Going with the flow…
With no obvious signs as to why, neither the flow of oil nor electricity is behaving itself.
There are times when a halt ought to be called on a project to avoid any agony being prolonged, in this case it is the electrics on my Triumph. Early on in this project I decided to see if it could be done on as small a budget as possible, my reasoning being there are more of us out there who don’t have an unlimited budget than those who do, especially given the current situation.
There have been Triumph bits piling up in my workshop or various workshops to be honest, for 40 years, and I felt confident of putting them all together in a working motorcycle, which wouldn’t be original but would work.
Rather than chucking money at it and acquiring an electronic ignition I wondered if the distributor was as bad as folklore would have it. This determined a course of action, and a search through all the electrical bits I have. There are three alternators, several coils, three capacitors, three rectifiers and a distributor which was in the engine originally.
More to satisfy my own curiosity than for any real intention of it being a permanent source of electrical power, I set to and attached the required bits and pieces to the bike.
At first this was done roughly to sort out where everything will go and what I’d need to find to fit them more securely. Now, the routing of electricity from the spinny roundy thing on the end of the crankshaft to the bit that sticks in the engine has to go via certain components which convert the current from alternating to direct.
I’m probably not alone in having an attack of the vapours when looking at wiring diagrams, or maybe I just don’t have the type of brain which can sort which bit goes where and why. It doesn’t help my situation I’m after a non-standard wiring system with no switches or a battery, so the wiring diagrams in the handbooks I have are not really of use.
I do have a few other diagrams including one which came with my BSA B40 many years ago. This diagram is a super simple line drawing compared to the schematics produced for manuals which have an almost bewildering number of components and seemingly miles of wires. In part it was the simplicity of the photocopy of a diagram which convinced me maybe I should attempt this venture into the world of electricity.
In the standard Triumph one, wires head back and forth the length of the bike as power is delivered to switches and lamps and control units of all types, with switches bringing alternator coils into play as needed. The potential for it not to work seems way higher than the potential for it to work, or maybe I’m missing something as a non-electrician. Friends who are electricians have tried to explain the complexities of electricity to me in simple terms and the phrase ‘work logically’ often featured in their explanations. Then the simple diagram for the batteryless ignition surfaced and this seemed much less
complicated, so I thought ‘let’s try this logical lark and see what happens’.
Following the diagram from an old copy of Classic Mechanics gave me a route for the power to follow. It starts at the alternator, goes to a rectifier, then on to a capacitor, into the HT coil then on to the contact breaker. Okay this system is for a points in the side engine rather than a distributor type, but in my reasoning there should be no problems with it feeding a distributor where it feeds the plug leads and on to the plugs.
Some years ago I created a test rig which has worked for me for long enough, it is little more than a headlamp bulb with two wires on it which end in crocodile clips so it can be attached at various points easily. Moving the wires and turning the engine over by hand makes the bulb light up if there’s power there. I don’t get a reading of how much power is going to wherever is connected, just a glow from the bulb.
In the early days of alternator electrics the alternator provided 6v and was adequate for the job, the coils were exposed to whatever was in the primary case and in the Triumph world it powered the 3TA quite well.
Harking back to the days when things were repairable the old school said “exposed coils mean they can be repaired…” the new school said “why not make it reliable enough to not need repair…” So the coils were encapsulated in resin, as eventually rectifiers would be.
Triumph too must have realised for those of us who like a bit of sporting activity it would be good to be able to run a motorcycle without battery, lights and so on. Enter, stage right, the Energy Transfer System… this was a brave attempt to have one thing do two jobs but needed precise settings and adjustment in order to run the motorcycle. I’ve no actual experience of this type of electrics and if anyone out there has I’d be interested to hear what they were like in actuality. When this system proved too problematical in the field – the idea was and is good, the execution with potential for maladjustment was less good – in came 12v systems, more power and better control.
First job to tackle was the distributor which had to be pulled apart and 50 years of crud removed. How it got to such a state is beyond me but it did and cleaning it up was featured in last issue. Next job was to bolt the other bits of electrical stuff in place. The rectifier
needs to be earthed and the central fixing bolt does this nicely – though the frame rail needed the paint sanding off to make sure the connection was good.
Instead of a battery I used a capacitor which mounts on a spring to insulate it from the vibrations of a motorcycle, then the coil was bolted to a handy bracket… eventually I might make a plate similar to the style Triumph used on their ISDT machines… or I’ll
“I have five new clutch cables, none are the same length as the worn out one”
more than likely fit an electronic ignition and be done with it. At the moment though the curiosity of finding out if I can make it work is all pervading. So, clipping my test bulb to the alternator leads I turned the engine over by hand – yes the plugs were out. The bulb glowed.
Connecting the wires to the rectifier and retesting brought a similar glow at this point. This went on through the capacitor, HT coil and the power to the distributor. It all stopped at the distributor… new condenser needed thinks I. Fitted, still nothing… remove the distributor from the engine, everything lights up…back in the engine, nothing. Hmmm.
I went through the earth checks and added a few more earth wires as a test, still nothing. Remove distributor from the engine, test again, bulb lights up… anyone out there with more electrical knowledge than me will be laughing and saying “you dunce, it’s the OHM resistor on the twiddly thingy in the whachamacallit…” well it foxed me and I don’t mind admitting it. So, a quick call to the Distributor Doctor who said “bung the thing in the post and we’ll check it out for you,” then added, “the distributor not the bike…”
Meanwhile, more successfully, some brackets have been made for the exhaust pipe and it now sits quite securely in place. Less successfully, thanks to bothering about with electrics, has been the oil tank and seat projects. Still, this rebuild on the cheap lark was always going to be interesting.
Should it leak that much?
As the owner of a couple of British motorcycles I’m used to the odd drip of oil on the workshop floor and
sensibly there are pieces of cardboard under each culprit. Generally the drips of oil are just drips and can be passed off as ‘breathing some oil mist’ however, my Can-am enduro has taken to leaking oil almost faster than I can pour the stuff in.
I noticed it first after an enduro last year. This was pre-sidecar and the addition of a thick bit of cardboard under the engine moved the problem to the backburner. In the way of these things unless it is attended to straight away the problem drags on and the cardboard at least prevented the workshop resembling an ecological disaster, once it got to the stage of changing the cardboard regularly even I realised some time had to be taken to see what the problem actually was.
I sort of had an idea what it might be but wasn’t sure, of course since last year I’ve been persuaded by Lee Granby to add several feet of steel tube to the side of the bike and this needed to come off to access where I thought the problem was. As removing the sidecar takes a little while, it’s not terribly complicated but needs to be done to access the area where I thought investigation should start.
Rotax engines used by Can-am and other makers generally come with a direct oil feed to the engine rather than pre-mix. Having been advised by Jeff Smith at the start of my Can-am life to retain this type of lubrication system for enduros rather than head for the pre-mix route used for MX and trials applications, I stuck with it. On my bike the two-stroke oil is contained in a large diameter frame tube under the petrol tank. It feeds to the engine via a clear tube into the engine case where a pump sits and this sends it to the crank and elsewhere. In my case ‘elsewhere’ seemed to be the floor.
So, sidecar off, bike up on my work bench and a bit of investigation going on. Wiping all the oil off the underside of the engine there was nothing obviously leaking, so the cover plate for the oil pump was next to come off, I was certain this would be full of oil and had a drip tray ready. It wasn’t, the pump was/is working as it should be… so where the heck was the oil pouring from? The tube from the tank was covered in oil and looked like the two-stroke was running down the outside as well as the inside.
I fitted a small in-line filter a long time ago, it’s not a vastly technical thing but as the inside of a Can-am tune tank has a filter which can break down and clog
things, a filter was deemed useful. It’s a hard plastic thing though flexibly mounted, had this cracked I wondered? Carefully cleaning around the thing it didn’t seem as though it was leaking, however the oil was coming from somewhere.
Next thought was the plastic feed tube itself, was that damaged? Again it didn’t seem as though it was, but closer investigation will be needed. One thing I was sure it wasn’t was the frame tube itself being split. I had this on our project bike some years ago and a tiny crack had lube coating me, the bike and anyone near me. As the top end of the engine was oil-free, as was the exhaust and underside of the frame, for the moment this has been discounted. Also discounted was a leaking engine case, the oil coming out is red dyed two-stroke oil from a major supplier which means it can only come from somewhere it has been put… oil tank, oil pump, feed tube.
With the problem not being obvious I followed a course of action which says a lot about me… cleaning all the areas where it seemed oil had gathered I laid fresh paper under the engine and left things alone for the night, to see if the source of the problem would become more obvious. It didn’t. There was a patch of oil on the cardboard under the engine, it was near the back end under the swinging arm. Great, I thought, let’s have a look under there… how the drip got there is still a mystery. There were no smears of oil, or glistening pools on the engine, the feed tubes were still dry, yet there was a drip smear on the cardboard. I know no one else can pour oil on the cardboard because I’ve the only key to the workshop… but it must be coming from somewhere.
Okay, move on to something I can sort relatively easily… the rear brake lever stop on a military Canam is a bent bit of steel which bolts to the frame and prevents the lever rising too high. The original bit has vanished somewhere but a bent bit of steel isn’t difficult to make… even for me and an M8 hole requires a drill bit, which I have. I have in the scrap metal box some cuttings of steel and putting a bit in my vice then wellying it with a hammer makes a right angle bracket, a pencil mark tells me where to drill the M8 hole, a bit of filing to make the edges smooth and my Can-am now has a brake stop… and its owner wears a smug self-satisfied ‘I-did-that’ attitude.
Less easy to cure are worn out cables, the clutch cable on this bike has been a source of embarrassment for some time. The strands of wire are fraying, the outer has seen better days and it is time for it too to be dealt with. The main issue with this is I actually have at least five new clutch cables but none are the same length as the worn out one I have used. With one the important inner to outer ratio is correct but the cable is two inches too short overall, another is long enough but the inner to outer dimension is too short… and so on. Actually fitting different handlebars didn’t make the issue any easier either but while the cable which fitted was still working… I left well enough alone, then the Magura sidepull twistgrip refused to stay clamped to the bars. It is a plastic one and of quite good quality as Magura stuff is, it’s also so old it’s discontinued from Magura’s range.
Luckily, my standard go-to throttle is still available from Amal. Seriously, I have the Amal T80/200 on every
bike I own, it’s great and the only reason one wasn’t on my Can-am in the first place was the Magura was in the box and was fine until it wasn’t. Psyching myself up to buy a new one was taking a bit of time, then a mate was getting rid of some bits and said did I want them? ‘Oooh! Yes please…’ In the bits was a lightly used T80/200… please note, I only ever have luck like this when reasonably priced used parts are on the go… not when lottery wins are being handed out.
Although similar in design and style the Magura and Amal are different enough to need a specific cable and in actual fact the cable which has been on for some time is not really all that good. I have lots of new cables in the spares I bought a few years ago, unfortunately they are for a more standard set-up than I’m using.
The original style twistgrip is a cumbersome affair with rocker switches in it. The cable relies on a right angle guide to direct it along the handlebars and as such won’t fit the Amal T80/200. Dead easy, make a new cable. Not quite so easy – because I’ve retained the direct lube system, it needs a three-piece throttle cable, one from the twistgrip to a junction box, one from the junction box to the carburettor and one from the junction box to the oil pump. The one from the twistgrip to the junction box has a couple of special fittings on the end so it can clip into the neat, flat junction. Ordinarily on round junction boxes all three cables can be removed from the slide, on the Can-am type one cable is made up with the fitments in place, the other two are removable. I’m reluctant to destroy a perfectly good cable, still in its bag, to rob it of the fitments but all attempts to find these parts are failing.
I could of course use the existing bits on the cable I need to alter but that only works for one cable and I like to have a spare. I’ve also discounted shortening the exiting cable too, I’ve never had much success with resoldering used cables, there’s always been too much grease and oil in the strands for solder to take, no doubt there will be those who can and do slide nipples up the old wire and reattach them with as much concern as I do making a cup of coffee. Push comes to shove I’ll use one of the round type of junctions as I have a couple, but the flat ones look nicer. Naturally once this issue goes to press I will find a source of the bits I need.
While all this cable stuff was taking up my attention I had fresh paper under other bits of the engine to try and source this leak. Using sheets of paper towel helps to find where drips of oil originate, I’m sure you all do the same sort of thing. With the paper under the oil tank and feed pipe dry and oil-free, clearly the issue was further down the engine… the oil pump has a series of plastic tubes which circulate the oil, these can split but had seemed okay. I had another, closer look and they still seemed okay, next bit was to check the bolts holding the oil unions on… they seemed tight and as the alloy casting is fragile one doesn’t want to lean on the spanner with a huge bar. So, I tried a little tighter… it did go some more and hopefully this will sort the leak…