Re: 1973 Triumph T140
Alright, Internet is running again... Here's the latest...
We got the frame rolling, and then I was able to fiddle with the seat placement. I'm sort of tall, so I pulled it back pretty far. My last bike had a typical cafe racer style seat, with that scoop thing, and I found myself constantly pushing myself back on the seat to be comfortable, so we made brackets for this seat to sit pretty far back. It actually ended up a good 2 inches further back than in this pic.
I was sent home with the top half of the engine, to clean. I learned the hard way, with the bottom half, what "clean" really meant. So I spent a very long time on these parts, and was advised to wash off all the solvents with warm soapy water afterward.
Before I cleaned the cylinders, we honed them because there was a slight lip where the pistons hit top dead center. This resulted in a .020 over bore.
When it came time to assemble, we ended up using brand new pistons
Also ended up pulling out the valve guides and using brand new ones
By the time we got the engine put together I had put a LOT of brand new parts in it, and had gone three times over my original budget, but was glad to do so. I started making this with a plan to rebuild an old Triumph, but by now this is pretty much a brand new engine, inside of dusty old cases.
Here's that cool headlight I mentioned. An aftermarket part from the 60's
Here are the ammo cans I made into saddle bags... I know I'll end up taking one off about as soon as I start riding this. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to take the other off, too. But I plan on putting a small tool kit in there, extra headlight bulb and brake light bulb, extra fuses, etc...
He says it should be running by this weekend! I think registering it is going to suck, though... I am seriously antsy to ride this thing. I don't even want to ride it so much as I want to listen to it! I'll post videos as soon as it's running...