Lockdown

but work continues

With most of the UK (and the world) in lockdown for the past 5 weeks, you would think that I’d have all three Triumphs up and running and both Tiger2 and Tabitha Trophy ready for their MOTs.

Sadly, not the case for many reasons, chief of which is that I’m still working. Yes, it is from home, but as a key worker, I’m still working my usual 5-day week. Admittedly, I do have some extra time available as I’m saving around 90 minutes a day by commuting from the kitchen to the dining room, which is a much shorter journey than I’m used to. So, jobs have been done in the Man Cave to all three Triumphs.

Tallulah Tiger

Let’s start with Tallulah Tiger, she’s been cleaned, more than once if I’m honest and I’ve finally got around to the final job that’s been on my To Do list since I bought her in September 2018, checking the valves.

Off came the tank (again) along with the airbox so I could get access to the valve cover. 8 bolts later and a quick tap with a rubber mallet & the valves were accessible. While I have a few spare shims, I acquired from my spare engine (sizes checked with my trusty micrometre), I wasn’t too bothered if I needed to buy more as I wasn’t planning on riding any time soon. It turns out all the valves were in spec. Next job was to clean up all the gasket sealer on the valve cover & clean up the gasket. The gasket was in good condition, so I didn’t have a problem using it again, but the gasket sealer used on the cover took a bit of cleaning. Once done I just needed to put everything back together. 

Except nothing is easy. After digging around in the depths of my toolbox, I found I had no RTV silicone sealer, well I did but it was so old I binned it. With the throttle bodies and cylinder head suitably covered with sheets of bubble wrap it was off to the internet to purchase some more & wait patiently by the door for it to arrive. 6 days later, Tallulah was back together again knowing the valves were OK, the airbox spotlessly clean, as was the battery box, and I tucked away at the side of the man Cave on a trickle charger waiting for Lockdown to end.

On a side note, I had a full set of colour coded luggage come with Tiger2 which I’ve decided I’ll sell separately at some point, except for the topbox. Tallulah does have a topbox, but it’s looking a bit worn in places & is not a Triumph original, whereas the one that came with Tiger2 was. Only thing is it’s blue, not silver, but at least it fits securely on the Tiger’s rack, unlike the silver topbox that I got with Tallulah. So, I’m going to respray the Triumph one. I stripped out the hinges, locks and the Triumph badge and ordered some plastic primer. I’ve already rubbed it down with 1200 grit and it’s had 4 coats of primer. I’m just waiting for some silver paint to arrive (Peugeot Aluminium Silver) which I’m hoping will be a reasonable approximation to the original Triumph colour. Not too bothered if it’s a little out as the existing topbox is way off & it doesn’t look that out of place when on the bike.

Tabitha Trophy

I know I said I was putting Tabitha aside for a while as I wanted to get Tiger2 sorted, but I had time to spare while I was waiting for some silicone sealer for Tallulah, so I decided to tackle the Trophy’s clutch. When I got her, I noticed that pulling the clutch lever did nothing. I had already purchased a couple of replacement screws for the master cylinder cap, so my first job was to drill out the original ones to release the cap. Less than 10 minutes later, the cap was off revealing what looked like very strong Tea like liquid. Not good. A relatively simple job I thought of bleeding through some fresh Dot4 and I’d be done.

Jethro Tull rule struck again (Nothing is easy…) when I couldn’t get any fluid through the system. Not to worry, I have a vacuum bleed kit somewhere. Another deep dive through the toolbox and the vacuum pump was all connected to the bleed nipple and primed. Nothing, nada, couldn’t draw any fluid through the system.

Another trip to the internet and a new seal kit was ordered. Another 6 day wait (although for clarity, it was the same 6-day wait as for the silicone sealer) so I could get on. As I also removed the slave cylinder and the clutch line as well, I cleaned everything up in anticipation of the seal delivery but found I still had time on my hands. I decided to remove the airbox to modify it, which as some of you may know means I also had to remove the carbs. The reason why I wanted to modify the airbox was so that I didn’t have to remove the carbs in the future each time I wanted to replace the air filter. Design fault or Triumphs way of making more money every time the air filter needs replacing by making it a pain in the arse so you leave it for the dealer to do?

The airbox has captive bolts, so you can’t split it anyway, meaning the whole airbox/filter unit needs to be replaced. I’m not sure but I was toying with the idea of splitting the airbox so it can be removed without taking the carbs off and replacing the stock filter with a K&N version. Thing is, a K&N filter costs about the same as a new airbox & filter from Triumph.

Anyway, back to the Clutch. A new seal kit for the master cylinder arrived & it took all of 10 minutes to replace the seals & refit the master cylinder to the bike. 2 hours later & I’m still trying to pump fluid through the system without success. I tried everything, including vacuum bleeding and reverse bleeding from the slave cylinder using a 500ml syringe and length of fuel hose. Damned if I could get it to work. I even stripped the master cylinder & rebuilt it again just in case I’d got it wrong the first time around.

Yet another trip to the internet to research the issue. I found many articles about reverse bleeding (tried that), vacuum bleeding (tried that too) and a couple about priming the master cylinder first (also tried that). Eventually, I found one article that suggested that the banjo bolt could be higher than the piston, causing an air lock, especially if the master cylinder is positioned in its ‘riding position’ It suggested rotating the master cylinder so that the banjo bolt is as far below the piston as possible without spilling any fluid out of the reservoir. Tried it and SUCCESS! Within 10 minutes I had a fully working clutch, at least it feels like it’s working. I put the bike into a high gear & tried rotating the rear wheel with my foot while holding the clutch in, but it wasn’t an easy thing to do. I suspect that after standing unused for so long the clutch plates may need some attention, but I’ll save that for another day.

Success! I have finally managed to unlock the fuel cap. I admit, I wrote to Practical Sportsbike magazine for their help & what came back from them via way of the May 2020 edition was essentially drill the lock out & once open, buy a new tumbler & file the pins so the original key will fit. Well, I didn’t exactly do that as I had one more trick up my sleeve. With the help of a stick, my endoscope and a length of fuel line, I injected some Harpic X10 limescale remover onto the underside of the lock & left it for 20 minutes before rinsing it all out with diesel. 

Woohoo!

I had to do it twice to clean all the crud off but once done, I inserted the key & felt some movement. With the aid of a thin flat blade screwdriver for more turning power, the lock finally gave in & opened. I’ve now removed the whole locking mechanism & thoroughly cleaned it. It now works fine.

 

Tiger2

All this time, Tiger2 was staring at me from the bench, pretty much untouched since I rebuilt the rear brake calliper. I thought it time I did a little more while I had some time (remember 6 days wait for postal delivery). The front wheel looked really manky, despite giving the bike a blast with a pressure washer some time ago. I thought I’d remove the wheel & give it a good clean. Now this was an easy job, remove the front brake callipers, check, undo the axle, check, withdraw the wheel from the bike, check. So far all was going well as I took the wheel outside to give it a thorough clean, then I heard a metallic clang sort of sound from behind me. I looked back to see a brake pad hanging below the calliper & a spring sort of thing on the floor. At first, I thought it was the anti-rattle spring, but it was the wrong shape. Don’t know where it came from or from what calliper it was supposed to fit, but a quick look at the workshop manual showed it wasn’t from this calliper. A thorough search of the floor, which included a sweep revealed a number of stray washers but no anti-rattle clip. Just in case, I removed the pads from the other front calliper which confirmed two things, firstly, there is a spring clip in the calliper, and the one that I heard falling to the floor was definitely not the correct one. I can only conclude that the previous owner, lost the original clip & just jammed any old spring clip he had to hand in the calliper, rather than not use one at all. Another trip to Internet will shortly be undertaken as Wemoto has them in stock for less than £6 and that’s a small price to pay for a safety critical part. Oh, the wheel cleaned up OK and was put back on after cleaning the callipers, the underside of the front mudguard and the fork lowers.

While I was at it, I found a spare horn on one of the shelves in the garage, it was the original one from Tallulah which while working, does sound a little muffled. I decided this was better than no horn at all so this is now in Tiger2. While I had the front cowl off, I also replaced a sidelight bulb I noticed had blown and the dash light for the clock.

Once all back together again, I wheeled it outside for yet another thorough clean, including the underside of the engine which was covered in oil, followed by a polish of the bodywork. So now there’s a nice clean Tiger2 sitting back on the bench awaiting a new clutch, which I ordered at the weekend (2 May).

An altogether cleaner looking T2

The good thing about this lock down is that I’m not commuting, so no fuel costs, no parking charges and I’m not spending money at lunch times in the local coffee shop. It means there’s a little more money available to spend on my Triumvirate of Triumphs. Every cloud…