February 2025
1975 Triumph T160 Trident 1000
The second bike on the transporter was this T160 with engine unit totally removed more than a decade ago, for reasons that are yet to be revealed. I am rather averse to assembling anything that I did not take apart, as that is part of the discovery process, so we will just hope that everything has survived in workable shape.
The fact that the bike has been stored for 15 odd years does not bode well for things like hydraulic brakes, so it is likely that there will be a bit of remedial work involved in restoring some healthy brake cylinders.
Apparently everything is contained within these two hefty storage devices, and from the weight of them I am pretty sure that at least all the major assemblies are there. I shall firstly need to uncover crankshaft, barrels, pistons and rods and the cylinder head and valves, so we can find out what ails the machine to the tune that a total strip was deemed necessary.
To add to the mix, this is a full Hyde 1000cc conversion, with a stroked crank rather than just my 830cc version relying on bigger bores containing pistons for which we might now neeed a set of new rings.
As matters in the shed are pretty diverse at this time I guess I am rather fortunate that at least one more bike is just a rolling frame, as these are far less space consuming than one with all its bits.
I am pretty happy to have such tasty machines visit of course, although I feared that I would not have enough room to work on them unless I moved a couple outside while work took place. Happily I was wrong, and can still operate indoors. albeit in a rather careful fashion.
Well - the contents of the bins is like aladdins cave, with everything carefully wrapped and super clean, so many of my concerns have evaporated. Brilliant work by the owner.!
I found the crankshaft lurking in the bottom of the heaviest bin, and other than a few scratches on the journals it looks to be fairly intact. Hard to tell how much the big ends have been offset, but it all looks very nicely machined and may have even lost a little weight.
I doubt that there would be any reason why the journal sizes would differ from stock, so there should not be any trouble sourcing new bearings for it, but we will have to ascertain whether or not the crank needs grinding to undersize or will respond to just a thorough polish.
The barrels look to be in very good condition also, perhaps a bit of a glaze in the bore needing a hone, but what we can find in the way of rings that will nullify the triples potential for an unhealthy oil appetite remains to be seen - or found.
The cam followers have seen some miles, but are good enough for another tour of duty with a good clean up. Camshafts are yet to be sighted but will hopefully be in similar condition.
And then the head.
I virtually never find a head with valves and guides this good. Usually they are obviously worn to their limit, and guilty of causing most of the problems that the bike has come in to have repaired.
The inlet guides are non-original and designed to have seals fitted, although there are none present. I prefer to use standard type guides like the exhaust valves feature here, as they at least allow enough oil down the stems to avoid rapid wear. I guess the bike is hardly likely to see the sort of mileage in future that would warrant changing them if they don't need it, but it would be prudent to find some seals rather than leave it to chance.
Pretty big holes down them inlet tracts, and I believe there are Mikuni carbs attached to them, so it should be quite a serious performer when going as it should.
While I have yet to sight pistons, rods and camshafts, I have not found any reason why this engine needed to be torn down as of yet. That bodes well for a fairly hassle-free rebuild as long as we can source whatever parts are Hyde specific.
After a fair bit of unwrapping I found the next important parts of the puzzle. I also found a reason for at least a top end strip, although I am not sure that the problem would have been apparent until it was in pieces.
Checking the newly uncovered camshafts I found one rather badly chewed lobe on the exhaust cam, and then found the offending cam follower which echoed the problem.
While cam followers are available locally, camshafts are pretty scarce worldwide, especially T160. As it happens, I have a pair of new old stock T160 camshafts that Les Williams supplied when I built my Hyde 830 back in 1991. My original cams were in such good condition that I left them in place, so these were just valuable spares.
I guess it means we are covered, but my first course of action will be to see if Kelfords are able to build the lobe up and re-profile it. I shall follow that up tomorrow after dropping the crank and barrels off for Glen to give his advice on our best course of action.
The pistons also came to light, and look to be in good enough shape at a glance. They are also a very firm fit in the bores, so as I had hoped, a hone and a new set of rings could be a lasting fix. Sourcing the rings will now be the tricky bit, as T120 Bonnevilles were a lot easier on oil rings, but Glen may have some input on the matter.
Those pistons are 71mm and I likely have the very same in my bike, which is probably well on the way to also needing a set of rings after 25000 miles of my fun, so we shall see what some of the owners forums have to say on the subject.
Finally, at the bottom of the bin, I found the conrods.!
Well well. From the profile I am picking that these steel rods are carillos, so we need lose no sleep over their life expectancy. They also contained some fairly good bearing shells, so I now know the journals are -10 on the bigends. The mains I cannot tell as they have markings that do not show up in any search results. No doubt Glen's micrometer will provide the answers we need in quick time.
I will also need to research the torque figures for the big end caps, as from memory they use at least double the tension of the original alloy rods. Thats two wins and one lose today.
I think thats a major win overall. I have even ordered a new cam follower and some main bearings - get 'em while they're hot.!
Well - the game can turn around quickly.
There was a bad score in the centre bore, which was explained by the failure of the piston. On both sides above the gudgeon pin the alloy had broken away beneath the oil ring, and no doubt the resulting debris was responsible for various scratch marks on the bearings and journals. A little bit of grit goes a long way.
We now have two puzzles to solve. Will the bore clean up within the max oversize pistons we can acquire, and what pistons may they be. While Norman Hyde do stock oversize pistons for the 1000cc engine, I am reeling at the 600 pounds asking price for what are basically T120/TR6 pistons available locally for $270 a pair. Problem is - will their oil rings satisfy a Triple.
They would also need their skirts machined to match the current items as I figure that is a necessary crankshaft clearance requisite.
On another front, the oil feed to the crankcase is still the early 5/16" pipe, rather than the later 3/8" version, and when you are this far into the engine it would be foolish not to uprate it. We do have some signs of premature wear after all, so more lube is a sensible move.
But there is a win. On Glen's advice I dropped into a camshaft shop nearby his workshop, and am very pleased that they are indeed able to rebuild the one damaged lobe within a few weeks. I was also impressed with the two chaps who run the place, as they were both pleasant to deal with and knew their stuff.
So many of these skilled people have thrown in the towel of recent years that it is a rare thing to find some more experienced people still supplying these services. Long may it last.
As I was preparing another oil feed uprate I did them both together, removing the pipe and drilling the oil passages out to 5/16" which is the inside diameter of the new 3/8" pipe. This involves drilling in two directions - one where the new pipe will fit and the other into the back of the oil pump cavity. This one is on the right, all ready to go.
The hole at about 4 o clock is the one that leads to the oil tank, and yet the two larger holes are those whose job it is to handle the outputs from both sides of the pump - one to feed the engine and the other to return all the used oil back to the tank. You would have thought that they might have spotted the crease in the plans a bit earlier in production, that enough oil has to come through that smaller hole to be delivered to the vital parts of the engine through a larger one, no.?
While it is not earth shattering, it is easy to spot the obvious increase of diameter in the second pic. Once you have been here you would never leave this setup as-is if the engine was being stripped this far. I have another T160 in the shed whose engine is not being stripped, and yet I am tempted to do so just for the benefit this mod provides.
It goes without saying that the corresponding hole in the oil pump backplate will get the same treatment.
With all the major bits away for attention it has been time to find all the small bits that are equally important in the grand scheme of things. Like handlebar controls.
The brake master cylinder is hopefully ready to move fluid when commissioned, and the other parts are finding their best locations. I am not sure if the left side handgrip is partially off or if the clutch lever needs to move outboard a little, but as it seems a mirror image of how the right side is setup it may have been deliberate placement to get the levers positioned to best suit the rider so I shall leave it like that.
