From a workshop in rural Norfolk...

peakrock
Posts: 203
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2018 4:52 pm
Location: Wreningham

Re: From a workshop in rural Norfolk...

Post by peakrock » Sun Jul 19, 2020 11:15 am

Thanks Tony !

Two big milestones this week; starting the engine and on it's own wheels at last...

I knew the engine basically worked ok as I'd run it and even ridden the donor bike a little after buying it, but that was almost 18 months ago. I'd reused the engine wiring harness which is mostly simple to reconnect but was left with a couple of wires I couldn't identify no matter how many wiring diagrams I looked at on the web. Rather than guess, I talked to Al and he suggested I contact John Thorpe who was able to help out - I owe him a pint for sure!

I put petrol in the tanks and checked there were no leaks in the low pressure side of the system but there was a leak on the high pressure side around the UFI filter despite new copper washers etc. Massive overtightening virtually eliminated it but another filter has been ordered as the shaped nut of the filter looks awful now. With fuel flowing I attempted to start it up. Lots of cranking got the oil pressure light off but no life. As part of the build I'd externally cleaned the engine and sprayed the cylinders with a silver exhaust paint which resists the heat and looks pleasant to my eye. I'd left the plugs in when I did this and had sprayed over them too. It occurred to me that the paint might be acting as a conductor so I cleaned the insulation on the plugs and the engine fired up but not on both cylinders evenly. It was evident the left cylinder was misfiring badly so after checking the plug/HT lead I took out the injectors.
carbclean.jpg
I metered them out to check coil resistance which was ok, then connected a 9v battery. You can hear a slight click when voltage is applied to an injector, the left hand one was not making any noise. There is a lot of stuff on the web about cleaning petrol injectors which I followed and I managed to unstick the injector by liberal amounts of carb cleaner. However, rather than put it back in I decided to send them both off for full servicing. They've been in the donor bike engine for 24 years and although it hadn't done a huge mileage I think time is more the enemy of bikes than usage.
One of the rubber seals had a chunk out as well so I sent them to Injectortune who stripped them, cleaned them ultrasonically, fitted new seals, micro filters etc all for the sum of £34 including return postage. It certainly runs better but really needs lots of good long trips to blow the cobwebs out. Anyway, that's the engine taken care of for now...
injector.jpg
It's also now on it's own three wheels which is nice though you forget how low a Triking is when you've been building it on a waist high stand for a few months... One thing I've noticed straight away is how the front suspension is more compliant, kind of softly sprung but well damped (this was always Colin Chapman's maxim I believe) so I can't wait to start driving it on our bumpy country roads...!
3-wheels.jpg

peakrock
Posts: 203
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2018 4:52 pm
Location: Wreningham

Re: From a workshop in rural Norfolk...

Post by peakrock » Tue Aug 04, 2020 10:56 am

I've been very busy the last few days on the Triking build making mudguard stays, fine tuning the pedal positions and bleeding the brakes which proved to be a mini epic...

The front brakes were fairly straightforward although I discovered that a couple of the caliper pistons were leaking slightly under pressure. Fortunately this was only onto the back of the new pads but I had to remove the calipers and strip them down and fit new pistons and seals. This was quite fiddly with the calipers assembled so I bought one of those caliper piston removing tools off eBay which worked well. Cleaning the calipers themselves was also tricky but a spring hook (from my days as an IBM customer engineer) came in very handy. The piston and seal kits (genuine Brembo) cost approx £150 plus £18 for the tool so somewhat expensive, serves me right I guess for buying secondhand calipers...!

The rear brake had too much travel in the master cylinder, which I thought might be due to having a different pedal box so I changed it from 0.7 to 0.75 but even then there was too much travel. Bleeding the rear brake extensively didn't improve matters either as no air bubbles were coming out, so I looked on the web for any ideas. I came across a video where someone had replaced a car caliper with one bought from a scrap yard and had put an O/S caliper on the N/S such that the bleed nipple was below the brake hose connection. This meant that air bubbles could not be bled out easily as they would tend to stay at the high point in the caliper. The car type rear brake caliper on my Triking has the bleed nipple at the bottom of the caliper so PING! - could this be the problem?

I removed the caliper off the swing arm and turned it upside down so the bleed nipple was at the top and bled the rear brake again. Upon reassembly the pedal travel was where it should be so that was a relief. I then moved onto setting the tracking, camber and castor angles etc and finally was able to drive it out of the garage...
Rolling-Chassis2.jpg
RollingChassis.jpg
It's now time to get on with the itchy side of things, namely preparing the body for gluing to the chassis and sanding it down ready for primer...

EricStarmer
Posts: 280
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 3:51 pm
Location: USA

Re: From a workshop in rural Norfolk...

Post by EricStarmer » Tue Aug 04, 2020 3:28 pm

Those front tyres make it look very "aggressive" - I like it :)

Berglind
Posts: 56
Joined: Thu Dec 05, 2019 8:15 am
Location: Vaxjo, Sweden

Re: From a workshop in rural Norfolk...

Post by Berglind » Thu Aug 06, 2020 2:53 pm

peakrock wrote:
Tue Aug 04, 2020 10:56 am
and finally was able to drive it out of the garage....
Looks wonderful!

peakrock
Posts: 203
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2018 4:52 pm
Location: Wreningham

Re: From a workshop in rural Norfolk...

Post by peakrock » Wed Aug 19, 2020 8:31 pm

With the body glued on and the current warm temperatures I've started the process of painting the Triking in my home workshop. As with my previous Triking I'm going to paint it by hand, or more accurately, apply the paint with a small foam roller and then use a high quality paint brush to "tip off". The roller applies the paint evenly and the brush smooths the paint so that a high quality finish can be achieved. I'm using International Paint primer, undercoat and top coat which is primarily formulated for boats, especially fibreglass so I should get a good result.

You may wonder why I would spend so much money on the mechanical build and then not have it sprayed. There are several reasons; I want the Triking to be usable and not have to worry about an expensive paint job being damaged when it's parked up, it'll get chipped etc during normal usage and I can touch any damage up myself and painting it this way means I can do it at home, without special masks etc or covering the rest of the workshop in excess spray paint - and of course it's a lot cheaper!

Anyway, I'm now at the stage of applying primer and undercoat very carefully and then sanding most of it back off again, patience is needed for this stage! I've attached a photo showing how the workshop looks at the moment, the body has had primer and two coats of undercoat as has the bonnet, the tail is on primer/undercoat and I've just primed the mudguards. When it's time to top coat I'll clean the garage and dust sheet the bench, wet down the floor etc to minimise dust. It probably won't look as good as a top quality spray but I'll be happy if it turns out like my previous Triking....
Paintshop1s.jpg

peakrock
Posts: 203
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2018 4:52 pm
Location: Wreningham

Re: From a workshop in rural Norfolk...

Post by peakrock » Sat Sep 19, 2020 5:51 pm

Final top coat today which makes 2 coats of primer, 1 coat undercoat and 3 top coats - all rubbed down and applied by hand. Low tech but I'm fairly happy with the result, like anything you do yourself you tend to focus on the bits that are not quite 100% rather than looking at it overall. Fluorescent light is also very good at showing any orange peel, micro runs, specks of dust etc but fortunately sunlight tends to be more forgiving. A couple of shots of what it looks like at the mo, I'll let the paint harden up for a while then I'll put it all together ready for the MSVA, though when that will be who knows....
Paintshop1.jpg
Paintshop2.jpg

Richard and Pat
Posts: 778
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2018 2:44 pm
Location: Biggleswade

Re: From a workshop in rural Norfolk...

Post by Richard and Pat » Sun Sep 20, 2020 9:10 am

Looking good.

EricStarmer
Posts: 280
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 3:51 pm
Location: USA

Re: From a workshop in rural Norfolk...

Post by EricStarmer » Sun Sep 20, 2020 3:34 pm

Love the colour !

EricStarmer
Posts: 280
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 3:51 pm
Location: USA

Re: From a workshop in rural Norfolk...

Post by EricStarmer » Mon Sep 21, 2020 3:28 pm

Make sure you buy a few extra cans of paint to touch-up the inevitable dings, in case the manufacturer stops making that particular colour. I painted mine with rattle cans also, and leaving it in the hot sun caused some "alligatoring" of the paint, so try and keep the car out of the sun when stationary, although my car is a darker colour, and it doesn't get as hot in the UK as it does here.

peakrock
Posts: 203
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2018 4:52 pm
Location: Wreningham

Re: From a workshop in rural Norfolk...

Post by peakrock » Sat Oct 03, 2020 6:36 pm

Good idea about keeping some paint around for touch in..

Here's a couple of shots showing the fuel filler, roll bar and seat belt mountings.
Fuel-Hose.jpg
Seat-Belts.jpg
Moving the fuel filler to the fixed bodywork involved more work than I'd thought. It had to go in this position otherwise the convuluted fuel hose (same as on the Type 4) would have ended up in knots. As it is, it's very tight against the roll bar and also obscures the RH seat belt anchorage so I had to fabricate a new one but I took the opportunity of making it higher so it should easily meet the MSVA requirement. I also fabricated a new mini bulkhead so if the filler hose should leak it won't go into the cockpit. It just goes to show how a casual decision on something as compact and already well engineered as the Triking can snowball! I also fitted inertia reel seat belts which seem to work well.

I also enclose a photo of the (almost) completed Triking in it's new paint finish. The luggage rack Alan modified for me mates up nicely with the supporting frame and is so strong I'm considering a dickey seat...(only kidding!) Now it's wait for the MSVA...
Completed-paint-job.jpg

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