Max's shed of a TT600

[Max5476]

BuzzBravado said:

Are you going to repaint the swingarm? Would well be worth it.

I would like to, the LH adjuster is knackered, so might buy a new one from a scrap yard. I will be having a closer look when the wheel next comes out.

[Mr2Mike]

Did you check out why the rear wheel becomes stiff when the spindle is tightened? That would be no.1 priority for me, if there is a spacer missing then the bearings will collapse pretty quickly.

[Max5476]

Mr2Mike said:

Did you check out why the rear wheel becomes stiff when the spindle is tightened? That would be no.1 priority for me, if there is a spacer missing then the bearings will collapse pretty quickly.

It's on my to do list, having received the brake master cylinder earlier in the week, I decided to start with that.



First off, a rag to protect the paintwork, because it's in such excellent condition



Next removal of the master cylinder



I gave the clip-ons a clean while they were accessible, while draining the brake fluid from the reservoir. The fluid was a little cloudy so worth replacing as well.



I took off the reservoir, brake switch and brake lever, and pulled off the broken dust shield.



There had clearly been water ingress, as the circlip was pretty rusty, so I took the piston out and gave it all a good clean



Parts to reassembly it.



Reassembly, and cleaned everything as I bolted it back on



Back on the bike, with new crush washers



Reservoir fitted and topped up



And then on to my least favourite, and least successful job, bleeding the brakes. It didn't start well, I got out my vacuum pump only to find it wouldn't vacuum. I lent it to a friend previously, so no idea what he did to it, to stop it from vacuuming. So I took it all apart, and finally worked out the valve had got stuck closed. Once working I started bleeding the brakes.



And bleeding the brakes, and bleeding the brakes, and no success. The lever still pulls back to the bar. I managed to run through 1l of brake fluid without building up the pressure. Somewhere there is a bubble which does not want to dislodge.

Currently I have left it cable tied to the bar over night, and will order a syringe to fill from the calipers if it's still soft tomorrow.

Edited to correct image link.

Edited by Max5476 on Tuesday 14th March 17:28

[Pothole]

underwhelmist said:

Nice project.
If you're still looking for a shock rebuild/suspension work in the midlands, try Revs Racing in Halesowen. I've had some forks rebuilt by them, they did a good job and it was a quick turnaround.

Do they do hard chroming?

[gareth_r]

Pothole said:

underwhelmist said:

Nice project.
If you're still looking for a shock rebuild/suspension work in the midlands, try Revs Racing in Halesowen. I've had some forks rebuilt by them, they did a good job and it was a quick turnaround.

Do they do hard chroming?

Very unlikely. Hard chrome is specialist stuff. They might act as a middleman.

The two hard chromers I know of are HCP&G in Mansfield (I had them refurb a pair of Honda CB750 stanchions for me years ago) and Philpots in Luton.

[underwhelmist]

Pothole said:

Do they do hard chroming?

I don't think so, but they rebuilt my forks with a new pair of stanchions. I don't think having the old stanchions hard chromed would have worked out much cheaper and the job would have taken a lot longer.

[bennyboysvuk]

Max5476 said:

And bleeding the brakes, and bleeding the brakes, and no success. The lever still pulls back to the bar. I managed to run through 1l of brake fluid without building up the pressure. Somewhere there is a bubble which does not want to dislodge.

Currently I have left it cable tied to the bar over night, and will order a syringe to fill from the calipers if it's still soft tomorrow.

Leaving my R1 with the lever cable tied for a few days worked superbly when I changed the front hoses during the winter (though it does have a MC bleed valve). With any luck, your TT brakes will bleed just as successfully.

[Pothole]

underwhelmist said:

Pothole said:

Do they do hard chroming?

I don't think so, but they rebuilt my forks with a new pair of stanchions. I don't think having the old stanchions hard chromed would have worked out much cheaper and the job would have taken a lot longer.

Just had a look at their website. I reckon I'll give them a shout soon.

[Max5476]

So I still hadn't got any brake pressure on my tt600, so I tackled it again this weekend. I had ordered a syringe in the week to try reverse bleeding the brakes.



This made no difference at all, so after trying some normal bleeding again, and still not getting anywhere, I decided to rebuild the master cylinder. Upon disassembly I found the bottom seal had slipped and wasn't sealing. Hence no brake pressure! So I put it back together, with the seal the other way up to stop it slipping again and... It still wouldn't flipping pressurise. Deciding I had done it right (but wrong) the first time. I took it apart once again, reassembled, and finally, it bled and I had front brakes back . Thirds times the charm and all that.

Riding the wave of success, I flushed the fluid for the rear brake, with no problems at all, and replaced the front brake caliper bolts. The previous owner had lost one of the bolts, and replaced it with a random one that had gone very rusty, so I treated it to a new bolt.



Next up is checking the tune, vacuum pipes and getting it running smoothly.

[Mr2Mike]

Max5476 said:

Next up is checking the tune, vacuum pipes and getting it running smoothly.

Good luck! The TT600 uses the same crappy Sagem system as the older Triumph triples, my Benelli Tornado and the Aprilia Futura. The fewer cylinders the engine has, the better this system works so getting it running really well on the TT can be quite involved.

[Max5476]

So checked out the tune on the bike, and was pleased to see it had the latest TT600 tune, which confirmed my suspicion cutting out was due to the IACV.



Next was to lift the tank to see what was underneath it. I was expecting to have to replace the vacuum lines to get in running correctly



What I discovered was that the main IACV pipe had been left unplugged.



Everything underneath the tank appears to have a lovely film of oil, so need to work out where that is coming from but I reconnected everything ready to try starting it up again. I still plan to balance the throttle bodies, but following an incident where I punched the wall trying to remove a wardrobe and bruised the knuckle of my RH, I have lost a bit of my usual dexterity, so that can wait for another day.

Once reassembled the bike started on the button, and idled at 1700 when cold, dropping to 1300 when warm as expected. Unfortunately there is still some hunting on idle +/- 300 or so. so it does need a bit of work to make it a bit more rock solid, but looking forward to taking it out for a test ride again.

I remembered to check the oil after running it, and have a suspicion it has been overfilled, but need to check again once cold.

One of the many previous owners had gone a bit sticker mad, and stuck extra triumph stickers all over the bike perhaps to draw peoples eyes away from the terrible condition of the rest of the bike. I think they make it look worse so I have been slowly removing them all.





The only stickers left are on the rear panel under the grabrail. Someone has sprayed this black, so they will leave horrid yellow marks if peeled of. The panel is cracked, so I have my eye out for a replacement.

Edited by Max5476 on Tuesday 14th March 17:43

[Jazoli]

I'd still be replacing the IACV hoses, they may look ok but they perish and split and are still the most likely suspect of your poor idle.

Also if you plan on removing the tank treat the quick release fuel hose clips very gently, and replace the o rings every time you do, they can be an utter bh.

Edited by Jazoli on Tuesday 14th March 18:11

[Pothole]

If you use Facebook, join the group on there "Triumph Speed Four Riders" as lots of bit are interchangeable and it's a good source of spare bits. There might be a TT group too, I don't know...

[gareth_r]

Jazoli said:

...Also if you plan on removing the tank treat the quick release fuel hose clips very gently, and replace the o rings every time you do, they can be an utter bh.

If it still has the plastic connectors, or the half plastic/half metal version that Triumph fitted after a recall, they can be upgraded to all metal, which permanently resolves the problem.

http://www.triumphrat.net/triumph-supersports/1833...

[Max5476]

Jazoli said:

I'd still be replacing the IACV hoses, they may look ok but they perish and split and are still the most likely suspect of your poor idle.

Also if you plan on removing the tank treat the quick release fuel hose clips very gently, and replace the o rings every time you do, they can be an utter bh.

Edited by Jazoli on Tuesday 14th March 18:11

Should have listened, took the bike for a quick trip to halfords to replace the oil, but it's still cutting out, so tank needs to come off, I have ordered the o rings though. Undeterred I dropped the oil, and refilled with Halfords finest (cheapest) 10w40. Once its running better and i've put some miles on it, Ill give it another oil change in 100 miles or so, giving the engine a bit of a flush. The oil filter hadn't arrived, but I wanted to get the correct amount in, ill change it with the next oil change.

[gareth_r]

According to the handbook for the Speed Four/TT600, the recommended oil is 15w/50 fully synthetic.

[Pothole]

gareth_r said:

According to the handbook for the Speed Four/TT600, the recommended oil is 15w/50 fully synthetic.

Yup, I've only ever gone fully synth in my S4

[Max5476]

gareth_r said:

According to the handbook for the Speed Four/TT600, the recommended oil is 15w/50 fully synthetic.

The service manual says its fine:

"All Triumph fuel injected engines must be filled with 10W-40, 15W-40 or 15W-50 semi-synthetic motorcycle engine oil which meets API-SG or API-SH specification, or fully-synthetic oil which exceeds these minimum requirements."

Im only using this oil as an bit of flush, so haven't decided what to use next, however as its done 51000 miles already, I don't think I will see a difference, althought it would probably prefere the thicker 15W-50

[Max5476]

So everyone knows you can't polish a turd, but that didn't stop me replacing rear bodywork panel, to get rid of the flaking spray paint and stickers, and it was cracked in half.

Lets forget I'm not riding the bike while it won't idle when hot







Just need to keep an eye out for a new seat, to replace the taped up current one.

[Rubin215]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182530561726?ssPageName=...

Had a set of these on Mrs 215's first TT; did a great job of protecting the rear end from throw-overs and bungees.