Physical progress in the garage has been a little slow, something I can't say about the postman. There's been a few deliveries to the shed of Triumph.
I've not been completely inactive though, I successfully fitted that little knob thing that sits on the side of the instrument pod, you know the one that resets the trip counter. It was missing when I bought Daysie and knowing how super reliable old
Triumph fuel senders are, thought it essential to have a working trip counter.
In addition to all the bits I bought last month, I've just
bought some Dzus fasteners for the fairing, the ones on Daysie's fairings were
somewhat corroded, a big bag of copper washers so I can refit the oil cooler
and sump plug and a cam cover gasket, complete with those little rubber seals
for the cam cover bolts.
Sometimes, I love the taxman who sent me a nice little tax rebate this month,without which the savings pot
would have been raided last month (and having worked for them in the past & met my
current partner there, I have to admit to loving the odd Taxwoman too)
Anyway, I digress. Not only did I successfully fit the Trip counter reset knob, I also replaced the air filter. The old one was not the worst I've seen but I didn't see the point in replacing oil & fuel filters, plugs, fuel lines and vac lines and not replacing the air filter as well. Admittedly it was an easy & quick job as the airbox was sitting on a shelf, not in the bike, but as a well known UK supermarket says, 'Every little helps'.
I know there's still a long way to go but an unexpected
health issue means I have to slow down for a little while. I'll keep things
ticking over in the garage but probably not do as much as I'd likeover the coming months.
Nothing serious but enough to have to pay a visit to the
local hospital for a day later this month to make sure it doesn't get
serious.
Mr Postie delivered a nice box of Dzus fasteners for the
fairings, not that I'm anywhere near that stage, but at least I have them
sitting on a shelf ready. The Cam cover gasket also arrived this week as did a
big bag of copper washers for the oil lines & sump plug. I'm still awaiting
some silicone vacuum hose to replace the 'way past it' IACV hoses.
As mentioned, I need to take things relatively easy with
just a little bit more cleaning (why is it that every time I look I find
something else to clean), I've reassembled the dash pod, re-attaching all those
little brackets & rubber gromets and fitted the instrument pod to it, so
that's all now back on the shelf & ready to fit back to the bike when I get
that far.
I've also replaced the spark plugs and checked the valves.
The Exhaust valves should have been in the range 0.15 - 0.20mm and all but one
was pretty much bang on 0.15mm, the one that wasn't was a little over but
nowhere near 0.20mm.
The inlet valves were a similar story. The range is 0.10 –
0.15mm and again all but one was 0.10mm. the odd one was again a little more
than 0.10mm but less than 0.15mm. I consider that a result as I didn't need to
change anything, so just cleaned up the mating faces between the head and cam
cover, a little high temp silicone sealer, new gasket & bolt seals and all
is back together again. While I was at it, I also dug out a can of electrical
contact cleaner & cleaned up all the plugs going to the coils and a few other
connectors I could easily see.
Next up, since removing the brake lines I hadn't removed the brake fluid reservoir, so every so often, it'd squirt brake fluid over the bench. Because Tabitha is parked next to the bench and I kept knocking Daysie's front brake lever,
I've now drained and replaced the front brake reservoir. As the screw & clip that stops the cap unscrewing on the original reservoir, broken, I bought a replacement reservoir from Sprint Manufacturing & now seemed the ideal opportunity to remove the old & fit the new. I still need to remove the master cylinder to see if it needs new seals but at least now there's no more possibility of spraying brake fluid anywhere.
I've also replaced the clutch lever (the original was bent)
but have still to replace the clutch cable which is currently sitting on the
shelf, having been delivered by… you guessed it, Mr Postie.
Finally, I've cleaned up and checked, as much as I can
without fixing up a battery, all the electrical connectors. The majority of
them were ok with just a few looking corroded. The application of some fine
grade wet n dry, lashings of Electrical Contact Cleaner and a little time did
the job.
There's an elephant in the room I've been avoiding every
time I do a little more work, namely the rear end. You see, I've never had a
bike with a single sided swing arm before so don't have any experience of them.
Taking the wheel off was easy, I've done that, but anything else is new
territory for me.
For starters, I need to put something under the engine to
hold Daysie up so I can remove the paddock stand. Ordinarily, I would have tied
up the back of the bike and hung it to the roof beams with ratchet straps, but
with the sub frame removed, that's not an option. Besides, with no sub frame,
the swing arm & suspension is far easier to get to.
Then I need to strip down the hub, check the bearings and sort out the eccentric adjuster, which appears seized. Then I need to check/replace all the swing arm bearings before I tackle the suspension.
I've been having a look at the rear shock and am still
undecided whether to replace it or get it refurbished. I think it's going to
depend on how well it cleans up and if all the various adjustments still work.
I know that the spring will need powder coating at the least. My head says
replace it; my wallet says get it refurbished.
I think the whole
elephant can wait another week or two and I'll concentrate on getting the
engine & cooling system sorted first
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