63-70 Tr6 Basic Repairs

First things first, I would suggest that you will need to be very specific about the year model/variant of your machine to be given truly accurate advice.

So many changes were made during what was probably the most productive period for the Triumph factory (and the BSA-Triumph group) to many aspects of the group's products and not least amongst those changes were things like fastener specifications. You might find examples straight from the factory fitted with fasteners of BS, UNF and WHITWORTH so advising on tools is a bit of a guessing game. You will almost certainly need Whitworth (I would think) so it might be worth starting the hunt for those while we wait for the forum's resident Meriden product expert @darkman to give you the real deal on all things '60's Triumph.

Same advice might apply to oil - during the fifties and early sixties most Triumphs would have run on the recommended monograde mineral oil which would have different "weights" for summer or winter use, but Triumph did start to use multigrade oils during the sixties so knowing the year and model would help here, too. An oil change would usually be a matter of draining the sump and the tank and there may be mesh filters in one, the other or both ....... sorry to be vague but this, too could vary by model! The tank and any mesh filter/strainer can be washed out with paraffin and refitted.

For online manuals you could try here :

http://www.classicbike.biz/Triumph/Repair/Repair.htm

Depending on the year and type, the TR6 was often seen as the most practical and pleasant of all the 650 twins with excellent performance, sporty looks and none of the inexorable issues that are attendant on the twin carbs. worn by the 'big brother' Bonneville.

Now, let's see some photo's of the bike, then you can sit back and wait for @darkman to give you the real-world advice of an expert.

 

Basically 63-68 used 3/8th CEI bolts and nuts that are Whitworth spanner sizes of 1/4th W and 5/16th W with wasted head bolts stamped Bradleys and 68 on had 3/8th UNF bolts and nuts using 9/16th spanner size .

 

Great looking bike

 

Your best option is a set of Whitworth spanners and sockets, also as you have a later engine most of the fittings will be UNF but not all so you would req a set of AF as well.

 

https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...&ved=0ahUKEwjWyKDDub_zAhWGYMAKHUOgDDwQ9pwGCAU
I wouldn’t go leaning on this too much but it may help?

 

changing your shock absorbers is easy. put the bike on the centrestand, remove the nuts from the mounting bolts on one side and tap the bolt out. put in th enew shock, and push or tap the bolts back in. tighten em up again.

do one side at a time or the rear mudguard will fall onto the wheel.

do you have any baffles in those reverse cone megaphones? just curious

 

Tratch
Nice looking bike and it seems you have your answers. I have changed my t140 to 10 30 esso classic oil but not sure on yours most ran on a good 20/50 like Duchams. Usually you would find a mesh filter on the base of the oil tank and usually another on the sump. May be wrong but i am sure one of the more intelligent will be along shortly.
Joe.

 

Tratch
Plenty of WD40 and then heat. Hagon will help you with replacement shocks.
Joe.

 

the bolts are seized in the metal spacer inside the shock eye?

if thats what you mean, just spin them with a wrench to break them loose, and then tap them out using a hammer and a long punch or line up tool. if the spacer is spinning in the rubber bushing, you may need to get creative. but its straightforward, at least.

if you can wiggle a stick around in the big open hole i the end of the megaphones, then there are no baffles. that means two things

1) they will be crazy loud, as you have observed

2) they will likely have a flat spot somewhere around 3500 to 4000,. where the carburation doesn't work well on the street and the motor blubbers.

if you put a muffler on your header pipes, the flat spot will go away, and

1) your motorcycle will carburet better in the 3500 to 4000 range

2) it will be slower at the top (assuming the carbs were corrected for the megaphones)

megaphones are good for high speed applications. my 1972 T120 picks up 3 mph using open reverse cone megaphones, but you have to be going over 114 mph to see it.

 

curing megaphonitis isnt easy to do, because its related to rpm, and not throttle position or engine load. whats happening is that your unobstructed pipes are acting like the pipes on a church organ. there are pressure waves that pulse back and forth within the exiting exhaust gases, and when these waves pass through the combustion chamber during the brief period when both valves are open, they push mixture back through the carbs and then suck it back into the motor, adding fuel each time. so the mixture becomes rich, but only at that rpm range. so around 3500 rpm the pipes dont work well. but around 6000 to 7000 rpm, the pipes will give a horsepower boost. maybe lower. up there they will work better than stock pipes. they are loud everywhere, but you know that . there are people who can get an improvement by messing with needle taper and clip position to make the mixture lean out somehow in that rpm (not throttle position), but theyre smarter than me.

the easiest way to fix it is to put mufflers on. the mufflers remove the sharp exit for the gases, and so the sonic organ pipe effect at mid-rpm goes away. so will the horsepower boost on top.

you might be able to put a baffle insert into yours, or there are mufflers that look exactly like them with baffles already inside. or any stock triump muffler will fit.

also your jetting might be lean on the main jet if you keep them and stick with standard TR6 jet recommendations. usually people recommend bumping the main jets about two sizes when tuning megaphones. my T120 normally uses 220 mikuni main jets, but when i put megaphones on i use 240.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=tri...&cshid=1633994742441&biw=827&bih=289&dpr=2.81

make sure you get reverse cone megaphone MUFFLERS, rather than unbaffled reverse cone megaphones.

they usually have reducers and will slip right onto stock pipes. measure what you have tho