Featured Tiger 90 Rebuild

A rubbery day today. Tyres, inner tubes, gaiters, and footrest rubbers arrived, plus rear shocks.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Anything that has “Goldie” in the name is usually 20% more expensive!

 

Found this in the boxes of loose ends. Last on the road in June 1975, that’s about 47 years ago.

 

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!

 

New cups now in the head stock.

 

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!

 

A straight through exhaust on a performance four stroke, like a Gold Star, would not be legal on the road.