Triumphrat

12-28-2005

Hi Guys,

Further to my topic re cosmetic damage incurred as a result of a low speed accident back in mid Nov.

I reported that the RH silencer had suffered denting and scratching. Well I finally got round to having a look at the problem in more detail. It occurred to me that I could swap the silencers from side to side thus hiding the damage. (Anything to save up to £300 for a new pair!!).

I had read on this forum that problems could be encountered undoing the brackets due to the captive nut coming loose and just spinning round. As it happens I have a spare pair of standard silencers that were given me when I bought the bike back in May '03 and which I had never even taken out of the box. They had been removed in order that TOR's could be fitted. So out they came and lo and behold I had a prime example of the problem, one of the bolts had had to be angle ground off to enable the removal of the bracket.

Now I come to the nitty gritty of my post. Is there any way of securing the once "captive" nut so that the remains of the bolt can be removed?

I have had a couple of thoughts,

Tack weld the insert to the metal of the silencer to stop it spinning round.

Drill a small hole between the metal of the silencer and insert so as to enable a pin to be placed thus locking the insert. I don't know if this is a very clear explanation so I hope you get the drift.

Any thoughts would be most welcome, so over to you!

JWoodsie · 12-28-2005

Maybe just a very little tack with a mig welder, it will get covered by the bracket anyway. Mine got that loose before I replaced the system that I just threw them away. Cheap rubbish they are.

cafetbird · 12-28-2005

Hardly cheap rubbish - those silencers are stout! Have you ever look at the ***** the Japs tack to their rides??? It is the fasteners that are crappy.

I'd say either option is a likely fix. Go for the one you like best!

02-28-2006

I am now pleased to report that I have found the answer to the problem. As I thought, it is possible to drill a small hole adjacent to the mounting nut through the steel of the silencer and just touching the visible part of the nut, into the nut underneath. Insert a pin of a suitable size. I used a ground down nail. This locks the nut into place, preventing it from spinning and you can then use mole grips to undo the shank of the bolt. Or you can cut a slot into the bolt and use a screwdriver.

I have just done this, this weekend with total success. Once the bolt was out I used Araldite to secure the pin in place and trimmed it down flush with the silencer.

To avoid a recurrence of the problem I have cleaned out the threads of the nuts with a suitable wire brush and bought a new set of brackets which I intend to fit using spring washers.

I don’t see why this solution cannot be made to work with any similar loose captive nut situation.

I hope this helps any one else with an unusable peashooter silencer. If any clarification is required please ask and I will do my best to help.

parrycm · 02-28-2006

Excellent - nice to know there's a proven solution, and one that doesn't require access to a welder and the knowledge of how to use it.

MickMaguire · 03-01-2006

This works about 65% of the time in my experience. From what I hear tack welding is almost 100%.

The general rule (I know it doesnt apply here) is to never touch them. The brackets are pretty cheap IIRC, about $10 each. So I tend to advise people to just buy a new set when swapping pipes.

I have heard anecdotal evidence that the bolts have loctite (or similar) on them and that applying heat will stop the captive breaking away, but I cant deny or confirm this - I haven't noticed evidence of loctite on them. Heat may just help loosen them anyway loctite or no.

[ This message was edited by: MickMaguire on 2006-03-01 08:13 ]

03-02-2006

Mick,

My brother has extensive welding experience and having looked at the job reckoned it would be near on impossible to make a satisfactory tack welded job which is why I went down the route of drilling and pin. Just a point to note that it is best to use a pillar drill in order to maintain accuracy of drilling.

Also I can confirm that Triumph do use Loctite or equivalent when assembling the bracket, lots of it!

May I also take the opportunity to say a heartfelt thanks for the great job you and the other moderators do in running this site.

MickMaguire · 03-02-2006

Thanks Mercury, and thanks for your brother's input. I can confirm that everbody I know who has tried it has made it work.. but we are likely only talking about a temporary hold - enough to stop it rotating and not a permanent fix. Your brother may be more of a perfectionist :-D

Personally I know my welding wouldn't be up to it!

Uncle Bill · 08-04-2008

Have you ever noticed it's almost always the right side front mounting screw that breaks or the nut spins? I have three sets of stock pea shooters and this happened to two of the right ones when I tried to remove the brackets. I'm thinking that the right side must run much hotter than the left due to two vs. one cylinder. I never understood why they didn't make the exhaust header like the old Tridents, you know, a true three into two. Would look better and I'm sure it would balance out the cylinders better. The reason I searched for this thread is because I wanted to mess around with drilling out the baffles on the rattiest set but needed to fix the mount problem first. Anyone have any experience with the baffle mod? My son says the bike is too quiet!

andre12a · 08-07-2008

I've heard it said that if it went on exhaust note the Thunderbird should have been called a ***** cat. Drilling out the baffles not only makes the bike sound like it should but also improves performance. There is plenty of info on doing this in various threads on this site, just do a thread search. I drilled mine out with a 20mm (3/4inch) hole saw, fitted a K&N air filter, hot plugs, drilled two 25mm (one inch) holes in the airbox and then replaced both the main (to 120) and pilot (to 40) jets in the carby (you can avoid doing this but you will have to reset the mixture screw to allow more fuel through). I have the mixture screws set at 2 1/2 turns. Apart from some sluggisnesh in cold weather with acceleration before it gets warmed up and a bit of a flat spot around 80kmh it runs like a dream. Just need to get it on a dyno and find out what fine adjustments are needed.
Over all it's worth doing, but research it first - check out what the other riders on this site have to say.
Peter