Making a Triumph a bit less ugly

[Ditchfinder]

So this is what the old bus looks like at the minute.



Note the uber fat grips which are going to be changed for some skinny renthal ones to suit my fat-fingered lady hands and the raised edges of the old stickers which resisted heat, thinners and acetone.

[mangocrazy]

You want to speak nicely to Trinity and see if she fancies cleaning those headers...

[Skub]

You want to speak nicely to Trinity and see if she fancies cleaning those headers...

Yes,yes,I heard somewhere she'd become rather adept at the job.

[Ditchfinder]

You want to speak nicely to Trinity and see if she fancies cleaning those headers...

Yes,yes,I heard somewhere she'd become rather adept at the job.

If ever a bike didn't need to sweat the condition of it's headers it's this one, would be the definition of putting lipstick on a pig

[Ditchfinder]

New grips on and new exhaust clamps to solve the leaky exhaust.





A lot less popping on the overrun now and bottom end pick up is much better.

Grips have made a bit of a difference but I do prefer a flat bar.

Sourced a set of Trident clocks now so I think it's time to get the fairing off.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

It's probably just the colour, but I like how that looks as it is.

[Ditchfinder]

So when is been getting hot is been cutting out but give it a few mins and all well again. All clues point to a faulty ignition pick up coil so plan was to change it this morning. Stripped everything off so I could get to the coil connection to test it. Resistance was fine when cold and matched the new one I'd bought but I thought might as well change it anyway. Bolts out of the casing to access it but I couldn't budge it, previous muppet had used so much gasket sealant I was going to need a new gasket and I hadn't bought one so abandoned the swap.

Whilst trying to get fuel lines back on to fuel tap noticed the vacuum feed has a kink in it which was restricting flow, so I chopped that bit off as it was near the end and put everything back together with a plan to buy a gasket and swap the pick up coil next weekend.

I still had a niggling doubt about the coil being the fault so set off on a run with the multimeter and the coil connection moved to a spot I could access without taking the tank off with the intention of measuring the resistance when hot to confirm it.

Anyway after 40 mins it cut out as previously so seat off and multimeter at the ready to find it was within tolerance. Wouldn't start though, wondered if I'd not put a fuel line on properly but all seemed fine, whilst messing around I put the tap to reserve but still no joy. 15 mins later after it had cooled finally got it running again fuel tap back to normal, 2 miles later it cuts out again, at this point I'm convinced it must be the coil so sit down for a longer wait fir it to cool. 20 mins later still won't start, open fuel cap in case there's an airlock, "oh there's not much fuel in that" back on to reserve and head off home, 10 miles later so not cut out again so stopped to fuel up. Spent an hour doing laps of the local lanes and villages to get it hot and it didn't cut out again.

Maybe the fuel pipe was the problem but I'm not fully convinced as tickover is a little uneven when hot compared to cold but the carbs are 50k miles old.... And maybe the junction from headers to end cans isn't fully airtight still so I'll take another look at those too.

Seems I've released a tight spot in the throttle cable too with my messing about as the action was a lot lighter.

Took a look at the brake fluids as my JIS bits and impact driver showed their faces when I was hunting for the heat gun in the shed and they're clean as a whistle so one less job there.

Minor progress I suppose and once I've sourced a headlight and brackets I can get rid of the fairing. It's so easy to find yourself doing 80 without any wind blast.

[Ditchfinder]

Oh and I ought to sort the fuel light switch too

[Mr Moofo]

any issues with the neutral light?
They all tend to be a bit flaky ...

[Ditchfinder]

Yup works fine when it's cold but when it's hot it doesn't and cuts the engine out when sidestand goes down in neutral

[Mr Moofo]

It’s a std feature

[Ditchfinder]

More progress made...
Fairing is off which revealed the paintwork on the tank is even worse when you can see what was hidden before as the rubber trim between the fairing and tank wasn't always present there is lots of evidence of contact between the two.

After cutting off around 100 little zip ties the wiring loom was released and apart from how filthy it is doesn't look like it's been buggered around with.

To mount the bracket for the trident style dash the top yoke and ignition barrel needed to come off - this required dropping the forks, taking the tank off and then drilling the security bolts out with reverse thread extractors.

Yesterday saw the new brackets for the single headlight going on and the headlamp bowl being offered up, looks so much better, now just need to work out how to sort the wiring for the headlamp and then try and cram it all into the bowl.

In fortuitous news the low fuel light works just fine on the new dash so it must be a blown bulb on the old one and the neutral light is much brighter too so I guess the connections on the old dash could do with a bit of a clean.

I bought a flat bar conversion kit cheap off ebay some months ago and never got round to opening it - turns out it's a brand new unused LSL kit with never mounted Renthal Fat Bar - it's probably way too good for the bike

[Ditchfinder]

Progress !


Headlight and new indicators on and all the wiring seems to work fine*. Need to tidy up behind the headlight as there's 2 big connectors which need sheathing as they wouldn't fit in the bowl, oh and get the headlight aligned as it's probably pointing at Mars.

Rear grabrail is off at present as the threads on the frame it fixes to have been stripped at some point so I need to find a bigger pair of bolts and tap them out.

Low fuel light fortuitouseness was premature as it's reading low with half a tank so need to track down the missing bit of loom for that - may have just pulled the plug out with tank on and off so much recently though.

The horns are so rotten, I'm not sure they are salvageable but have at least found a mounting point for them.

Bar swap is still to do, but I may ride as is before doing it to see if the alterations have been worthwhile.

Removing the fairing as revealed all of the mismatched hose clamps, paint chips, gouges & scratches and general filth but to my eye it looks better than it did.

*I'm not sure this is 100% true as one of the cylinders seems to have an intermittent misfire and the choke isn't as effective as it was before - hoping this something I've disturbed moving the tank about.....

[Mr Moofo]

Re misfire - have you looked into stick coils?

[Count Steer]

Probably a completely different issue but when I took the tank off one of mine I disturbed a throttle cable so when I'd put the new battery in and put the tank back on it ran like a ditch pump. Didn't have to take the tank off again as I'd dislodge the cable outer at the bracket by one of the carbs.

(Fortunately I remembered Hairy Ben had had exactly the same problem so I phoned him and he told me what I'd done. ).

[Ditchfinder]

Re misfire - have you looked into stick coils?

There's a chap on the FB group who sells kits - £200 ish I think, if one of the existing coil packs is faulty I'll probably go down that route but I think as it was OK before I had the tank off last time I want to make sure it's not carb/fuel related first.

Trying not to spend too much cash until I'm sure it's staying as it's going to take a fair amount of tidying up if it stays.

[Ditchfinder]

Probably a completely different issue but when I took the tank off one of mine I disturbed a throttle cable so when I'd put the new battery in and put the tank back on it ran like a ditch pump. Didn't have to take the tank off again as I'd dislodge the cable outer at the bracket by one of the carbs.

(Fortunately I remembered Hairy Ben had had exactly the same problem so I phoned him and he told me what I'd done. ).

I'll check that out, unfortunately with a t300 it's tank off again to check - it stinks of fuel so my gut feeling is I may have trapped / disturbed the choke cable

[Mr Moofo]

Re misfire - have you looked into stick coils?

There's a chap on the FB group who sells kits - £200 ish I think, if one of the existing coil packs is faulty I'll probably go down that route but I think as it was OK before I had the tank off last time I want to make sure it's not carb/fuel related first.

Trying not to spend too much cash until I'm sure it's staying as it's going to take a fair amount of tidying up if it stays.

Paul Messenger?

[Ditchfinder]

Re misfire - have you looked into stick coils?

There's a chap on the FB group who sells kits - £200 ish I think, if one of the existing coil packs is faulty I'll probably go down that route but I think as it was OK before I had the tank off last time I want to make sure it's not carb/fuel related first.

Trying not to spend too much cash until I'm sure it's staying as it's going to take a fair amount of tidying up if it stays.

Paul Messenger?

yup

[Ditchfinder]

So a bit of a collected update as it's been faffing with minor bits over a looooong time.

I modified the headlight brackets so the indicators were more solidly mounted - this lead to me knocking one with my hip getting the Guzzi out and it snapping so a new one had to go on, lucky they are proper cheap and really only there to get it through MOT for now - i'll fit nicer ones later.

New fuel hoses went on and we finally got rid of the problem above 4000 rpm so it looks like it was a fuel issue.

New horn was required as the others were too far gone and as the fairing mount bracket was no longer there a bit of minor filing and it's now mounted to the top rad bracket - hopefully the heat from the rad will keep the moisture away and stop this one rotting.

During our recent hols in France I discovered that any bike over 30 years can be much more easily imported than newer stuff and that mods aren't normally a problem so it looks like the Triumph and not the Guzzi could end up over there with me when we finally move out there.

As the weather's changing for the wetter I decided it was time to get it MOT'd so the Guzzi can be kept dry over winter so should have news tomorrow as to what needs doing, The back caliper was sticking when I rode it over so that will need a strip and clean and it was a bit fluffy at low revs. Looks like the neutral light switch has packed up too, hope that's just a crappy connection as it won't start/run on sidestand unless it detects neutral and I was hoping to take the very bent and rusty centre stand off at some point.

Anyway if it passes the MOT the bar swap is next and then find a way to make the back end less wallowy on the bumps