Riding on.

 

Ruby is still going strong. She is pretty much back to original specification now with"green"  136ps camshafts and red petrol tank reinstalled. 

Gonna ride on. Ride on. 

Post lockdown and Ruby rides again

 Strange to think my last post before now was in march 15 2020, just one week before the (first) UK Corona virus lockdown. We managed to get away for a camping holiday at the start of July, up to Scotland to see friends then camping at Hadrian's wall. Cold but great to be able to get out again. 

Ruby went well with the Daytona (red) cams and lower gearing but noticeably thirstier. On the trip back down the M6 and M5, she disgraced herself by weeing oil over the rear tyre. Engine breather problems yet again. Plus I could see oil escaping from the cam cover. 

The breather arrangement on the very first engine is via a catch chamber just behind the cylinder block. Most people who know these engines will be aware of an inspection cover under the carburettors, over the starter gears. Well, initially that cover was also for breathing with a wire mesh condensing element intended to minimise oil transmission to the airbox. A second breather pipe then linked this chamber to the airbox. However there must have been issues with our or cost savings to be made because this was deleted in favour of a single pipe linking the clutch cover to the airbox done Time in 1992. I've had problems with oil expelled from the breather several times before, usually when riding extended periods at motorway speeds. The thing seemed to happen if running at or above 4000rpm for more than half an hour. I really wanted this early arrangement to work but I have not been able to so. So I have now blanked of the condensing chamber in favour of my own catch tank, currently a bottle cable tied to the left side of the engine. 

We are out on another camping trip now, September 2020, and this arrangement has been problem free but so far has not including any extended motorway riding. 30 mins max on dual carriageways. Fingers crossed. 

I also changed the cam cover seal and reinstalled the original, green cams. Feels just great. At the gentle speeds so far enjoyed, the bike is returning about 47 miles to the Imperial gallon. Perfect. 

And sunny Kent is a good place to be

A treat for my engine after failed Crank Position Sensor.

When all goes well, it's hard to find a reason for me to make a blog post. Things had gone very very well with ruby for a long long time. Until 85,000 miles had passed beneath her wheels. Then, in July 2019, there came a day when her motor simply stopped when at idle. I had a total fail to restart whilst away from home. Oh dear. The motor was spinning well on the starter, plenty of fuel in the tank, neutral light glowing brightly, fuses all good. Not a single sign of life at all. What slightly freaked me was that I'd come back from a European tour three days previously. Lucky then that this breakdown had happened not too far from home.

After trying lots of possible causes, it turned out to be my crank position sensor - CPS (or ignition pickup of you prefer). Unfortunately, this can only be fixed by replacing the part. Not too terrible, except that the swap requires the carbs to be removed. It is at the right hand end of the crankshaft, under a circular cover. It's basically the electronic equivalent of ignition points. But the wiring connector for the CPS is buried away under the centre of the carbs. That's not at all easy to do in a car park away from tools etc. As a result, I had to get recovered home in a van.

The CPS part is readily available and costs about £50 at the time of writing.

https://www.triumphparts.co.uk/product/trigger-coil-crank-position-sensor-pvl-trident-trophy-sprint-900/

I was sure I didn't want to be stuck like this again so determined to rework the wiring so I could get to the connector at the side of the road. One thing lead to another and quite s lot of work ensured all round. Finally back on the road at the start of January 2020.

I had the engine covers powder coated, fitted and shimmed up red cams after finding a second hand Daytona 1200 head on eBay, put on a later petrol tank with a fuel sender, feel gauge and clock from a later trophy, heated grips, extra fuse box to manage this new kit. And a new CPS ...

The tank is green so the bike looks like a bitsa now. Not very happy about that but I'm enjoying messing with the fuel gauge. I've had the tank off and sender out a few times, bending the actuating arm this way and that to improve accuracy. It's pretty good now. The bike goes on to reserve just when the needle hits the red zone of the guage. The clock is nice but stupidly I didn't think enough about it's visibility when I chose where to mount it. I need to do some on-bike yoga to check the time!  I should have put it on the left hand facia panel, not on the right side with the fuel gauge.

The connectors for the CPS, alternator and side stand switch are all routed so they lie on top of the gearbox sprocket cover now. I wrapped them in a rubber sheet, secured with cable ties, to help protect them from water etc. It would still be a fiddle to switch the CPS but it is now possible without having to remove the carbs and I'm happy enough with that.

So, Ruby lives. And spring is almost upon us. Very good.