Viewer Discretion Advised. Or, A Fool and His Money Are Soon Parted.

grandpaul said:

One is the brake torque rod. Very trick.

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Don’t think so. It’s this pic I’m referring to (remote stop light switch perhaps):

Fast Eddie said:

Don’t think so. It’s this pic I’m referring to (remote stop light switch perhaps):

View attachment 84907

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You got it. Stop light switch. I built and rebuilt about 4 different ways to do it and this was the way I was least unhappy with.

This is a really good thread, nice build.
I'm building one myself, but with nowhere near your talents.

Bernhard said:

Yes ............,, but ordinary brazing is at lower temperatures to SIF SIF bronze welded parts.
Brazing is NOT recommended for stressed parts like the frame joints, don't ask me how I know.

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One of the keys to Triumph frames not cracking is the fact that they are brazed - at least the ones made by Triumph and not BSA. The BSA oil-in-frame frames to crack and they are some sort of arc welded.

johnod said:

This is a really good thread, nice build.
I'm building one myself, but with nowhere near your talents.

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Thank you.

My "talents" are only a result of trying to build stuff, getting in way over my head, and trying to figure a way out. We can all do that!

t ingermanson said:

Thank you.

My "talents" are only a result of trying to build stuff, getting in way over my head, and trying to figure a way out. We can all do that!

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That's exactly what I do too, just haven't advanced to your level.
Mind you I'm still better than many.

And better than I used to be.

marshg246 said:

One of the keys to Triumph frames not cracking is the fact that they are brazed - at least the ones made by Triumph and not BSA. The BSA oil-in-frame frames to crack and they are some sort of arc welded.

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Are you sure you don't mean SIF bronze welded?
If I see a motorcycle frame just "brazed " I'll walk away!

Bernhard said:

Are you sure you don't mean SIF bronze welded?
If I see a motorcycle frame just "brazed " I'll walk away!

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I have no clue what metal they used. AFAIK it's called hearth brazing regardless of the rod used, but I am no expert. I know that when I blast a frame it looks like the same metal as the rods I get at Home Depot for the little bit of "brazing" I do.

Triumph had several factory tour "movies". This is the only one I can find today and it's only the first half. Please watch and once you know what they used let us lay people know so we don't use the wrong term.

t ingermanson said:

Here's a few more of the million little projects.

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It will definitely never be this clean again.

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Is that aluminum plate bolted to the swing arm pivot?
Did it require a custom longer pivot shaft?

johnod said:

Is that aluminum plate bolted to the swing arm pivot?
Did it require a custom longer pivot shaft?

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Yes. The spot my feet wanted to be was right over the tube, so I built that bridge piece that spanned those three holes/mounts. There's a nut on the axle, under the bridge piece in addition to the nylock nut on the outside.

The swingarm pivots on tapered roller bearings and I made the swingarm and hardware, so the pivot axle itself was an easy project in comparison. There was not a lot of stock Norton or Triumph hardware on this bike.

t ingermanson said:

Yes. The spot my feet wanted to be was right over the tube, so I built that bridge piece that spanned those three holes/mounts. There's a nut on the axle, under the bridge piece in addition to the nylock nut on the outside.

The swingarm pivots on tapered roller bearings and I made the swingarm and hardware, so the pivot axle itself was an easy project in comparison. There was not a lot of stock Norton or Triumph hardware on this bike.

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Thanks, it looks good, looking for ideas for mine.

johnod said:

Thanks, it looks good, looking for ideas for mine.

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Thanks. This is the second set I built, with the first having more holes for adjustment, and much less finished. Getting everything in it proper place and functioning, being the job of the first version and then worrying about how it looks for the second.

The shift-side is much harder to get right with the linkages and kick starter having to pass through the same spot.

Color of the frame looks great.

Couple more pics and problems. Always gotta stay on your toes.

The weld split on the bottom of the oil tank.



Not particularly happy with Tab2's oil tank. Three major problems with it, all have been issues with workmanship. This seam had been ground too deeply. Oh well. Rewelded and reground.

After six years the Brembo master cylinder for the front brake gave up the ghost as well. Couldn't figure out if it was the piston seal, or the seal to the remote reservoir as it was all an oily mess. Replaced it with the coffin style for fewer seals to go off.



I think I liked the remote reservoir's aesthetic better, but I don't think they were designed to withstand the vibrations. Went through a few mounts over the years. Oh well. A couple mini projects to fit this master cylinder, like the little half shim for clearance.

The motor's still running very well after a couple thousand miles from the 750cc rebuild this summer.



And the the bike is running very well in general. Very pleased every time I ride it.

Seems like a short list of problems for a build like that. Nice work. And a lovely looking bike.

Fast Eddie said:

Seems like a short list of problems for a build like that. Nice work. And a lovely looking bike.

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Thanks.

It could be much worse. I got a solid 3 years of pretty much only tires and oil before the cases cracked, but the first solid year was chasing problems, big and small, some self-inflicted. Hoping I get another 3 trouble-free years coming up, but this 750 kit is pretty fun to wring out, so probably not. It's cutting into my 88SS budget and time!

Which 750 kit is it BTW?

Fast Eddie said:

Which 750 kit is it BTW?

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Aerco. If you remember, there were definitely some issues with it. Off center boring of all the holes in the casting, so there was definitely a bit of massage work. The vendor, The Bonneville Shop, was not helpful in the slightest, but John Healy offered good advice and talked me down from the ledge. All the bores were perpendicular to the deck and the impossible to fix stuff was ok, so I went with it. As usual, it helps to have a fabrication shop in your back pocket.

After years of ownership, my TAB2 oil tank finally died. It cracked along a bottom seam. It was rewelded, to crack just a few months later. Cest la vie. Both times it cracked it ended up with oil all over the rear of the bike, limping home, which I find to be less than desirable.

In order to avoid buying a string of tanks that would inevitably fail (as they do), I decided to build myself a Manx-style oil tank out of fiberglass. I've built out of fiberglass before, and had done some carbon fiber composite work in the past, so it's not too out of the comfort range, and might as well live up to the thread title.



The wooden start to the plug, checked on the bike, and built more-or-less to the same dimensions as the previous aluminum tank.



Slowly getting sanded and filled. The plug ended up with a lacquer finish over layers of varied paint colors to ensure even sanding. It took a lot of sanding and waxing. I filled the knot in the front with a new-to-me brand of filler, to have it off gas with some of the paint I used. Chased my tail on that for a while...
It ended up white, so I could see the thickness and finish of the translucent release goo, used as a final treatment before you laminate the mold around the plug.



The above pic is the finished plug surrounded by the first half of the fiberglass mold (in red), and the dam with which to build the flange for second half of the clamshell mold in blue. I'll usually just use masking tape so I don't have to seal the wood of the dam and open that can of worms. The mold ended up being 6 parts that bolt together to make a clamshell mold for all the sides, except for the back and the bottom of the tank. I need quite a bit of access into the tank to bond in the bosses and spigots and the plumbing before being sealed up. Took a while to come up with what I thought was the best plan.



Whew. Got the two halves of the clamshell together, and the back and bottom panel. I made a mistake and added two strips to the inside of the mold, where you can see a seam. In the past I'd used either polyester resin with fiberglass, or epoxy resin with carbon fiber. With this project, I'm using a high heat-tolerant epoxy resin with fiberglass. It's most often used for prepreg molds, when they are heated for part production, but I thought it'd be a good fit for an oil tank, as right about the heat of the return oil on a hot day, polyester resin (even the iso resin) can start to lose its interest in staying in a solid form. So might as well add as many unknown variables into the mix as possible...

When using polyester resin, you can super easily patch that seam with fiberglass tape, run some gelcoat over the top, sand it down and Bob's your uncle. The epoxy resin was much harder than polyester resin, and of course harder than the fiberglass, so sanding down the tape over the seam was not as successful as I'd hoped. Ended up having to laminate a couple ply of twill fabric over the top and then sanding that down so as not to have that hard lump of resin down the seam, while the surrounding fiberglass fabric was turning into dust. Once again, tail chasing...



Pretty silly, but I was pretty proud of myself for figuring out how to hold the clamshell and accurately cut the holes for the spigots: drill a couple small holes where the big hole will be, run some screws through into some scrap dimensional lumber, clamp the lumber in the vise, and hole saw the holes! Hot damn! It worked well as long as you're ready to catch the part when the hole saw gets through the fiberglass.

A whole lot of effort to replace an oil tank with holes, to then go and drill the new one full of holes. A bit of a leap of faith on my abilities that I hope doesn't come back to bite me.

Everything is roughed up and ready to bond in the spigots , plumbing, and fittings:



Weird holes and irregular edges to let the fiberglass and resin grip the fittings. 6061 Aluminum is notoriously difficult to bond, due to its almost immediate oxidation, so there was a bunch of furious sanding and then painting on the resin ASAP. Only the two large spigots are aluminum, the other fittings are stainless, and all threaded holes are blind. Any part that was a fitting for anything that's going to get something threaded in and tightened, had a backing plate that ran up against the adjacent wall so there's a far lesser chance that the fitting will come loose from the tank. Everything was bonded in after being slathered in a resin and cab-o-sil mixture (which is ground fibers) to fill in the gaps of the holes and edges because resin alone is very brittle and weak. A few layers of fiberglass laminated on over the cab-o-sil, and 24 hours of dry time...

I'm contemplating adding a plug to the bottom of the tank in order to more easily drain the tank below the outlet filter. These tanks are a real pain to get in and out, and anything to make life easier seems worthwhile, especially when it's removing the dross oil from the system.

Seems like I should, but it also seems to be tempting fate. What do you think?