Featured 1964 Tiger 90 Restoration

The rear brake shoes arrived today so I got the quick release brake and hub back on so good progress.

 

Made good progress today. Got the opportunity to heat the crank cases and got the new main ball bearing and seal, plain bush, gearbox final drive ball bearing and seal and layshaft needle roller bearing in to the cases. Test fit the crank shaft and it all looks good.
Also got the rear mudguard and number plate bolted up.

 

Crank shaft plain bush. The camshafts and their bushes are fine.

 

More progress today. Assembled the con rods with their new shells and am very pleased with the fit. The rods fall gently under their own weight - partly due to the viscous assembly lube I expect but they are a nice fit. Dropped the crankshaft into the left case then smeared Wellseal around the joint on both cases. I've not used this before but I'm pretty sure it will keep the oil in. Dropped the breather valve with it's spring into the inlet camshaft bearing then lowered the right case over the two studs and did up the nuts.
Yikes! I'm supposed to pick 7 year old granddaughter up from school! Poor thing. She was the last one waiting in the class although I was only 5 minutes late.
Got back and wrestled the engine into the frame then fitted all the engine mount studs and nuts to seal up the crank case then slide the camshafts into place.
I've just realised that I forgot to fill the crankshaft with oil so I'll have to figure out a way to do that in situ...

 

Got a bit of a cold so stayed indoors playing with the wiring soldering bullet connectors and 3D printed a mount for the tiny 12 volt battery I'm using. Eventually went outside and fitted the rear lights then assembled the timing gears. I had a bit of trouble with the exhaust camshaft pinnion because the tool would not thread on. The inlet tool was good but the exhaust one would only catch one thread. I tried the old fashioned way - with a socket and a hammer - and it went on fine. Fitted a new Morgo oil pump and a tell tale pressure relief valve.

 

I used a syringe to fill the crank shaft through the oil pump port. It took a while and I got about 40cc of Halfords classic 20/50 in. There was some hissing as air was expelled through the big ends so I presume most of it got in. Before the first start up I'll kick it over until the tell-tale release valve shows pressure.

 

Got most of the wiring done yesterday. I'm using the original side panel mounted light switch and it's wiring and the original Triumph branded, but suspiciously '70s Yamaha looking, indicator, horn, dip switch handlebar unit and it's wiring. A new 7 core cable goes from the headlamp to the battery and tail lights. The ignition key will be mounted between the instruments in a 3D printed binnacle along with main beam and indicator warning lights and a voltage and temperature gauge. Most of the connections are within the headlamp shell with the connector blocks housed in a 3D printed cable tidy. The headlight shell will also house the horn and a phone charger. None of this is standard of course but this is a non matching numbers old survivor mostly '64 with a '59 frame and is going to be my life-long fun bike.

 

It's been a difficult week. Last Friday I got a call from the blood donor service who wanted me to donate on Monday. As I felt ok after having a cold I agreed. Gave blood then from Tuesday to now on Saturday I've had the most awful flu. I've hardly got out of bed. This morning I felt a bit better so thought about fitting the gearbox. Unfortunately one of the case screws had snapped clean off level with the surface. Casting my mind back 43 years to 1981 when my brother and I built this up from a box of bits a Tiger 90 was considered a worthless relic and we didn't care enough to get that broken stud out. It's been like that all this time. Over the course of today I carefully drilled 1/8 diameter into the stud and got an easy-out to grip but it would not budge even after heating. I tried drilling it out to 4mm but the drill bit shattered. I then hand drilled using a 5mm to tease out the broken fragment of 4mm then power drilled through with the 5mm. It was slightly off centre so there was a crescent moon shaped stud still in there which I prodded and twisted until it came out. What with feeling ill and with the possibility of damaging the alloy case it was a stressful job and took all day on and off. I've ordered a 1/4 BSF Helicoil set and will Helicoil all the threads as none of them look good.

 

Helicoil'd all the 1/4 BSF threads in the gearbox and got it all back together. The mating surfaces are a bit chewed in places but there's hopefully enough flat surface to seal. On a recommendation I read somewhere I'm using Wellseal, a honey coloured sticky substance that smells like cough mixture. I found it goes on nicely using ear buds. I got the gear box cases screwed down tight in those Holicoils so hopefully no leaks.

 

Got the barrels on. Always a horrible job getting the rings into the bores so I thought outside the box and put the pistons into the barrels on the bench then dangled the barrels over the crank case on cable ties. Brought the conrods up and slid the gudgeon pins in. Simples!

 

The four 1/4 BSF threads in the cylinder head were weak and one of the screws could not be tightened so I Helicoil'd them all. I had 10 coils left and there happens to be 10 threads in the primary chain case so I Helicoil'd those too so now all 1/4 BSF threads are Helicoils.
I wasn't going to take the valves out because I'd had the guides replaced in 1998 and didn't think it was necessary as not that many miles have been ridden since but the collets on one valve were not seated so I took that valve out. It had completely the wrong collets and no bottom spring cup, just a washer, but I can't remember doing such a bodge job 26 years ago but I must have. I've ordered a new set of springs, cups and collets.
I polished the valves on my mini lathe. You can see the wrong collets in the photo.

 

Spent a lot of time today messing with the primary drive. Some years ago I bought new clutch basket, duplex chain and crank sprocket. The sprocket was too tight so I heated it up on the gas hob and tapped it on. Then got 19 of the rollers in between the clutch centre and the basket then dropped the last one. Took ages to find it. Found lots of other shiny things on the garage floor but that roller was hard to find... Odane came round and I explained how clutches work then tightened the clutch nut and noticed I'd got the crank sprocket the wrong way round. Hell of a job getting it off. Tried the old crank sprocket which slid on nicely and it appeared to have no wear so I fitted that instead. Fitted the new electronic ignition stator and rotor but the crank nut would not thread on. The threads were distorted so I filed them. Two nuts are supplied with the ignition kit one of which threaded on a few threads then bound up. I fitted the original nut but it only goes on a couple of turns so that has to be resolved.

 

Got all the electrics sorted. Most of it is in the headlight shell including the indicator flasher, horn and accessory socket. To keep the wiring tidy I 3D printed a terminal block.

 

Got so much done today. As well as the electrics I fitted a new DID drive chain, got the back wheel on, chain guard, foot pegs and back brake pedal. My fiancée Alys expressed an interest in clutches when she was learning to drive a few years back so I showed her how it worked and we built up the clutch together using new friction plates. All that is left is to build up the head and fit it and spray the fuel tank.

 

The valve spring and collets arrived so I built the head up with everything polished and ground in. The valve guides are perfect having been renewed previously. The head is on and the carb is on. I've had to order some 3/16" oil pipe for the valve lubrication because the old stuff was unusable. Also got my T150V running after a long rest. Fitted a new battery and she fired straight up. If the weather was better I'd have gone for a ride...

 

Almost finished. Just the tank and front mudguard to spray.