Bonneville America Forums Forums General Motorcycle Forums Other Bikes 1971 Triumph Bonneville 650cc

Not sure what was bad about what you started with but I know I put mine together well enough to have ridden it from one end of the country to the other. Well only as far west as Yellowstone park. Fl. Keys south and Niagra Falls Canada side north. As well as many other rides like Sturis, Madi Gras, Laconia, and a few other places. Never trailered , always ridden to and from.

My neck was in rough shape, someone cut out the lugs and just kind of patched it. Worst of all was the rear wheel (a Sportster Invader) that they bent the hardtail out to fit in, than just torqued back in place with no spacers. The guy must have never ridden more than a few miles because the wheel would have eventually locked up (and it sure didn't track straight). Too bad, I love that wheel. It's currently apart again, we think the cams were not installed correctly as my buddy can't get it to stay in time correctly and the seal is on backwards, so someone had them out is the thought. Hopefully repaired before Spring.

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Not sure what was bad about what you started with but I know I put mine together well enough to have ridden it from one end of the country to the other. Well only as far west as Yellowstone park. Fl. Keys south and Niagra Falls Canada side north. As well as many other rides like Sturis, Madi Gras, Laconia, and a few other places. Never trailered , always ridden to and from.

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Cams can be a problem for those not used to working on those since the cam gears have 3 keyways and you only use one. The seal behind the points that seals the end of the exhaust cam is also a common problem on those. They had a tendency to leak after a while and needed replacing to keep the points dry. I don't see the cams being the problem if it won't stay in time unless the taper on the end of the exhaust cam is worn or the taper on the advance unit is bad. I don't remember what year you have but the earlier bikes didn't have a notch in the end of the cam or advance unit and you had to set the bike up in firing position and put the advance unit in so it allowed you to set the points. If you didn't get it right you had to pull it apart and try it again. Not to hard once you are used to it but first time can be a pain. Also I have worked on bikes that a bolt that's too long was put in to hold the advance unit allowing it to slip in the cam. It won't stay in time then either. It looks like it is tight but is actually bottoming out in the cam before it tightens the advance unit.

I had a similar experience with a vo-tech engine. They eliminated the auto shop in tech here and tossed everything. My friend works for the school district and clued me in. I got a complete Chevy 350 4 bolt main in pieces. Everything was new and all cleaning and machining was done. All the parts were top quality too , had high end connecting rods. I had to replace one rod because the kids had lost a bearing cap and they replaced it with one that didn't fit right and I bought a new crank shaft because the one with it was beat up on one bearing journal like someone had tapped it with a hammer. I know a place to get crank shafts for $100 give or take depending what you want, complete rebuild kit for $150 including cams, lifters, pistons, oil pump and all the normal stuff. All I bought was the one con rod from a friend here that sold it to me for $20 (he owns and auto speed machine shop here) and fresh rings since the rings with it had been installed over and over again. This engine was used for the kids to assemble for practice. Well that engine has now been in my wrecker for 4 years and was just driving it today.

Dwight's Triumph rules. So does Dwight