Patching up the frame. The bracket for the ignition coils was part snapped off. Fixed with a bit of 3mm mild steel. (Suffering from upside-down syndrome again.)
So, it turns out that the head races are damaged. After cleaning the dried on grease away there are pits visible in the cups and cones. You can see them on the pic here. New cups, cones and ball bearings on order.
Looks Like it's coming together nicely. Does any one know if the T90 sold in North America? Would be a very cool addition to my collection. Like I need another Project.
Info from this site: https://triumph-tiger-90.com/ says that in 1966 there were 823 T90s produced, of which 46 were exported from the UK, so maybe some did go North America. If someone has a North America sales brochure for 1966 that might say.
I think the main export to US was the 500cc T100 with a variant for west coast. Usually known as a Daytona. Virtually identical machines apart from bigger cylinder head, pistons and carb setting. The parts manuals at https://partsbooks.britishonly.com/#500Twin are worth browsing. HTH.
The exhausts that were fitted to the bike don’t look original. Can anyone identify what bike they are from, or are they custom? They take a 1.5” diameter pipe, so not Norton.
Good news, the replacement head bearings arrived yesterday. The old cups were driven from the headstock without issue. (Unlike on my old BSA where they were a nightmare to get out.) I can now sand the frame, put the new cups in and paint it. New and old below in pic.
Yesterday I cleaned up the fixings in petrol, and then an ultrasonic cleaner. They are still rusty looking but at least the threads are clean and the worst ones can be replaced. I’m really going to have to work out why the pics are inverted. Agh!
The frame is now sanded and painted. Reminder to all that this is a sympathetic restoration, so nothing will be powder coated, and as many of the original parts used as possible. When finished it should (I hope) have kept its originality and patina. I thought I had solved the upside down issue, as previous pic was okay, I guess I need to do a bit more research and testing. Hey ho!
Having trawled various newsgroups, what sound is the BSA “Goldie twitter”? And people talked of being able to “see through” some of the silencers - is that street legal in the UK?
A straight through exhaust on a performance four stroke, like a Gold Star, would not be legal on the road.
Hah! The "twitter" is probably as closely related to the 'silencer' as it is to the Goldie as it's really just a noise emitted through a megaphone-type silencer, usually on over run. Straight through silencers, per se, aren't illegal - especially on older machines - but there are regulations governing alterations to silencer systems and noise emissions. some info here https://begin-motorcycling.co.uk/motorcycle-exhaust-laws-and-regulations-2021-uk/
