Featured 1964 Tiger 90 Restoration

My '64 Tiger 90 has been in the family over 40 years. Bought by my brother in 1981 for £200, used in all weathers for a couple of years then abandoned in his garage. I persuaded him to give it to me and got it running again in 1998. Ridden occasionally until 2011 when it sprung a bad oil leak. Been waiting 12 years in my garage for some attention. Very scruffy and quite rusty.
Inspired by Dominic Chinea's YouTube restoration of his Tiger 90 it's time to do mine.

 

Deciding what to do...
Dom is building a street scrambler Tiger 90 with knobbly tyres which is a great idea but I want to keep mine reasonably standard. I like it as it is in all black and am tempted to go for a matt black paint job to keep the scruffy look and for ease of touch up when rust comes through again. I'm being assisted by my neighbour and good friend Odane who is very enthusiastic and likes cleaning!?

 

Back in the day I converter it to 12 volts using this rectifier module. The wiring will need a lot of work and hopefully this photo might help get the wires to where they need to go...

 

Scruffy motor...

 

Thanks guys. So far Odane has done a lot of talking and not a lot of cleaning
Thought I should take a photo of the points at TDC before taking them off. I can't remember if the cam has a key or it is just on a taper...

 

Took the head off today and the primary drive cover. 40 years ago my brother and I managed to break a segment and some teeth off the clutch basket as you can see in the photo. It's been running like that all this time!

 

Odane came round to do some cleaning but after much talking didn't actually do anything. I had piled up the rusty parts to go for shot blasting but he thinks he can sand them. He took the rear mudguard away to do in his garage. Good luck with that!

 

Thanks Dave
The Speedo and rev counter need attention. The Speedo sticks and doesn't return to zero mph and the glass is cracked. This happened 40 odd years ago when my brother and I got frustrated trying to push the fork top bolts down against the spring preload and he (or was it I) had the bright idea to hit it with a hammer, missed and broke the speedo!
Note the reverse action rev counter. Is this rare?

 

Thanks for the info Dave.
Made good progress today. Got the head, barrels, primary drive and gearbox out.
It's been such a long time since I last used my favourite 1/4 Whitworth spanner. I'm stuck now as I don't have a camshaft pinnion extractor so that's on order from Feked along with a gasket set, oil seal set and new clutch spring nuts that get mangled when you undo them.

 

Here's a thing. When I lifted the barrels the exhaust cam followers fell out. When I examined them I'd written on them years ago in Sharpie and the writing is still there!!

 

Good advice. I had Boyer Brandsden on it for a while then had a bad misfire along the Uxbridge Road, Hayes, NW London 20+ years ago. Got home then put the points back on. I suspect it was just a loose connection somewhere and I kept the Boyer in the garage - until my ex wife had a clear out and threw it away along with my Haynes manuals and all the expensive receipts and documentation for my '72 T150V Trident...
The Trident has TriSpark ignition and so does my T25T Trail Blazer. Expensive but good.

 

I've been reading the excellent website recommended by DaveQ https://triumph-tiger-90.com/
It says "The road models feature the Lucas 700 headlamp and shell, look carefully and you will see ‘Motorcycle’ in the glass. Original headlamps rarely survive and should be carefully preserved." I checked mine. I have the motorcycle legend. Happy days!

 

I fitted the indicators after a near miss on the M25 J21A roundabout. Entirely my fault. Coming up to the roundabout from the St Albans direction I wanted the 3rd exit onto the M25 anti clockwise. My brother was following on his T140D Bonneville. I was in the wrong (left hand) lane and the car next to me, unbeknown to me, was going for the 2nd exit and was also in the wrong (right hand) lane. I wrongly assumed he was going for the 3rd exit like me. I made a spirited take off to get ahead then cut Infront of the guy who had also made a spirited take off. It was a close call and my brother said "Get indicators and mirrors!"
The rear rim is Borrani and was on the bike. It's a quick release wheel.
I have had a long battle with Amal carbs and actually can get them working well. Particularly if they fluff and stall on pickup. I have a very simple fix for that. I have never been able to get a reliable idle though. I have Mikunis on my Trident and PWK flat slides on my T90 and T25T. The improvement is dramatic with easy starting and reliable idling. My T90 always had good mid range on the Amal but didn't want to rev. With the flat slide carb she absolutely flies and I have to watch the rev counter!

 

The cam shaft puller arrived and extracted the cam shaft pinions with ease. Such an expensive thing for a couple of minutes of action. It is so much easier to work on these bikes now than it was back in the late '70s early '80s. We used to trawl around London searching for parts. Kay's of Ealing, Slocombes of Neasden, Roebucks in Rayners Lane, Happy Hamrax in Ladbrook Grove. Nowadays you just search on line and it arrives in a day or two.