Triumphunittwinrebuild
A tale of missed opportunity on the internet, or any other, autojumble.
Are you one of those enthusiasts who seem to be in just the right place when what you need turns up on an autojumble stand? Or are you, like me, a few paces behind in the queue? You know what I mean I’m sure, you’re scouring autojumble to no avail then just when you’re giving it a break and enjoying something delicious from a vendor and reviewing the situation, your mate comes by and has found just exactly what you were looking for at a ridiculously cheap price.
Given the pandemic and its effect on our world at the moment, autojumbles have been a bit thin on the ground for 18 months, so the other, cyber, autojumble has been scoured… at least with this version there’s little chance of getting wet, dirty or cold or all three in the same day, plus inexplicably sun burned too, as is possible at traditional autojumbles.
In an attempt to advance the Triumph to a more working situation, a Tiger Cub oil tank was deemed something which would fit while I waited for my collection of sheet alloy bits to reach the head of the welder queue. A Cub tank is something the Triumph factory riders Peplow and Giles used on their twin trials bikes in the 1960s. They used a sub-frame derived from a Cub too, whereas the sub-frame on this project is a slimmed down standard 3TA/5TA one. All thoughts of using a unit 650 tank which I had in the box of stuff carted from workshop to workshop for years were dismissed as it is too big, and cutting what looks to be a reasonable (apart from paint) oil tank didn’t seem sensible.
So a casual glance at the internet revealed a Cub tank on offer with no watchers or bids and the pics showed it was in reasonable condition, no filter or cap but hey… There was a ‘buy it now price’ which I should have done, but I wandered off to do something else, as the auction had a couple of days to go. Then forgot about it. I’m
When Triumph developed their side points ignition and offered a conversion for owners of distributor models, their kit included a blanking plug to fill in the hole. To make one isn’t difficult, but if you do, then make sure what you use can’t drop in the engine, as such a thing would be bad. This little plug has been kicking around in my miscellaneous nut and bolt box for alongtimeandI wondered if it would fit the hole…
when I don’t want lights on – such as the odd classic scramble or Red Marley Hill Climb for example – then the kit will cope easily with such things. At least it will once I have the special nut or cam, meanwhile I have lots of fun ahead attaching the new bits to the bike.
I don’t mind admitting electrical things are not an easy thing for me to get my head around, and it doesn’t matter how many electrician mates tell me how easy it is, while smiling in pity at my attempts to make 6v or 12v of the stuff head from one bit to another on a motorcycle. I freely admire those who can rip open boxes of electrical components and in what seems no time at all they have them connected, neatly and are off on their merry way.
Right, during the course of my discussions with Boyer, what was determined was a 12v negative earth system. Now I know most older British machines are positive earth but the world has gone to the negative pole these days and it apparently gives a much more reliable circuit and there are all sorts of things such as LED bulbs which laugh at the vibrations given off by a British motorcycle.
The day came when the box of bits arrived and time was secured to inspect the bits, determine what I needed to do and to see if I could realistically do it myself or whether I needed to dig out the phone number for Ferret’s Custom Electrickery. Ferret did the electrical system on the Can-Am enduro bike we gave away in Classic Dirt Bike and said system provided power to the engine and lights be the conditions hot, cold wet or dry.
Now, something I cottoned on to a lot of years ago involves a very un-male like trait – always read the instructions. Yes, I know, it is traditional for the male of the species to crumple these handy pamphlets or bits of paper up and toss them casually away with a “I don’t need these things…” sort of comment. You do, trust me, I’ve made a shilling or two over the years rescuing households where one half has attempted to build flat-pack stuff without the instructions. Instructions are produced for a reason and are full of useful information.
So, kettle boiled, coffee made and the instructions in hand, the bits could be identified, inspected and laid out on the bench in the way they are intended to go together. Perhaps electricians are smiling at this basic method of determining what goes where, but it works for me. By using this method it’s easy for me to see what fasteners go where, which distance pieces are to do what and so on. The instructions also told me the distance pieces supplied with the coil for instance are only for the points system and when using the electronic version aluminium spacers would be needed. This has the knock-on effect of increasing the heat dissipation required because the electronic version produces more heat from the coil… why? No idea, says so in the instructions.
These words of wisdom also say: “A heat sink of at least 80cm will be required.” A quick measure of the shaped alloy plate where the electrical components will sit tells me it is 20cm x 14cm which gives 280cm less the shaped cutaway for the mudguard curve which is 14cm x 6cm giving 84cm – it’s not exactly this size as the cutaway is curved – and some simple subtraction leaves a plate which is 196cm give or take a cm or two. This is double the minimum required so I feel we’re okay with a plate this size. Some round alloy bar is in the scrap box and a few moments with a lathe will produce the required distance pieces and once the special nut required arrives then the electrics at least can be done.