Featured Tiger 90 Rebuild

That’s a useful article, thank you for sharing. I see that a decibel meter can be bought online for as little as a tenner.

 

In its history the bike was dismantled and stored in a shed. The shed was dry, but at some point it flooded and the rear frame was left standing in water. The two end pieces of the rear frame were rusty, so plenty of wire brushing, sanding and a spot of rust converter, then a coat of red oxide primer. The white paint on the frame was put on when it was dismantled (30+ years ago) to inhibit rusting. The end pieces are thick castings and have not been compromised by the rust.

 

I have very little skill in taking photos. Here is a picture of the frame, painted black, in a dark shed on a cloudy day. The good news is that it’s starting to look like a rebuild.

 

A close up picture of the cone that came from the bottom yoke. As well as the indents from the ball bearing, the case hardening has started to crumble.

 

Anyway, the top and bottom yokes have new races and ball bearings, so time to put them on.

 

The split nut at the top is strongly hand tight, and I will put the pinch bolt in hand tight as well. Then final tightening and adjustment will be when the forks and wheel are on.

 

Started looking at the rear wheel, which looks a bit nasty. The brake linings disintegrated, not nice as they are probably asbestos. You can see the lining stuck to the drum at the 12 o’clock position. One of the bolts holding the sprocket on is missing. The rim and spokes are rusty, but it may be possible to save them. The drum is rusty so will need a skim, and the bearings are a bit stiff. The good news is that the rim, hub and drum are all straight.

 

The rear wheel bearing on the offside is gone as it has a lot of play in it, so the hub must be dismantled to get it it. For some unknown reason I decided to take the tyre off complete, as normally I just cut them off. I warmed the tyre up first and then broke the bead all right. After much swearing and thumping the tyre came off, it seems like old tyres are made from extra hard rubber, or maybe that’s just what happens when they are left in a shed for 50 years. In the picture below the wet stuff on the edge of the tyre is a mixture of tyre soap, tears and sweat.

 

I won’t be using the old tyre, obviously. Here are pics of the bare wheel and the axle with all its gubbins both awaiting cleaning. The pics should help me get it back together all right.

 

As seen earlier the brake drum is rusty inside. It only just fitted on the lathe, so time for a quick skim to clean it up.

 

Long ago before I owned a lathe I took a brake drum to be skimmed by a local motorcycle engineers as it was rusty inside having been left standing outside for 20 years. The engineer took a huge amount of iron off the inside of the drum, so when I was lacing the spokes and rim on it would pull the drum out of shape or the spokes would be too loose. Took me ages to get it right. That’s why I skimmed this myself, and why I took off as little as possible.

 

Forks are now mostly apart. Having the service tool helps.

 

And the brake shoes went off to these guys for relining.

 

Cleaned up the rear wheel, brake drum and brake plate ready for painting. Some parts arrived in the post, like the frame / footrest bolt, picture of the old and new ones below. It must have had a bit of a thump to bend it.

 

So the rear wheel hub has a few more problems than were first apparent. Number one was the offside bearing was shot, number two was that the near side bearing had been spinning in the hub. Here is a picture of the lock ring which the bearing was spinning against, and the bearing. The lock bolt in the lock ring is stuck in place because of the wear.