Triumphrat

mjmain7

Hi, i'm new to this but am the proud owner of a 1998 Triumph Thunderbird and thought it would be great to get involved.

Basically the bike hasnt been used for a while and now when it is started it pumps out lots of fumes and it is burning oil. Has anyone else had this problem and knows what may be wrong?
Im obviously not an expert so if its a stupid question please forgive me!!
Many thanks,
Marcus

gregp

If by "not been used in a while" you mean more than a year, I would start by removing the carbs and completely cleaning them. Then check the oil level, maybe rinse out the fuel tank, change all fuel fliters, the oil filter, and inspect the air filter... Any fluids in that bike are probably the cause of your problem unless it had been thoroughy abused in its previous life.

mjmain7

Thanks Gregp,
The bike has had new oil filters fitted and I have cleaned the carbs etc. I have just found that there is no air filter in the air box (previous owner must have removed it). Why he did this I dont know, I have only owned the bike for a few months and it wasnt used for a year before I bought it. It burns oil quite badly, when I changed the oil there was only 2litres left in there.
Any ideas?
Cheers

TTRIDER

If the engine had been ran for a long period of time without the air filter element internal engine wear may have happened. Pull the plugs and look for oil fouling ,also do a compression test .

Tim

gregp

I would guess that you may have significant piston/ring/bore wear or damage, probably caused by running with no air filter.
Sorry.

mjmain7

Hi Thanks Tim/greg, the plugs are fine and it hasnt done many miles without the filter. I will get a compression test done and hope it is the rings and not the pistons.
Cheers

cpallen

Beware there are two potential drain plugs - one does not drain all the oil and if you aren't watching the sight glass and just add 4 qts guess what - it will be overfilled and it will certainly be smoking and probably pumping out of the crankcase vent into the airbox, etc.

Read this:
http://www.webbikeworld.com/Motorcyc...soil.htm#drain

And let us know what you think.

Courtney in Seattle

__________________
Courtney

Beemie

Check the oil for fuel odor. If the gas leaked down into the crankcase, and it can, then it could smoke when run. Speaking from experience.

Tbirdnz

Might be jumping to conclusions here. As cpallen indicates there are two drain plugs and with one only a couple of litres drains out.

If you just bought the bike ? and it hadn't been used for a year it could be the previous owner stored it and poured a bit of oil down the cylinders, some people storing it long time do that.

There's no air filter in the air-box it's a separate unit between the air-box and the carbs.

Do the routine maintenance, change the plugs and start it up, run it for 5 minutes or so and see if the smoke clears away.

How many miles on the clock ?

---------------
Ride on !

cpallen

Hey Marcus, have you made any progress on your oil issue?

__________________
Courtney