Featured 77/78 Triumph Bonneville Restoration Build (my Inheritance)

Hi dudes.

As said recently in a noob thread, my father gave me my inheritance 'early' i assume so he can see the pain and frustration on my face of trying to figure out his box of bits...

Bike was purchased new by himself in early 1978, which he then did around 900 miles on and decided to take it apart and now i get the fun job of putting it back together for him.
Im mostly going to be using this thread to show pics of what im doing, and to ask a zillion questions.

So to begin, Emptied my junk filled garage, or at least moved it all to the edges so the bike can stand pride of place.

 

So i had a day off work today, and decided to have a go pulling the engine apart.
Ive always been into older Honda's (mostly cars) and ive taken a few things apart, but never a bike engine so i got crazy undoing stuff until i came upon a bolt/nut i didnt have a tool for.





Lifted it up onto my bench and knocked the head top off for the grand reveal of what happens to an engine thats spent 25 years in the back of my dads garage.




Spider hiding away in there, i bet he didnt catch many flies.

 

So i got a nut i dont have a tool for, its a weird hex thing, any suggestions? Do i need one of those open ended brake pipe spanner style or something?



There are four of them, two at the front and two at the back, what am i supposed to be using to get them off then people?

I kept going with other things i could remove anyway, and i found the bit that moves the pistons up and down, so i got to cleaning inside the bores and getting the gunk out.

I took some pics afterward, you can see where the pistons have sat, and i have a little rust patch on top, so i might go visit a local engine builder on my next day off, see what they think.




And lastly, im unsure if i should be changing the internal drive chain, or just to clean it, i took the tensioner off, and the plastic still looks like new, However i couldnt figure out which end you remove to release the chain, so i stopped here for the time being, start some research before pulling at stuff.





So far im happy with how clean it is, i was expecting a lot worse, now to figure out how to release those four weird nuts and i can get the block off and look inside for surprises!

 

I figured it was going to be some old style measurement, ive pretty much only got metric stuff. Hopefully i can keep my updates regular, as a 50+ hour a week trucker, its going to be short spurts at it in the evenings or rainy days off.

 

I found a 13mm Hellfrauds spanner that i gently ground the edges down on fit the nut perfectly and went into the space, i do love a good bodger job.

So i took the block off today, pistons and rods seem super clean and i assume only a good amount of movement, no weird knocky clonky sounds when pulling on them.

I think im going to take it to my local engine repair/building shop tomorrow with my day off work and see if they mess with bike engines or not, to get the whole thing cleaned up.

Progress pics.





So next on the list is a new gasket set. Any thoughts or opinions on where to find what i want?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIUMPH-...261391&hash=item3d0a2790b9:g:ANEAAOSwAKxWWHwf


I think id be tempted on buying all new nuts for the rebuild just so it looks pretty.


What do we think?

 

Ok so after calling my local engine centre, they have advised me that they wil strip and clean anything, and do any work like honing bores etc, but will not rebuild.

So the executive decision has been made to do it myself, and im going to start purchasing all the parts required, however the only piece im unsure on, is what the actual engine/bike code is, I see they are all T140 or T160 etc, and Bonneville shares with Tiger alot, but im confident the remade newer bonnies have a different engine shape. Im essentially only looking for gaskets sets and piston rings, i dont think im going to split the bottom case open as all those gears and cogs look scary.

 

I did already find Harris but then got sad when you needed to be a business, i did find alot of their stuff on the bay of e at least. I will have a look at the website you have listed along with the feked one.


So new update, i found a place in Wolverhampton called 3D Motorcycles, seems to know his stuff with loads of old bikes inside his shop, however he said the average rebuild price is somewhere between 2-3k, which im not sure i want to spend on a bike that im probably never going to ride, so the game continues.

Top half of the engine has been left with a local engine centre for cleaning so im hoping to have that back early in January.