Hi dudes. As said recently in a noob thread, my father gave me my inheritance 'early' i assume so he can see the pain and frustration on my face of trying to figure out his box of bits... Bike was purchased new by himself in early 1978, which he then did around 900 miles on and decided to take it apart and now i get the fun job of putting it back together for him. Im mostly going to be using this thread to show pics of what im doing, and to ask a zillion questions. So to begin, Emptied my junk filled garage, or at least moved it all to the edges so the bike can stand pride of place.
So i had a day off work today, and decided to have a go pulling the engine apart. Ive always been into older Honda's (mostly cars) and ive taken a few things apart, but never a bike engine so i got crazy undoing stuff until i came upon a bolt/nut i didnt have a tool for. Lifted it up onto my bench and knocked the head top off for the grand reveal of what happens to an engine thats spent 25 years in the back of my dads garage. Spider hiding away in there, i bet he didnt catch many flies.
So i got a nut i dont have a tool for, its a weird hex thing, any suggestions? Do i need one of those open ended brake pipe spanner style or something? There are four of them, two at the front and two at the back, what am i supposed to be using to get them off then people? I kept going with other things i could remove anyway, and i found the bit that moves the pistons up and down, so i got to cleaning inside the bores and getting the gunk out. I took some pics afterward, you can see where the pistons have sat, and i have a little rust patch on top, so i might go visit a local engine builder on my next day off, see what they think. And lastly, im unsure if i should be changing the internal drive chain, or just to clean it, i took the tensioner off, and the plastic still looks like new, However i couldnt figure out which end you remove to release the chain, so i stopped here for the time being, start some research before pulling at stuff. So far im happy with how clean it is, i was expecting a lot worse, now to figure out how to release those four weird nuts and i can get the block off and look inside for surprises!
Old a/f whitworth ring spanner should do it. Bore should clean up with some gentle honing. Can't wait to see finished article. Agreed there may be quite a few of us who would like to get our teeth into something like this. ( the retired ones with too much time on their hands)
I figured it was going to be some old style measurement, ive pretty much only got metric stuff. Hopefully i can keep my updates regular, as a 50+ hour a week trucker, its going to be short spurts at it in the evenings or rainy days off.
Very difficult to dip in & out of a project like this. Continuity is the key. I wish you luck, the fact that you have inherited the project will help with the drive & perseverance required. The good thing is, this is not a sprint, take your time. We are all here to help if we can.
I found a 13mm Hellfrauds spanner that i gently ground the edges down on fit the nut perfectly and went into the space, i do love a good bodger job. So i took the block off today, pistons and rods seem super clean and i assume only a good amount of movement, no weird knocky clonky sounds when pulling on them. I think im going to take it to my local engine repair/building shop tomorrow with my day off work and see if they mess with bike engines or not, to get the whole thing cleaned up. Progress pics. So next on the list is a new gasket set. Any thoughts or opinions on where to find what i want? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIUMPH-...261391&hash=item3d0a2790b9:g:ANEAAOSwAKxWWHwf I think id be tempted on buying all new nuts for the rebuild just so it looks pretty. What do we think?
Plenty of suppliers of bits - gasket set courtesy of L.F. Harris it would appear. Many others are available and listed in classic bike mags. Be careful not to let the con rods (steel) knock against the crankcase mouths (alloy) as they could easily cause damage. Plug the crankcase opening with a (very) clean cloth to prevent things falling in and getting lost - they can and will ('things' can be total bastids sometimes)! Get the repair shop to carefully clean out the sludge trap oil filter on the flywheel so that it is nice and clean before you fit an external canister oil filter kit when it comes to rebuild time. Honing marks still on the bores so a good clean up will hopefully suffice. Looking good so far!
Ok so after calling my local engine centre, they have advised me that they wil strip and clean anything, and do any work like honing bores etc, but will not rebuild. So the executive decision has been made to do it myself, and im going to start purchasing all the parts required, however the only piece im unsure on, is what the actual engine/bike code is, I see they are all T140 or T160 etc, and Bonneville shares with Tiger alot, but im confident the remade newer bonnies have a different engine shape. Im essentially only looking for gaskets sets and piston rings, i dont think im going to split the bottom case open as all those gears and cogs look scary.
As Dilli said, great project. I opted for a newer Bonnie and kept the skin on my knuckles. Good luck and keep the pics coming All the best
As far as I'm aware, the T140V (Bonneville) is almost exactly the same bike as the TR7V (Tiger) apart from the Bonnie having twin carbs and a different paint scheme. When buying parts it is usually best to provide engine/frame numbers to make sure you get the correct bits - same as you would probably do with more modern bikes. Plenty of good advice out there from many dealers/suppliers. Most of them will know which parts you need for a 'Jubilee Bonneville'. If they don't then be wary.
Really can imagine only doing 900miles from new. That’s so rare and bizarre. It’s a shame it’s getting taken apart although I know it’s probably the right thing
just seen this thread and lots of good valuable advice, I see you mentioned T140/TR7, you can totally forget the newer Bonnie stuff ,it shares a name only. Steve is correct, the T140/TR7 are essentially the same for the majority of parts. L P Williams , feked.com, or https://nvt-motorcycles.com/en
I did already find Harris but then got sad when you needed to be a business, i did find alot of their stuff on the bay of e at least. I will have a look at the website you have listed along with the feked one. So new update, i found a place in Wolverhampton called 3D Motorcycles, seems to know his stuff with loads of old bikes inside his shop, however he said the average rebuild price is somewhere between 2-3k, which im not sure i want to spend on a bike that im probably never going to ride, so the game continues. Top half of the engine has been left with a local engine centre for cleaning so im hoping to have that back early in January.
Have you tried Shropshire Classic Motorcycles, I believe they are still trading & had everything you could need, and were very good for advice.