[thoresonr]

Leaning the bike over on the side stand while pushing it in got it to go. The pushrod didnt get past the bushing from what I gather, so I was kicking the bike over while pushing it in with a rod and it made it past. Truing up the pressure plate as we speak.

 

[newsh]

Leaning the bike over on the side stand while pushing it in got it to go. The pushrod didnt get past the bushing from what I gather, so I was kicking the bike over while pushing it in with a rod and it made it past. Truing up the pressure plate as we speak.

Ah, so it wasn’t actually all the way in. Great you’ve got it working now

 

[thoresonr]

Got it all buttoned up, and did about 60 miles. Had a nice patch of motorway and laid into the throttle in 5th gear. Revs wouldn’t pass 5700rpm and my dodgy speedo was reading around 90 mph. It just felt like it was at the limit (could have been a headwind too). Maybe 4th would have gotten me into the Ton Up club.

Neutral a tad harder to find again but I can live with that instead of slipping clutch.

 

[thoresonr]

 

[thoresonr]

One thing I’d like to ask. My running idle is not really consistent. When first starting it’ll hum around 1500rpm. After a good warm up it’s around 2000 rpm. Maybe 1 out of 5 times it’ll drop back down to 1500 while at a stop light.


Would this be that the slides might be hanging up?

 

[StuartMac]

Hi Thor,

idle
When first starting it’ll hum around 1500rpm. After a good warm up it’s around 2000 rpm. Maybe 1 out of 5 times it’ll drop back down to 1500 while at a stop light.

Wa-aa-ay too high ... should be 1000 rpm or just under when the engine's warm; if it won't idle at this rpm, usually it's one or both pilot jets are blocked.

Hth.

Regards,

 

[TR7RVMan]

Hi Thor, I don't recall this from the old days, & I've never ridden Triumphs out of California in the modern times, meaning in last 10 years.

Sticking slides can be hard to test for if they only stick just off idle. One way you can sort of test this is at idle pull up on the cable housing at top of carb. Just pull gently & feel the cable play. Video this on your phone in detail so you have a baseline. You can hear & feel the tick when slide drops down more quickly. By the way at idle you should have a little cable housing play.

Sync carbs your favorite way. Then after that, warm motor well like 15-20 miles & set mixture & idle rpm. California fuel will allow stalling hot at stop lights suddenly if you go to slow on idle. I like to be about 1050 ish. Really hot weather when the gas in tank is really heat soaked I'll still have to blip throttle at times or hold idle 1500 or so with throttle.

There is no provision for fast idle on our bikes. Choke may be needed for better running cold after start up. Triumph choke doesn't respond like a car carb butterfly choke. If you are using choke experiment on how much choke to give after motor fires & as motor warms. None the less, you'll need to hold throttle to keep fast idle until motor warms well. Depending on ambient temperature on many bikes it's a good 3-5 miles before you can trust idle. Depends on your mixture & hot idle settings.

Here's an oddity... I cannot explain why. But is 100% repeatable on all the bikes I've worked on & did a longer road test. The exception is Trispark equipped bike. Trispark controls idle rpm by modifying timing.

I'll get on freeway or a high speed road like 62mph and above for some minutes. A good example is I'll ride 15-20 miles on the freeway at the above speed. I'll pull off freeway & at stop sign bottom of ramp motor will idle about 300-500 rpm faster for a short time. 3-4 minutes. Then as motor cools in the slower riding the rpm goes back to the expected setting. Back in 70s this exact same route I don't recall motor doing this. It's not just bike, they all do this. Except the Trispark. Boyer, Pazon, points bikes all do this. Goggle this, it will look flatter than it is, but you'll see route from Pleasant Hill. I live near our little downtown.

I'll get off of freeway in Oakland hyw 13 at Lincoln exit. At stop sign motor is idling way too fast. I'll go down westward on Lincoln, compression braking all the way down the hill. I turn left on Delmer. When I get to Delmer the idle is a bit too slow as motor is overcooled from the down hill. In a few blocks of using normal power on the flatlands the idle is back to my setting. Again, all the bikes I've ridden this route or similar route to this. Only Trispark is the exception.

Again, California fuel is different that most of USA. So after some careful carb syncing & mixture, idle rpm adjustments, you may be experiencing something that is normal?

My bike has done this with the old carb, with the new premier carb. Sadly I don't recall if it did this on leaded 110 race gas. I'm running points. I shortened my AAU springs & have verified they pull back strongly. But the original springs & shorted springs didn't change this at all. Of course as rpm goes above idle, the timing advances. Advanced timing increases rpm. So you get an extra increase of rpm from the timing. Looking at timing marks in garage on hot motor, this advance increase is part of the extra high rpm after freeway ride.

It gets more tricky. In warmer weather beginning at 75f or so, & gets worse as ambient temp increases. After maybe 4-5 stoplights in city a block or two apart the motor doesn't idle faster, but tends to idle slower. Especially with hot fuel in tank. The hot air from nearby cars blows on us. The tank & fuel load will get very warm to the touch. Especially at 95-100F. Stop/go freeway rush hour traffic is very bad for this also. I'll occasionally get stuck in this for 2 hours. An hour is very common. Lane splitting (threading) is legal in California, which cools motor. But I'm afraid to do it. I've seen many bikes get hit by cars lane splitting. Happens almost every day here. So I know what these bikes do in everyday riding in California. I find Triumphs love 60f days. They do their best at 60f.
Don

 

[thoresonr]

I do have tri-spark actually. Interesting is that I didn’t know it can affect idle. I’ll have to pull the carbs to check the pilot jets. Before when it was lower RPM it would die at a stop light so I adjusted the idle screw on each carb with the opposite spark plug lead pulled.

 

[thoresonr]

I also don’t have any choke installed. It’s how the P.O. had it run. Here in FL it might not be necessary but I kinda wish it was there.

 

[TR7RVMan]

Hi Thor, It’s important to adjust idle from too fast to slower, to be certain the idle advance is not turning on.
It doesn’t work right to pull plug wire off with Trispark, because it kicks in idle advance.

Try this: Remove air filters. Measure you slide height using drill bits like a feeler gauge. Easier said than done as not exactly a straight shot. Thanks ok. The point is make slides even at idle.
Then mark rpm screws on carb with sharpie pen so you know where even is.
Now road test & warm motor. Then set rpm from faster to slower. Look at witness marks & turn each screw same amount.

All the while making sure you have a little cable slack by lifting cable housing.

If you run out of cable slack adjust the barrels to get slack as needed.

At same time trim up your mixture screws. The idea is to go from a higher rpm to rpm you want & at the same time get your best idle mixture.
With Trispark you must really listen closely.

Again don’t forget your cable slack.

In real life the rpm stop screws may give better, smoother idle if one side is in or out slightly farther as one cylinder my like a slightly different air volume.
What runs best at idle & low rpm.
You may find it runs better to cheat a mixture screw a little richer or leaner than the fastest idle that we often shoot for. Again, that’s fine. It’s what runs best.

Then bring bike home. Again remove air filters.

Lock throttle at part throttle. Around 3/8” open or whatever size drill kit you have. You can use friction screw or tape as needed. But it has to be steady.
Again use drill bit as feeler gauge. You are doing lifted throttle this time. So you’ll use the cable adjuster barrels.

Adjust cables to get slides even as you can.
Of course this will affect the closed throttle free play. So you may need to adjust both cables equally.
You adjust & recheck until slides raise evenly & you have a little cable housing play. IMPORTANT the little play may not be even left to right at idle. That’s fine. It should fairly close. One slid may be slightly higher from the privoius idle adjustments. If way off something’s wrong.

This is not difficult, but time consuming. I find this gives very good running. It holds adjustments quite well. A few years anyway.

There are other ways to do this. For me this gives me best running & stays in adjustment well.

Practice makes perfect. Keep at it whatever method you choose. But never forget Trispark will try to compensate if we mess up. Trispark works best when normal hot is at “base idle timing”, meaning it’s neither advancing or retarding timing. End of day I found that allows Trispark to work in its optimal range. If you got onto a Pazon or Boyer bike you’d really feel the difference at idle & low speeds.
Don

 

[StuartMac]

Hi,

pull plug wire off

Never do this with any EI, not just TriSpark.

When the EI turns off the coil LT, the coil is trying to discharge the HT; HT is in the region of 20,000 Volts, if it can find another way to 'earth'/'ground', it will; if it is back through the EI, the EI is toast, in both senses of the word.

set rpm from faster to slower.

Thor: If you want to raise idle with a carb.'s throttle stop screw, you know first raise the slide with the throttle, then turn the stop screw clockwise, then release the throttle? Reason is particularly the throttle stop screw is at a 45-degree angle to the vertical movement of the slide, the screw turns against a 45-degree cutaway in the slide; if you simply turn the stop screw clockwise without first lifting the slide, the screw just pushes the slide against the carb. body, the screw puts a divot in the slide.

Hth.

Regards,