1970 Triumph Tiger 650

Both brake set ups looking good.

Looking good

This set up came out cleaner than I imagined, all very subtle.

Well, got my freshly bored cylinders back from the machine shop I have used for years. They may have lost me as a customer though, I have serious reservations about using them again. The guy who I normally deal with left 2 weeks ago and is opening his own shop in a town too far away for me to use. I was quoted $30 for honing and $45 a hole for boring. I dropped the cylinders off about a week and a half ago. Expected a call the next day to tell me what the clearance was and if it needed boring or just a hone. I waited a week before contacting them back to see what the deal was. I was told " he checked them and they were out of spec." I asked what the clearance was and was told " I don't know, but he's doing it again right now and he'll call you when he gets that measurement.". I called back 2 days later to be told agin it was out of spec and needed to be bored. Still no answer on what the clearance was. I drop the pistons off on Wed. at lunch and wait to hear from them. Called them on Fri and was told one hole was done and the other would follow later Fri. or Sat. I called this morning and was told he was working on it right then and they would be ready this afternoon. I show up at 3pm and he is still working on them. One guy tells me " Those cylinders are really hard, the bit wouldn't cut the wall so he honed it to spec." Honed .010", really? The old man pulls my cylinders over to a bench to dingle ball final hone. He starts telling me the powder coating is super hard. I ask what that has to do with anything as there is no powder where he is honing. He says the temps from the powder coating may have hardened the cylinder walls. What the eff are you talking about I'm thinking. I tell him the powder only goes to 400° and surely that is not enough to cause any concern what so ever. He agreed and then proceeded to final hone the cylinder with a dingle ball hone that had about 12 of the 150 balls left on it. He told home he wouldn't clean them off in the to tank because it would dull the powder finish (no it wouldn't). They then tried to charge me $50 a hole. I argued that having should not cost the same as boring if they didn't bore them. We haggled and I talked them down to $35 a hole for $70. What a Mickey Mouse deal they have going there now. They lost a very valuable asset when Levi left.

We had a similar thing happen around here about six years ago...the guy I used to deal with was great, he always did a flawless job in very quick time. The company decided that to cut costs they would amalgamate the two shops on each side of the harbor. Now they give motorcycle stuff to the dumbest guy in the shop...and it shows. I suppose being a machinist myself, I am the customer from hell, but I expect to get what I hire them for and don't like to swamped in bullshit...I feel your pain.

Made an engine stand to make working on the engine a bit easier. $5 in material, $40 for outside welding. I have to get back into welding, hate paying for it.
















Welder messed up, I laid it out for him exactly like it looks in the second picture and he made the "L" wrong.

Time and money well spent. This is definitely going to ease the process.

Got my second carb today for the Bonniger, or is it a Tigerville?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMAL-930-CARBURETOR-TR6-T120-TRIUMPH-650-750-BSA-MOTOR-CHOPPER-BOBBER-HEAD-BATES-/252335135781?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&nma=true&si=rtz1Mw7xPC6MgdOAhlfePDNZjhk%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Nice work!
My vote is for Boner, plain and simple.


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pawthrick said:

Nice work!
My vote is for Boner, plain and simple.


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Click to expand...

And put that on the license plate. ;D

Got the tranny out and am waiting on the puller to get the crank gear off and then split the cases. I'm hoping within a week I am in the reassembly phase.

Eureka, the cases are split. Didn't wait on the gear puller after learning I could split the cases and remove the gear later. So that's what I did. I've always been more into fabrication than engine building in my past endeavors. Leave the motor building to the pros who know how to make power. This is the first engine I've completely torn down which was daunting in my mind wondering if I'd get it back together. This Triumph is turning out to be a very simple bike to work on. I rebuilt the carbs last night and they are way easier than a Jap carb. As long as I don't wait too long before I start going back together I think this engine overhaul will go smoothly.

You know, if you don't want to wait for the puller you can get that pinion gear off with a couple of offset flat screwdrivers. Just slip them in behind the gear and lever it off.

I'll give it a try.

Thats how i did it, worked great!

After waiting 2 weeks for someone who said they would send me some pullers but failing to do so, I found a set of valve spoons to wiggle the gear off and remove the crank. Clean up on parts and reassembly begins now.

I also had some bearing carriers made locally that showed up yesterday to complete the wheel swap.

Stripped and blasted the paint off the cases today. I'm up in the air on how to finish the cases. With the tins being Spring Gold and the chrome parts are all Matte Black I don't know if I want to do the cases in Matte or Wrinkle Black, with natural covers. I don't want chrome like polished covers. I'm open to opinions.

I'm a fan of the wrinkle black myself

Saw an engine today that had Matte Black covers. I may do the cases in wrinkle and covers in Matte.
I needed a main bearing and found many in the $60 shipped range. Don't know where it came from today but found one today from the UK for $32 shipped. I think that's the last thing I need to purchase before assembly. I also ordered an allen sludge plug. Now all I have to do is get the old one out, not easy.