144.5 mm. So, at least a additonal gasket of 0.5 mm on the base cylinder can do it. Then there are the others dimensions that they are not the same as Husqfleet says, and crank pin and crank modifications are mandatory. This is interesting to know what are the modifications to do, at least, for this Kawaski rod. I think it is impportant not to touch the cylinder with the adaptation, and also, open the door to install always the Husky connecting rod.
 
Husq.fleet;78855 said:
Connecting rod is machined and ready for final machine work. Machinist came by and got the bad crank to fit it to and my good one. Lower crankpin diameter is going to be bigger and wider with side washers also.Crank cheeks will be machined to accept wider rod. Lower pin bore on con-rod will have additional lube "grooves" as general opinion that is the reason alot of 500 rods fail. I-we, have alot of time and resources into this project and hope to recoup some of it with fixing others. We are doing this as enthusiasts and hope to be able to do it for a fair price to keep some great iron running! Service or parts will not be on any "bid" sites :thumbsup:
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Hi, I (We) appreciate what you are doing with this modification. It will be very helpfull to detail exact what to do to adapt that rod. It is a KX500 rod right?
 
highdez1981430cr;81044 said:
I believe Porches ran Mahle pistons.
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Yepper, that would be true. Those are what're in my 3.3L 930 Turbo. What a thought....should I ever melt down one of my Porsche pistons, perhaps I can replace it with a Husqvarna piston:D
 
Huskydoggg;88365 said:
Euro Rods website lists a rod for the '80s XC500. They use part #1619 702 01, but that doesn't match the 1619 829 01 500 rod kit in the Husky parts list. Anyone know about the Euro Rods or their part number?
I didn't check every year, but it appears the same Husky 1619 829 01 rod kit is used in the air and liquid 500 engines.
Steve
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About the time this thread started there was another one stating eurorods was looking for a supplier to make them some more and didn't really have any. Not sure if the 87-88 rod got a different part # it certainly isn't exactly the same but the parts sheet I looked at skipped that number on the second page just a number on the first page pointing at the rod.

Fran
 
Last time I checked with them they were still looking for a supplier but still had them listed on the website.
 
Huskydoggg;89597 said:
I am building a 500 engine for vintage mx, but my best 500 crank has 0.003" radial play on the rod and no new rod kits are available. Will it self destruct with that much wear, or will it survive a season of abuse? Is it a option to just change the lower rod bearing, or is that a really dumb idea? Anyone with experience/knowledge in this area have suggestions? Thanks.
Steve
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Steve, Most of the 500 rod failures were from the poor lubrication design they had from new. I think you can get a new lower pin and bearing from Euro Rods, as you said the rods are N.A. I'm just about done retro fitting a KX 500 rod for my 500. Lubrication is way better on the KX 500 rod. Waiting on a replacement lower pin from Hot Rods as we ground lower for a "slight" press fit so we could balance the assembly. Maybe less vibes? Should have it completed in next two weeks and will post pics and price of same service. In my opinion only, the greatest death of a rod/bearing is too much clearence or detonation. Those two things lead to lubrication being displaced and that split second of no lube is very bad, kinda like washboards on a gravel road, one leads to another and..........Scott
 
Very very interesting thread. I really look forward to more details on the use of the KX 500 rod.

The mentioning of stroking one with an offset pin got my attention as well. I know between stroking and custom big bores some of the other open bikes can be taken way up in size. Seem to remember a CR600, and KX's with a big bump as well. Been a while since I looked into them, but the custom option does get my interest.

So on balancing, not much can be done, or???? As I build up my project bike, I'd love to try some big tricks in the name of performance, longevity, or easier to use. It all equates to more fun in the end.
 
PEZBerq;99098 said:
Whats the latest on the KX500 rod installation?
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Machinist has been swamped with actual paying jobs rather than mine!
He does alot of race work so I'm on the back burner as I'm in no hurry.

I did pick up another 500 engine that is suppose to have a good bottom end and barrel. I will get it looked over next week when it shows up in freight. Scott
 
Geary,
No-just gave up on riding a 500! I'll get it done and make sure it works good then we'll be set up to do it. Scott
 
Scott,
It's not the riding them so much as the starting them. Just come riding with us. My brother Jon will start it, he always starts all my bikes for me. I wonder how long I can play that card. :) Kind of like - dad, how do you gut this deer? - for the 10th time - ROFL
 
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