"2002 REBUILD"
1969 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE
Original owner Art Maggio, Winter Park, FL
Tell me what you think of my bike:
Art Maggio,
email: avmaggio@earthlink.net.
Page 3
Now that all the painting was done, (with the exception of some odds and ends) I needed to do
a little work on the engine. I had done a valve job on the head when I was working to get the
bike to run but I needed to replace some seals and I wanted to polish some of the
aluminum.
I pulled the timing cover, transmission cover, and primary cover and began work on them. I had
tried to polish them before with disappointing results. This time I vowed to find out why it
hadn't worked before. Once I figured out how to do it with the limited tools that I had, I was
pleased with the results. All three covers and parts of the head got polished.
While I was in
these areas I replaced the seals.
Once that was done, I approached another problem which I had avoided. I have been unable to find
head gaskets for this barrel assembly. Years ago I installed a Routt's 800 cc kit with forged
10.5 to 1 pistons. When used with a .016" head gasket this brought the compression ratio to
11.5:1.
Back then I could get 106 octane fuel ( Sunoco 260) and was getting by. Then
when the octane ratings began to fall I built the liquid cooled head and got by. With
the dismally low octane ratings we have today and the air cooled head, drastic measures were
called for. I bought some copper sheet stock from the local hobby shop and set about fabricating
new, thicker head gaskets. I hope that this, combined with octane boosters will, once again,
let me get by. At this writing I do not yet know.
Once this was done it was time for reassembly. The frame was put together, the engine installed,
fenders, lights, wiring, etc. added. After months of work to get to this point, things went
very quickly.
