Topic: What did you do to your bike today ?

[JamesH]

JamrsH,how did you attach the donor threaded piece from the diecast to the sandcast housing ?

The drive runs in a brass spigot that’s a press fit inside the bore of the drive housing. So it’s just a case of pressing this out, machining the threaded section off of both the original (the remaining broken peices) and the donor threads (parting off as close to the shoulder).

Then i just ‘glued’ the donor threads onto the brass spigot / face of the original housing (press the spigot in the housing first). It does mean that if the ID of the brass ever wears out (unlikely) then I’ll need to do it again in the future.

Hope that makes sense?

Pic below shows the pieces just before glueing..

[grcamna2]

JamesH,what type of epoxy/glue is that ?

[Floshenbarnical]

Been batching up smaller jobs on the Cb750’s. Tackling a repair on the Sandcast speedo gauge drive spigot. Had to sacrifice the threads from a spare diecast unit I had to repair the Sandcast unit. Luckily all went to plan. I f*ing hate parting off stuff on the lathe at the best of times; doing it on an irregular shaped speedo drive was fun..

That's some real fabricating skill, well done!

I'm biting the bullet and installing a front and rear fender, and chain guard. Any tips for installation? PO deleted all the brackets as far as I can see.

[MD]

MD,
With a long hose or one that might have a bit of loss due to the hose volume and the bulge of the hose 110-120 is not a terrible reading. You would gain 5% or was it 10% that Mark , HondaMan, indicated was lost due to the metal in the cylinder block allowing the cylinders to drift off axis a bit when the motor broke in. The cheap aluminum casting metal allows the cylinders to misalign slightly robbing the motor of a little bit of HP. An align bore of the cylinders up a size can restore that loss permanently.

Just a re-ring & hone of a motor isn't going to give you a long term rebuild, lasting around 10k miles I Believe was the figure before a decline again.

The pucks in the head are a common failure point for oil leaks, be sure you get the properly sized thicker ones from Parts N More as the gasket kits and Honda are selling ones not thick enough for modern gaskets increased thickness.
The crusin image piston kits or another eBay sellers kits of new pistons in 3rd oversized are a good value for a rebuild.

My $0.02 on the subject...
David

Thanks for the reply,

When I saw Hane's said the compression should be 140-150, I got really worried.  Then I remembered Youtube post of compression test on cold engines being north of 100.   I'll do one more test on a warm engine using the solid tube with the hard rubber end.   

-MD

Tried doing the compression test today using the solid tube.   Warmed the heads up to 200F.   Actually got worse results from the solid tube.  Could not hold the ruber end of the tube tight enough against the spark plug hole.  Put the flexible back on and got 125, 124, 119, 120.   Given that I know that the gaskets are leaking oil, it is also possible that they are the cause for the lower compression readings.

At this point I will likely remove the jugs,  examine and measure the bores.   Compare the results against factory speck and decide if I'll just do a hone and rings or have a machinist re-bore the jugs.

-MD

[JamesH]

JamesH,what type of epoxy/glue is that ?

Just straight-up (budget) superglue.

[Terry in Australia]

A couple of years ago I traded up my 2001 Yamaha FJR1300 with 143000 miles (228,800 Km) and some cash for a 2005 Triumph Rocket III. The FJR was a great bike and one of the fastest I've ever ridden @ 170 MPH, but the Rocket was cheap, and already owning a 2007 R3 from new, I couldn't help but buy it. Spotty had just bought a minty 1998 Honda Valkyrie which he really liked, but with a bad hip he couldn't ride it, being that he's 7 feet tall the Boxer engine's cylinders got in the way of his legs making for a cramped riding position.

One day we went for a ride on both of my Rocket III's, and Spotty was besotted by the enormous torque and BHP of the Rocket III, so we swapped bikes. Awhile later he had hip replacement surgery and could ride more often, but sadly the Rocket's electrical issues let him down on several occasions, and it got to the point where he told me that he was so sick of it that he was going to leave it outside his garage and let it rot into the ground.

As nice as the Honda is, it never really floated my boat, so I asked him if he'd like to swap them back, so we did. There was a caveat on the deal though, that he'd help me pull the Rocket apart to replace the output shaft/cush drive assembly. Failing assemblies aren't necessarily a design issue, but the one on my "In the family since new" Rocket grenaded when the bike had done only three or four thousand miles. The culprit was that the bearings are sealed on one side, and several hundred bikes were built with the bearing installed backwards, not allowing oil into it. I remembered that one time I was riding Spotty's Rocket I either heard, or felt, a bad bearing, so I found a good used assembly on Ebay from a low mileage, later model R3 cheap, and bought it, just in case Spotty's failed.

Anyhoo, this week, Spotty stripped all of the outer assemblies off the bike, to make the task of dropping the monster 2300cc engine out today.

Rocket III repairs Saturday 29 Jul 2023 a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Today I drove over to Spotty's place, and he was ready to go, with the bike already on the lift. The first task was to remove the rear wheel assembly, differential and tailshaft assembly. I'd scoured Youtube and various R3 forums and was surprised that most of the guys who had had this problem had taken their bikes to the dealers to fix them. Triumph had never issued an official recall, so some folks (like me) had to pay several thousand dollars to get it fixed, while in a very few cases, Triumph did it for free, or at a reduced price. Regardless, this bike is 18 years old, has done over 90,000 miles, and while it's a big job to get to the assembly, we decided that we could do it. Surprisingly, we didn't break anything.

Rocket III repairs Saturday 29 Jul 2023 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr     

Lowering the engine out of the frame was a lot harder than I first thought, but by the time we'd removed both wheels we were able to jiggle the frame away from the engine enough to remove the assembly. Here's a pic of the two assemblies side by side.

Rocket III repairs Saturday 29 Jul 2023 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

As expected, they're a a big, heavy duty assembly. Interestingly enough, the front bearing that came out of it, was back to front, but didn't appear to be in bad condition. There was evidence though, that the engine's been out before, so maybe someone replaced the bearing, but put it in backwards? Weird. In fact I was a bit worried that there was nothing wrong with the old assembly until Spotty pointed out that if I spun the output shaft fast, you could hear the rear bearing (inside the case) making a grinding sound. I don't think it was a bad bearing, so much as just a worn bearing off a big heavy bike that's done over 90,000 miles, with plenty of hard launches, wheelies, burnouts etc, and was fitted with a car rear tyre on it when I bought it, which probably didn't help. By contrast, the replacement (the black one) was smooth and silent. 

I drove over to Supercheap auto and bought some JB Weld brand gasket sealant, and a big jug of coolant. I had a $24 credit, so was happy to walk out only 27 bucks poorer. I drove back to apply the gasket goo to the new gasket on both sides, and in my absence Spotty had been cleaning several years of crap off the engine that you can never usually get to, which was great. He snapped a pic of me installing the new assembly, just so I could show my wife, so she wouldn't think I was having a secret rendezvous with a hot babe. With a head like mine, there's not much hope of that..........

Rocket III repairs Saturday 29 Jul 2023 9 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr   

By the time the new assembly was in, and I'd cleaned and greased the splines on the output shaft we'd been at it for 7 hours, and being old men, decided we'd had enough. I'm not going for a ride tomorrow, even though the weather is unusually magnificent this weekend, I've promised the wife that I'll mow the lawn, then I'm heading back over to Spotty's to do more bike work. Hopefully we'll at least have it back on it's wheels by end of play tomorrow.

Rocket III repairs Saturday 29 Jul 2023 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[BenelliSEI]

Nice way to spend a day! Being successful makes it that much better.

[MauiK3]

That's a giant engine!

[grcamna2]

That's a giant engine!

A car engine !
I bet an MGB would enjoy such a performance upgrade if you swapped the engine into it. 

[Terry in Australia]

The engine is huge, God knows how much it weighs, but considering that each cylinder has more capacity than an entire CB750 engine, it’s not surprising. It was a good opportunity to check the splines on the tailshaft  and diff, which look good after 93000 miles of abuse by its previous owners, so we’ll clean and re-grease them, change the diff oil, and they should be good for a lot more to come.

[BenelliSEI]

Put +100 miles on the K1 yesterday and treated it to an oil/filter change. My favourite cb750.

[Kelly E]

Yesterday we put the cylinders and head back on the 74' CB 550 K0. The PO had used some kind of spinning disc to remove the old head gasket and put some shallow dimples in the head surface. We bought the bike with the top end of the motor in boxes. You couldn't really see the dimples but it would only hold about 60psi in #3 after a couple of successful test rides. My buddy took .004" off the head to get rid of it.
I torqued it down yesterday to 180inlbs/15ftlbs, today I'll do another pass at 192inlbs/16ftlbs. I always convert to inch pounds when at the lower end of the ftlbs torque wrench scale and use the inlbs torque wrench.

[ekpent]

Don't dare say this or I may be blacklisted but I finally started up and rode a SOHC 750 after more then a year away from the brand. Sold a GT185 today so while at the shop I finally yanked my K4 "Old Faithful" out of storage and started it up. Last time was around June of last year. Rode it for 10 miles or so and all seemed good. Need to get back on it more and away from the dark side of big Suzuki litre bikes    It needs a bath to get rid of some dust and white mold.

[WhyNot2]

Don't dare say this or I may be blacklisted but I finally started up and rode a SOHC 750 after more then a year away from the brand. Sold a GT185 today so while at the shop I finally yanked my K4 "Old Faithful" out of storage and started it up. Last time was around June of last year. Rode it for 10 miles or so and all seemed good. Need to get back on it more and away from the dark side of big Suzuki litre bikes    It needs a bath to get rid of some dust and white mold.

That's great, wish mine would start and ride after a year sitting up.......

If I let mine go for longer than a week or two, I have to do a tune up to get it to run.

[ekpent]

Don't dare say this or I may be blacklisted but I finally started up and rode a SOHC 750 after more then a year away from the brand. Sold a GT185 today so while at the shop I finally yanked my K4 "Old Faithful" out of storage and started it up. Last time was around June of last year. Rode it for 10 miles or so and all seemed good. Need to get back on it more and away from the dark side of big Suzuki litre bikes    It needs a bath to get rid of some dust and white mold.

That's great, wish mine would start and ride after a year sitting up.......

If I let mine go for longer than a week or two, I have to do a tune up to get it to run.

Seems a lot of people have problems letting them sit. I never even drained the carbs last year,just parked it and let it sit. Never have had any problems letting bikes sit over the winter either. Strange and I may just be lucky. Might drop a couple carb bowls though to take a peek.

[WhyNot2]

Don't dare say this or I may be blacklisted but I finally started up and rode a SOHC 750 after more then a year away from the brand. Sold a GT185 today so while at the shop I finally yanked my K4 "Old Faithful" out of storage and started it up. Last time was around June of last year. Rode it for 10 miles or so and all seemed good. Need to get back on it more and away from the dark side of big Suzuki litre bikes    It needs a bath to get rid of some dust and white mold.

That's great, wish mine would start and ride after a year sitting up.......

If I let mine go for longer than a week or two, I have to do a tune up to get it to run.

Seems a lot of people have problems letting them sit. I never even drained the carbs last year,just parked it and let it sit. Never have had any problems letting bikes sit over the winter either. Strange and I may just be lucky. Might drop a couple carb bowls though to take a peek.

And that's not just the 750, the 350f, cb100, and the cl 100........Wonder when I get the 350 twin built will it be the same way.

[Stev-o]

Don't dare say this or I may be blacklisted but I finally started up and rode a SOHC 750 after more then a year away from the brand.

We're going to have to watch you more closely Eric.  Dont wanna have to take away your "SOHC card" away from you!

The GT185 is a cool bike, this one sold last year for $7500.  Was it a runner?

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1974-suzuki-gt185-2/

[ekpent]

Don't dare say this or I may be blacklisted but I finally started up and rode a SOHC 750 after more then a year away from the brand.

We're going to have to watch you more closely Eric.  Dont wanna have to take away your "SOHC card" away from you!

The GT185 is a cool bike, this one sold last year for $7500.  Was it a runner?

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1974-suzuki-gt185-2/

No I never really got it running right . Did have a title. Air box was off and in a cardboard box for the guy. Starting to thin out some stuff I don't feel like working on or will/would even want to ride. Try to get it down to the 'keepers'.

[dave500]

had an oil leak start leaving oil on the side of the head,couldnt locate it so i pulled the rocker and replaced those pucks,seemed to be coming from the front somewhere?while i was there i helicoiled two stripped threads in the head from ages ago,might put more clamp on the pucks beside them aswell?i didnt want to pull the head or remove the motor so managed to do it in situ with a bit of a fiddle.

[grcamna2]

had an oil leak start leaving oil on the side of the head,couldnt locate it so i pulled the rocker and replaced those pucks,seemed to be coming from the front somewhere?while i was there i helicoiled two stripped threads in the head from ages ago,might put more clamp on the pucks beside them aswell?i didnt want to pull the head or remove the motor so managed to do it in situ with a bit of a fiddle.

How did it turn out Dave ?

[dave500]

good so far Bill,ran it for bout 15 minutes not leaking,had a few beers so didnt ride it,thatll be the true test!

[grcamna2]

good so far Bill,ran it for bout 15 minutes not leaking,had a few beers so didnt ride it,thatll be the true test!

Oh yes 

[Terry in Australia]

Well, day 3 for me (and a lot of extra hours on top of that after work each evening for Spotty prepping the bike for the engine removal) on the "Spare" Triumph Rocket III. A huge bike, and a huge job, just to get to the back of the transmission to replace the output shaft/cush drive assembly due to worn bearings, after 90,000 miles.

Today we replaced the handlebars, replaced the speedo and tach back to it's original position, swapped the front brake hoses around to better fit the handlebars and bled the master, modified the right hand switch/throttle assembly to take a Harley throttle tube and grips that I'd bought for my Sporty years ago and didn't use, so with a bit of dremel work, it all fit and appears to work well. It took a little while to work out how to "pre-load" the engine mounted clutch pivot before we had any luck actuating the clutch. We're both stupidly proud that we haven't even looked at a Triumph workshop manual to do any of the work at all, although we'd probably have finished it and be riding it by now if we had.

Rocket iii Saturday 5 Aug 2023 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

No biggie, we've been enjoying hanging out. Spotty had reinstalled the radiator, so we filled it, realised that we'd fcuked up and wouldn't be able to reinstall the overflow bottle in it's original position, so moved it to the space where the old OEM air filter lived, which is a common spot to hide it when replacing the OEM airbox assembly with K&N filters.   

Rocket iii Saturday 5 Aug 2023 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Eventually I'll install a nice alloy or stainless "catch tank" and mount it on the crash bar nearest the rad cap, but it'll be fine where we put it today for the time being. Spotty had mounted the headers and loosely fitted the mufflers, and with a bit of adjusting we got them tightened down. Spotty keeps his garage spotless, unlike myself, and I'm constantly impressed that he has a place for everything that he can go straight to, and everything is in it's place. I need him to come and live at my house, and try and make some sense of my garage.

Rocket iii Saturday 5 Aug 2023 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyhoo, tomorrow should see it just about ready to fire up. There are a couple of cable plugs that don't seem to have partners, and there's a "Power Commander 5" ECU modifier that a PO has removed, that I'm tempted to reinstall, as it appears to have some plugs that mate with the vacant plugs in the wiring harness. I installed a Power Commander III on my "In the family from new" Rocket in 2009 and they're a good thing, so I might install it and see if the bike runs, and if it does, I'll find the cable for my laptop and install a fresh tune. More tomorrow.

Rocket iii Saturday 5 Aug 2023 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[MauiK3]

That engine would serve well in my little Honda Acty!

[Gurp]

That engine would serve well in my little Honda Acty!

I'm wanting to get one of those. Be a great bike hauler!

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