Daysie's Diary

[ghulst]

Have you gone over the rest of the chassis yet? Or even just the headstock to analyse the angle?

[Lee337]

Gone over the chassis, no dents  kinks, folds or bends (other than the ones that are supposed to be there. Everything lines up correctly & the headstock looks all good.

No sign of accident damage except for the one bent fork tube. It's a mystery how it happened & with limited history  I guess I'll never know.

[ghulst]

No further damage is very good news, obviously.

I would not be surprised if someone kicked a curb at some time. Especially in bigger cities where people park at a 90 degree angle to the road, that is a big risk. Imagine being in a hurry, then quickly pulling in and hitting the curb heavily with one side of the wheel. I'd assume the left side would be bent more than the right. Do that a couple of times and the whole thing looks more like a banana every time.

[Sin_Tiger]

Mixed blessings then, hope new tubes are still available. I don't know how T300 tubes compare, should be possible to swap the valve stack to a new tube.

Ah, that type of nut    I have an adjustable width pin spanner for doing those 

I've managed to remove studs like that with a pillar drill and a lot of patience, time spent setting up the angle using the other hole and a tight fit drill, then use a centre drill with minimal pressure to get it started. Another method is to use a transfer punch in the right size to get a mark. It is a lot of effort to save £20 but I'm a Jock 

[ghulst]

How Scottish are you really...

[Sin_Tiger]

How Scottish are you really...

Truth is I'm probably as much SE Asian as Scots, sort of square sausage with noodles, debatable which part is tighter though   

[Lee337]

How Scottish are you really...

I'm asking myself the same question 

[ghulst]

Truth is I'm probably as much SE Asian as Scots, sort of square sausage with noodles, debatable which part is tighter though   

The question then is, do they perhaps even reinforce each other? 

[Lee337]

Ahh, warm weather, a little free time & Daysie on the bench. Time for a little more work.

Knowing that there is more cash to be spent and not having any spare this month, a combination of going part time, my pension not being paid as expected & saving as much as possible for my trip later in the month to the ABR festival and short tour of the West Country, I have little left for Daysie.

So far, I've identified around a further £600 is needed to get her back on the road. That includes new suspension tubes, bushes and seals, new head & wheel bearings and some new brake disc bolts.

I started stripping down the steering, which after spending a few ££'s on a tool for the steering head cap, was easy to remove once the stanshions were removed. A quick chat with my tame Triumph mechanic confirmed that buying a 2nd hand yoke was the best solution. He can drill out & repair my existing one but it would cost more than buying another one. A replacement arrived during the week which is awaiting a good clean.

Having removed the headstock, I noticed that the steering bearing (the top one) wasn't seated correctly. Now I'm not certain wheather the monkey who fitted it knew what he was doing but on closer inspection, I'm unsure it should have been raised above the frame quite as much as it was, and certainly shpuldn't have been approx. 2mm higher at the back than the front. The photo below doesn't show it as bad as it was. The bearings have now been removed, the frame inspected again to ensure there was no damage (there wasn't) and next month, I'll order some new bearings.

Now on to the forks. You'll recall one of them, the right side as I recall, was slightly bent. Turns out it was approx 5mm out, bending from the lower clamp. Having already done this with Tabitha Trophy, it took less than 1/2 hour to completely strip the fork. The oil that came out was graphite grey & spelt like an indian restaurant toilet at midnight, not that I make a habit of hanging around toilets you understand. 

Once I'd stripped the first one down, you could see the kink on the inside of the tube and a quick search on Philpotts web site (thanks Sin for the heads up) confirmed that straightening it would not be possible. I've found two companies who can provide replacement tubes at less than £100 per tube, Sprint Manufacturing and Squaredeals UK. I have other bits to order, so I'll see which one can provide the most bits for the least price and order next month. I just need to give them a good clean and spray the bottom to tidy them up.

When I originally removed the wheels, a very quick glance showed they were in pretty good shape so I was in two minds whether to get them stripped & powdercoated. Well, I had another good look this week & decided they did need doing, so the discs had to come off the front wheel as well as removing the bearings & tyres. I was pleased that almost all the disc bolts came off easily, leaving only two that were chewed.

It looks like someone had already tried to undo them using an allen key, the thing is, they're star, not allen. I confess I was a little nervous and expected far more than two to be an issue, so with eash one, I took the correct size star bit, placed it on the bolt and gave each one a good few taps with the hammer. I used a T-bar rather than a ratchet, a trick I've learned over the years working on older bikes and that seemed to do the trick. With the two bolts that were chewed, I used an oversized star bit & hammered it in. That done the trick. The discs themselves are ok, but I suspect I'll have to get a spray can to the centre as they look a little tired.

Next up, I guess is off to Ben to have the tyres & bearings removed. Normally I'd do the bearings myself with a bar & hammer, but as he's having the wheels, I'll leave him to sort out. The rear wheel is easy - it' doesn't have any bearings in the wheel, they're in the hub & Ben's alrteady done that job.

I suspect tidying & cleaning will keep me occupied until next payday, so I won't be short of jobs to do.

[ghulst]

Great work! I understand the saving up part. That is always a challenge. You might also be able to find two used fork legs for little money. I once got two complete fork legs for my Ducati for €100. As the original fork legs were badly pitted, that was the easiest and cheapest solution to sort them. Make sure you can return them if they are not straight. Dealing directly with a breakers yard might allow you to do that.

[Lee337]

Had a look around to see if there were any 2nd hand forks but most of the ones I could find were either bent or over £200. Seeing as I can get new fork tubes for £200 and I'm no stranger to rebuilding forks, I'm going down the new tube route. Now do I get them from Sprint Manufacturing or Square deals UK? I did find one person who was prepared to sell me his original forks from his T595. he replaced them as he track days his Daytona & has some trick stuff on his bike. Unfortunately, they'd need re-chroming which is a little more expensive than new tubes.

No pics this time, but had a hour or so free yesterday so decided to clean up the discs removed from the wheels last week. I have an old suede brush which I use to clean up aluminium bits, together with an almost neat solution of parts washer fluid.

The first part went well, that is spraying the parts washer fluid onto the brake discs to remove the encrusted brake dust of many years residence. Sadly, it also lifted the paint. Not to worry as I was going to spray them anyway. I used some clutch/brake cleaner to clean all the parts washer fluid off and the result isn't too bad. Unfortunately, I ran ot of clutch/brake cleaner, so only managed to do one side of one disc.

I thought abut replacing them rather than spend time cleaning/spraying them, but at £200+, and as the discs are 3.95mm (the min thickness is 3.5mm) it didn't make sense to replace.

The other jobs were to finally put all the stuff on the tank, fuel pump, fuel warning thingy and fuel cap, so that's ready to go back on the bike eventually. and I've also cleaned the rear footpegs & hangers bolted them back on.

All small jobs but it brings me just a little closer to a finished project, although still a long way off.

On the plus side, while sorting through the box of new parts I bought last year, I fond a box of front wheel bearings I'd forgotten I bought and two small allen head bolts which look like they fit the fuel cap. No idea what these are for but I'm sure I'll find out eventually.

[Lee337]

The wheels have gone to Ben's for a strip down. Will be picking them up on Monday then it's off to the powder coaters. Meanwhile, I've had a little windfall & now have some funds to take me a little further to completion. I'll be ordering the fork tubes later this week, together with a few other bits I need, steering bearings, fork seal kits, a bush kit for the front suspension and a couple of disc bolts.

On the down side, I'll miss my own deadline to get her back on the road. I wanted to have her done by the time my insurance njext becomes due, but that's a mere 26 days away. The fallback date is the end of November (152 days) which is probably more realistic.

[Lee337]

Another quick update. last week, I looked on line at Sprint Manufacturing and Squaredeals UK as they both had fork tubes listed for under £100 each. Well having just been paid, today I went back to Sprint, my preferred company and they're no longer listed 

So I went to Squaredeals UK, they've gone up from £99 each to £115. Ok I think if I need them, I need them. Went to order, no longer in stock 

So off I go to Wemoto, they have them in stock at a whopping £193 each 



Back to that good ole auction site and managed to pick up a pair of complete front forks for a T595 for £190.  there was a cheaper pair comming in at £80 but they were badly pitted and would have needed rechroming at additional cost. I only hope the ones I've bought are in as good a conditionas the photos appear to show.

I've also purchased the disc bolts I need and a fork bush set, which I may not now need.

I've also just bought myself a new coffee machine - not really relevant to Daysie's rebuild, except the coffee will help me keep awaie while in the garage. 

[Lee337]

Life goes on. A lot has happened in the past few weeks, I've been to the ABR festival (I will be adding a video of Talyn J's adventures as soon as I've edited it), had a trip to North Devon & met up with a few friends, renewed the insurance for my trio of Triumphs, booked Tabitha Trophy in for her annual check up and finally got an appointment at Papworth hospital to mend my broken heart (literally, not figuratively).

I've also got a few more steps closer to finishing Daysie. The wheels are currently with the Powder coaters although there is a 4 - 6 week wait. The 2nd hand forks turned up on Thursday and the new fork seals Friday. I already had new bushes and 2l of fork oil so armed with s toolbox, the Triumph service manual, enthusiasm and time (not always a good combination), it was a wet, thundery day I headed for the garage, lime green extension cord in hand so I could at least have the radio on and a little light.

First job of the day was to make a cup of coffee and sit & stare at the rain while listening to the distant rumble of thunder (no not an old Prog Rock album) while drinking it & deciding which job to do first. Replacing the steering bearings won out. A relatively easy job as I'd already removed the lower bearing from the replacement yoke I'd had to buy. This took around an hour, 20 minutes of which was spent making (yet) another cup of coffee & looking through the service manual to print off the pages showing torque settings & assembly of forks.

I have to admit when unwrapping the 2nd hand forks I was more than happy with them. I took a bit of a gamble and it paid off. Yes I paid almost £200 for them and only saw the usual poor quality eBay photos, but there was barely a mark on the fork tubes & certainly nothing that a quick application of Autosol and a clean rag couldn't deal with.

One of the fork loweres was a little scratched, but the ones I took off Daysie were in good condition so I wasn't too worried. I had to strip them down anyway to replace the seals & bushes, so swapping out the bottom for one of the originals was easy, as long as I swapped out the left lower for the left lower. I admit, it was more luck than judement that I got this right. It was only because I did one complete rebuild before starting the next that I realised the brake caliper brackets and hole for the axle are different for each side. 

I have this nice little slide hammer thingy especially for replacing fork seals, so it was all a doddle to be fair. While I had the old fork inners alongside the 'new' ones, I did a quick compare the originals looked in better condition, so I swapped the internals around as well on both forks.

While I had the printed page from the service manual which told me how much fork oil to use & the correct procedure for filling them, I decided not to follow them with the result I poured around 300ml of fork oil on top of my work bench. 

Unlike the forks on Tabitha, where the internals could be split so the spring could be left out while filling them, Daysies fork internals are pretty much all one piece. I completely forgot about the small retaining bolt in the bottom of the forks so began filling one up without the internals in. The result? while I was pouring oil in the top, it was going straight through and out the bottom just as quick. 

NEXT TIME LEE, READ THE F**KING MANUAL!   

Just as well I had 2l of oil, 586ml for each fork & 230ml for the workbench. I still have to adjust the oil level in the forks but now having read the manual they need to be on the bike to do it.

Edit: 18:48
Decided to replace the front discs. I had another look at them and aside from the paint peeling I noticed a couple of gouges in the disc carrier. Looked at wavy discs but decided against them. I couldn't really see any benefit. Less weight maybe, but also less surface contact & potentially less cooling than standard discs. I saw some Comet discs on eBay which were £150 but couldn't find any mention of Comet discs let alone any reviews. As brakes are a safety thing, I've ordered some EBC floating discs from Demon Tweeks..

[Lee337]

Another few hours free yesterday. Daysie now has a fitted...







mudguard 


The front calipers & brake lines have also been attached, as has the headlight. The wiring has all been cable tied as per the photos I took prior to dismantling the front end. The clocks and cockpit surround has been done and I've trial fitted the nosecone.

And here's where things started to go a little wrong. I have a 4-wire connector and a 2-wire connector I can't find homes for. I'll need to take a look at the wiring diagram to see if I can see what they're for. One of them was hanging down when I got the bike and I assumed it was the side (middle as you look at the nosecone) light, but it isn't, although thinking about it, it could be the warning light for the alarm that's no longer fitted. There's a sensor attached to the inside of the rear bodywork which is also unattached, so the alarm theory may be a good one. I have no idea where either of them go at the moment, only that they're not long enough to reach anything that's not behind the dash.

The other issue is when I tried to trial fit the nosecone, I broke one of the locating lugs off. It doesn't really make any difference as there's three locating lugs (centre and either side) plus two bolts under the nosecone and the wing mirrors to hold everything on. There is a small piece of fairing that's broken off (done before I got her but I have the broken bit), it's tucked out of the way so you'd only see it if you looked. I'm going to get some JB Weld & patch that up I might see about fixing the locating lug as well while I'm at it.

On the plus side, my new EBC discs turned up today. Just need the wheels back now, pop the new bearings in the front wheel, get my tame Triumph mechanic to fit the tyres, and I can lower the bench to finish off the electrics without having to stand on a stool.

Gonna be nice to see her fully clothed, even if she's not yet ready for the road.

I think this evening I'll refit the rear bodywork.

Update 13/07/2023
I've traced the two connectors, one of them was, as suspected the alarm warning light, the other was for the tacho light. Had to remove the headlight and clocks to find the connector wire from the instrument pod as it was about half the length of the other ones, so eaasy to miss when connecting everything up - at least that's my excuse.