Hi,
My Dad pieced it together in the early 80's, been sitting since '86 and I've been bringing it back. I've never done anything like this and I'm learning as I go. Heck I've never even ridden a motorcycle except for a few feet. So, be easy on me,
We are being easy on you. We all did dumb things when we started out, but most of us did dumb things when/because there wasn't anything like internet, laptops and 'phones that connected to it or anyone to ask.
But,
because you're a newbie, you need to understand the potential seriousness here, not only because of the non-working front suspension but, if you continue to force things that shouldn't be forced, you
will do some very expensive damage. :cry Logically, the presence of an old speedo. drive on the rear wheel, nothing to drive one on the front wheel and, having fitted a drive on the front axle, that the wheel wouldn't go back between the fork sliders without a lot of heaving and grunting should've made you stop and think, "Hmmm ... maybe I'll just ask ...". Consider this broken speedo. drive a cheap lesson?
The rear speedo drive is gutted and just acting as a spacer.
Luckily for us, old Triumphs are popular today and there are a lot of people making new spares for 'em, plus a relatively big market in second-hand spares.
First thing here you should know is you can look up parts and assemblies in parts catalogues, and these are online; the site I use most is
http://vintagebikemagazine.com/links/parts-books/.
Second thing to always bear in mind is these catalogues were neither assembly instructions - so how parts appear isn't always how they go together in real life - nor are they infallible - e.g. a number might be misprinted or a part might not appear at all;
the latter's the case for the speedo. drive in the '65 650 parts book -
650 1965 NO3 99-0822. Generally, the format of any book/.pdf file is the same - engine parts first, cycle parts start about half-way in - frame followed by swinging arm, forks, wheels, tanks, etc. - with carbs. and speedo./tacho. at the end, because these latter parts were supplied originally by independent companies (Amal for carbs., Smiths for speedo./tacho.). In the '65 650 book, the speedo. drive doesn't appear either on the rear wheel pages (catalogue pages 50/51) or on the speedo./tacho. pages (76/77).
However, as the saying goes, using my skill and judgement, :whistle I tried the
'65 500 parts book, and speedo. drive, drive ring and spacer are all shown/listed on the rear wheel pages (48/49). :thumb
For the forks and front wheel, on the parts catalogues index page, scroll on down to "Tri T140-Unit" and click on "T140 1973 99-0980", the book/.pdf is in the same format so, again, forks and front wheel are about half-way down.
Thanks to the aforementioned internet, laptops and 'phones, it's relatively easy to find out if a part is available and who has it - enter "triumph " followed by the modern part number into your preferred internet search engine and follow the links.
However, slightly complicating this for a newbie is Triumph parts books before 1973 don't show the modern part number ... Using the '65 500 parts book speedo. gearbox part number ("D373") as an example, the '73-on equivalent of "D" is "60-" and any number with less than four figures is made up with leading zeros - "373" becomes "0373".
So, to find who on the 'net has a Triumph/Smiths speedo. drive to fit your bike's rear wheel, enter "triumph 60-0373" into your preferred internet search engine. You'll see both new and second-hand speedo. drives are available.
But the next vexing problem is parts quality ...
Although I wrote above, "old Triumphs are popular today and there are a lot of people making new spares for 'em", no-one (especially not Stinkley
) polices the quality:-
. For this reason, I haven't bought new spares from eBay or at a swapmeet in a lo-oo-on-ng time, but I've been messing about with these old heaps for forty years so I have go-to dealers and ones I avoid.
. If you can trust "The motorcycle shop I buy parts from is the same place my Dad worked at" not to just go on the internet, buy something from Fleabay and mark it up before selling it to you, :thumb
. Otoh, if they were the ones who advised you to squeeze a Hardly speedo. drive on to the front axle, maybe consider looking around for someone else to trust ... :bluduh
have a front chrome front mud guard, in the future it'll need repairing and re-chromed.
Because of concerns about the environment, chroming is becoming difficult and expensive in First World countries; as a result, it's also becoming harder to get good-quality chroming. So a brand-new 'guard - in stainless? - might be cheaper and easier.
Then, as I alluded earlier in the thread, the '73 'guard mounting doesn't do much to keep the sliders parallel and moving in the same direction;
if you buy a new fender, consider the late-'76-on mounting -
late-'76 and '77 parts book.
photos being turned sideways, for some reason they aren't going up in the same orientation I took them at.
If you took 'em on a 'phone, I think that's the problem for the forum software.
Hth. If you aren't sure, ask
before.
Regards,