Triumph T120

I needed to make a tool in order to remove the bearing covers from the front wheel. But it didn't work! To release the axle and hence get access to the bearings you need to turn the cover (according to the manual this is a clockwise to loosen thread), and you turn it using the 4 small holes in the hub as shown on the photo. Well I've heated it, oiled it to death and it still won't give way! They don't teach about this in school!

BTW I got my results of my exams and I am far too modest to post them publically but suffice to say I passed with flying colours! Next step to opening my own workshop is to start going through the French admin!

Triumph T120

Got my TIG welder back yesterday so I spent this morning making up a couple of brackets that were broken and rewelding a weld that had cracked (piccies 3&4). The frame is now ready to be sand blasted and epoxied. I have borrowed the neighbours compressor to get my sand blaster going but it's just not powerful enough, I need a constant 5 bar feed, hey ho will have to invest!

Triumph throttle body balancing, BMWR850R and Triumph

I had the tank off the Daytona in to change the fuel sender so I thought I'd have another go at balancing the throttle bodies. I had bought some T pieces as the Daytona has air bleed screws which are adjusted at idle so you need to have the IAVC hoses hooked up at the same time as the vacuum gauges. I reset the TPS and setup TuneEcu on the PC so that I could set the idle to between 30-34 steps. The adjustment went OK after I noticed that the hoses for 2 and 3 had been reversed! , With the tank of I also spliced in my USB charger to the front loom. I tried to use what looked like an accessory plug, but I couldn't find 12v so I gave up and used the left hand low beam wire.

Philippe's BMW came in with what I thought was charging issues, but which I am now sure is a starter motor issue! It seems to just suck all power out of the battery as soon as you action the button. In fact I had started troubleshooting the alternator, and couldn't find much wrong so after thinking again came to the conclusion of looking at the starter motor. It's a Valeo car Unit, so not expensive so an eBay order has been made!

Finally got the neighbours compressor and connected up the sandblaster to have a go at the Triumph tank and frame, unfortunately the compressor was not really able to keep up so will have to have another go tomorrow. My welder turned up again today so hopefully I will be able to weld up the bracketry on the frame!

Triumph T120 and counting

Olivier just gave me the registration document and it's a T120, registered in January 1974, this was just at the period when the Triumph employees went on strike (sit in) and virtually zero motorcycles were produced in 1974, so this one is probably a US export version from 1973, and finally bought back through Switzerland where Olivier purchased it.

Apparently there are no colour codes as such for Triumph paint, and differences in design point to the liberty of each painter to change (within reason) the different designs of paint, we have decided to go with the Cherokee red paint and cold white scallops. As there are no codes we will try and match the colours from photos and to be honest as long as the job is a good one I don't care (and neither does my customer). The engine is out now exit left side, although it will be a challenge to get it back in without scratching something. I will probably protect the frame rails with tube insulation or something similar.

The frame has a couple of broken brackets which I will need to weld before it goes off to get painted, unfortunately the welder just broke so I am waiting for it to come back. I am going to setup the sand blaster in the kids house in the garden to blast the tank and frame in preparation.

Triumph T140

Getting there! The rear wheel, chain guard, and swinging arm came off today, with an ever increasing lists of parts to buy and the pile of stuff to get stove enamelled is getting bigger aswell.

Plastic welding Ducati

One of the inner fairing covers on the 888 was cracked so having had some success with superglue I whipped it off, but unfortunately there were bits missing so I thought I would have a go at plastic welding with a tie wrap and soldering iron (look it up on YouTube!). It actually works pretty well as long as you melt the base aswell as the tie wrap, I built up a reasonable thickness of plastic and then ground it down with the Dremel. The result is not perfect, although maybe spending more time with fine grain emery would help, but it does become functional again.
I was also visited by a 750ss at the weekend a lovely bike that has been lovingly restored.

100k Service Daytona

So back from Paris after 1100 kms aller retour! Bike seems to be surging a little and pinking quite a lot, hopefully finishing the service will resolve this.

So yesterday, tank off, airbox off, valve cover off, to check the valves, all perfect! I suppose  I ought to happy otherwise it's cams out, but you know a lot of work for nothing but peace of mind! Still good to know that after 100K kms, no valve clearances have moved - I have never changed a shim on this bike!

I spent about an hour cleaning up the rubber gasket and cover and then liberal use of silicon sealer and on it goes, and believe it or not it didn't leak!
The trick is to stick the rubber gasket to the cover and then put in the left side first and then the RHS, can't say I didn't get sealant everywhere but it eventually went on.

New plugs and then to balance the throttle bodies, now I am sure I have done this before, but I couldn't find my post so had to read the book a bit.

Basically you disconnect the air pipes from the IACV (little device that controls air input during startup and then control idle) - you are supposed to put in T pieces so you can connect the vacuum gauges and IACV at the same time, but I stuck the vacuum hoses directly in the pipes effectively disabling the IACV.

To start the bike you need to hold a steady (just open throttle) and not let it drop as the idle is no longer controlled. The balance is then done on each cylinder (no reference) with a type of air screw between each throttle body. They don't seem to have any impact on the butterfly valves.... hmmm.... As a consequence it didn't seem to have any impact on the vacuum at all whether I shifted clockwise or anti clockwise. This can not be right!

After much fiddling I think I need to buy some T pieces and try again, although I have no recollection of doing this in the past.....

Anyway, new filter and then back together and all is well. I still have a problem with the fuel level sender so I think the tank will be off again soon, as I will need to find a solution to that - the bodges on the Triumph forum don't appear to have worked!

amazing what you can do with a mobile phone take pictures where you eyes can not see!

Throttle balancing screws

Nothing better than a ice cream stick to clean old silicon out of the cover

Valves all good!