Featured Resurrecting 1966 Tiger T100ss

I’ve spent several hours looking for a bit more information on exactly how to go about stripping out the bearings from the rear QD wheel hub. The information in the workshop manual is pretty scanty and advocates bending (actually damaging) one of the internal grease retainers sufficiently to allow a drift to pass through the centre of one of the bearings and punch out from behind the other bearing at the opposite end of the hub. In fact it looks almost impossible to get a drift anywhere through the myriad of bearings, distance pieces, grease retainers etc. U-tube, my usual go-to reference, is practically of no use either as almost all of the many vids only cover the standard rear wheel, but not the QD variety and there’s sufficient difference to a standard rear wheel to make the vids of little use.

The manual does however say that the bearing sleeve is a sliding fit and is pushed out to provide space for the drifts. What it doesn’t say is that, if you’re lucky, there’s enough muck and corrosion on the shaft and bearing for them to be stuck together and that you have to drift the sleeve out, and if your even luckier the bearing comes out with the shaft. I got lucky and the whole kit and kaboodle dropped out with only a couple of light taps through the spindle.

So, with everything out I’ve cleaned up all the parts and most seem to be in quite good order. The brake shoes are about half worn but the linings have got grease on them so they’ll get replaced. I’ve managed to re-plate most of the external fittings but most of the nuts are damaged so they’ll get renewed.

The paint on the hub itself is chipped and scraped, especially about the spoke holes, so I’ve used a rotary abrasive mop to get it back to bare metal and re sprayed it with four coats of black Hammerite which I cured on a radiator overnight. Hopefully that will resist further chipping a bit better.

The three roller bearings in the brake and wheel hubs initially seemed to clean up okay. On checking they all seemed free and smooth in operation and without any free play. I have though cleaned them out, blown out, dried out and lightly oiled several times, but each time they seem to start picking up and sticking after a few minutes use. I thought I was going to get away with not having to replace them, but there does seem to be something wrong with them, so I’ve now ordered up a new set.

 

Another butt-clenching moment when you suddenly suspect that you’ve got the wrong rear fork fitted to the frame. ….

I’ve assembled up the rear brake hub and offered it up to the rear fork. Then spent another half hour rummaging through the pile’s boxes to find the torque stay arm that goes between hub and fork. I’ve found something that looks like it but it has two holes at one end whereas it only needs one. Leading on from someone else’s blog I had thought that there should be a tapped hole in the left fork arm for a bolt holding that end of the stay. The parts list also appears to show it attached directly to the arm. Absolutely no sign of a tapped hole in my fork arm though, only a square plate (with a hole) welded further up the underside of the arm, but again, no sign of that plate on my parts list drawing. An hour or two of searching t’interweb couldn’t produce a pic of that area on a fork from 1966. (Strange it is that you can never find a photo of exactly what you want to see). Therefor, it must be the wrong arm for the bike. ‘Oh ****’.

A bit of reasoning tells me though that Triumph probably wouldn’t have drilled and tapped a sizeable 5/16 hole in a major stressed part in that way. Back to searching photos again and it looks like the lay of the stay would align with the plate and its hole. Sure enough it does fit to one of the two holes. A further look at the parts drawing seems to show that there isn’t a bolt hole there but the fittings for the 3TA and 5TA lower chainguard are overlaid on the drawing. Crisis over.

But what is the second hole in the stay for? I’m probably trying to fit a mudguard stay…

 

Thanks darkman. I’ve now got to finish assembling the QD hub with all its various washers and retainers in the right order and hopefully it’ll all come together. Fingers crossed.

 

While at the local Autojumble today I came across a pretty good looking refurb of a ‘66 T100ss which was for sale.
Unfortunately I still just can’t find the lurve for this particular colour scheme.

 

Unfortunately no. I’m afraid I missed an opportunity there.
The cycle parts were from around ‘66 but the engine was a much later one which had security etching around the engine No, poss ‘69 on. The brake-stay looked to be only with a single hole but it was a bit crowded at the time to scrabble around. I was also looking more at the colour which seemed off, a lot paler than it looks in these photos.

 

A few questions answered

Looking for information on rear wheel hubs through t’internet, I came across a photo of a ‘66 T100 (as you do), that had been up for sale in a 2016 auction at the National Motorcycle Museum. Sale details included the Frame and Engine numbers, which looked familiar and were coincidentally within 30 of my bikes numbers. Which means that it was probably manufactured on the same day as mine and given the numbers, was likely to the same specification.

From the photo I’ve been able to ascertain the answers to a few details on my bike that have remained unanswered since I started out on this rebuild, as the chances are that the two bikes were pretty much identical.

Headlight shell warning light lay out.
In ‘66 the T100 gained two w/lights on the headlight shell. Both lights are grouped together below the ammeter, not where they are usually seen on later years either side of it. There’s also no headlight switch, that remained on the left side panel.

Front mudguard stay.
The lower mudguard stay is of the wider prop stand variety. Not like the one I’ve got as a straight “U” bend.

Spark plug caps colour
These ones are red, not black. I’ve got a couple of broken bits of HT lead.

The Triumph logo on the back of the seat.
As near as I can ascertain the large Triumph logo was introduced in November ‘65 just a month or so after the build date of my bike. I’m quite happy that mine just missed out on it. I can’t really say I’ll miss it as it just wasn’t a thing then.

Stick on numbers for number plates
Most photos of the period show stick on letters/numbers on bikes I’m not sure that pressed ally plates had been invented for bikes at that time. Mine has one peeling off after 60 years.

Petrol tank colour and break lines.
This is a bit less positive that it’s original as it’s quite likely the tank has had a re spray at some time. The Sherbourne Green is a bit darker in this photo than it might be and it looks a bit darker than the usual. The lines under the tank are a bit more prominent than usually rendered on a re spray. It also doesn’t have knee pads which th original would certainly have.

Pity about the white handle grips though.

 

Well, that wasn’t much fun. Overhauling the rear QD hub and brake assembly.

Essentially it’s in two parts and there are significant differences from the standard (non QD) hub. The drive side, brake hub includes the teeth for the drive chain cast into and is part of the brake drum, making this the final drive side. Splined into the drum is the wheel hub, onto which is spoked the rear wheel rim and the speedo drive mechanism. These two units are aligned together by central shafts utilising a cone and socket joint which when pulled together by a central spindle becomes one unit. There are three wheel bearings, a large one in the brake hub and two smaller sized bearings in the hub. The individual bearings are open, but packed with grease which is retained by various grease retainers and spacers on the central shaft.

There is very little published information regarding the correct positioning and orientation of these various parts. Almost all of the available videos on UTube are of the standard wheel, not the QD hub which is different in a coupl of fundamental respects and the workshop manual gives only a paragraph on the disassembly of the hub and recommends ‘…reassembly in the reverse order’.

Unfortunately most of my problems stemmed from the elementary mistake of not taking enough notes or photos as it all came apart. It wasn’t helped either that a part of the job had already been done and the hub had been reassembled with several wrong parts. The bearings hadn’t been cleaned properly and were pretty rough. The speedo unit hadn’t been touched and the grease was dried out internally.

One other point to note is that if the original “open” bearings are being replaced with pre-packed ones you still need to reinstall the mis-named central “grease retainers” (W1595). Apart from keeping some of the grease in the open bearings these two parts also have the function of supporting the central spacer tube which without their support will allow the central spacer to drop into the hub when the axle spindle is removed to take the wheel out, making it almost impossible to get the spindle back into place.
It’s probably best not to discover this little foible on a dark, wet night on the roadside while trying to refit the wheel after a puncture.

I sorted out the bits that I had from the partly assembled brake and hub but couldn’t identify some parts. In the end I ordered up a complete set of internal spacers and washers in the hub, plus the bearings. In the end at least one part was incorrectly supplied by two different suppliers. One big question hung over how many bearing support rings (W1509) there should be. The parts list quotes 2 but the exploded view diagram only shows one. It turns out that only the right-hand, timing side bearing has one, the other bearing is positioned by only the distance tube when the whole axle is tightened up to preload the central assembly.

It finally came together again in what looks like an operable condition. I’ve just got to see if it will all fit back in the frame again.

 

Well… a bit of progress. The drum and hub went into place with only having to remove a couple of burrs on the fork slots and the right side outer distance piece to get them to come together.

Only one piece left over. A shouldered nut that fits the end of the axel spindle. At least, it has the same thread. I assumed it would fall into place as I assembled the hub to the fork. But no, there’s no place for it there and I’ve no idea where it goes.

 

Hi there Robbi. Thanks for your comments, they’re appreciated.

It’s all been a learning curve. At least a ‘barn-find’ might have been an improvement over the pile of bits that I bought into. At least it might have been one complete bike and I wouldn’t have had to second guess whether any one bit was the correct bit for the year/model. But I’ve had a lot of advice on these forums pointing me in the right direction.

The centre stand problem has more or less been sorted with the make up of a bracket to take the place of the cast-iron eye that formed the pivot. Unfortunately welding cast-iron proved to be a bit of a non-starter as it doesn’t take well to that sort of treatment. Also there was no support for it as it stands fully exposed on the underside.

I hope that it’ll turn out a good looking bike in the end. It certainly won’t be anything like “concours” as I’m quite happy to include mods that’ll improve performance and handling while still keeping to the essential look.

Anyway thanks agin.
Dave

 

The front and rear mudguards that came in ‘the pile’ are not the ones that came on the original bike. They both have been chromium plated which wasn’t the original finish for the T100ss and the plating has deteriorated badly with substantial pitting under the chrome. The rear one has holes for clips on the left side which I think would have retained an engine breather pipe under the guard while the front one has a welded in rear/bottommost threaded bolt which is the fixing for the earlier square shaped, rear stay that supposedly acted as a front wheel stand. That rear stay is also chromed whereas the two upper ones are painted. As usual it’s all bit of a mix.

They both look as if they have been at some time, part of this bike however, as the fittings that came bolted on to them seem to have been in situ at some point. Offering them up they look as if they will fit ok. The rear matches up to the frame fittings while the front one luckily has a radius that’s a closer fit to a 19” wheel instead of the standard 18”. That’s just as well as it’s a 19” front that’ll be going in. So they’re not perfect for the model but replacement new ones are expensive and repainting these should bring a fair saving.

I briefly tried removing the dead chrome with abrasive discs but soon found it wasn’t coming off easily and I was damaging the underlying metal. Both mudguards and the chromed stay have now been sent off to a platers to have the chrome removed and brought back to bare metal for painting. In the meantime I’m looking out for a square style front/lower stay but I’ll settle for the round one that I’ve got if I have to.

I’m now also sorting out all the other chromed parts that I have to see which ones pass muster and which will have to go for re-plating. So far that’s almost all of it. The mudguards should be done in about two weeks so I’m cleaning up all the chromed bits I’ve got so I can take them in and exchange for the mudguards when they’re ready.

 

Ah! Thanks darkman, I hadn’t realised that. I’ll have to see what’s at Kempton in a couple of weeks.

 

Thanks for the pics darkman. It’s always a pleasure to see your bikes. I

I can see the clearance you mean and I hadn’t taken that into account. When I get the mudguard back from the platers I’ll offer it up with the stay from the Bonnie which looks about the same. I’m having to get the wheels off anyway to get the offsets measured by the.. er spoker man.

 

Now for the hard bit. I have the T100 front and rear hubs built up and both fit in the holes in their respective forks at front and rear. I now have to send them to a specialist to supply rims and lace them up to the hubs with stainless steel spokes. I have a gent lined up to do the job but in order for him to apply his magical skills I’ve got to supply him with the wheels offset figures. This could be a problem.

Effectively, I’ve turned the front wheel, forks and brakes from a ‘66 configuration to a ‘69 one except that the fork width spacing remains as 1/4 inch less on the T100 than the T120 Bonnie. Both workshop manuals for those two models show the offset figures for both front and rear wheels to be the same with QD rear wheel and a 19 inch front wheel.

Try as I may I can’t see how the quarter inch difference on the front fork legs is going to make any difference to the front wheel offset as they both should be centred in the fork legs anyway and the width they are apart shouldn’t effect the wheel/rim build up. The hub centre aligns with centre of the fork legs and the rear QD hub slips into the rear forks without any problem. Although I can’t as yet check the front to rear alignment without the rims being present.

The plan is though, to take along the Bonnie wheels and hubs to let the builder measure up the offset for himself and duplicate the figures to the new parts. Once that’s done I can strip both the Bonnie wheels, repaint the hubs, lube the bearings etc. The front wheel rim also needs re-chroming while the rear is good to go having been covered in oil most of its life. Finally a rebuild with stainless spokes, which is something I had been contemplating from long ago to complete. At least, that’s the plan… No doubt something will crop up though.