Wanted, clutch basket 1988 WR400 six spring clutch

[Tony.Brown]

As the heading says, I need a clutch basket for my 1988 WR400 with the big clutch, does anyone have a spare one they would sell?
I am located in South East NSW but happy to pay freight, would rather buy locally than overseas.
Tony.

[Husky500evo]

Hi Tony. Do you have the 3 digit number (eg. 272 or 379) that is stamped into the back of the original basket ? I have a box of Husky clutch baskets, but most of them have the gear on the back ( that drives the kickstart idler gear) feathered.  This is caused by not regularly changing the needle roller bearing , that the idler gear runs on. 

[Tony.Brown]

That sound promising Husky500evo, I haven't removed it yet, but I will do that today and get back to you.
Tony.

[Tony.Brown]

It has 403 stamped on it, and a pic explaining why I need it, real shame too since it looks almost brand new!

[Husky500evo]

There are a couple of different styles of clutch baskets, as well as the ones to suit different models with different numbers of teeth on the ring gear. Some have an aluminium basket, bolted to a steel backing plate that has the ring gear and the kickstart driven gear on it. The other style is completely made out of steel. On the bigger capacity bikes, the kickstart driven gear has bigger/stronger teeth.  I assumed that you clutch basket had the kickstart driven gear worn out on the back of the basket, but I just noticed your latest post as I was typing this. I will have a look at what I have got. 

[Tony.Brown]

Thanks, I appreciate your help. Mine is a completely steel clutch basket, with 18 teeth on the kickstarter gear and 76 on the ring gear.
The more I look at mine the more pissed off I get, it literally looks brand new apart from the obvious damage, nothing I can do now except find another one.
I don't know what happened, it was like that when I got it, looks like the kickstarter knuckle has made contact but it would need to have a kickback event to break the case to allow it to do that.

[Husky500evo]

I had a look at 6  Husky clutch baskets that I had in a box and none had the 403 number like yours. That is not to say that they can't be interchangeable. You may have to use a matching primary drive gear and maybe also the kickstart idler gear to suit the basket. This will change your primary drive ratio though. I have done this before , by fitting a 510 fourstroke clutch basket and primary gear to a CR500 motor and just changed the final drive gearing to suit. You may have to change your primary drive gear anyway, if it looks anything like your clutch basket ring-gear. I will count the teeth on the clutch baskets that I have, to see if any of them match yours. I should also have a few more clutch baskets tucked away in my shed somewhere.

[Tony.Brown]

Hi husky500evo, just counting the teeth of both gears on the 426 basket, it appears the same in that respect, not sure if there any other differences though. Do you know what it came from?
Tony.

[bigk]

I fitted a clutch, primary drive & kick start gear  from a TE510 to a 430 engine, no problems. The kick start ratio was actually better and the bike was easier start with the 4T clutch set up.
K

[Husky500evo]

         Sorry about the slow reply, Tony. I have been away for a few days . I was going to count the teeth on those clutch baskets, but you have done it for me. I am not sure what the 426 numbered basket came from , but I think maybe an '85 or '86 WR400. As you can see from the picture , the kickstart driven gear has been worn by a sloppy idler gear and there is also some minor marks on the ring-gear. Probably still useable, as the kickstart gear only carries load when your trying to start the bike. You are welcome to this basket if you want to just pay the postage, as I won't be using it. I am going to the Conondale Classic and can bring it with me, if by chance you were also going. I don't know if it would be worth trying to cut off the damaged gear and weld on the good one from your old basket. Probably easier to find a good basket. I might PM you the number of a guy with a lot of old Husky stuff, that could be worth trying.
         Big K, I also found my '84 CR500 worked better and started easier with the TE510 clutch basket fitted. It gave me better options with gearing, with a bigger countershaft sprocket and gave more revolutions of the motor with the stroke of the kickstart lever. A bit more resistance when kicking the bike over, but shouldn't be a problem if a decompresser is fitted to the cylinder head.     

[Tony.Brown]

Yeah, as you mentioned in your first post, that gear does take a hiding if the idler is loose.

I am trying to buy a new one from a german site I found that lists them for 85 euros but they only freight to EU countries so I am organising a freight forwarder in Germany to accept and ship to me.

I am still waiting to hear from them to confirm that they really do have it in stock.

Thanks for the kind offer, and if I am unable to source one, I may have to accept to get me going because as you said, it is only used for starting and I may be able to have the gear ground a little.

BigK, do you remember which year models your 430 and the 510 clutch came from?

[Tony.Brown]

Well our friends from Deutschland are not answering my constant emails, so I guess I can take that as a no.
 Bigk, do you remember the year of the 510 clutch that you used and the year of your 430?
I have been scouring parts lists and have discovered the following:
The 250's use the same idler gear, pressure plate, clutch plates , but a different primary gear and hub according to parts manuals. This looks good for the sake of interchangeability between the models, but also poses more questions.

By scouring more parts lists, I have determined that the primary drive gear (161107501) and idler gear (161127501) between the clutch basket and kickstarter are the same part number as a 1990 510 TE/TC.
This indicates to me that the number of teeth on the 510 clutch basket is the same as my '88 400WR.

Can anyone tell me if the 510 clutch will fit in a 400? The only thing that may be an issue is the 510 basket runs on a bush and the 400 runs on a needle roller, but may be the same internal diameter?

[Husky500evo]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CLUTCH-BASKET-1981-81-HUSQVARNA-HUSKY-430-CR-CR430-430CR-/161453555124?hash=item259761bdb4&vxp=mtr
Hi Tony. Maybe this 430 clutch basket on ebay might be worth a look. I haven't counted the number of teeth, but there is a few different pictures showing the gears. Although you say that the part number for the 250 idler gear is the same, I have found that the 250 baskets have much smaller tooth pitch size on the kickstart driven gear and idler gear.

[Tony.Brown]

Thanks Mark, I have spent some time checking the parts catalogues and it is surprising how many parts are common to almost all the liquid cooled two strokes.
Luckily the '88 parts book shows 125-500 all together so the comparisons are fairly straight forward.

I have discovered that I can fit any complete 5 spring 400/430/500 clutch from '84 to '89 I believe, but some will require the primary gear, idler gear and kick starter gear, which will mean re-gearing the sprocket/s if the primary ratio is changed.
Provided the complete clutch is used, it will work since the clutch plate diameter on the 5 spring clutch is around 115mm and the 6 spring is over 130mm, so it has bigger plates etc.

Then there is the possibility of the 510 clutch, but I'm not sure if BigK's 430 is air cooled or water cooled.

I believe that the early air cooled engines are different to the liquid cooled where the clutch is concerned, but I am yet to confirm that.
That could mean some more parts lists to study!

[Tony.Brown]

Thank you all who offered their help, advice and suggestions, I have sourced a complete clutch, I just have to wait for it to arrive and fit it so that I can ride this old girl!
Thanks, Tony.