Things that haven't worked

I have documented many changes on this blog. My recent review of modifications have caused me to think a bit more about how well or how badly some of my efforts have worked out. So here is a list of things that have not gone so well. They are my attempts to 1/ paint the engine covers, 2/ paint on the rear brake caliper, 3/ wheel paint, 4/ repaint filler cap surround, and 5/ fit an oil pressure gauge. So, as you can see, it turns out my painting skills aren't really up to snuff :-(

1/ Clutch cover
First off, the clutch cover was in a horrible state. I had a go at getting all the old paint off but it was a struggle and couldn't remove all traces from the sections where it bolts on. There are quite a few difficult recesses and angles. The result over time is that my paint has bubbled up. Also, the VHT clear lacquer has started to yellow. The other covers I painted have not bubbled or yellowed, as far as I can tell. I put the clear lacquer on much thicker for the clutch cover than the others because I had polished up the Triumph logo. I wanted to make sure it was protected from the elements. In retrospect, I wish I'd gone easier with the lacquer and committed myself to keeping the Triumph shiny with autosol.

2/ Rear caliper
Perhaps I'm wrong to list this as a 'didn't work'. I had a brake fluid leak when I was bleeding the rear caliper. I thought I'd cleaned it all off afterwards but evidently didn't do a great job. Smoothrite is definitely not brake fluid proof. However, the Finnegan's special metal primer has largely shrugged it off, much to my surprise.

Smoothrite doesn't like brake fluid

3/ Wheel paint
I took quite a lot of trouble over the wheels. Really good degrease etc. then topped off with enamel red and clear lacquer. However the plain fact is that the finish is not robust and has chipped off in many places. I plan to get the wheels powder coated. I still like the red centres and silver rims but I'm thinking of trying a graded transition between the colours rather than a clean line. I've seen some three spoke wheels done this way. It could work on my six-spokers. I'll use the wheels from my Daytona whilst they are away. That's a nice thing about having a pair of T300s.

Enamel paint chips and scratches easily

4/ Fuel cap surround

Wheel paint doesn't like petrol

I stripped the tatty paint off of the filler cap surround when I was treating the tank with POR-15. I used aluminium wheel paint. First trip out, I dribbled some fuel on it getting the nozzle out at a petrol station. It immediately ate into the paint so now it looks tatty again. I had hoped it would be up to challenges like this because, after all, wheels live in a harsh environment. This paint is an acrylic formulation. Acrylic paint is just a terrible idea if there is any risk of getting petrol on it.

5/ Oil pressure sender
I bought the oil pressure and temperature gauges with senders (sensors) from the same supplier. They were cheap! Now, the temperature gauge has worked flawlessly and I have found the information it has provided reassuring and credible. Most of the time, for example, it hovers between 70 and 80 degrees. The factory manual specifies an oil pressure check with the engine warmed to 80 degrees. So that adds up. For what it is worth, the highest oil temperature I have seen was in Coventry on an extremely hot day after filtering in traffic for about 30 minutes. It was 97 degrees! Literally fry-an-egg temps. The engine shrugged it off though in its typically nonchallant power station kind of way, assisted by energetic blasts from the fan.

Faulty oil pressure sender

 The pressure gauge has always behaved strangely, jumping and falling by tens of psi for no obvious reason. It now reads 100 psi  (it's maximum) all the time. I've checked continuity and the wiring is fine. The sender is bust. I'll get a better quality replacement sender and see if it drives the gauge properly.

Work still to do
This is not a thing I have done wrong (a sin of commission) but things not yet done (sins of omission?). I decided to fix up my Trophy from the inside to the outside. The outside - especially the fairing panels - have yet to receive any TLC beyond cleaning. Their time will come, probably next winter.

Old scratches are still old

Ride safe!

Saturday morning: a mini milestone

After months of painstaking work (or fanny about, if you prefer), the rear suspension, wheel and drive were finally reunited in perfect harmony. That means she can be rolled around again, albeit in minimalist stripped-down form.

Well, OK, that might be a bit of an overstatement but still it was a big moment for me to be able to wheel wonderful Wuby awound again.So, to celebrate, I did a couple of little walk-around movies.

From the left:

and from the right:

Beautiful smooth running drive chain action:

It's amazing how light a big bike can be .... when half of it isn't there!

Trophy 1200 Rear Wheel

A previous owner had painted the wheels. I really liked the idea of having red centers with silver edges for the wheels. Unfortunately, the paint was lifting in places because it seems not to have adhered terribly well to the original silver paint. After I'd given them a good scrub down, with gunk, then Jif cream cleaner, then lots of clear water, I felt I could get some good results with a rattle can. 

I found Halfords do enamel paint in two shades of red, one of which was a good match for the bike's Lancaster Red. I'm thinking of it as a temporary measure, pending getting them powder coated some time later on.

I'm keen to get riding so I'm starting to make some small compromises now, thinking I can rectify them after using the bike for a while. I freshened up the silver with a brush, steady hand and Smoothrite. To get an even finish, I put the wheel up on axel stands. That way, I could slowly rotate it on its spindle and rest my hand on the stand whilst applying the paint. I think the results are pretty good considering.

Right-hand side of the hub: disc carrier. There are six threaded holes on the right-hand side of the wheel for the chromed allen-headed bolts that retain the rear disc. I lightly smeared lithium grease around the edges of them to stop the disc from sticking to the paint. I then used non-permanent thread lock on the thread of the bolts to keep them in place and copper grease under the heads to prevent them from seizing. I had found a build up of dirt and rust in these special bolts which made them difficult to remove. Also, the rust had started lifting the chrome where the finish had presumably been damaged in previous tightening. So I put blobs of grease in the bolt heads and banged in plastic caps to prevent corrosion from building up in them in the future.  

Grease around the disc bolt holes to stop the disc
from sticking to the new paint ...

... and thread lock to hold the bolts firm after torquing them up. 

Plastic caps to prevent corrosion from building up in the bolt holes.

Left-hand side of the hub: cush drive

Installing rubber 'cush drive' blocks

Installing a greased spacer into the
sprocket carrier.  

 The left-hand side of the wheel hub contains a housing for the sprocket carrier. The housing has five alloy vanes which are driven by five larger vanes in the sprocket carrier via rubber 'cush drive' blocks. The rubber blocks serve as a drive-line shock absorber. I coated the vanes and O-ring joint with rubber grease.


A rubber O-ring sits in a machined groove around the wheel bearing so I put rubber grease around it to help keep dirt and dust out. It helped me to ease the sprocket carrier into the hub as well because it is a fairly tight fit. I'm very pleased with the finish I managed to obtain on the sprocket carrier - very satisfying indeed. I'm hopeful it will be a permanent (whatever that means on a motorcycle) whereas the wheel paint is more of a stop gap measure.

Installing the sprocket carrier to the rear wheel hub. 

I decided to fit a 42 tooth rear sprocket. There are plenty of options, courtesy of the modular nature of the range. I'm looking forward to a relaxed, torque-laden feel to the ride and figure this will be conducive to wafting along at low revs when I want to.  Copper grease on the studs and some more heavy duty torque wrench action (85NM), and all is as it should be.

There is a small alloy spacer that fits into a rubber seal just outboard of the left-hand wheel bearing. The action of the rubber seal rotating around this spacer tends to wear a groove in it. Plenty of grease should help. Job done.