11. Ariel Golden Arrow - Good News & Bad News

Having successfully mounted the HT coils and the dummy tank brackets, I decided to take a look at the real petrol tank. Quite good news! although the paintwork is dull and discoloured, it's in good shape. No rust or leaks and no damage. So I decided to simply clean it up and fit it. As it sits inside the frame and cannot be seen, it seemed unnecessary to respray it, so I gave it a good clean with T-Cut and it came up beautiful. Then it was just a case of sliding it down the inside of the frame and bolting it in place with new stainless steel bolts.

Two more bits can now be fitted. First I spotted the cap that covers up the headstock bearing nuts, in my box of newly chromed parts. However, this meant removing the nuts again, fitting the cap and then refitting the nuts and readjusting the headstock bearings again. On top of the nuts goes a plastic tubular cover to hide them. I had managed to pick up a new cover, but it was in a black plastic marbled finish. So it was into the cardboard spray booth and given a couple of coats of white paint and then slipped in place over the headstock nuts.

The next part to be fitted is the bulkhead, that fits inside the frame after the petrol tank. This is held in place by six nuts and bolts, however the top bolts also hold two of the four cups that the seat locates into. These metal cups had escaped the trip to the paint shop, so it was a case of spray them myself. I took the opportunity to spray the two plastic cones that cover the top of the front shock absorbers  at the same time. These plastic cones seem to be extremely rare as I had tried to buy new ones and found them impossible to locate. I even saw two sold on Ebay for £50!! and I've noticed several pictures of Ariel Arrows that have been renovated with these caps missing. So re-spraying them myself seemed to be a sensible answer.

Now the "good news and bad news". The good news is that I have received the engine block back from being aquablasted and it is now beautiful and clean, The bad news is that I had a call from the crankshaft engineer who informed me that he had fitted the new big end roller bearings and the play in the big ends is no better. It would appear that the wear is not in the rollers but actually on the crankshaft itself. This means that the big end surfaces on the crankshaft will need to be built up with hard chrome plating. A process that he can't do.  I did some searching around and found that my best option was to send off the crankshaft to Draganfy, who do a exchange service on crankshafts. However this posed a further problem. You may recall that, in a previous blog, I mentioned that someone had had a grinding wheel to the end of the left hand side of the crankshaft. As this would only affect the ability to fit standard contact breaker points, I had previously not felt that this would be a problem as I was going to fit electronic ignition anyway. Well now it was a problem as Draganfy would not accept my old crankshaft in exchange for the new one, if the old one could not be renovated back to standard. So now I had to find a replacement left half of the crankshaft before it could be sent off for exchange. The answer came from the Ariel Owners Club, who have a second hand parts service and just happened to have spare left half crank. So I purchased it and then sent off the replacement left half with the original right half to Draganfly.  A little more good news was that the engineer had managed to rebore the cylinders and these have now been give a new coat of high temperature black paint.

OK two more major parts can now be fitted. First, the back half (rear mudguard) of the frame. This needs a black plastic trim around the edge, where it meets the rest of the frame and is held in place by 8 nuts and bolts. This meant supporting the bike and removing the unistrut frame to allow it to be fitted in place and then re-fitting the support frame once the rear shock absorber mounting points were visible through the rear mudguard. I have to say that fitting this part really seems like a huge step forward, as the project is really beginning to look like a recognisable Golden Arrow now. It also allowed me to fit some more of the newly chromed bits. Including the exhaust hangers at the back and the stainless lifting handles.

The other major item that I could now fit is the engine block. The block is mounted on three mounting points on the frame. So it was a simple case of lifting it in place and loosely sliding in the three mounting bolts. After taking a quick look at the mounting bolts, I made a decision to replace them with 12mm stainless steel studs and dome nuts. So I ordered these off the Internet. I should have studied the old ones more carefully as only the front mounting point can be replaced by a stud with nuts on both ends. The other two need to be bolts and thread directly into the engine block. One of these bolts even has a thread running through the centre of it to take an allen key holding the timing side outer cover on. So I wasted my money on two of the stainless studs. But that's what renovation is like. So I sent off the two old bolts for chrome plating and now await their return.

The final two things to be fitted were the inner rear mudguard and the strengthening bracket to support the rear shock absorbers. This strengthening bracket hides two strange aluminium spacers, that I had been looking at for some time and wondered where they fitted. They look like two polo mints held together by a single thin web and whilst I had only removed one off the bike (actually it fell off during stripping and I never saw where it came from) I had seen in the parts book that the bike needed 2. Now I could figure out where they fit, which is between the support bracket and the frame.

That's it for now. Next is the start of the engine rebuild.

Copyright K. Hopcroft  08.12.14 All rights reserved
You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My Other Blogs:

1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
 https://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/before.html


Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html

1971 VW Karmann Ghia Convertible Car: 
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html 

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html

10. Ariel Golden Arrow - The rebuild continues

On my last blog, you will recall that I had finally managed to fit the front wheel. Well it had to come off again! After studying the front brake backplate, I realised that there was an "A" plate that bolts to it, which is connected to the stay that stops the back plate rotating when you apply the brake. This "A" plate can only be fitted before the wheel is mounted in the forks, so there was no option but to take it all apart again.You can just see the top of the "A" frame sticking above the front forks in this picture. This "A" frame is one of the parts that had come back from the chrome platers, so it was the first bit of chrome to be fitted to the bike. Once fitted, the wheel was put back on again and this time I could add two more chrome parts, the front fork cover plates.

This set me off wondering what else I could fit to the bike ?
I decided to fit the two HT coils, which fit in a really difficult position, inside the front of the frame. Originally, when I stripped the bike,  they were fitted each with one large self tapping screw into a speed nut on the HT coil bracket and one nut and bolt, through the frame and into the bracket. The self tappers were obviously because your fingers just can't reach the outer coil fixing points. Well I decided to try anyway and fix them with new stainless nuts and bolts. This was so difficult that it took nearly two hours and a lot of swearing to achieve. But in the end they were in. Talk about "one step forwards and two steps back". I then decided to fit the support brackets for the dummy petrol tank. Guess what? Two of the brackets bolt through the frame ahead of the HT coils and the only way to reach them was to take the coils off again.

It was at this point that I decided that this was stupid and I needed to make an easy and secure way to get the coils on and off, as I was sure that sooner or later I would have to remove them again. So I removed the coils and looked at the fixing brackets. The answer as simple, my business already uses 6mm captive nuts, all I needed to do was file the holes in the brackets until the captive nuts snapped into place, the coils could then be held in place and the bolts passed through from the outside of the frame. The coils can now be removed and refitted as often as I like.

Now those dummy tank brackets. There are six in all, two on each side of the frame and two on top, near the headstock. In order to make sure that they were in exactly the right place and at the right angle, it was necessary to offer the dummy tank into place. With the the top two brackets just fitted with the bolts tight enough just to be able to turn them, I offered the dummy tank into place and then reached in through the tool box aperture and turned the top fixing brackets until they lined up with the brackets welded to the inside of the dummy tank. This turned out to be a good idea as the two welded brackets were not fixed at the same angles.

Then the four side brackets could be fitted, they mount very strangely. Each bracket has two tongues that protrude from the back. The two tongues pass through the large hole in the frame and into to matching slots cut in some round mounting washers that fit on the inside of the frame. In effect the bracket and the round mounting washer "sandwich"  the hole in the frame and secure the bracket whilst still allowing you a degree of rotation to line up with the threaded holes in the bottom of the dummy tank.


Well, all that's left to do now is put the dummy tank back on again and do the same trick. Tighten the side bracket fixing bolts just tight enough to enable me to turn them, offer the tank in place. Turn the brackets until I could pop some temporary bolts through the brackets into the tank and then remove the tank again and properly tighten the bracket fixing bolts. Then a final try in place for the dummy to tank to see how it fits and looks.

 What do you think?


Copyright K. Hopcroft  29.11.14 All rights reserved
 You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My Other Blogs:

1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
 https://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/before.html


Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html

1971 VW Karmann Ghia Convertible Car: 
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html 

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html

9. Ariel Golden Arrow - The Parts Start To Arrive

I think renovating a bike is a bit like waiting for a bus. You wait and wait for ages and then two or three arrive at the same time. Having waited a few weeks for parts to come back for my 1961 Ariel Golden Arrow suddenly the wheels were ready and the chroming arrived back so I was able to carry on with the rebuild.

I collected the wheels from Shirebrook Motorcycles and they look great with their new stainless steel rims and spokes and the rebuilt and painted hubs. So it was off to the tyre fitters, MTS of Nottingham, to have the new white wall tyres, that I've been saving for months, slipped onto the rims. And don't they look nice? The blue colour that you can see is a protective plastic coating on the white walls, that I am not going to remove until much later on in the rebuild,

Whilst the back wheel can't be fitted yet, as the rear swinging arms are mounted on the engine and I don't have a engine yet, I decided to try fitting the front wheel to the newly assembled front forks. This requires the newly polished front brake back plate to be fitted to the hub first and the the assembled wheel can be passed between the forks and into place. Next is the hard bit. You have to pass the front axle through the left trailing arm, then through the hub and then through the right trailing arm. The trouble is that the holes in the trailing arms are hanging below the forks, pushed down by the front suspension springs on the shock absorbers. It looked like an impossible task to line all three up and hold them there while the axle is passed through.

For the first time I found the information I needed in one of the manuals! There are some extra holes in the front forks and the trailing arms. What I needed was some pegs to pass through these holes, while the front suspension is compressed. These pegs, which I made from an old VW Beetle push rod, pass through all three holes and hold the suspension compressed while you pass the axle through. How to compress the suspension? Simple another trusty ratchet strap passed around the headstock and the bike lift and as the strap is tightened the front suspension comes down and it's in with the pegs.

Now the wheel can go in and the axle passed through from the left side. It was at this point that I found that the axle was too short!. The thread on the right side did not pass through the trailing arm far enough to get the nut on.  After studying the problem, I worked out that I had put the bush in the trailing arm in from the wrong side and that it should have been fitted to the inside of the trailing arm. So it was out with the axle and off with the wheel again so that I could remove the bush and push it in from the other side. Then back in with the wheel and axle and this time the nut went on the treads  and tightened down. Then the pinch bolt could be tightened on the left side trailing arm and the axle was in place.


Copyright K. Hopcroft  03.11.14 All rights reserved
 You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My Other Blogs:

1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
 https://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/before.html


Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html

1971 VW Karmann Ghia Convertible Car: 
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html 

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html

8. Ariel Golden Arrow - How hard can it be to fit a front mudguard?

The continuing saga of the restoration of my 1961 Ariel Golden Arrow. With the crankshaft away for regrinding and new needle bearings and the cylinder barrels away for a re-bore and the wheels away, being rebuilt with new spokes and rims, it was time to sort out all the parts that needed to go away for chroming, as the rebuild was bound to need some of them pretty soon. So I sorted all the pieces, knowing full well that I was bound to miss something. Even I was surprised at the number of parts when I finally counted them. 55 pieces were sent away to Quality Chrome, in Hull. They are not the cheapest, but the quality is excellent and they are reliable. -
So with all that lot away, what could I do to the bike. It then occurred to me that this was the ideal time to fit the front mudguard. After all with no front wheel it should be easy!!.

The front mudguard is actually in two parts. The back half slides on first over two curved bars inside the forks. These bars should be fitted with captive nuts and the manual says that bolts pass through the mudguard sleeves to clamp it to the curved bars then a further bolt passes upwards in the centre of the mudguard into the fork. It sound so easy doesn't it?

Firstly, my mudguards lost their captive nuts long ago but secondly you have to fit a rubber trim on each side of the mudguard. So I fitted 4 new 10mm captive nuts into the mudguard (that was easy because my business already uses them) Then I cut some nice 10mm stainless steel cap screws to the right length and polished the heads and washers. However once you fit the rubber trim, the holes no longer line up as the trim has to be compressed to fit snugly around the forks and there is no way that you can do this by hand and get the screws in. You can push for all you are worth but this trim rubber is thick and strong and not shaped. It's simply a straight piece that you have to squash into shape. After a good deal of thinking, I came up with the answer. I padded the new paintwork at the very bottom of the back of the mudguard with clean rag and then attached the two hooks from a ratchet strap to the padded mudguard edge and passed it around the headstock. Then by ratcheting the strap the mudguard slowly crept into place, leaving half of each of the two rubber strips sticking straight forward awaiting the arrival of the front section of the mudguard. All 5 screws were then screwed loosely into place before being tightened up.

Now all I had to do was fit the front half. I repeated the procedure. More rag, the ratchet strap, new captive nuts and more stainless screws. But coaxing the trim onto the edge of the front mudguard requires lots or patience, as the trim has to slide around the edge of the mudguard as you ratchet the mudguard into place. Believe me this is not easy but with care I finally got the front in place and bolted up.

Well there it is, almost a whole day's work to fit one mudguard. But I must say it looks pretty good and no scratches to the paintwork.

Copyright K. Hopcroft  13.10.14 All rights reserved
You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My other Blogs:

1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
 https://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/before.html


Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html

1971 VW Karmann Ghia Convertible Car: 
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html 

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html

7. Ariel Golden Arrow - The Rebuild Begins

It's been a very long time since my last blog (April) and it would appear that nothing has been happening. Well that's not been through lack of trying, but I've found it much harder to get the parts and rebuild information for the Ariel than I did for the BSA.

So far I have bought 4 different manuals and they are all not very good. Each manual shows various states of strip and repair but not enough detail. For example, the parts books shows the rear hub with bearings, grease caps, spacers etc. But, as with the dished grease cap or the spacers with flanges on them, which way around do they fit in the hub?

In the end I resorted to the Ariel owners club forum, and low and behold after a while someone with real knowledge answered my questions. At last I could rebuild my front and rear hubs and get them ready for re-spoking.

Firstly The hubs were washed and all the old grease residue removed. They were then shot blasted and then sprayed with new black paint, carefully ensuring not to get paint inside the bearing area or on the brake area.

Next I fitted all new bearings, circlips and grease retaining caps and packed them with new grease.

Having stripped the old rear sprocket, I found that the cast boss on the inside of the sprocket that holds the bearing in place was broken. So that meant finding a replacement sprocket. This eventually arrived not showing signs of wear but very rusty. So it was back in the shot blasting cabinet to get it down to bare metal and then several coats of new silver spray paint.


It was whilst re-assembling the rear sprocket assembly, that I sent this picture of the two rear hub spacers to the Ariel forum page to ask "which way around do they go into the hub?" . The reply I got was not good news. The eagle eyed enthusiast who answered noticed that the smaller spacer had only a circlip groove at one end and pointed out that it should have a groove at both ends and two circlips. That meant going back on the parts trail looking for a replacement spacer. You can see why it's taken so long!

Eventually I got one and the rear hub could be rebuilt and fitted with it's new rear sprocket, bearings and spacers. Now at last I can send the hubs away to be mated with their new stainless steel rims and spokes. I'm not going to attempt re-spoking myself as the people at Shirebrook Motorcycles did such a good job on my BSA I'm taking these to them as well.





While they are away, I can concentrate on preparing the brake back plates with a large helping of buffing and polishing. Then I can re-fit the existing brake shoes, which unlike the rest of the bike, seem to be in quite good condition.







OK time to take a look at the front forks. What a strange set up!. The shock absorbers slot up the inside of the forks leaving a strange loop on the bottom of the shock absorber. The trailing arm front suspension pivots on bolts at the front and then the front axle passes through bushes in the trailing arms and these bushes move inside the loops on the shock absorbers both up and down and forward and back as the wheel rises. These are very awkward to assemble and it took considerable time to figure out exactly how they work and how to get them back together again.




But eventually they went back together and could be offered up into the headstock.  Guess what? The bearings were worn out and some of the individual ball bearings were missing. More shopping and waiting. When the new bearings arrived, it wasn't too difficult to knock the races into the headstock or onto the column, but holding the new balls in place while the forks are pushed up into place requires lots of sticky grease and patience. Once in place the top ball bearings could be put in with more grease and then the final inner race, spacer and nut. Once tightened down hard and then slackened off to allow the forks to turn easily without any play, the second lock nut could finally be put in place and the bike has gained it's new forks. Excellent!

Copyright K. Hopcroft  11.08.14 All rights reserved
You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My other Blogs:

1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
 https://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/before.html


Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html

1971 VW Karmann Ghia Convertible Car: 
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html 

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html

6. Ariel Golden Arrow - Gearbox Strip and progress

Time to strip the gearbox, By removing the kickstart pedal, gear change lever and the foot pegs it is possible to remove the chrome gearbox cover on the right side of the bike. As with most things on an old bike, they look much better on the photos than they really are and this first picture is no exception. The chrome cover looks good, but close inspection shows multiple dents and two cracks that need welding on one side and once that is all sorted out, it will have to be re-chromed. Still at least it's still in one piece!

 Having removed the chrome cover, the gearbox is revealed. So it is then a simple case of disconnecting the speedo cable and the clutch cable and undoing the nuts holding on the gearbox outer cover and, that done, a gentle knock with a soft wooden drift and the gearbox cover comes away.





It's nice to have a bit of good news and first inspection reveals a nice clean kickstart mechanism and, apart from a weak return spring, nothing else needing replacement.

A few more gentle knocks and the inner gearbox cover comes away revealing all of the gears in very nice condition.

I have decided to take the same approach as I did with the BSA A10 and that is to leave the gearbox as "in tact" as possible until I need it as my memory is not as good as it used to be and if I don't strip it until I need to, then I've got more chance of remembering how to put it back together again. So It's been put away as you see it in a draw to be attended to at a later date.


OK more news, the crankshaft has been split to allow the removal of the big end roller bearings and, as anticipated, the rollers are shot. Fortunately the crank shaft and the con rods look good. So I've had to buy 72 new rollers and deliver them to the engineering shop. The other news is that it also needs two new +60 thou pistons along with new rings, gudgeon pins and little end bearings so they will now have to be ordered too.I understand that the replacements are actually Yamaha but I am informed that they fit perfectly.

Now the good news, I've just been and collected all of the frame/bodywork from the painters and they look beautiful. Andy has done a brilliant job, but has told me never bring another one of those again! Apparently it was not easy.

So the rebuild can really begin. The first job is to rig the main chassis back into the frame that I have made on the bike stand. I did this by using the rubber rear shock absorber mounting and bolting them to the support frame. As mentioned earlier, until the engine is in, the bike will not stand up on its own as the centre stand is mounted on the engine. By using this frame, I can work on the rest of the bike until the engine is ready,

That's it for now, the next stage is the wheels and hubs and reassembly of the front forks.


Copyright K. Hopcroft  07.04.14 All rights reserved
 You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My other Blogs:

1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
 https://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/before.html


Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html

1971 VW Karmann Ghia Convertible Car: 
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html 

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html

5. Ariel Golden Arrow - 2nd Engine Strip

Once the primary drive cover had been removed, another sign of previous damage appeared.

The lug that the chain tensioner fixes to appears to have been welded on. As I've never stripped an Ariel Arrow before, I can not be certain that this isn't part of the original manufacture. But it is done so badly that I very much doubt it and anyway, why would Ariel not cast the lug onto the crankcase end cap during the casting process?. Despite the rather overdone welding, it does seem to be on well and I decided that as this was on the inside and serviceable, I'd leave it.

I removed the four nuts, one bolt and one Philips headed screw from behind the chain tensioner lug ready for the removal of the left side crankcase end cap. This is where the new extractor too that I bought came in useful.

There are two threaded bosses on the end plate into which the long bolts of the extractor screw. An end cap is then placed over the end of the crank shaft and the centre bolt on the extractor is tightened. This slowly pulls the end cap off. I can assure you that this cap is so tight that without this tool you will not remove the end cap without damaging it.

That done, I proceeded to the magneto side of the engine (the right side).

Removing the magneto coils is easy, just undo the fixing nuts and pull it off.








Removing the centre magnet wheel is not too difficult either, although you do need to stop the crank shaft turning while you undo the centre bolt. I found the best way to do this was to pass a bar through both of the little end bushes. As you turn the bolt the bar bottoms on the crank case and stops it turning with no damage. Once removed, a small woodruff key is revealed, which I put away for safe keeping.

Now it's a case of using the same extractor tool  for the right side crank case end plate. The same applies it is in very tight and would not have come out without the tool.


The crankshaft is now revealed and I had to refer to the workshop manual to find out how to remove it. Surprise, surprise, it's in two pieces, held together by a large Alan Key bolt down the middle of the right hand  crank shaft.
I rang Draganfly as the manual did not specify what the size of this Alan Key was and none of mine seemed to fit. To my surprise they told me that it was the same key that I had already bought to remove the cylinder head nuts.

I had already tried that one and it did not seem to fit. But armed with the information that it was the correct key, I tried again and with a sharp tap of a hammer, the key located in the bolt head. The same bar in the little end bushes held  the shaft while I undid the bolt. This bolt is captive in the right hand shaft and once undone, acts as an extractor pushing the two shafts apart. Once separated, it was necessary to rotate the crankshafts until the con rods were at the bottom of their travel. I then had to hit the right hand shaft with a soft faced hammer to knock the left hand shaft out of the centre main bearing. As you can see from the picture, the bearing came with it and the left hand half of the crankshaft could then be twisted at an angle and pulled out of the crank case. Once the left hand shaft was out. The right hand shaft also became free to remove and out it came.

Bad news! The big end roller bearings are shot!. Replacing them does not look like an easy job as it will mean knocking the pins (big end journals) out in order to gain access to the bearings. Finally, with the crank case empty, I could remove the centre double oil seal. This is much easier said than done as it knocks out to the right, but you can't get a drift on it from the left. In the end I had to destroy it and pulled it out in pieces.

Well that's the engine, next blog is gearbox time!

Copyright K. Hopcroft  15.02.14 All rights reserved
 You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My other Blogs:

1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
 https://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/before.html


Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html

1971 VW Karmann Ghia Convertible Car: 
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html 

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html

4. Ariel Golden Arrow - Engine Strip

With the frame now fully stripped, it was time to separate all of the parts for painting from the parts that need chroming.  With the parts laid out on the floor, I was surprised at just how many bits there were. This picture just shows the large parts. On  the bottom right, you can just spot a cardboard box with all of the smaller parts. 33 parts in all went to Andy Flinders (Andy Bike) at Ilkeston for shot blasting and painting. I found a link on the Internet giving modern paint equivalents which said: Ivory= Rover ‘White 30-3738  and Gold= VW ‘Hellas Gold’ code L98A. However Andy discovered that whilst Hellas Gold is the correct name, L98A is not the correct code. But true to form Andy has found the correct paint. It's not likely that I will see the parts back until March, but there's lots to keep me occupied.

One of the more interesting finds, when stripping ready for painting was the tool box. This had been cut to accommodate the electronic ignition and 12 regulator control boxes and repaired with a rather fetching Bourbon biscuit tin, riveted in place and then sealed with black gutter sealant that remains sticky and never sets. So I have now had wooden engine parts and biscuit tin body parts. It all adds to the fun of renovation!

OK on with the engine strip and the first thing that I noticed was a hole in the engine casing that should not be there.

This turned out to be in the final drive area of the casing, just above the gearbox output sprocket. Obviously a broken chain had become trapped at this point and smashed a hole outwards in the casing. I decided that once the engine was completely stripped, I would take it to Colin Lamb at Gladex Engineering, Ilkeston, and see if he could TIG weld it for me. There were other parts that I had reserved for his attention anyway. The centre stand had been badly repaired with metal plates on the bottom and Allen key bolts welded on the sides, the foot rests were bent and the inner rear mudguard had splits in it that needed welding beyond my meagre welding ability.

Removing the cylinder heads requires a large Allen key 3/8"AF which I did not have, so I went on the scrounge and found that Colin had a full set of 1/2" drive socket set Allen keys which he kindly lent me. The Head bolts turned out to be long tubular Allen key headed nuts, once removed, but they came out quite easily. The heads lifted off OK and revealed two pistons which looked fairly good. However removal of the two separate barrels revealed vertical score marks up the barrels, which means a re-bore will be needed with new pistons.

Next came the removal of the electronic ignition circuit boards. I marked them in case I wanted to put them back. But they just don't look right and I suspect that I will probably buy the correct ones when it comes to the rebuild. They came off easily but revealed more damage. It would appear that the end of the crankshaft has had a grinding wheel on it for some reason. I really cannot understand why!

Removal of the primary chain case cover is not quite as straight forward as you would imagine. You first have to remove the chain tensioner which has a nylon adjuster behind a bung at the front of the case. Turning this adjuster does not remove it. You have to screw a self tapping screw into the end of it and pull it out. Once out the case comes off and reveals the flywheel and clutch assembly. Removing the flywheel is easy. Knock back the tab washer, undo the nut and pull, and off it came.

Removing the clutch is not to difficult either. Undo the three spring loaded adjusting nuts and the cover comes off revealing the plates, all of which need replacing. But removing the centre sprocket is a different matter altogether. This sprocket turns the gearbox shaft which spins freely. Somehow I had to hold the sprocket still whilst trying to undo the two large nuts in the centre. I checked and could find no tool that I had that would do the job. There seemed to be no way to jam this sprocket to stop it turning. So I called Draganfly (The Ariel people) and they didn't have a tool either. I thought of welding a smooth plate and friction plate together to lock the inner sprocket to the outer basket. But Draganfly informed me that there were no new friction plates and the old ones would have to be refurbished. Whilst I was on to Draganfly I ordered a 3/8"AF Allen key for myself along with the special extractor tool for removing the crankcase ends. This will later turn out to have been a good idea.

Finally I went on Ebay and ordered a chain wrench, in the hope that I could grip the outside of the sprocket with it and undo the nuts.

The chain wrench arrived and to my surprise worked. Off came the nuts along with the centre clutch sprocket and revealed the thrust washer and roller bearings behind.

The clutch outer basket could then be removed along with the bearing rollers.

Much more engine stripping to follow.

Copyright K. Hopcroft  08.02.14 All rights reserved
 You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My other Blogs:

1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
 https://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/before.html


Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html

1971 VW Karmann Ghia Convertible Car: 
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html 

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html

3. Ariel Golden Arrow - 2nd Strip

Having removed all of the rear bodywork, wheel, chain guards etc. It was now time to remove the engine. This presented a problem that I had not come across on any other motorbike before. The problem is that the centre stand is mounted on the engine casing
, and not the frame as normal. If I remove the engine, the bike will fall over!

This created a real dilemma. I decided to make a framework out of "Unistrut"  to support the bike frame. This took up considerable time but was good practice for my mig welding skills (which are not great). This involved making two frames which bolted down onto my bike lift and fitted either side of the bike. An adjustable crosspiece then added rigidity and provided support for the bike frame body, bolting onto the two rear shock absorber mounting holes. A quick wooden support under the front of the frame allowed me to remove the weight from the stand and work on the removal of the engine.

That done it was now a simple task of removing the brake pedal and rear forks and all fixing bolts and the engine simply dropped out from under the frame.

Next was the front forks. By removing the two chrome cover plates on the forks, the ingenious trailing link front suspension was revealed. After releasing the clamp bolts, the front axle knocked out reasonable easy and with the brake disconnected, the front wheel slid out between the forks. The front mudguard was next and to my surprise it turned out to be in two sections, not one continuous mudguard.

You can't remove the two shock absorber/spring assemblies until  the cast trailing link arms are removed first. The left one is easy, just remove the bolts and pull it out. But the right link has a bush mounted in it and that has to be knocked out first before the link will pass out between the bottom of the suspension leg rings. The two shock absorbers can now be undone at the top and dropped out from the bottom.

Finally the top yoke can be released along with it's top and bottom bearings and the front forks removed from the frame. By the way, the top and bottom bearings are loose ball bearings in races. Be careful to catch the balls as they fall out of the bottom race, when you pull the forks downward.

The next episode covers the stripping of the engine/gearbox unit and more disasters are revealed.

Copyright K. Hopcroft  07.02.14 All rights reserved
You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com


My other Blogs:

1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
 https://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/before.html


Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html

1971 VW Karmann Ghia Convertible Car: 
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html