Britbike forum Forums British Motorcycle specific Brands Triumph bulletin board Rebuild Costs?

We have a 66 T120R engine, with TR6 head - that needs some srious attention, and the owner is squeaky over pricing. The head needs totally reconditioning (guides are goosed) reboring (at 0.020" going to 0.040") new pistons/rings and the crank pulling out, sludge trap cleaning out, probably cutting - then new main/rod bearings.
New sludge trap & plug, mushroom type rocker pins & nuts, Kibblewhite racing valve spring kit, LF Williams 4 valve oil pump, all seals/gaskets
. The whole engine would be vapour blasted.
The primary is all fresh, and the gearbox is fine -- but a small 'allowance' for 'surprises' should be added to the cost.
Any CURRENT thoughts on what it'd cost, at a shop charging $100hr?
Brid.

My thoughts would be put $1000 aside and do it yourself! But thats just what i would do....

I'm trying to get some 'real world' thoughts about what other shops are charging --

Seems like 80 hrs would cover complete disassembly and reassembly with valve guide etc. That's 2 weeks straight which is not likely real world but perhaps chargeable hours. Lotta cash at 100 an hour, but if you trust your work and abilities and your guy gets value for that money- a great running bike. Then yes!
Not parts, just labor.
I havent made a living at fixing motorcycles ( full disclosure)

Hi Brid, The price of parts has really gone up since Covid.

80 hours might be pushing it or not!. I would budget about $7500-8000 parts & labor with a $2000 slush fund. Do a little web search & you'll soon see how costly parts are these days. You can drop $4000+ in parts before you know it. Little things like you find a loose bushing in rod small end. Now you need weight matched rod set. Crank grind & balance. Black Diamond valves, hard guides. KW springs. I wouldn't use racing springs unless you're actually going to race.

I sublet bore & hone, valve guide install. Guide ream, cut seats, surface head. Sand blast cyl fins & vapor blast head was included. I took head apart & assembled myself. Did all other work myself. $5000 for sublet labor & all the top drawer parts. Plus $500 for trans gears. Clutch & primary chain had already been replaced so reused all that. I took motor out, apart, disassembled, reassembled, reinstalled all myself. Just oil & fuel hose was $50.

I have no idea how owners overhaul their motors on the cheap. When you start paying for labor too, You can drop $10-12k into a bike before you know it.

Secret is, do a really perfect overhaul. Then DON'T SELL BIKE, ride the life out of it. That's where the value is. Very hard to sell a bike to even start to break even with free labor you do yourself.

If you don't have the tools to take motor apart, you're looking at several hundred dollars in special tools also. The big $ ones are cam & pinion gear pullers. Smaller dollars are clutch hub & crank bearing pullers as needed, micrometers, etc, etc.
The cheapest route is sell bike as is cheap & buy new modern Bonnie!
Don

If the owner is, as you say, "squeaky over pricing," then this isn't the hobby for him.
As TR& says, maybe one of the NEW Bonnies is better for him!

What Swede just said, if he's squeaky on price and you are the mechanic, this probably won't end well. Had a Harley mechanic tell me the other day, "there's no money in Triumphs, they're a labor of love only".

As soon as you start taking it apart it's going to cost serious money, which I suppose is true of everything. That's if you're going to the job properly. Coming back to bikes after a gap I was taken aback by the price of parts, as I'd imagined that with a lot of Triumphs still around, there'd be a lot of competition to sell the parts. I'm probably out of touch and I bet parts for a new Bonnie are even higher, but maybe not needed quite as often!

I'm not up to speed with US labour rates, but $100 per hour sounds the sort of rate you might pay to have a one-off job done at a dealer. If it was in the UK, if you couldn't/wouldn't do it yourself, you'd try and find somebody with lower overheads who was prepared to do the job for an all up labour figure + parts.

At the sort of numbers everyone's talking about here if the customer hasn't got a sentimental attachment to the bike he would be better off selling it and buying a better example.

Hi TR7RVMan; new Bonneville here cost around 25000! and about 16000 used.

-I think and may be you thought of that; is there is different types of costs with the rebuilding. If the customer does not want to put plenty of money on the bike BUT wants to ride, actually; spend the small budget on new EI; head work and components; main bearings; shell bearings; rods bolts; primary chain and clutch; all the gaskets and O rings of course and just that.
That way the labor hours would be payable and the parts cost not expensive.

If he only wants the bike to starts it and talk about, well; that is even cheaper in all the costs.

A major cost is to rebuild the engine and associated stuff, completely and the most cost is if a customer wants a pristine motorcycle; with all the cosmetics associated.

I've stripped a twin engine in less than a day assuming it is out of the bike and the Fasteners aren't too corroded and you have all the proper tools at hand and an impact wrench to get really stubborn bolts. Sludge trap removal maybe half a day if it is really stubborn. Maybe another half day to clean parts. Assuming all the parts are back from the machinist and everything is laid out ready to go and you again have the proper tools maybe one to two days to reassemble. This doesn't include the carbs or ignition system. Seems like 40 hours of actual labor(not including machining) should be sufficient unless something breaks or is extremely stubborn.

Here in the North East the main dealers charge about $125/hour and the small repair shops about $105/hr.
And neither can get good repair guys to do the work!

I have just built a unit 650 completely from parts and it cost less than $4000 all up. All work done by me less one machining job done by a neighbour for free! Most expensive part was the frame - $1000. This involved a lot of fixing and cleaning of course and took me 7 months. Its not the easiest way to go about it, but it can be done.

Hi Reverb, Brid has already stated motor needs serious work. Already stated guides are worn out.
My hunch is this will be major overhaul.

All one needs to do is make a list, go onto any seller’s web site & look up the parts. Make sure list is complete. Don’t forget little things like valve keepers. Just sealant is $50.

The owner is in USA with USA prices, shipping basically no duties. Owning a Triumph in Uruguay as you do has many challenges we don’t face here. I have great respect for you!

But, it’s still costly to overhaul Triumph motors here. Lots of cheap used parts on eBay here. Sadly most are junk. Same at swap meets. Junk!


Will be interesting to see how this situation turns out. Some people have an idea of cost in mind. They learn real cost. Very upset & feel they are being ripped off. They do a web search & learn real life costs. Takes a few weeks of getting used to reality, then move forward on a good job.

The worst thing is overhaul on the cheap. Doesn’t really work as it should & proves not durable. I see this all the time. Then they say Triumphs are unreliable pieces of junk. The devil is in the details. It’s the details that push time & labor cost through the roof.

Valve keepers alone $34, mushroom adjusters $43, spring kit $144. Black Diamond valve & guide kit $207. Clevite rod bearings $70. Quality parts cost a lot.
If owner hardly rides bike it doesn’t matter so much about durability. If you actually ride, quality really matters!

Don

As a Brit bike dealer/ repair shop once said to me:
"The cheapest thing on a Brit bike is the owner"!

This is some of the best advice I have seen on this forum. It's been my personal ideal for a long time.