What are we doing now?

A couple things. I had to get some toys to make him mine. Things like a new front brake fluid reservoir because that plastic one is ghastly. It will give a good excuse to flush the brakes as well. A skid plate is on the way, a new shifter peg just showed, windscreen coming from Dart, etc.

But more importantly, a big box of fun showed up yesterday!

That's right!

And there's a new ignition module in there as well. Nice way to spend $600. I'll be duct taping all this crap on today!

 

I had a 2013 Thruxton in Brooklands Green with TORS - great sound.

I would imagine that your Ted Thruxton with the stage 2 induction power kit will produce a sound that will cause passers-by to stop and stare open-mouthed and small children to run away. [emoji6]

I like that you have the bikes indoors - best furniture ever. [emoji106]

Good luck with everything - bikes, retirement, relationship.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

I had a 2013 Thruxton in Brooklands Green with TORS - great sound......redact for space....Good luck with everything - bikes, retirement, relationship.

Thanks man!

Just about done with the Stage 2 install, but I need some better clamps. The ones TTP sent slip down and cause the pods to pop off so I ordered some t-bolt jobbers from Amazon.

Pretty straightforward install. Drop tire, pull stuff off, put stuff on, blah blah blah. I'll have an air injection kit for sale later one I reach the post count mins for the FS section. No big deal and I understand why the rules. Regardless, the only surprises I found were a mess of oil/water in the bottom of the airbox - gross. Need to check the oil level. My rear brake fluid reservoir is really low, someone was in the main harness at some point but everything looks OK, valve cover was clearcoated and d-i-r-t-y and that's really it. No other real issues.

Here he sits ready to be attacked.

I made a clean spot on the frame. Ted was really dirty behind his ears, in his armpits and between his toes.

Here's a where a previous owner used a beaver to attack the main harness.

I had some big heat shrink so I slipped that over the loom and then electrical taped over the top of it to include policing up the old air injection plugs to keep things tidy.

Here's a couple shots of the battery box installed and all the wiring policed up.

I hit the valve covers with some 400 grit sandpaper, some steel wool and then a little aluminum polish. Everything else from the kit is installed - carbs re-jetted and so on. The worm/jubilee clamps that TTP included are nice but too narrow and walk down the pods and let them slip off so I have some wider t-bolt clamps that will be here tomorrow. That should sort things. My carb adjustment tool (d-shaped jimjam) won't be here till Sunday so we'll see how far off Ted's carbs are with just the jet and filter change. I can always ride the Ducati if I get the itch.

Which I probably will.

 

Wow nice furniture man!

 

Yeah, I'm all about function over form. It's nice when a chair can do burnouts.

 

Working a little more while I wait for the t-bar clamps.

You know its time to change your brake fluid when it looks like caramel. Gross. Flushed the front and back to replace with shiny new Dot 4.

And I also hated that giant plastic monstrosity of a front brake fluid reservoir. Classic or not it was unsightly. Enter the $12 eBay reservoir. Thanks China. You're welcome for the lax trade agreement.

The local Harbor Freight had vacuum gauges on sale for $12 so I picked up a pair of those to sync Ted's carbs once my mixture adjustment tool gets here. Moving right along!

 

Working a little more while I wait for the t-bar clamps.

Link? That thing looks great!

 

thats a nice collection of bikes!

 

Thanks, they're better than furniture!

I keep puttering while waiting for my clamps to show up. Installed the folding bar ends. Turns out my clips are solid? Regardless, a trip to Home Depot for some M5 socket caps and that was sorted. I'm slowly finding and replacing all of the mismatched nuts and bolts from 14 years of previous owners. Pulled passenger pegs off and used a couple stainless fender washers there. Umm... new side cover screws because mismatch.

And also thanks to T-Rat for this great idea.

Drawer pull choke knob. I nearly bought a big spangly crystal one. Still might.

Then I had a really cool TTP bubble sticker and didn't know where to put it. And then.....genius! Put that mammajamma on my ********** brake fluid reservoir and it looks expensive and British now! Put that in your Brexit and smoke it.

 

All right, last one for the night. Clamps are in, couldn't find any superglue so I used a little blue Loctite to keep things from squibbing around. Ted is buttoned and back on the trickle charger until tomorrow when it's time for a little shakedown run and where my tuning requirements are.

Sleep well Ted, tomorrow is a big day.

 

Just want to throw some info here so I don't lose it somewhere on my computer. It's for me and gathered from this forum and other places, but feel free to use it if it applies.

Oil
4 qts of 10W40 or 15W50

Good oil filters:
WalMart SuperTech ST6607 2.5
MC Specific Purolator ML16817

Plug references - Gap at .035 (ish on the smaller end)
NGK Plug DPR8EA-9 coppers
Autolite 4163 coppers

Wires
Magnecor 2572 8.5mm (red)
Magnecor 2072 8mm (blue)
Magnecor 2772 7mm (black)

Chain: 525x104
Battery: YTX12-BS

Service Manual Download (all 400+ pages, not an owner's manual)
Triumph Service Manual

My tires
120/70/18 - Front
180/55/18 - Rear

Front end (stock) rebuild P/N wishlist from Racetech
Inner Fork Bushings (pair) FMBI 41151 P $31.98
Outer Fork Bushings (pair) FMBO 41152 P $21.98
Fork Seals (pair) FKOS 41 P $23.98
Dust Seals (pair) FKDS 41 P $25.98
Damping Rod Bolt Copper Washer (each) HMWC 1015 $4.99
Racetech S3534095 (34.7x340mm .95kg) springs
Oil level - 125mm

 

Just want to throw some info here so I don't lose it somewhere on my computer

http://docs.google.com

 

Shakedown run went well. Bike runs like a scalded dog before I even fiddle with the carbs (tool still enroute). No more decel popping, not "cold-blooded" anymore as previous owner said. Overall I'm chuffed with the upgrade, rejetting and new ignition module.

What I am not chuffed about is this excessive amount of blowby from the breather tube. I'm going to check the oil level before popping a fresh mag in the parts cannon and buying a catch can. This is after 32 miles.

 

Mount the breather filter higher on the bike, like above the carbs.


Rex

 

I bought back from holiday a couple of nice aluminium bottles ( had Bud Light in ) if I can figure out a tidy mount instant old school catch tank .:smile2:

 

I know it, I'm just funning is all. Good suggestion regardless.

Ted and I went on a little dawn patrol photo safari this morning. Was some killer light down by an old meat packing plant.

There's a few more here. Ted's folder is a bit of mess, but I'll organize it better from here out.

Ted's Gallery

 

So, followed Born 2 Lose's advice and mounted the breather higher. Up and over the head to right below the coil in that little gap in the neck. Perfect. Easy to see if spits oil in this location and by God it's long enough that it should be fine. If not then its catch can city and I'm the mayor.

 

Spitting oil up there too. It's catch can time. Weird.

 

And cheap arse HarborFreight vacuum gauges didn't work. So I won't be syncing the carbs until I make a gauge, yardstick thingee. Such is life.

 

The breather used to be routed into the airbox. How much oil is coming out?

 

I know. I removed it from the airbox.

Shakedown run went well. Bike runs like a scalded dog before I even fiddle with the carbs (tool still enroute). No more decel popping, not "cold-blooded" anymore as previous owner said. Overall I'm chuffed with the upgrade, rejetting and new ignition module.

What I am not chuffed about is this excessive amount of blowby from the breather tube. I'm going to check the oil level before popping a fresh mag in the parts cannon and buying a catch can. This is after 32 miles.

That much oil is coming out.

He will get a re-ring when I freshen up the bottom and top end next year. Until then I will deal with blow-by and watch the oil level.

 

Congrats and gorgeous bike. It's insane how much customization you can do on those things.

 

Thanks.

So Ted is also/only spitting oil out of his rocker cover gasket. Looks like I'll do a little remove, clean and regoop when I get home after the weeked. Catchcan should be here by then as well.

In other news, my cheapo ********** skid plate showed up this afternoon. Fits decent enough and should protect against minor road debris since Ted is a commuter.

 

Yeah I thought the skid plate was a good idea too, everyone.

Finished almost everything up I want to do so far. R/R'd the valve cover, polished it up and resealed with a little gray Permatex on the gasket. Shouldn't leak any longer. Plus the top end looked nice and clean and I could see no glaring problems - not that I expected any given the way Ted runs.

I installed Ted's new spitter in a tidy, out of sight location. I'll check it every couple of weeks to see how nasty it gets.

And since I polished out the VC, I polished the only other raw aluminum on him, which were his exhaust tips.

The last few things on my to do list are:

1. Pics of the new Dart flyscreen I installed. It was tough. I'll do a separate DIY thread later when I have time. Lots of pics, videos, and a crossword puzzle.

2. Change the oil.

3. Wait for SafeStart boss to arrive and then install it.

4. Add two green clutch springs since I will be in there and will need it later anyway. They're on the way.

 

This looks very nice!

 

And moving along in this whole maintenance gig.

A wee little box finally arrived in the post the other day which will make me feel better. I took a gamble that this bike did not have the TTP Safe Start installed and when I pulled his primary cover off, turns out I was right. I'm sure there are 19,000 threads on the site about the TTPSS, but here's some more fuel to the fire. Pretty simple install. A couple notes for folks reading along via TCP/IP.

• Drain your oil. It goes without saying that the air-cooled parallel twin uses a common sump for engine, primary and transmission. But I just said it anyway.
• Disconnect the breather hose up top because the fitting is connected to a flimmerjammer that is pressed in to the primary cover. This needs to pull through the engine case when you pull off the primary cover.
• Unless you have the Cometic primary gasket (P/N EC890060AFM), you will need a new primary gasket. The Cometic is a covered metal gasket that can be re-used but some folks will say get a new one each time. Neat.

Right, so nice piece of kit, yeah? Comes with just about everything you need except the new primary gasket. I also used some paper towel and acetone to assist in surface prep. 8mm socket to pull the primary bolts and a T30 Torx bit to pull the plastic dojob off the secures the starter gear to the end of the crank.

What comes in the kit:

I used a really trick, expensive, custom Thruxton primary case funnel to ensure I didn't spill any oil on the floor. I sell these for $50 shipped, PM me for details.

Here is everything all prepped up for the TTPSS.

Fast forward three minutes later and the TTPSS is installed. Butter the back of that mammajamma with a big glop of JB Weld per the instructions, clean things up and all is well. I used the included 3M surface prep/wet nap thingee to clean up the excess JB Weld and my paper towel dipped in acetone to prep. Let it sit for 24 hours to cure.

And the clutch basket just waiting to get checked out and have two green Barnett springs installed.

Something funny I just thought of. The Barnett springs are like $22 for a set of six. Typical Bonny/Thrux install seems to be two. Why aren't there more folks helping other members out by selling the other two pair at a discount? Maybe they are and I missed it? Regardless, I have four more springs to get rid of. $10 shipped/pair and they are yours if you want a little more holding power. PM for details. Package deal on that and the custom primary cover funnel. Too good to advertise.

While I was under Ted's belly, I figured I would look at other stuff.

1. He's filthy. Like #dirtbellybeagle. Starting a cleanup on that. But why?

2. Classic neutral sensor leak.

Yup. Luckily I have a stock of new crush washers, so I replaced that, buttered the threads with a little thread sealant and stuffed the sensor back in there. Should be better now. I just need to get a can of foamy engine degreaser to make sure everything else is good down there. I've done some cleanup with a brush and some mineral spirits, but there are nooks a crannies I can't get to that way. At some point its bobbin and paddock stand city, but not yet.

Rubber side down folks.

 

You ought to keep the Triumph separated from the Sportster, wouldn't want it to pickup any bad habits.


Rex

 

Don't I know it. Luckily the sporty doesn't run so he's a non-issue right now.

 

Done and done.

Green springs installed (I have four extra for anyone who wants a pair):

And the Cometic primary gasket showed up yesterday. Muchos muy grande bueno (i'm totally fluent in Spanish) better than the stock cardboard one because I can reuse it.

Yeah, don't forget the wavy washer on the end of the starter gear. It even says so in the TTP instruction sheet. I did anyway, but since it was on my shifter I discovered it before adding oil.

Of note, even though I can't edit my post on page 2 (which is bullcrap), the Purolator L14612 does not fit because the screw portion is convex now and won't seal. Ask me how I found that out. Regardless, the Mobil ML108 filters fit perfectly and does not leak.

He is happily buttoned up, waiting for the rain to stop and dreaming of big bore kits, 813 cams and valve spring upgrades.

 

Its still raining outside. No thanks I'm not commuting on a bike in the rain unless I have to.

So I modded a chain guard I picked up on Fleabay with the ubiquitous speed holes. Had to relief a little of the forward section since Ted has a fat arse.

 

Some minor things I discovered last night that I'm not happy about. I haven't been terribly pleased with Ted's rowdy exhaust note. I mean it sounds kind of good, just unrefined. With that in mind and wanting to see what was what, I pulled the baffles out of the Bassani cans and yeah. A couple things - this will be illustrated more with pictures later.

1. Punch-core, louvered baffles. Garbage. Just about the most restrictive thing you could put in an exhaust. Makes the engine feel like its got 1" ID exhaust from head to tail because that is how far the louvers protrude into the pipe. The baffle tubes are standard 1.75" OD mild steel (rusty) tubing wrapped up with a little mat and exhaust wrap.

2. The baffle portion is only louvered for about 10 inches of its total length. This means there is a lot of wasted space that is essentially an echo chamber. Suboptimal.

I had a look at the Termis on my girlfriend's Sport Classic. A quality exhaust designed and built for performance motos. Whereas Bassani (my manufacturer) makes exhaust for mullet-sporting, foot-dragging, throttle blipping Harley riders and Camaro drivers. "Gotta have that backpressure to make them power and torque down low.' Gum-smacking ignorance.

But I digress.

Enter the evidence.

Termi baffles. Perforated stainless core the length of the entire muffler. A little hard to see the length (it's 14 inches I swear), but you get the idea.

And one shot of Ted's horror show. Mother's don't let your mufflers grow up to have louver cores. Think old-school Thrush glasspacks. May as well paint the dang things red.

So how do we fix this? A bafflectomy.

I've ordered a sheet of perforated steel mesh, some muffler packing material, SS zip ties (Deustchland uber alles) and some new heat wrap. I have some extra stainless 1.75" tubing from a Harley exhaust project. I will roll the mesh, weld it the stainless tube of the proper length, pack, wrap and reinsert. This will change the sound, but will also be a true performance muffler versus what I have now. The new wrap will replace the dirty stuff on my headers and I will reuse that dirty dirty for the baffles.

I'm going out of town for a few days so all this will arrive while I am gone and then the fun (and pics) begins!

 

(speedfoos) I don't understand why you only used two green springs? (some advange?) I replaced all four on mine. Could not feel much difference in clutch lever force. The actual engagement of the clutch plates under load was much improved.
Tom