Flying Trash Can
Sustaining Member
Stroker Ace came over and helped me take everything apart (except the motor) and service the entire bike.
I'm going to dump the pics in here first then come back later and add some written narrative with as many details as I can remember. SA, if I'm forgetting anything please chime in. I'd like to put in as many details as possible for our fellow Husqvarna brothers.
My Italian Goddess got slammed pretty hard while performing a Flying W in Mexico last summer. The bars, left radiator, passenger pegs, both rims and a couple of bolts on the sub-frame got bent bad enough to where I needed to replace them, everything except the radiator and rims. (insert smile here)
Fortunately Dr. George was on the scene when this all happened. He gave me a menthol cigarette, tied up my shoulder, then put my bike back together and made her run. Unfortunately I was in no shape to keep going so Mike K rode her back to the hotel while Gordon drove me back in the chase truck.
For those of you heading out to the San Felipe ride be advised you will be in good company.
I've read about the problems some of the smaller model Husqvarnas' are having with the Toyo radiators but in my experience it took a beating pretty good. Mine was bent down approximately 1'' and got bent back into position with no ill effects. That includes tweaking the mounting brackets for the radiator shroud and guard.
The passenger pegs go removed and thrown in a box and I found some metric bolts from a local auto parts store for the sub-frame. I took the rims to a guy who owned Klemm Cycle Repair in Riverside CA. He did a fantastic job on them and had em ready by the end of the day.
I decided that the custom made FTC saddle had to go as well.
I put a Bridgestone M604 on the back and matching tire on the front. These new tires are a huge change from the stock Karoo's. They are much harder to break loose in corners.. or anywhere else for that matter and they make the bike turn in much more quickly. All most too quick for me but then I got used to them and liked the way they worked. I also noticed that they lock up less when braking in the dirt. It's like they dig in better and stop you sooner. They also produce less head shake in the deep soft sand.
If you're going to do 80% dirt 20% asphalt then I recommend them. They're not DOT but in the dirt who cares. If you're doing 80% asphalt 20% dirt then stick with the Karoo's.
We disassembled everything that needed grease, then cleaned and re-greased everything with "Fuchs" Silkolene Synthetic grease. Here is a shot of Sroker Ace working on the swing arm and linkage.
There was plenty of grease in there from the factory and it seemed like some good stuff but, there was no way to tell what the guys over in Italy used, synthetic or dinosaur, so we thoroughly cleaned everything off and repacked it with Fuchs.
We also checked the steering head and found it to be well greased too.
The night before........
Here is the bike without the swing arm. After everything got re-packed we used a torque wrench to put it all back together and moved on the front end.
The steering head was loose. I don’t think there was a problem with the initial installation, I think it just shook loose.
Whatever the reason might be, I'm glad we caught it when we did. It was a real bear getting that thing out of the frame and would have been even harder had it gone on unnoticed much longer.
Same thing goes for the shift leaver and counter sprocket. They were loose as well. The counter sprocket got replaced with some French made thing and that fixed that problem. The shift lever was just a matter of tightening the bolt. My guess is that these would had stripped out had they not been caught in time.
We change the fork oil with Spectro 6.5. The forks seemed to bind up when we put them back on so we called doctor George and were told that the cartridge may have gotten an air bubble trapped in them so we pulled the top off, stroked the damn things then put them back together. I don't see why but that seemed to fix the problem.
With everything out of the way it was easy to do the valves. That worked out well so we put a pair of up-tite gaskets on the covers and moved on.
I also decided to replace all the fuel lines and vent lines and Stroker Ace performed some surgery on a bolt I stripped in the air-box. The fuel tank was missing the nipple for the vent line so I ordered one of those and installed it too.
We took off the carb and found no dirt inside. Seeing that it was best to keep it that way an up-tite filter as installed and everything got put back together.
Total Hours in the Garage: 16-20. More if you consider the fact that it was two guys doing this.
She started up on the first try and ran great the next day during a 100 mile run in the desert.
Baja here I come!
Below is a list of all the stuff I bought and installed:
Radiator Plastic, (I'll order some custom graphics later.)
Pro Taper Bars, SE ATV Mid Black, (The stock cable worked fine on this.)
Baja Designs Light, (w/a PIAA 65/55 watt blue/white bulb.) (This was a giant improvement over stock.)
Oil and Filter, (You want to keep things clean in there.)
RK Racing Chain, (Way better then the stock O-ring chain.)
TE 510 Side Mirrors,(Yea baby)
Spectro 6.5 Fork Oil For Cartridge Forks,(Good luck trying to find this stuff)
Bridgestone M604's,( I like these but I'm going to try those Z tires from Oz next time.)
EE Turn Signals,(Again much better then stock.)
OPI Half Waffle Grips, (Real close to the OEM's.)
Up-tite Carb Filter. (Call George)
New Fuel Lines and Vent Lines. (Better safe than sorry.)
Rubber Baby Air Filter Bumpers. (For some reason there were a few missing.)
Breather Hose Union. (Just because I could.)
Clutch Lever. (Just to make S/A happy.)
Bolts, Washers, O-Rings and what have you.
I'm going to dump the pics in here first then come back later and add some written narrative with as many details as I can remember. SA, if I'm forgetting anything please chime in. I'd like to put in as many details as possible for our fellow Husqvarna brothers.
My Italian Goddess got slammed pretty hard while performing a Flying W in Mexico last summer. The bars, left radiator, passenger pegs, both rims and a couple of bolts on the sub-frame got bent bad enough to where I needed to replace them, everything except the radiator and rims. (insert smile here)
Fortunately Dr. George was on the scene when this all happened. He gave me a menthol cigarette, tied up my shoulder, then put my bike back together and made her run. Unfortunately I was in no shape to keep going so Mike K rode her back to the hotel while Gordon drove me back in the chase truck.
For those of you heading out to the San Felipe ride be advised you will be in good company.
I've read about the problems some of the smaller model Husqvarnas' are having with the Toyo radiators but in my experience it took a beating pretty good. Mine was bent down approximately 1'' and got bent back into position with no ill effects. That includes tweaking the mounting brackets for the radiator shroud and guard.
The passenger pegs go removed and thrown in a box and I found some metric bolts from a local auto parts store for the sub-frame. I took the rims to a guy who owned Klemm Cycle Repair in Riverside CA. He did a fantastic job on them and had em ready by the end of the day.
I decided that the custom made FTC saddle had to go as well.
I put a Bridgestone M604 on the back and matching tire on the front. These new tires are a huge change from the stock Karoo's. They are much harder to break loose in corners.. or anywhere else for that matter and they make the bike turn in much more quickly. All most too quick for me but then I got used to them and liked the way they worked. I also noticed that they lock up less when braking in the dirt. It's like they dig in better and stop you sooner. They also produce less head shake in the deep soft sand.
If you're going to do 80% dirt 20% asphalt then I recommend them. They're not DOT but in the dirt who cares. If you're doing 80% asphalt 20% dirt then stick with the Karoo's.
We disassembled everything that needed grease, then cleaned and re-greased everything with "Fuchs" Silkolene Synthetic grease. Here is a shot of Sroker Ace working on the swing arm and linkage.
There was plenty of grease in there from the factory and it seemed like some good stuff but, there was no way to tell what the guys over in Italy used, synthetic or dinosaur, so we thoroughly cleaned everything off and repacked it with Fuchs.
We also checked the steering head and found it to be well greased too.
The night before........
Here is the bike without the swing arm. After everything got re-packed we used a torque wrench to put it all back together and moved on the front end.
The steering head was loose. I don’t think there was a problem with the initial installation, I think it just shook loose.
Whatever the reason might be, I'm glad we caught it when we did. It was a real bear getting that thing out of the frame and would have been even harder had it gone on unnoticed much longer.
Same thing goes for the shift leaver and counter sprocket. They were loose as well. The counter sprocket got replaced with some French made thing and that fixed that problem. The shift lever was just a matter of tightening the bolt. My guess is that these would had stripped out had they not been caught in time.
We change the fork oil with Spectro 6.5. The forks seemed to bind up when we put them back on so we called doctor George and were told that the cartridge may have gotten an air bubble trapped in them so we pulled the top off, stroked the damn things then put them back together. I don't see why but that seemed to fix the problem.
With everything out of the way it was easy to do the valves. That worked out well so we put a pair of up-tite gaskets on the covers and moved on.
I also decided to replace all the fuel lines and vent lines and Stroker Ace performed some surgery on a bolt I stripped in the air-box. The fuel tank was missing the nipple for the vent line so I ordered one of those and installed it too.
We took off the carb and found no dirt inside. Seeing that it was best to keep it that way an up-tite filter as installed and everything got put back together.
Total Hours in the Garage: 16-20. More if you consider the fact that it was two guys doing this.
She started up on the first try and ran great the next day during a 100 mile run in the desert.
Baja here I come!
Below is a list of all the stuff I bought and installed:
Radiator Plastic, (I'll order some custom graphics later.)
Pro Taper Bars, SE ATV Mid Black, (The stock cable worked fine on this.)
Baja Designs Light, (w/a PIAA 65/55 watt blue/white bulb.) (This was a giant improvement over stock.)
Oil and Filter, (You want to keep things clean in there.)
RK Racing Chain, (Way better then the stock O-ring chain.)
TE 510 Side Mirrors,(Yea baby)
Spectro 6.5 Fork Oil For Cartridge Forks,(Good luck trying to find this stuff)
Bridgestone M604's,( I like these but I'm going to try those Z tires from Oz next time.)
EE Turn Signals,(Again much better then stock.)
OPI Half Waffle Grips, (Real close to the OEM's.)
Up-tite Carb Filter. (Call George)
New Fuel Lines and Vent Lines. (Better safe than sorry.)
Rubber Baby Air Filter Bumpers. (For some reason there were a few missing.)
Breather Hose Union. (Just because I could.)
Clutch Lever. (Just to make S/A happy.)
Bolts, Washers, O-Rings and what have you.
Hat's off to both of you. Good luck @ Baja!!!
