Running gear

Fitted the forks, though they'll have to come out briefly to fit the upper shrouds. Swingarm went in without a hitch and some mid-price shocks finished the rear end. I've swapped out the upper yoke for a solid mount TR6C item and have fitted US bars. The bike is a US import TR6R, but I have no pipes or lights yet and plan to rebuild it to "C" spec.

Forks

Rebuilt the front forks with new stanchions, bushes & seals. Meanwhile, Catherine (pictured) did a spot of Blogging and Tweeting.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

In!

Grabbed the motor with both hands and heaved it over to the frame, which was strapped down to my makeshift bike stand. Slotted it into place without too much difficulty and slipped some mounting bolts into place. I don't know how long the engine and frame have been apart, but it certainly seemed pleased to be back in its rightful place.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Head, Part II

Checked the height of the pushrod tubes with the head placed on the cylinders, and worked out the correct thickness of translucent seals (bottom) and o-ring (top) to seat properly. With these seals in place the head was between 1-1.5mm off the gasket, and this closed up nicely when the head bolts were tightened.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Hubs

Picked up the hubs from the powder coaters. What a difference! Fitted new wheel bearings so all I need to do now is teach myself wheelbuilding....

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Head

Fitted new valves and springs to the head. In the kitchen.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Frame

Started frame assembly. Even just this first step makes it look recognisably like a bike.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Primary

Fitted primary drive with new chain, cleaned-up clutch parts.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Back in Black...

Frame parts back from powdercoating. The fasteners needed to screw this lot back together have been zinc-plated, so it'll all look pretty fresh when it's assembled.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Jugs & slugs

Fitted the slugs into the jugs (pistons into the cylinders for those not down with the lingo), propped the whole lot above the conrods then slid the new gudgeon pins into place and fitted the circlips. Bolted the jugs down onto the cases

From Triumph 650 rebuild

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Also managed to get the gears installed after several attempts. No problem with the gears or shafts, just getting the indexing correct between the gearshifter and the shift camplate. Get this wrong (very easy to do!) and the transmission will shift past fourth (top) or first (bottom) and lock the gearbox. Still, it's done right now.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Motor part III

Fitted crank & cam pinions. Installed top gear and a new sprocket.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Motor part II

Fitted new shells to the rods and fitted them to the crank. Warmed up the drive-side inner roller bearing and slipped it onto the crank. Propped up the left-hand case and dropped the crank assembly into place. It hung up with 1/4" to go, so I ran a blowlamp over the case, allowing it and the outer main bearing race to ease just a fraction until the crank slid down the last little bit. Added some anaerobic instant gasket and bolted down the right-hand case.

Motor

Now that all the components have been cleaned and/or machined it's finally time to start slotting it all together. I'm delighted to say that I'm going to be assisted by Matthew (aged 7) performing his first engine rebuild.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Head

Got the head back from Malcolm at Lancaster Engines and he's done a fine job yet again. Remaining cast iron guide has been removed, all new phosphor bronze guides pressed in, seats cut & lapped in, both spark plug holes drilled oversize and fitted with Timesert thread inserts and finally the warped head has been true up with a light skim. A fine piece of work.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

From Triumph 650 rebuild

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Shiny

Found some polishing mops & soaps in a box of stuff I inherited a while back from my late uncle. Put it all to good use tonight putting a shine on gearbox, timing & primary covers. Hope Brian would have approved. His Vincent was immaculate.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Fairies

The eBay fairies brought me a layshaft, mainshaft & a couple of gears which means I now have enough to assemble a decent gearbox. The originals were immersed in water & sand and had turned into a sorry mess.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Flange

Cleaned up the mating faces of the cases with a diamond hone and some WD40. This removes any nicks or dings and gets rid of the last traces of the old gasket.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Bearing in

Heated up the cases with a hot air gun and dropped in the new mains and transmission bearings.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Bearing up

Clean cases ready for new bearings.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Machining & plating

Had the cylinder block sandblasted at the local truck garage. Ted was careful to avoid the machined surfaces and kept to the fins, which were pretty rusty & clogged with dirt. Dropped it off with Malcolm at Lancaster Engines along with the new L F Harris pistons for a re-bore. Also popped in to the platers to ask if they could manage to re-chrome the rear rim. We'll see if it's a possibility once he's asked the polisher if he can do anything with it.

Knocking one out

Heated up the cases and tapped out the old main bearings, plus the needle roller and ball races in the transmission.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

And so it begins....!

Another wreck has made it way into my greasy mitts to be torn apart, repaired, rebuilt and reborn. This sorry mess was once a gleaming Triumph TR6R 650 twin in Hi-Fi Rivera Blue.

It doesn't look like much, but the frame and engine numbers match & are unmolested, the tank has no dents and no significant rust and although the gearbox contained a couple of pints of rusty water the rest of the engine internals reveal little wear.

The frame and any other parts which ought to be black are piling up in the "going-for-blasting-and-powdercoating" corner, I've dismantled the engine and have started cleaning 43 years of accumulated crud off the cases and I've started gathering together a few spares to replace the gears (their watery bath had corroded away a few gear teeth).