Triumphrat

YankeeCousin · 03-12-2005

My 2002 Trophy 1200 is coming up on it's 6000 mile service. The dealer told me it would cost me about 600 dollars. Part of the service requires the valve clearances to be inspected. This seems expensive. The high price gave me incentive to purchase a Triumph shop manual. I want to learn to do my own maintenance. Do you think I'm biting off more than I can chew if I attempt to adjust the valves? If I do my own work will I void my remaining factory warranty? Are the valves adjusted with shims? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks in advance for your recommendations

Wayne :???:

12004 · 03-12-2005

Hey Wayne,
That's a pile-o-money!. My dealer got me for $300. Make sure they don't change your oil. There's a 1/2 hour labor and the way too pricey oil and filter. I've switched over to a K&N filter and Golden Spectro semi synthetic.

My mechanic told me that the valve shimming is actually pretty easy. It's removing the body work and tank that eats up the labor time.
If you shimmed the valves and something for some reason went wrong, you could be in deep do-do.

You might want to go to the dealer and try to talk to the mechanic. Most of them don't care if the dealer makes money off of you, because the dealers don't pay mechanics what they are worth.

Good luck.
Tom.

YankeeCousin · 03-13-2005

Thanks Tom, 300 sounds much more reasonable. I think I'm going to shop around. A guy at Cycle Gear gave me a the name of a high quality mechanic. I'm going to call him and get an estimate. I don't want to screw something up and void my warranty. What type of oil do you use? I read a debate in an earlier posting that argued cycle oil vs. auto oil. Some say that good synthetic auto oil (15w 50) is just as good as the more expensive cycle oil. Some use semi-synthetic.

Wayne

sixtysix · 03-13-2005

It was about $400 bucks for my 6000 miles service but I replaced the air filter too due to being in a couple of dust devils and finding lots of small stones in the intake. $300 is about normal and should include the oil change.

Doing the vales is a 'medium' job in my book. You really should not attept it if you have no idea what you are doing. There is a special tool for this as well that runs about $80 unless you want to pull the cams out.

The dealer will have the right shims too, you won't...you may have to order them an wait while the bike is torn apart.

I do all my own maintenance (unless warrantee or recall work) even valve shims. But you need a well stocked garage (tools not beer) and a clean area to work with the engine open. If you live close to somebody with an old Suzuki or Yamaha, who would let you help them, the procedure is about the same...except for the body work and different special tool.

Good luck!

12004 · 03-14-2005

Hey Wayne,

There are lots of good oil brands out there. I use Spectro.
I've used it since 99'. The anti-wear agents in fully synthetic and semi synthetic oil that I look for are zinc and phosphorous (spelling aint right...oh well).

If anti- wear agents are too high (over 1000parts per million) the oil won't pass API standards. Anti-wear agents shorten the life of catalitc converters. The government doesn't like this, but I do.

Interestingly, newer BMWs have cats. Spectro makes BMW oil. At least they used to. Anyway, I run Golden Spectro 20w50 and change every 3000.

C-ya,

Tom.
C'MOOOOOOOOOOOOOON SPRING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

stevent · 03-14-2005

I take the bike in for valve adjustments only, it works out to about 3 hour shop time so around $200. The rest is oil and filter and chain tension and I can do all that.

I use Mobil 1 MX4T 10w40 for $7.00 a quart, or if it's hot I use Mobil 1 15w50 car oil for $4.00 a quart. They're both full synthetic so they work fine.

I don't like to pay for work I can easily do myself

YankeeCousin · 03-14-2005

Thanks everyone. I think the 600 dollar service is way overboard. I will shop around and see if I can just get the valves inspected only. I'll do the rest. As for the oil, I think I'm going to start using full synthetic 15w50 auto oil.

tango · 03-15-2005

Wayne,

Checking the valve clearances is pretty straight forward, especially if you have the manual.

If you don't have the Triumph shim removal tool then you need to take the camshafts out, only if shims are needing replaced of course, Again relatively easy. Just make sure you have all the timing marks lined up and take care with the cam chain. Try to keep it tensioned on the tensioner, (I used a small piece of wood to do this), otherwise it can be fiddly if it jumps a tooth.

The valve clearances shouldn't need checked at the 6k service, 12k is the norm'.

[ This message was edited by: tango on 2005-03-15 05:11 ]

YankeeCousin · 03-15-2005

Thanks Tango. Did you get the bugs worked out of your Trophy?

Wayne

tango · 03-15-2005

Not yet Wayne, mech' won't be able to touch it till the end of this week.

Not that bothered really, the weather for this week is p#ss#n rain. But at least it will clean the roads up a bit, especialy the salt.