Going dotty

While the quotation heading up this feature is from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, and appeared in his 1890 story The Sign of the Four, it is applicable to the ‘Strange case of the untimed Triumph…’ which has been driving me to distraction for some time.

On the face of it, a mild-mannered, 350cc Triumph 3TA isn’t the most technically advanced of motorcycles – I will allow as it is a twin there is a certain amount of doubling up in components, but, still, it’s not a complicated thing. Yet it has steadfastly refused to work as Triumph intended, or even work at all.

I’ve pored over manuals, checked handbooks and puzzled over information, all to no avail. It’s not only Triumph who provided useful aids for those of us assembling engines and wanting to ensure the cams open and close at the correct times, every engine in my experience has some form