Spent my entire Sunday working on the Bonneville. First, I attempted to fit the new primary chain just in from Union Jack (first having established that the primary chain adjuster was already at the limit of its adjustment).
I was able to dismantle the primary drive as far as the clutch centre (the part that carries the cush-drive rubbers). Removal requires a Special Triumph Tool to pull it off the splines of the clutch hub.
Aside: my old Yamaha 650 Twin never required special tools, except maybe for reassembly of the crank which is when you need a press. To work on a Triumph, you seem to need thousands of special tools. Obviously a ploy to generate revenue for your friendly neighbourhood Triumph dealer. Gee, thanks Meriden.
Okay, back to our main story. I find that the Triumph Special Tool clutch puller will not go onto the thread inside the clutch centre. It goes about ˝ a turn, and then needs force to go any further (which I am loath to do, in case I wreck it).
Admittedly, my clutch puller is the same one I purchased when I first got into pre-unit Triumphs. Perchance did Triumph change the thread of their clutch centre between 1956 (the year of my Thunderbird) and 1977? For example, during the Great Thread Changeover from CEI to UNF in the late sixties?
I had no choice but to reassemble everything with the old primary chain still in place.
I took the bike for a Sunday afternoon run, and it went fine with only occasional hesitation. But on getting home and switching off, I noticed smoke signals rising from the back of the ignition switch. The wires there (including my new bypass wire) were very hot to the touch.
Aha! A dead short somewhere! So that’s the cause of my troubles, not an over-charging charging system!
I spent the next three hours gutting the wiring harness, and everywhere I see evidence of fire and brimstone. I re-taped a lot of stuff to try and insulate it all from itself, until I reached a point where turning the ignition key on did NOT result in wires heating up within seconds.
I measured output of alternator at regulator-to-battery/switch wire (brown-green) with headlamp going on high-beam, and found it to be 1.5-2 Amps at idle, rising to 4.5 Amps at revs that made the bike “walk” on its centre-stand (my tach doesn’t work). This does not seem unreasonable.
I took the bike for a ride and covered about a mile, then the ignition went back to its old pattern when the battery was boiling over. It would cut out dead, only to re-start after a while, and if I could get the bike moving then the only way to keep the bike moving was to rev the crap out of it. I had quite a long push in the darkness to get it home.
