Starting On The Carburetor

While I wait for parts to arrive in the mail to finish up engine assembly I decided to get started on the carburetor rebuild.  The carb. on the Triumph is an Amal 376.  I ordered a complete rebuild kit.  All the o-rings, washers, gaskets, and a new float valve.  All of the jets looked shockingly clean so I didn't order new ones.  I may regret that later but they're not hard to get and I'm not under any real time pressure.

I took a LOT of pictures.  Even though I have a parts manual and a service manual for the bike I've found having pictures when you start reassembly to be worth the few minutes it takes to capture them.  It also gives me good visuals for my blog posts, which would be boring without without them.

To that end.  Here is a before shot of the carburetor to compare with an after shot which I'll take once I'm done.  So far I've only got the tear-down complete and some of the parts washed.  I'll start polishing up the body next.  Not looking for a really shiny finished product but, as you can see from the picture, it's pretty oxidized and dirty right now.

Amal 376 - Before

Headless No More

I'm one step closer to a complete engine.  I've just ordered a few miscellaneous parts that will allow me to button it up but here's the latest shot of my progress.  After some fiddling and improvising a tool to align the pushrods to the rocker arms I got the head bolted on... twice.

After some struggling I found a 'tool' that holds the pushrods in place while fitting the head down onto the bolts.  The tool, along with a rubber band between the two rocker arms to hold them against the top of the rods, once aligned, made the job MUCH easier.  Even with that the rods switched places on me the first time I got the head on.  The exhaust valve was opening on the down-stroke of the piston, instead of on the exhaust stroke - DRAT!  I had to remove the head, reposition the rods, and start the frustrating procedure of lowering the head back onto the bolts while aligning the rocker arms with the rods.  It went together a bit more smoothly the second time but not without some problems.

Attempt number two and the rods were opening and closing the valves at the proper times.  I then set the valve clearances and put the rocker arm covers in place.  Once I get the timing pieces and a few other bits I'll finish up the assembly of the engine and get ready to put it into the frame.  I've got to get the carb rebuilt first.  I'd like to do as much work on the bench before putting the engine into the frame.  I don't have a stand on which I can put the entire bike so once the engine is in the frame things become more uncomfortable to work on.  I may look into building some sort of stand for the final assembly.

Here are a few pictures of the engine.  One of it nearly complete, the second is a shot of the pushrods being held by my fancy 'tool', awaiting fitment of the head.