So having decided that it was time to "bite the bullet" and tackle the one job I have not been looking forward to on my 1961 Ariel Golden Arrow, I set about studying the wiring, which I mentioned earlier had been subjected to a previous unsuccessful attempt at a 12 Volt conversion and electronic ignition. In which a previous owner had decided to use the wrong wiring loom, chipboard engine parts and a grinding wheel to the end of the crankshaft. Well the wrong loom has been removed, the chipboard has been discarded, along with the wrong electronic ignition kit and the crankshaft has been replaced.
I felt that the best place to start was the electronic ignition kit, which my daughter had bought me for Christmas, from Draganfly. This came with full instructions, which I followed to the letter and it fit beautifully first time. I was surprised to read that it works on the "Lost Spark" system. Which basically means that it sparks twice as often as it needs to. That is it sparks when the piston reaches the top of the cylinder and at the bottom. The bottom spark being wasted. This does away with the need for twin contacts. The circuit board fits where the old base plate used to fit and the rotating magnet locates on to the end of the crankshaft. It's then just a case of connecting two wires from the board up to the coils and fitting the nice newly chromed cover cap.
I made a new two wire loom with wires of the correct colours from the old wiring loom and connected them to the circuit board and fitted the cover cap. But this then left me with a question. How to get the wires neatly up to the coils. I took a look a lots of arrows images on the web and in a lot of cases people had just taken the wires straight up and under the dummy tank and it looked terrible. However I noticed on a couple of pictures that the cable had simply gone up over the primary chain case and then disappeared under the carburettor. I figured that the only place that it could go from there was up the same sleeving that was carrying the speedo cable and the alternator wires. So I decided to go for that option. I extracted two more wires of the correct colour from the old wiring loom and soldered the ends together. I then threaded a length of stiff copper wire up the sleeving and then soldered the two wires to it and then pulled them through the sleeving. All that was left then was to joint the wires behind the chrome engine cover and connect the other ends to the HT coils.
With the coils now wired, I could finally fix the dummy tank in place. This had two problems. The first was easy to fix. Although I had re-tapped the four fixing nuts to 6mm on the bottom of the tank, I had not realised how bad these original "welded on" nuts were. When I tightened them down three of the four stripped with very little effort. Replacing them would have meant a respray, but I found that it was really easy simply to reach inside and fit another nut on top of the stripped one, which tightened down with no problem at all.
The next problem was the two internal fixing brackets. There just isn't enough room to get two hands inside and fit the nuts and bolts. I won't bore you with the details but after trying every method I could think of I finally managed it but it took an hour and a half to fit two nuts and bolts! What is so frustrating is that when you look in, you can see them clearly, you just can't reach them or see them while you are trying to reach them. If you look at the picture, you can see the two right-angled brackets sticking up between the headstock and the electronic regulator. The offending nuts and bolts are the two horizontal ones. Needless to say, once they were in, I celebrated by putting the kettle on.
I forgot to mention that before I fitted the dummy tank, I had also mounted the electronic voltage regulator. This was already on the bike when I bought it and despite it being connected to the wrong loom and electronic ignition kit, it was the a perfectly usable 12 Volt conversion electronic regulator. You will notice that I deliberately mounted it upside down. This was to allow the wires to leave the regulator in the neatest direction towards it's connections with the loom. Please note none of the wiring has been fully neatened, fixed or laced yet. This will only be done once all connections have been made and all systems have been checked and are working correctly.
The loom could now be passed through down the left hand side of the head stock towards the headlight and the headlight could be offered into place. Once offered into place it became apparent that I could simply pass a bolt through each side of the dummy tank headlight ears and into the headlight shell, but this did not seem like a good idea. Although that is how the headlight was mounted when I stripped it, it was obvious that this would distort either the pressed steel on the tank or on the headlight shell as there was a hollow space between the two pressings. I decided to make two aluminium spacers, about 12mm thick with a 8mm hole down the centre, to fit between the dummy tank ears and the headlight shell, this would give the headlight support and an easier pivot for headlamp angle adjustment.As you can see from the picture, the spacers are completely hidden inside the ears of the dummy tank. The switch wires could then be mated with the matching loom wires and the amp meter connected.
Another thing that I can now do, now that the tank is in place is fit the front brake and clutch cable, as both of them pass through grommets in the top of the tank. You must first fit the cable in the clutch lever and then pass it through the tank then on to the back of the tank and down to the gear box. A long lever is then needed to lever the gearbox clutch arm over sufficient to get the nipple on the end of the clutch cable into the clutch arm on the gear box. Once that is done. You can, at last, fit the chrome engine cover plate and then the right foot rest, side stand and right exhaust pipe (which has been returned with a new bracket welded on in the right place this time). It's hard to believe that so much could not be fitted because the dummy tank was not in place. By the way, the front brake cable had the same problem as the clutch cable. The outer cable was 5mm too long and had to have the same careful "Dremel" treatment as mentioned on an earlier blog in order to get it to fit. The same applies, It has to be fitted to the brake lever first, then threaded through the grommet in the tank then down to the front brake.
It's time to test the electrics. The 12V battery is fully charged and connected and I turn on the side lights. The rear light comes "on", Wow! My test meter reveals that if I had connected the front side light, that would have come on too!. The brake light works! The Horn Works! The Headlight cable has power! This is looking good. Now to test for a spark. I turn on the ignition key and with the plugs out and resting on the cylinder heads I kick the engine over. Two amazing sparks "Double Wow!!" Final test, turn off the ignition key and kick it again - "no spark". Brilliant.
Well Time to get the exhausts on and the handle bars and the final bit of wiring and then maybe I can see if it will start? Next Blog.
Copyright K. Hopcroft 15.07.15 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
I made a new two wire loom with wires of the correct colours from the old wiring loom and connected them to the circuit board and fitted the cover cap. But this then left me with a question. How to get the wires neatly up to the coils. I took a look a lots of arrows images on the web and in a lot of cases people had just taken the wires straight up and under the dummy tank and it looked terrible. However I noticed on a couple of pictures that the cable had simply gone up over the primary chain case and then disappeared under the carburettor. I figured that the only place that it could go from there was up the same sleeving that was carrying the speedo cable and the alternator wires. So I decided to go for that option. I extracted two more wires of the correct colour from the old wiring loom and soldered the ends together. I then threaded a length of stiff copper wire up the sleeving and then soldered the two wires to it and then pulled them through the sleeving. All that was left then was to joint the wires behind the chrome engine cover and connect the other ends to the HT coils.
With the coils now wired, I could finally fix the dummy tank in place. This had two problems. The first was easy to fix. Although I had re-tapped the four fixing nuts to 6mm on the bottom of the tank, I had not realised how bad these original "welded on" nuts were. When I tightened them down three of the four stripped with very little effort. Replacing them would have meant a respray, but I found that it was really easy simply to reach inside and fit another nut on top of the stripped one, which tightened down with no problem at all.
The next problem was the two internal fixing brackets. There just isn't enough room to get two hands inside and fit the nuts and bolts. I won't bore you with the details but after trying every method I could think of I finally managed it but it took an hour and a half to fit two nuts and bolts! What is so frustrating is that when you look in, you can see them clearly, you just can't reach them or see them while you are trying to reach them. If you look at the picture, you can see the two right-angled brackets sticking up between the headstock and the electronic regulator. The offending nuts and bolts are the two horizontal ones. Needless to say, once they were in, I celebrated by putting the kettle on.I forgot to mention that before I fitted the dummy tank, I had also mounted the electronic voltage regulator. This was already on the bike when I bought it and despite it being connected to the wrong loom and electronic ignition kit, it was the a perfectly usable 12 Volt conversion electronic regulator. You will notice that I deliberately mounted it upside down. This was to allow the wires to leave the regulator in the neatest direction towards it's connections with the loom. Please note none of the wiring has been fully neatened, fixed or laced yet. This will only be done once all connections have been made and all systems have been checked and are working correctly.
The loom could now be passed through down the left hand side of the head stock towards the headlight and the headlight could be offered into place. Once offered into place it became apparent that I could simply pass a bolt through each side of the dummy tank headlight ears and into the headlight shell, but this did not seem like a good idea. Although that is how the headlight was mounted when I stripped it, it was obvious that this would distort either the pressed steel on the tank or on the headlight shell as there was a hollow space between the two pressings. I decided to make two aluminium spacers, about 12mm thick with a 8mm hole down the centre, to fit between the dummy tank ears and the headlight shell, this would give the headlight support and an easier pivot for headlamp angle adjustment.As you can see from the picture, the spacers are completely hidden inside the ears of the dummy tank. The switch wires could then be mated with the matching loom wires and the amp meter connected.
Another thing that I can now do, now that the tank is in place is fit the front brake and clutch cable, as both of them pass through grommets in the top of the tank. You must first fit the cable in the clutch lever and then pass it through the tank then on to the back of the tank and down to the gear box. A long lever is then needed to lever the gearbox clutch arm over sufficient to get the nipple on the end of the clutch cable into the clutch arm on the gear box. Once that is done. You can, at last, fit the chrome engine cover plate and then the right foot rest, side stand and right exhaust pipe (which has been returned with a new bracket welded on in the right place this time). It's hard to believe that so much could not be fitted because the dummy tank was not in place. By the way, the front brake cable had the same problem as the clutch cable. The outer cable was 5mm too long and had to have the same careful "Dremel" treatment as mentioned on an earlier blog in order to get it to fit. The same applies, It has to be fitted to the brake lever first, then threaded through the grommet in the tank then down to the front brake.It's time to test the electrics. The 12V battery is fully charged and connected and I turn on the side lights. The rear light comes "on", Wow! My test meter reveals that if I had connected the front side light, that would have come on too!. The brake light works! The Horn Works! The Headlight cable has power! This is looking good. Now to test for a spark. I turn on the ignition key and with the plugs out and resting on the cylinder heads I kick the engine over. Two amazing sparks "Double Wow!!" Final test, turn off the ignition key and kick it again - "no spark". Brilliant.
Well Time to get the exhausts on and the handle bars and the final bit of wiring and then maybe I can see if it will start? Next Blog.
Copyright K. Hopcroft 15.07.15 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
Hi
ReplyDeleteI'm interested as to how you progressed to starting the bike. The reason is because I was called out to try and trouble shoot a problem with an Ariel leader that would not start after it had been fitted with a Draganfly 6 volt ignition unit with twin 6 volt coils.
The spark was brilliant and the timing spot on as to the instructions but no life when kicked over. I checked the timing over and over again but still it would not start. Not even a kickback. I decided to keep advancing the timing until it kicked back. Eventually it started and ran quite well and responded well to the throttle. When we checked the position of the magnets to the pickup instead of being in the middle at about six o'clock it was more towards the 4 o'clock position.
I'd be interested to see if you had a similar problem.
H.
Take a look at episode 22. I had similar problems as the timing position on the Draganfly instructions were miles out.
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