[broganh]

It all started fresh out of high school. Day dreaming about vintage triumphs. I don’t know what planted the seed – maybe a vintage motorcycle calender that got given to me as a kid, but I wanted one.

Over the years travel and work all got in the way, so I would daydream and collect pictures for inspiration instead… Sleds, flat track, original, bobbers, whatever jumped at me – far too many for me to show here, but a few. Fell in love with desert sleds though.

One night 10 years later I’m randomly trolling through ebay/gumtree, as usual every once in a few months.
It took a price drop on what the guy called a ‘runner’ – for me to go look at one. If you never ever go, you’ll never ever know!

Maybe it’s the high bars and dirt tyres that jumped out at me. That and maybe I don’t care so much about the OIF thing anymore, or I’m over the ever rising 60’s pricetag. Or maybe I have no ideas about triumphs and just figure it runs, this'll do.

But it begins! Would be lost without triumph rat trying to figure my way through this thing!

 

[broganh]

Some inspiration from the right-click save-as vault (Mix of OIF and others)

 

[broganh]

Good from afar, hopefully not too far from good though!
I want something I can just ride. Rough and ready is alright by me.

It is a US import. PO bought it from a shop/import mob here, who maybe brought it over for some parts, and to sell off. Or maybe they just had to fill the container and it was available? Not sure, pretty sure I saved a few thousand at my buy price though! It but copped damage in the container from other another bike falling on it, so the tank is welded up and full of bog.

Along with other things (ie exhaust tied on with a shoe lace) if you catch my drift. All fairly easy fixes it seems though.

 

[broganh]

A mate whos handy with paint guns and prepping helped me get the tank looking half decent. A lot of sanding and filler/smoothing coats.

 

[broganh]

I started wiring up some lights – PO ripped them off as he couldn’t get it started. Told me after spending ages trying to figure it out the seemingly electrical problem with his wiring, he dropped it at a british shop. They adjusted the points and it fired...!

Unfortunately after pulling the tank I realised how horrendous the wiring really was.

Splices everywherrrreeee (those ****ty plastic clip on ones. I h-a-t-e them!) rubbish quality plastic bullet connectors. Suprisingly all original wiring on the handlebars and original lucas switches, although with one or two bullets 'nipped off and shortened and spliced to others and who-knows-what-else-and-why.

Clutch needed adjusting, the dreaded 'click'. It ended up needing adjusting so far out that nut on pushrod adjusting pin was scrubbing inside of inspection hole plug!? I added an extra o-ring to space it out for now...

Decided to do full fluids, and ground down a bolt to use to adjust primary chain.

Noticed this sticker on the forks is pretty cool for a scrambler-esque bike. Might have to change it up and go tracker trim to match

 

[broganh]

Got it ready for rego...

it passed!

 

[broganh]

Thanks!
First ride was fun, but slowly I'm starting to realise lots of problems.

First thing I noticed was the pinging. Ive been doing some reading on here and since gone to 98 octane fuel, and timed correctly, which instantly fixed it.

Next thing I noticed was there was oil. Everywhere!!
spewing out tank breather (steering tube - overfilled?), spitting out engine breather, oozing from somewhere around the head, and the general triumph leaks around the thing.
I'd noticed oil coming out breather when I bought it, so had since been reading here and about wet sumping. I rebuilt oil pump with new balls and springs. While I was at it I fit new timing cover gasket & seals. I also popped off primary cover, checked the chain (way loose!) and fitted a new gasket, then ground down a bolt that I could use to adjust the primary chain, and fit a new gasket there too. Also there was "gasket maker" goop all around bottom plate of oil tank?? Obviously couldnt get a good seal? I noticed the shims were missing after looking at my manual and parts diagram which I've since fixed...

Blows a bit of smoke, left hand pipe only, but seems? to have good compression. Plugs seem really sooty though.

Carb tickler gets stuck and the thing bogs down hard in fourth with the throttle opened up. Almost sounds like its running on one cyl or something. I was so worried to dig into these old carbs - carbs in general are like black magic to me, I just don't understand them... I was suprised at simplicity and ease of assembly of the Amals (not that they seemed any different to any carb to me)... Again reading about jet sizes I tried going down a size. Gave them a good clean (tiny drill bit - 16 thou) and fresh gaskets. Lunmads channel just gets better and better.

 

[broganh]

Pulled timing side cover again as wasnt sure my oil pressure switch was working correctly - the oil pressure switch had siezed!!!!
I broke it free, disassembled it and gave it a thorough cleaning, checking spring etc. dressed the "piston" with a bit of wet and dry to get a good sliding fit again. Works as good as new
I also torqued up the head to the spec in the manual - well kind of, I don't have a torque wrench that goes that low, so I kind of do it with the torque wrench by feel. It took a while going very carefully but I'm confident I got them all even and not too tight. Those few things really fixed up a lot of the oil issues. Driza bone around the head! few dribbles around some of the bolts on the underside though - standard triumph leaks?
Decided to put the standard bars back on - the bitsa high bars were real straight and found myself 'leaning' over tank a bit too much. Took her for a thorough afternoon run!

I noticed the speedo isnt working - the drive maybe. Tested the body when I got home and it works beautiful. The tacho seems to have something inside loose or broken though, the clock face doesnt sit even with glass and seems a bit loose in there...
Ever since pulling that timing cover and trying to fix leaks etc, the thing ran like a dog.
Lubed AAU, new springs, new contacts, all the points cam screws were flogged, timed the thing about 100 times all up I think!!!

Pulls hard all the way through. New needles and jets were a treat!

 

[broganh]

Started having troubles next time firing it up. Everytime it cooled down it seemed to need timing again.
I spent far too much of my life ****ing around with these!

I really didnt want to get rid of them - so new AAU springs, lubed it, new condensers, new contacts.
Still getting weird running and scatter with the timing light on one cyclinder. Noticed all the cam screws in points plate where chewed up and not that good, replaced those as well.

By this point I'd had a decent enough number of $ in the points to get them working right. Except they didnt.
I realised I needed full new points plate if I was gonna get these workin proper. By the time I added the cost of points plate onto the parts I'd already bought, I was most of the way to EI.
I gave them their best shot (literally months of dicking around), and then gave in.

Fitted it as per instructions, but bike wouldnt fire. A new set of plugs (already the second set) and it went.
Was running really rough and backfiring etc, which I found weird. I decided it had to be the carbs.

Took the carbs back to 0 and tuned them and synced them from scratch (again). Once it fired it ran great.
Has anyone else found with EI that their bike really needs choke?
When it was on points it would roar when I barely leaned on it. Unfortunately the bike has had choke removed and appears to be long gone.

The best part of all of was putting the timing gun and watching the smooth advance of the little white line! Going for a ride it really revved. I rode it a couple of times like this before the plugs fouled up again and I decided it was time for a proper look at the top end.

 

[broganh]

Took it to head/cylinder shop for a new set of valves, guides and springs. Also ordered a seager engineering oversize stub.
Once I'd dropped it off I'd got to inspecting my pistons for movement and also rings gap etc. Rings gap appeared like 4 times the gap than the spec!
This meant pulling the barrels and some more accurate measurements, which eventually led to a 40 thou bore and hone.

Found some neglect to the rods, which I tidied up with some wet and dry

While I was waiting for the top end at the machine shop, I realised something had to be done with the wiring. I did a lot of reading then started sketching lines (wiring is not my forte!).
In the end after thinking long and hard I came up with this. Would appreciate any feedback - hopefully I havent missed anything.

I found I had to create my own diagram, as I couldn't seem to mentally associate lines with wires and "routes" on the bike with other diagrams found on the net. By drawing mine I could lay out each component as if it was (kind of) located as it is on the bike when looking top down.
The best thing about doing my own diagram was I'm now fully aware of what wire goes where and what job it does.

 

[broganh]

Mines a bit more recent than R13 Paul! But same job no less.
I found laying mine out the way I did helped me envisage the routing of wiring on the bike...
Also, due to having to think it through so much drawing it out, when it came time to "rough in" the wires, what started out as a daunting process was a piece of piss.

 

[broganh]

Snowballing into a bit of a rebuild, as I guess they all do. Once you scratch the surface...

Put new bearings in rear wheel, they were real flogged out.
While bike is stripped decided to pull the front end to do steering bearings as well.

I think this bike hasn't done as many miles as I thought, it appears there's still a lot of original parts?? The wheel bearings looked original, along with steering bearings. Speedo reads 16k miles, but tabs in speedo drive had snapped off, so no real way to tell.

These look orig to anyone else?

 

[broganh]

Decided while the wheels were off doing bearings to change up the tyres. I love the desert sleds and the knobbies, but they were terrible on the road, and we're vibrating me to bits, especially with the hard mounted risers the PO stuck on.

Wanted to go something a bit different, but couldn't get past the price of the K70s. Also quite like the tracker look, but torn as I'm so over the whole thin seat no guards look that graced every custom bike blog for the last few years.

Just gonna get it together and see how it turns out. at least it will ride properly.

Couldn't resist mocking it up with new parts once I got tyres back...

 

[broganh]

New bits

 

[broganh]

Started roughing in wiring harness as per diagram.
Decided I didnt want to rely on pillar bolt for earth at trispark unit, so ran an extra positive to there. Also spliced in an extra earth wire point at handlebar switches/headlight connection (behind steering) for any future requirements or troubleshooting.

Have since wrapped most of it in heat shrink tubing, and the center (thickest part) in self amalgamating rubber tape.

Decided I'd like to go a custom battery box, with igintion key mount, something nice so I don't have to put those plastic side covers on.
Will have to get something fabbed up, but it may be a while off yet.

Would also like to go a custom seat - bike is registered as single seater so only supposed to have it 500mm long maximum (which makes it difficult). Main reason for custom seat is to go a lower profile so I can get both feet on ground at lights, its a bees dick to high at the moment - just enough to be uncomfortable and annoying.

 

[broganh]

And now this thread is finally caught up on where I'm at with this thing...

Pulled forks apart to do seals, and noticed slight pitting and discolouration on right hand damper tube.

So much so pulled it to see whats going on. It would appear this things spent a few years on its side stand? Bottom inche or so above bottom plug thread on right hand stanchion has what looks like some light pitting.

Had to "knock" the right slider away from this damper tube with a rubber mallet too - was quite stuck where the bottom allen bolt goes through. Bottom rubber seals are missing, alas no leaks though?

Will go with new o-rings and get some rubber cap screw seals in the bottom there too. Might replace the pitted damper tube while im there.
These bikes add up $$$!

 

[broganh]

I meant the 60's look alike sort dave... not real keen on the 70's type. but then again those plastic/fiberglass ones always look a bit 'ill fitting'...
The originals are black, and they are all faded & matt like. I think they are missing mounting hardware too. Came in the box of spares. Was thinkin I could polish them up but they'd no longer be orig and would be a lot of work with all the fins & grooves etc.

Considering a battery box along these lines;

 

[broganh]

KitKat - just pictures I've found that are along the lines of what I'd like to do. That silver 72 is by FCR original in france. Nice simple build.

Dave, I've seen a few with matching colour side panels, not a huge fan. Would either aim black or chrome (or alloy/stainless) as per that photo - its just the origanls would be a bit of work, and would be refitting airboxes etc - not sure whats left of those parts in my 'original' box.

Gone to a tympanium, along with a dual fire coil (under tank) hence removal of coils mount. PO did the stainless battery box I bought it with, but its a bit crude - would like to do something more decent and permanent.

Re-assembled engine last night. Awaitnig parts for forks. Also got a nice new regina drive chain to go on Gonna crack on with getting the wiring harness crimped and mounted this weekend hopefully.

 

[broganh]

Bought coil from tri-spark when I got my ignition.
At the moment, zip ties, while I rough in wiring.

Probably go with 2 large heavy duty auto hose-clamps & a piece of flat bar with nuts welded to it, so I don't have to weld to frame (oil tank).

 

[broganh]

forgot about this thread so its a bit behind and dont have many photos but none the less
back together and tidied up almost all the front end to have minimal switches & instruments etc.
key is off/ign/ing&lights. Switch is hi/lo & horn.