How To Contact Husaberg Directly

Davo said:

Barshoe said:

You could always order one from KTMParts.com

Click to expand...

They have got everything:
20 0770300015 O-RING 30,00X1,50 NBR 70 $1.66
31 50329050000 VENT INJEKTION HYDR. CLUTCH $48.75

Click to expand...

Well, that's mighty interesting. The Husaberg dealer said they couldn't just order the o-ring and would have to order the entire slave cylinder. You're sure about that part number? I'm going to be at the KTM dealer in the morning to get the mineral oil, and will pick up an o-ring if they have it in stock.

Back to the thread, why in blazes did they decide on an o-ring anyway? O-rings make good seals if they are stationary and squeezed a bit, but this is the first time I've ever seen an o-ring used as a sliding seal. It seems to me that this is a cheap design that produces a single point failure for the whole bike. It's fine, I suppose, if you're a racer with a team of professional mechanics who will replace everything after every race. But for folks who want to take an all-day or multi-day trip into parts unknown, this could be a very serious show stopper. It could even strand you in circumstances (bad weather, falling nighttime temperatures, etc.) that could kill.

I am still in search of a good mailing address for the KTM/Husaberg USA. Has anyone got that handy, please???

I hear you Logjump, but Magura doesn't owe me anything. Husaberg does. I have a new Husaberg that's under warranty. I'll get to Magura through Husaberg. Or I'll fail to make any difference at all. That's entirely possible.

That diagram is used as part of the Clutch diagram (page 9) of the engine spare parts manual. Same level of detail. I agree that it looks like part 20 (0770300015) is indeed the slave cylinder o-ring, however the dealer had a very different interpretation of that drawing. The dealer said that since the slave cylinder is in a box labled 24 - Output Cyl. With Bleeder Screw, it had to be ordered as a unit and no parts within that unit could be ordered separately. I don't believe it for a minute. I should say again that this dealer is a Victory dealer that only bought the KTM/Husaberg franchise within the last several weeks. He said that he employs the mechanic from the previous KTM/Husaberg shop that is factory trained, but given his interpretation of that drawing I very seriously doubt that the mechanic was consulted.

Well, I'm off to a diffent KTM (non-Husaberg) dealer to buy the clutch oil, and I'll certainly bring my engine parts manual and inquire after that o-ring. A BMW rider friend of mine has asked me to pick up two bottles of the clutch oil. His BMW adventue bike uses that same clutch fluid, and it's available at only that one shop in all of north Alabama.

Results of visit to Shoals Outdoor Sports, in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
- They are the only KTM/Husaberg dealer in the northern third of the state. I was wrong, they are indeed a Husaberg as well as KTM dealer.
- They did not have in stock either the KTM or Husaberg brand mineral oil for hydraulic clutch use. I thought that was kind of odd.
- They DID have a good stock of Motorex Hydraulic Fluid 75, a mineral oil product out of Switzerland.
- The Motorex product is NOT labled that it meets the KTM/Husaberg specification of ISO VG(15).
- Cost for the Motorex product is $9.95 for a 100ml (3.5 fl.oz) bottle. (That's $27.36 per gallon, BTW. Good thing the 'Berg doesn't burn it for fuel!) I bought three bottles - two for me, and one for a BMW GS rider friend of mine.
- Shoals Outdoor Sports did NOT have the 0-ring seal (PN 0770300015) for the slave cylinder in stock, but they ordered two for me at a cost of $1.33 each. I advised them that it's a common failure and that for customer service purposes they might consider keeping a few in stock.

Drama? I drove 175 miles to buy mineral oil, and only because my brand new Husaberg would remain a $10,000 paperweight unless I did. That, and I don't know that the fluid I bought meets the manufacturer's spec and I may indeed be voiding the warranty by using it. Further, neither dealers nor on-line sources carry a product that DOES meet the spec. This is the equivalent of buying a Porsche or BMW, immediately blowing out a brake slave cylinder, and nobody not even dealers stock either the parts or fluids to fix it. To some this may be tolerable. It isn't tolerable to me. I expect a new garden hose to not leak, I expect the buttons on a new shirt to not fall off, and I certainly expect a new high-end vehicle to not have design flaws and avoidable single-point falures. Husaberg will be hearing from me.

RESULTS:
I dismounted the slave cylinder and reverse bled it using a bleed syringe. I didn't get much air out of it - only a little. Put the cylinder back on the engine, and had no clutch funtion. Repeated the process, and still got not a hint of clutch function. Have appointment to take bike to dealership next Saturday, round trip of over 225 miles. They may or may not be able to fix the bike while I wait, so I may wind up making the trip twice.

Am pretty sure that the part I ordered (PN 0770300015) is NOT the piston seal, but rather the seal between the slave cylinder body and the engine. Apparently if you want to use KTM/Husaberg parts to fix the slave cylinder, the part you order is the whole slave cylinder.

I will wait to write to KTM/Husaberg USA until after the dealer takes a look at it. I will post those results here.

Thanks, Taffy. I'll keep tht information in the parts manual. At this point I'm not sure whether the problem resides in the slave cylinder or the master cylinder, and I'm going to let the dealer fool with it under warranty.

"Current Antique" - congratulations, you've invented a completely new oxymoron! That takes honest-to-goodness talent, and I applaude you sir!

Bringing you up to date:

I dismounted the clutch slave cylinder and reverse bled it using a big syringe. I got a few bubbles out of it at the master cylinder and thought I'd solved the problem. I put the slave cylinder back on the bike, and tested whether I had clutch function by trying to turn the rear wheel with the bike in first gear and the clutch lever pulled. That was my mistake. I should have fired up and ridden the bike. The rear wheel wouldn't turn with the clutch lever fully pulled, so I thought I had a non-functional clutch.

I took it to the dealer this morning and he found that I had a fully functioning clutch. He fired it up, popped it into gear, wheelied, and rode away. (Makes you feel like a perfect *****.) Evidently you can't turn the rear wheel of these bikes if they're in gear with the clutch lever fully pulled, and apparently you can't even push them that way. That's so weird to me that I never even thought of it. So apparently I solved the problem by reverse bleeding it and didn't know it because my test of clutch function was ignorant. Who knew?

I'm pretty certain that the cause of the problem was this: I had a low-speed get-off, the engine was running and the the rear wheel was still turning, and I pulled the clutch lever while the bike was still horizontal before standing it up. Do not do that. Use the kill switch if you ever find yourself with a horizontal, still running Husaberg.