Husky Pete and I spent a great afternoon at Jonesys place disecting his two 405 Sprite motors and comparing the innards to the 400 Husky Pete had kindly brought along. The first surprise upon pulling the first engine apart was to discover that it was actually a rare Sprite 250 engine. Alan was initially a bit peeved as he'd bought the engine from noted eBay wheeler and dealer 'Mobility Impared Al' as a 405. Eventually Alan realised that he could now build a matching set of American Eagles, A 250 AND 405 so he's a happy lad now.
The Husqvarna (L) and Sprite. Note differences in castings.The common misconception is that the Sprite engine is a direct ripoff of the Husky but we've found that there are enough notable differences to possibly defy any patent litigation. The Sprite sports a centre port exhaust as opposed to the Huskys side port. The Sprite has bigger transfer ports, a different shaped exhaust port and two boost ports to the Husqvarnas none. The Sprite also appears to have a stronger polished, knife edged rod and nice castings.
The Sprite engine appears to have all of the traits that killed the British industry. The beautiful castings and port design are let down by a less than satisfactory transmission and poor quality control. Stay tuned while we build a proper competitive Sprite using a Husky trans and PVL ignition. Jonesy doesn't have a 250 racer right now so over the next few weeks Husky Pete will build a pair of race Alron replicas (or American Eagles, Al has still to decide). The frame is better and lighter than a Husky and the forks and wheels are as good as you'll get so I reckon this'll be a great project.
