Triumphrat

Motosapiens

Hi everyone, this is my first post at this site. My T140V needs lots of work to get back on the road, and I would appreciate any advice any of you would like to share. The major problems are relatively minor compared to what some of you folks have gone through, but they're still show stoppers.
- instruments need repair or refurbishment.
- broken shaft on left petcock, all parts retained
- frame down tubes crimped by previous owner who installed a "crash bar" or whatever the fool things are called. Cross section is rather "D" shaped now.
- rubber parts are rotting everywhere, instrument nacelles, carb intake boots, etc.
- The bike needs a new ignition system. As a nearly old phart, I have little interest in kicking a bike in the Florida sun until overcome by heat stroke. I would appreciate recommendations to make starting as reliable as possible.
Suggestions?
Thanks in advance
:???:

rosco

FROM ONE OLD PHART TO ANOTHER WHY DON'T YOU LOOK INTO A NEW SCRAMBLER OS T100 OR BONNIE.I'M NOT ONE TO TALK ,I OWN A BSA AND 78 BONNIE BUT HAVE BEEN THINKING OF SELLING ONE FOR ANEW ONE......BEST OF LUCK!!!

johnnypence

i find myself asking too many questions on this forum, so it's only good karma for me to try to help with some of this:

if you know your parts numbers, you can find most of the disposable rubber parts, rotten Lucas electrix, and prolly even your fork tubes on e-bay or elsewhere online. like just do a google search on "triumph" or "lucas" plus the part number -- you'll see. if you don't know your parts number, you can still find it on ebay with a search like "triumph front fender bushing" -- you'll get twelve hits, all saying how rare the parts are, all charging $50 for each $.50 piece of rubber. it's awesome, baby!

i'm lucky enough to have a local guy with a big warehouse full of bulbs and bushings and you'd NEVER find his stuff online, so it can't hurt to find somebody riding an old brit bike and ask where s/he gets parts. my guy still charges an arm and a leg, but at least i don't have to pay shipping too.

as for the starter, about $150/$200 will get you a Boyer Bransden Micro Mk 3. even on my heap, it starts in 3 kicks or less. the unit comes with installation instructions that are as easy to follow as anything else written by british engineers ...

also, somewhere in the past month (or 6 wks) on this forum, there was a specific post about shipping off your smiths gauges for repair: address, procedure, website, etc. shouldn't be too hard to find.

hope that helps, hope i can eventually pay down my karmic debt to this excellent forum.

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Sic semper tyrannis

kanoa

i got my smiths tach restored by mailing it to Nisonger Instruments in Mamaroneck, NY (i called 'em first). they charged me $125.

Motosapiens

Rosco;
If I was to buy a new Triumph, I would probably go for the Thruxton, 675 Daytona, or the Speed Triple, but to me, the appeal of an old Brit bike is the looks and sound of the speed twin engine. Besides, I've got the thing taking up garage space already, and it's been paid for years ago. One thing I found out, keep the thing in storage long enough and it stops leaking!

Johnnypence;
I guess I'll have a look in Ebay for some of the rubber parts, I don't suppose any firm has generated illustrated parts catalogs rather like Moss Motors has done with MG, Healeys and Triumph cars, have they? The problem with vintage British seems that reproduction parts are mostly inferior to NOS and that NOS was often marginal anyway. I would imagine a small cottage industry could be built around superior replacement parts. The Boyer/Bransden unit may be representative of such. I suspect the greater ozone levels prevalent today cause accelerated decomposition of molded rubber products which utilize the original formulations. Better elastomers are available but wouldn't be period correct. I'll take improved durability and dependability over authentic issues any day, but then anything I would build wouldn't be very competitive in a coucours anyway.

By the way, back in the day, the Bonneville would start one kick every time when fully cold or hot, but was a workout if allowed to cool for only 15 to 30 minutes. I'm hoping the electronic ignition may correct that.

Thanks for the replies

GulfCoastDave

My sled is a T-140E & I've had a good experience dealing with Dennis at Northern Eagle (http://northerneagle.ca/). He's very helpful & his web site is eye-friendly & offers lots of odds & ends... including lots of rubber 7 plastic parts. Tell him Dave in FLA sent you... oh yeah... I'm also in Florida... in the wilds of Panama City Beach... where very few people have even seen a British machine (sigh...Hog country I'm afraid).
Cheers!

OzBloke

Motosapiens,
Welcome to the wonderful world of British iron. Your 76 is a little bit different in terms of parts - 76-78 years had a specific parts manual. Things like underslung rear caliper, LHS shift, etc. were first tried by Triumph in the mid-70's

Most Brit parts dealers should have the parts you need, including all rubber. On the petcocks, go for the brass ones. The alloy ones with the plastic/rubber insert tend to break the top thread off in the tank if you tighten half-pound to much.

Most of the guys would recommend the Boyer. Just remember you have a POSITIVE EARTH system on the 76.

Haynes or similar manual for the 750 unit twins is an excellent investment. Parts suppliers can also provide this. Good idea to read it before you start any work.

I've had great success with www.britishspares.com, they're in New Zealand, but they do ship to US, and prices are better than I can get in Aus (even with shipping).

This forum is the bees knees for know-how on old Triumphs. Lot of great guys with untold experience willing to help revive the magic of Meriden.

Pete

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Per Ardua Ad Astra
(Through difficulties to the stars)

johnnypence

dave, thanks for the parts link. some of those prices beat what i could get by a good bit. some are higher, some are the same. it's always nice to have a free market, and sometimes its nice to click a paypal button so your mechanic doesn't know that you were playing around with the work he just did and broke something.

not that i'd ever do that. :hammer:

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Sic semper tyrannis

psds

another place you can try for parts is the Georgia cycle depot up near Atlanta. http://www.georgiacycledepot.com/main.html
they are helpful and have just about everything . He specializes in old triumphs
Peter