A Labor of Love; aka building a Rocket III Speedster

Good Progress. Glad the engine is ok.

Claviger said:

So...a thing was done. Bones have been picked clean...

Off to the yard with the broken skeleton.

Good news though all engine mounts undamaged and, I angried that stupid cam cover bolt out and yeeted that mfer as far as I could into the woods. Felt better instantly.

Got to checking my valve clearances. There are two out of tolerance, cyl 2 #2 valve and cyl 3 #2 valve are both about 0.05mm off target otherwise all where they should be. Exhausts range from .18-.23, intakes range from .13-.18, except the 2 that need reshimming at 0.08 and 0.10.

I know the spec is 15-20 and 20-25 but , as mentioned I don't care what Triumph has to say anymore.

Everything I can see from here looks exactly like it should.

Done for the day...my old is acting up.

Click to expand...

Some good news to build on.

And since the motor is good that just saved 9g

Claviger said:

Also shows unavailable on the cross-reference bikes I checked. Triumph giving the middle finger to a lot of folks on this.

ProBolt has no interest in making it, but they make the smaller version for other Triumphs.

I'm not paying the stupid prices people want to make 9 of them.

So that leaves, in order:

M6x40mm Ti GR2 button head full threaded

M10x19x3 Washer

OEM double seal
M6x25x10 threaded collar


In order they should fully seal with a touch of RTV placed in the collar while assembling and not more cheesewiz bolts.

Click to expand...

Can you have the stock hardware drilled to 6mm eliminating the thread and turning them into a flanged sleeve configuration, have the flanged end counterbored 10 x 1.0 deep and then use a standard M6 x 40 SHCS? Or use a M6 x 40 Hex bolt without counterbore for easier removal when engine is in the frame.

How about converting to studs in the head with some sort of acorn nut on top?

Cam cover bolt considerations;

There is a lot of oil flying around in there, I've always found the bottom on the seals wet, so oil is making its way up the 10.7mm shoulder area to the seal between the cover and bolts.

Studs would preclude the ability to remove the cover with the engine installed, but I did find a stud solution using aircraft parts, it's not expensive.

The oem dual seal, seals against the collared area and then the cover/flange interface. Using washers or something creates another route for a leak unless the seal against the collared area is working, so any solution with a washer required a good size collar.

The easiest solution is an m6x35 bolt with a 18-21 mm flange + a 1/2" ID statoseal style washer, done. While it sounds easy, finding the right material seal, viton or buna (I don't trust epdm/rubber here), with acceptable OD of less than 21mm and more than 12mm isn't the easiest. The only m6x35 with a 19 flange I found were either Allen key or aluminum, neither of which I want.

@Speedy solution of drilling and threading the stock bolt for an M6x40 and + a dab of red locker when assembling the 40mm bolt and newly made collar (before installing the head) is the best solution if you have a good drill press IMHO. You get the correct dimensions for the seal and choice of Allen/hex/torx interface on the bolt top with no additional leak path.

So I've validated valves are sealing and trans is shifting properly.

Rather than jump straight to "pull the head" I'm going to borescope the cylinders. If that looks ok, I'll wire up the battery and a relay to check cranking compression.

If that is ok I'm just going to adjust the shims and retime it to what @Neville Lush suggested when I first built it, about 3 degrees less LCA than where I have it now.

Stator cover must come off anyways to reseal the very minor leak on the wire pass through.

I have no reason to think there's any meaningful wear on rotating assemblies at 7,000 miles. Might as well save myself the headache of pulling it apart fully. I can drop the pan and check the wire filters once it's back in a frame.

I would be absolutely shocked if one of the rotating steel shafts was damaged while all the mounts are completely untouched. Should have a full work up in the next day or two.

Kevin frazier said:

And since the motor is good that just saved 9g

Click to expand...

Probably not, will probably refresh, but you're right, whole lot lower cost. Probably best time to take a look. Bearings, rings, and gaskets. Minor costs considering. Great find.

Yeah, it's a good sign, refresh will depend on what I find. At a minimum it'll get shims and preventative detent spring and Hayabusa clutch (figure 20k is a fair life for the original clutch and detent given...everything).

I'm not particularly worried about rods/pistons/crank/main bearings/trans/clutch basket since I'm not force induced.

I did find one meaningful change between the 2014 and 2005 frame.... ABS mounting tabs are not present on the 2005, as expected.

No ABS is not an option for me, I'm very hard and sharp on front brakes when playing and it has saved my bum a few times having it.

That then opens a can of worms for options...
- weld on OEM tabs, use OEM module. It's a "dumb" module and is not reliant on the ECU for operation, it has its own logic board. As far as I can tell, data goes from ABS to ECU only; wheel speed, warning light and that's it outside diagnostics/test functions using the dealer tool interface.

- grab a more advanced ABS module and mount it up (like a pre-imu CBR1000 module). I need to figure out how reliant the ZX10/R1/CBR/GSXR modules are on the ECU. If they're dumb modules, I'll see if I can find the smallest/lightest one to use. Swapping will have some inherent changes along with them, the reluctor rings will need to match the window count of the donor bike, however, 120/70 + 200/55 will play nice will all of them, unlike the rocket's abs module.

The Nexus R3 can communicate with ABS modules via CAN, so it'll probably come down to which I can find the best documentation on (given their appearance, I suspect they're all the same Bosch module in different brackets).