15. Ariel Golden Arrow - "One Step Forward"!!

Time to look at the clutch on my 1961 Ariel Golden Arrow rebuild. First I need to refit the final drive sprocket cover with a new oil seal and gasket. (This picture was taken when stripping the engine). Nice and clean and held in place with three screws, no problem. Next the centre boss and thrust washer. You can just spot, on the photo, the imprint of the clutch roller bearings that rest against this thrust washer.

Next comes the clutch outer basket and the the very fiddly job of fitting the roller bearings, one at a time, between the centre boss and the clutch basket.

Once they are in place, the centre clutch hub can be located on the splined shaft, complete with the three clutch spring bolts. These bolts have a special "D" shaped head on them, to stop them rotating, so ensure that they are positioned correctly before you slide the hub on. Finally the two lock nuts can be fitted and locked together with a new lock washer between them.

OK, time to look at the clutch plates. I haven't had these out of the draw since I took them off a year ago. and Oh dear! they are not usable.

There are two friction plates, two smooth plates and the top basket that also acts as a friction plate and some of the friction pads have fell off completely. A quick word with Draganfly confirms that there are no new friction plates available and that I will have to send off the old plates for some "service exchange" plates. More delay!

So what can I do in the mean time? Well I could fit the primary drive chain and the final drive chain and that didn't take more than a few minutes. So I thought I would take a look at the back wheel. It didn't take long to assemble the brake hub and centre spindle and the left side spacer. These all in place, I slid the wheel into place and passed the rear axle through it. I even fitted the chain around the wheel sprocket.

Two immediate problems showed themselves. Firstly only the left side chain tensioning screw fitted in the swinging arm. The right one just fell in! Someone, in the bike's 54 years had stripped the thread in the right side swinging arm and then loosely put an ordinary nut and bolt in the hole with no thread. It was simply crushed between the rear axle and the frame to hold it in place.

I hate bodges, but now I am faced with a dilemma. To fit the correct adjuster means filling the hole with weld, re-drilling and tapping it and then respraying the paint again. I decided to re tap the hole to a larger size and use a standard chrome nut and bolt instead. I don't like it, but I will probably be the only person who ever notices it.

The other problem is with the left side rear hub spacer. I thought that it would be hidden and so just cleaned it up. Now in place this large bare metal cast spacer looks terrible. It didn't take long to decide and the whole wheel had to come off again and be stripped down to allow me to send the spacer off for chroming.

While waiting for the new clutch plates, I thought I would take another look at the wiring. In particular the three wires connecting to the alternator. These three wires have to pass down the right side of the frame, under the dummy tank and connect to the three wires coming out of the alternator. The three wires coming out of the alternator cover will actually just reach the main loom, but that leaves the three in-line connectors visible under the tank. I decided that this couldn't be right and started studying photos of Ariel Arrows on the web.

Many of them seem to have a separate cable going down to the alternator from the tank (alongside the speed cable), obviously with connections at both ends, I would assume. I then noticed some original photos where no wires could be seen at all and that the speedo cable appeared to be in a large diameter sleeving. I don't know if I'm correct, but I decided to get some heat shrink sleeving and thread the speedo cable and the alternator wires through it and this would hide the wires completely. I managed to pick up some excellent black braided heat shrink sleeving and found some lengths of wire of the right three colours, on the old wiring loom. It was then a case of soldering on the bullet connectors and joining up the cables top and bottom. A Very satisfying result.

The new clutch plates have arrived and can finally be fitted. First a friction plate, then a smooth plate, then another friction plate and another smooth plate and finally the top basket friction plate. These all then have to be held in place while the spring cups, springs and nuts are fitted.

And this is where things really started to go wrong! With the clutch fitted, I was about to fit the primary drive cover, when I remembered the chain tensioner. This fits under the primary chain and adjusts via a rod that passes through the "lug" that I mentioned had been welded onto the left crankcase end plate. Well I thought I'll slide the adjusting rod through the lug from back to front  with the adjusting spring pad on top of it. I slid it in place and assumed that the nylon adjuster that fits through a hole in the end of the cover would then tighten it up. That done, I fitted the new gasket and bolted the cover in place. Looks good doesn't it?

It wasn't until I got home that night that I though about it and realised that the nylon adjuster
would simply push the adjuster back out of the lug and drop it into the bottom of the chain case. So the next day it all had to be stripped again and I found that to fit the chain tensioner properly, you have to do it before the flywheel is fitted!!!***!!. What is more, the tensioner spring plate has to fit inside the welded on lug. And things were about to get worse. The spring did not fit because the weld got in the way.  The trusty Dremel was the answer and I carefully ground away the excessive weld until the spring plate slid into place. Full of confidence, I then passed the adjuster rod through the lug, then the spring plate and into the square nylon end cap. That done, I refitted the flywheel, and primary chain and the primary chain cover.

Oh how I wish I had checked more closely. With the nylon adjuster pushed into the end of the outer casing, I started to tighten the chain tensioner. Until "click". What was that? I turned the tensioner again "click" and again "click". Oh no! the thread has stripped in the square nylon end cap I thought. Well "bother" I said "oh dear I'm going to have to strip it all down for a third time" (If you believe that you will believe anything).

So strip it all down again I did and I found that the culprit was not the end cap but the adjuster rod itself. The thread on the rod was worn out in the middle. This allowed me to adjust the spring half way until the worn thread entered the adjusting block, when it would go no further and "click".

So that's were I am at the moment, awaiting the arrival of a new adjusting rod and block, before I can put it back together for the fourth time. Oh how I love vintage bikes!!!

Copyright K. Hopcroft  06.04.15 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