Featured Tiger 90 Rebuild

Here are its mortal remains.

 

This afternoon was the first day of the year that I could be in the workshop with the doors open. Nice. Now moving on to the forks. On the left is the holder as it came off the bike and the old oil seal in front of it. On the right is the other holder after a bit of buffing, with the new seal in front. It’s serviceable, but it’s not pretty.

 

And here is one of the holders with the new oil seal pushed in, threads cleaned and ready to go on.

 

Parts from the left hand fork laid out ready for assembly. The stanchion surface is just about OK. The bushes are all good.

 

I don’t have the fork assembly tool, so I’m trying the old trick of using a section of broom handle with tape around one end to screw into the top of the stanchion to pull it up through the yokes.

 

And I’m happy to say the DIY stanchion pulling tool worked.

 

Both forks now on, with the pinch bolts only half tight as final tightening will be when the front wheel is on and the forks have been pumped a few times. The Haycraft manual says the forks take 1/3 of a pint of oil in each leg.

 

Forgot to to say, when I screwed the oil seal holders on to the fork legs I put a bit of sealer on the last two turns of the threads, just to slow down the inevitable oil leaks. Seemed like a good idea.

 

Dry run for fitting tin ware at the back end. It’s a 3D jigsaw puzzle, and there are still a few odd brackets left over.

 

Kudos to Chris, who came round last Thursday and polished the front wheel. He even brought beer! Today I managed to overcome my hatred of tyre fitting and put the front tyre on.

 

Just when I thought the front wheel was finished - went to put some grease on the brake cam but it is locked solid. I suspect there is corrosion between the alloy of the brake plate and the steel of the brake spindle. It’s soaking in petrol overnight, if that doesn’t work then it will get the blow torch.

 

Soaking the brake plate overnight didn’t loosen the brake spindle, so this morning I pressed it out in the vice, nice and easy. I didn’t have to summon the gods of Vulcan (heat) and Thor (hammer) to free the parts in a workshop incantation!

 

We now have a rolling chassis. Tomorrow the front forks will be set and the wheel alignment checked.

 

Put the front brake lever and cable on, then pumped the forks to settle them in the yokes. Tightened the yoke pinch bolts and then checked that the front wheel is central between the forks. Also checked with a rod that the rear wheel is central to the spine of the frame.
Then made a rough check on the alignment of the wheels. Used a laser on the right hand side and a spacer on the front tyre to allow for the narrower width. On the left hand side I used a long straight bar, and a similar spacer to allow for the thinner front tyre.
Not a very good photo, you can just about see the laser skimming the edge of the rear tyre and the right had edge of the small dark wooden spacer (resting on top of the pale wooden block).
The wheel alignment looks good and I will check it again when the engine, drive chain, etc are on, bolted down and tensioned.

 

Not much happening with the rebuild until today when I painted some the brackets and plates.

 

Worked on the rear mudguard yesterday. First a bit of light panel beating to get the wrinkles out, then sanding off the rust. Some of the rust, especially on the underside was quite deep, so I didn’t take it back to bare metal. Instead I used a rust remedy, and when done the underside looked like this.

 

Then the first of two coats on the underside. It’s not the correct Arctic White (it’s Landrover Series 3 wheel paint) but it’s close enough for the underside.