Chopper project - I need some directions

[Terror]

UPDATE:

Didn't get as much done as I would have liked over the break but did spend a few hours working on the engine.

I've put everything back together at the moment, as I am still unable to crack the nuts around the head. I've been pouring CRC over the nuts and they *should* free up once I get the appropriate tools to attempt again.

I concentrated on cleaning up the 'general crustiness' over the break, im about 50% of the way there, so I've sanded back half of the engine with 240 grit and gone back over that with 1200 grit and Autosoled / polished her up. It looks great!!!! - almost mirror shine (and yes I realise she will get dirty again once I start pulling it down). The areas which had old crome left on were quite easy to peel off and the alloy under there looks factory, so I guess it was factory plated maybe.

I decided that this was a good project for the break becuase, seeing a nice shiney engine as apposed to a crust bucket will give me more motivation, i've become a lot more acquanted with parts which will need to be replaced (cracked fins on rocket boxes etc), and also just because it would need to be done at some point anwyay... I will try and get some images of the half polished engine up in the next couple of days.

[scumdog]

If you have nut 'frozen' on a stud try heating it and then put a candle on it in the right place for the wax to wick its way down the thread, while things are still hot give it a crack...

[FJRider]

If you have nut 'frozen' on a stud try heating it and then put a candle on it in the right place for the wax to wick its way down the thread, while things are still hot give it a crack...

Try to heat the nut ... rather than the nut AND stud. The theory is ... heat expands and the thread "hole" of the nut gets bigger/ loose on the stud. Heat also can displace/dissolve the rust/crud locking the nut to the stud.

Option 2. Remove the entire stud. (with nut still attached) and replace with new(er) items.

[Terror]

Try to heat the nut ... rather than the nut AND stud. The theory is ... heat expands and the thread "hole" of the nut gets bigger/ loose on the stud. Heat also can displace/dissolve the rust/crud locking the nut to the stud.

Option 2. Remove the entire stud. (with nut still attached) and replace with new(er) items.

Oh yeah, that sounds like a good idea, I think I have a little gas torch thing somewhere which I will give a go.

[skippa1]

Whats with the metrics on these machines... I grabbed my 10 & 12mm spanners first off, but they largely seem to be 13mm, go figure?

H!

""Whats with the metrics on these machines... I grabbed my 10 & 12mm spanners first off, but they largely seem to be 13mm, go figure""

Its British, you need SAE or Witworth spanner sets, sockets set, Lb sq in torque wrenches, allen wrenches, measuring tools need to be in inches, not millimeters.. Dont use metric spanners on a brit motor,ever!

Like subike says, shes imperial not metric. The 13mm fits well because 13mm and 1/2" AF are close enough to the same size, but all others will be imperial

[The Lone Rider]

Nice to see you'll consider a Harley bobber, good one!

You clearly have not once read the magazine or looked at the posters.

[Terror]

All right, sorry for disappearing guys, went through somewhat of a separation at the end of the year so everything pretty much went on hold. Attached you will find some photos of my recent efforts on the engine...



Front Cover looking a damn sight better than it was, still chrome to peel and more polishing to be done



Got bored with the front cover, so I started working on the timing cover



Shine starting to come through on the timing cover


Now if we go back and look at these parts before:



Front Cover



Timing Cover


Trying to put at least a little time in each day, so the photos of progress should be quite frequent going forward, stay tuned!



I've also been buying a few other Triumphs in the recent months, I picked up a compete(ish) basketcase 1929 Triumph Model CN/CSD and a 1926 Model P rolling frame. These two bikes are going to be more long term restoration projects, if anyone has any parts for either please do sing out.

Cheers,

T

[Terror]

Al-righty, as promised, the work goes on.... although there isn't much to see from the photos, here's the fruits of my weekend work, as you can probably tell.. I am pretty unfocused in terms of where I deploy myself, but this work gets monotonous, sanding, polishing, sanding, resting, polishing, sanding and so on....







Started sanding back around the front engine mount, 600 grit seems to take forever on this coarse surface so might need to take it up a notch.





I've taken back most of the remaining chrome from the timing cover, and started sanding the actual timing cover back a bit deeper, it's still not perfect, in fact out of all the covers this one will require the most work. I did find something online about using brake fluid to strip unwanted chrome back, and I can attest that it works VERY well, I was using a sharp blade to flake the chrome off before and that was taking forever, brake fluid rips it up in no time!! So I have started this process on the outer clutch cover..

[Terror]

Work goes on... Still having trouble concentrating on one area, but that's okay because at the end of the day it all needs to be done anyway, so here's what's been happening in the last few weeks (or however long it's been):



Rocker covers have had a light going over (took bloody hours due to the shape of them), funny story on the inspection cap - I had a hair brained scheme to chuck it in with some sodium hydroxide I had laying around, I figured more would be better.. well that was one heck of a reaction, which resulted in the inspection cover getting lightly pitted (you can probably see in the photo), so that probably turned the job into twice the amount of sanding requried, and as you can see there's still more to go. I think lye is definitely the way to go, in moderation lol.

That inspection cover has broken fins anyway, so no major loss, I am probably going to buy some new ones from Ebay. I was thinking about shaving all the fins off these ones I have and polishing them out, might do that later.



Here's a side shot of the inspection cover prior to my little mistake.



I also managed (finally) to crack a couple of the head nuts off, well I actually destoyed them in the process, but they were buggered anyway, so onto Ebay for a replacement set, once I get the remaining 6 off.. Incidentally, while looking at this photo, can anyone tell me why the head/barrel section is painted black? Obviously this one is painted in rust, but I was thinking of sanding/polishing it back, is there any reason why it seems nobody does this??

That's all for tonight, well I have lot's more photos of the same, but nothing interesting.

Cheers!

[Paul in NZ]

Gawd - looks like that engine has spent some time under the ocean... Its pretty gnarly - god knows what the insides look like. I'm afraid its going to be a crank out jobbie before it runs again as I would even kick something like that over unless I'd been inside the sludge trap to clean it out and blown through all the oil galleries... Sadly there are a few special tools you will need soon and it might pay to get a Triumph specialist involved.

The barrels are painted black because they are iron. Only the T100's of the 50's and a very few special T140's had alloy ones. Traditionally they have always painted them gloss black.... Rest of the engine is alloy so polish away but I'd just haul it all to bits and get them cleaned first.

I STRONGLY suggest you purchase a manual and a DVD like this...

http://www.lowbrowcustoms.com/p126/b...otorcycle-dvd/

Or this

http://www.hughiehancoxrestorations.co.uk/page13.html

[Terror]

Gawd - looks like that engine has spent some time under the ocean... Its pretty gnarly - god knows what the insides look like. I'm afraid its going to be a crank out jobbie before it runs again as I would even kick something like that over unless I'd been inside the sludge trap to clean it out and blown through all the oil galleries... Sadly there are a few special tools you will need soon and it might pay to get a Triumph specialist involved.

The barrels are painted black because they are iron. Only the T100's of the 50's and a very few special T140's had alloy ones. Traditionally they have always painted them gloss black.... Rest of the engine is alloy so polish away but I'd just haul it all to bits and get them cleaned first.

I STRONGLY suggest you purchase a manual and a DVD like this...

http://www.lowbrowcustoms.com/p126/b...otorcycle-dvd/

Or this

http://www.hughiehancoxrestorations.co.uk/page13.html

Hi Paul,

I was wondering when you were going to chime in! Yeah the guy I got it from lived right on a beach, so close enough to being in the drink, I don't know where he had it sitting, but it had been there a very long time.

I am definitely planning on a full rebuild, crank out if that's what it takes. The engine is siezed at the moment anyway, so there's no kicking over. I assume these 'special tools' are availibale on ebay, I have seen TDC and crank pullers on there.. I haven't bothered buying up yet, not till I can get the head off anyway.

I'm pretty sure the barells on mine are alloy, I sanded a little back and it looked like alloy but I guess it could be iron.

As for the DVD's, I'm actually waiting for the Wes White one to arrive at the moment - I foolishly ordered it from Amazon because it was cheaper but ity's sent via USPS so it's probably going to take a while to arrive (it's been 2 weeks so far). Thanks for the info on the other DVD, I will buy that one too.

In the meantime, it's more of the same, polishing and trying to get the head off.

[Road kill]

Personally I'd get everything bead blasted rather than all that polishing stuff.
I mean your going to be tearing it all down anyway so why not.
Then use a drill held polishing mop on the bits you want shiny.
I made mine from a threaded shaft and some carpet discs I cut up,just add polishing soap an life is good.

[Paul in NZ]

The only Triumph T140 that I know came ex factory with chromes outer cases was the Silver Jubilee (1977???) and it definately had a black painted iron block.

The US version of the T140LE (Royal Wedding) initially had a silver painted iron block but only polished alloy outer cases. (1981??) But frankly by then they were making them out of whatever they had to hand so goodness only knows.

The alloy blocks I've seen were Italian ones made by Gilardoni (sp?) and had nikisil liners (these guys make Moto Guzzi and I think Ducati cylinders as well as others and have been making them for years.) Gilardoni have a habit of re making a batch or two of old stuff once there is enough demand so its possible it is alloy but given the state of it gawd knows what the lining is like...

Frankly I'd take the whole thing to an engine recon guy and get them to soak it in their tank for a day or so the get rid of the crud.

[Terror]

Personally I'd get everything bead blasted rather than all that polishing stuff.
I mean your going to be tearing it all down anyway so why not.
Then use a drill held polishing mop on the bits you want shiny.
I made mine from a threaded shaft and some carpet discs I cut up,just add polishing soap an life is good.

I hear what your saying here, but (correct me if I am wrong) bead blasting won't flatten out the surfaces on the cases right? I'm trying to get the whole engine smooth and to a mirror type shine in the end.

The only Triumph T140 that I know came ex factory with chromes outer cases was the Silver Jubilee (1977???) and it definately had a black painted iron block.

The US version of the T140LE (Royal Wedding) initially had a silver painted iron block but only polished alloy outer cases. (1981??) But frankly by then they were making them out of whatever they had to hand so goodness only knows.

The alloy blocks I've seen were Italian ones made by Gilardoni (sp?) and had nikisil liners (these guys make Moto Guzzi and I think Ducati cylinders as well as others and have been making them for years.) Gilardoni have a habit of re making a batch or two of old stuff once there is enough demand so its possible it is alloy but given the state of it gawd knows what the lining is like...

Frankly I'd take the whole thing to an engine recon guy and get them to soak it in their tank for a day or so the get rid of the crud.

You certianly seem to know your stuff Paul!

When you say take the whole engine to get the crud soaked off, you mean in one piece, or pull it all to bits first?

I'm actually quite enjoying the monotony of sanding / polishing it back, every day it's a small step towards a bit of a vision I have for the bike. I'm 25 so I have all the time in the world to potter around with it too, sometimes benefits of the journey getting there exceed the final destination. It also allows me a little free time away from the kids, which is nice

[Kickaha]

The alloy blocks I've seen were Italian ones made by Gilardoni (sp?) and had nikisil liners

They were factory fitment on the Harris Bonneville, mapcycle do (or used to) a nice billet alloy cylinder