noisy trophy.

[mjonah]

can anyone help ? I've had my 94 trophy for sale for the last week and had no shortage of viewers, but everyone has been scared off by engine noise, it sounds like a noisy cam chain but it's always done it and i have been assured by members of the site that it is normal for pre 95 trophys to sound this way.
Please could someone shed some light on it and then at least i could explain to people what is causing it,
thanks a lot, Mark.

[KitNYC]

Have you had the alternator bolt upgrade done? It's a common enough failure that Triumph supplies a kit for it, and mine was misdiagnosed by the local indie guy as a cam chain problem.

Edit: I see you're in the UK; does the noise go away when you turn the headlights on?

Cheers,
-Kit

[mjonah]

thanks for the advice kit, as you have probably noticed i dont get much time to get on here, it's interesting you should mention the headlight's as recently it's started to blow them when i put them on, the bike has been noisy since i bought it 4 years ago and doesnt seem to have got any worse, is it costly to buy the kit and is it something an amateur should attempt? thanks, Mark.

[KitNYC]

Maybe someone else will chime in here, as I'm in the US where headlights are always on.

I did not notice the noise when my alternator broke, but the mechanic I went to at the time asked one night why it was making a new noise. I think he charged me about $250 or $300, plus the parts were $125. Knowing now that the mechanic in question is an incompetent thief, I'm not sure if his charges were reasonable or not. I am sure the bolt was sheared, though, as a trustworthy mechanic diagnosed it over the phone.

Cheers,
-Kit