Daytona in the dock

The little Daytona beastie has done well over the last three months, carrying me to Bath and back three times per week in all weathers, and never failing to start first kick after I worked out the procedure:

1. Full choke
2. Generous tickle until the carb floods
3. Prod the engine over twice before switching on.
4. Ignition on and swing
5. Roaring beast sound comes out of the silencers

The clutch is still not quite right. I had to screw the springs really tight to stop slipping under power. So tight that the adjuster nuts are almost lost inside the clutch pressure plate. Apart from requiring gorilla strength from my left hand, clutch operation doesn't free off the drive completely now, so every engagement of first is a bit of a crunchy exercise. After extensive bulletin board reading I'm fairly convinced that the problem consists in the friction plates having seen modern oils with antifriction additives. Apparently these chemicals do not come off the friction linings even when scrubbed in white spirit. So the next step there is to replace the friction plates, probably with nice new Surflex ones. No engine oil will ever go in there of course. ATF only. Then I shall have a nice light action clutch that frees off completely. But that's for a future date.

Tomorrow the bike goes on the hoist for some maintenance. Main task is to fix the pesky oil leaks which now seem to be coming from all corners of the top end. If I'm brave enough the entire top end will come off, and I shall replace:

• tappet blocks (with post '69, o-ring type)
• pushrod tunnels (with turned alloy aftermarket patterns that have proper sealing surfaces. No pushrod tunnel made by Triumph was ever any good, those pressed steel things are just awful)
• seals (paying particular attention to the copper washers for the oil feed pipe banjos. The stock copper washers you get in repro gasket sets are much too thin, they are more like shims than oil seals! Even if annealed the constraint on the copper is such that they don't adapt to the 40-year-old mating surfaces. I got some lovely thick copper washers from a diesel fuel systems supplier. If they can cope with the pressure from a diesel injector pump, they should be alright with the half hearted push from a Triumph oil return plunger)

So bear with me and come back tomorrow night. I'll take the camera into the garage and post again with a few snaps of the day.