On the last blog I said that all I needed to do was the final bit of wiring, fit the seat and and fly screen and see if the bike will start. Well, as usual, renovations on old bikes never seem to go to plan. Consequently the majority of this chapter is all bad news on the renovation of my 1961 Ariel Golden Arrow.
First the good news: The new seat arrived and does not look too bad. It has a glass fibre base, instead of the original plywood one (which had rotted away) and I now had the task of fitting it. The manufacturer had fitted four rubber feet to the underside of the seat, but they were the wrong size and in the wrong places, so they had to come off. I had already bought the correct rubber feet from Draganfly so now I had to figure out how to fit them in the right places on the seat. The answer came by placing the rubber feet into the metal cups on the bike's frame and then painting the top of them with white tipex. I then got a friend to help me carefully lower the seat vertically down onto the top of the rubbers in exactly the right place on the bike and then immediately lift it vertically off again. This left four neat white dots on the underside of the seat showing me exactly where to drill the 14mm holes. I drilled the holes and fixed the rubber feet in with some epoxy resin and the seat now sits in its cups.
Next came the spring clips and hinges. For this I had to make a right angled scribe out of an old wire coat hanger. Then by lifting the seat skirt I could scratch through the fixing holes in the hinge plates and spring clips marking where the screws needed to be. That left two more holes to be drilled where the rear shock-absorbers poke into the seat base. This again was done by painting the top of the shock-absorbers with tipex and pressing the seat down onto them and then drilling out the white dots. Finally I had to fit a new check strap, which fortunately I had saved from a scrap ratchet strap and it fit perfectly.
So that's the good news, from now on it's all down hill!. It was time to see if the bike would start. So with some two-stroke in the tank and the battery charged, I turned on the ignition and tickled the carburettor, opened the choke and kicked the kick-start - nothing! I kicked it again and again and again until I was exhausted with no success. Naturally I checked the spark at the plugs and the fuel in the carburettor and the ignition timing but the bike was totally dead. The other strange thing was that after all that kicking, the plugs were still completely dry. I took the cylinder heads off and the barrels off and checked the pistons were on the correct way around and that the ports were clear and re-assembled and still it would not go.
Earlier in the year I had met a man at the Bakewell show called Colin Reed who, if you are a member of the Ariel Owners Club, you will find is one of the technical experts listed in their magazine "Cheval de Fer". So I gave Colin a call and arranged to take the Ariel up to him at Clay Cross. After a couple of days Colin called me to say that the problem was lack of crank case compression. Apparently the new crank case oil seals that I had fitted were of inferior quality and just not good enough to seal the crank case. (How was I to know?) Anyway Colin fitted some higher quality seals and phoned me two days later to say that it was now running. I went up to Clay Cross to collect the bike and hear it running for the first time. Great!
After bringing the bike home in the trailer, I couldn't resist trying the bike up and down the car park at the workshop. So I had my first ride and to my relief the original wheel wobble I experienced when I first bought the bike had gone. But on my third trip up the car park the engine died. It didn't seize, it was just as though the ignition had been turned off and no matter how hard I tried it would not start again and what was worse, after much kicking suddenly the kick start locked solid. I rang Colin, and he didn't immediately come up with an answer, so I said that I would strip the kick start and have a look.
So it was time to strip the bike again. Taking the side off the gearbox is not straightforward and requires the removal of the offside exhaust pipe, footrest, chrome engine cover, clutch cable, kick start pedal and gear lever. Once inside the gearbox it was obvious that there was nothing wrong in there at all. So now I had to look on the primary side of the engine. More stripping.
With the near side exhaust pipe, foot rest, rear brake pedal, chain tensioner and primary chain cover removed, I took a look at the primary chain and in particular at where it passed over the lug that was welded onto the crank case end cap. I released the joining link on the chain and removed the chain. Immediately the clutch and gearbox shaft became free, confirming that there was nothing wrong with the gearbox. I then put my belt wrench on the flywheel and with the spark plugs out tried rotating the crankshaft. It was free. This was a red herring. What I did not realise was that I had rotated the crankshaft backwards. The significance of this will be revealed later.
In my head, the problem was obviously the primary chain flexing and catching on the welded lug. So I bought a new primary chain with no joining link and whilst I was talking to Draganfly I had a conversation regarding the non-running engine. Fortunately I spoke to the original gentleman who started the business and when I told him that I had "lots of spark" he asked "what colour is the spark?" I said "Yellow" He said "It should be "Blue". Apparently this would indicate that either I have faulty HT coils or a faulty electronic ignition kit. So as I'm using the original 54 year old HT coils I felt that I should start there and ordered a new twin HT coil at the same time as the primary chain.
OK so back to the primary chain. With the new chain fitted, and this involved removing both the clutch and the flywheel, I rebuilt the primary side and put everything back together again. Now came the job of fitting the new HT coil. This involves removing the dummy fuel tank again and undoing the two bolts that took me an hour and a half to tighten under the tank. To remove the tank the handlebars also have to come off along with the front brake cable and the clutch cable and the head light and the dip switch wiring. Fitting the new coil was not too difficult but I decided that I was not going to struggle again with the tank bolts so I fitted two captive nuts in the frame so that I could simply put two 6mm bolts in place when I put the tank back and that cured that problem.
So everything back in place it was time to see it the bike would now run. I kicked it once and it kicked me back. Good sign!. I kicked it again, same again. Third kick and - - - the kick start locked solid again !!!*** bugger !!***.
Still thinking that it must be the primary chain locking on the welded lug I stripped the primary side down again. To my surprise the chain was clear and it was now obvious that it was the crankshaft that was locked up. I rang Colin and he couldn't think of anything in the crankcase that could lock up the crankshaft. So I agreed to return the bike to him.
Two days later I got the call and all is finally revealed. The crankshaft is in two halves, held together by a central Allen Key bolt. This bolt has a circlip on it holding it in place. This circlip acts as a retainer and allows the bolt to push the two halves of the crankshaft apart separating the taper when stripping the engine. Because of this, this circlip is quite substantial. I had bought a reconditioned crankshaft from Draganfly and the circlip had dropped out into the bottom of the crankcase locking the crankshaft against the crankcase. The bad news is that you cannot simply put a new circlip in and another replacement crankshaft is now required.
So that's where we are. Colin is sending off the crankshaft back to Draganfly for replacement again and the bike is still in pieces with Colin and we still don't know for certain if the new HT coil has cured the non running problem. Still it looked nice with its seat on!
Copyright K. Hopcroft 28.09.15 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
So that's the good news, from now on it's all down hill!. It was time to see if the bike would start. So with some two-stroke in the tank and the battery charged, I turned on the ignition and tickled the carburettor, opened the choke and kicked the kick-start - nothing! I kicked it again and again and again until I was exhausted with no success. Naturally I checked the spark at the plugs and the fuel in the carburettor and the ignition timing but the bike was totally dead. The other strange thing was that after all that kicking, the plugs were still completely dry. I took the cylinder heads off and the barrels off and checked the pistons were on the correct way around and that the ports were clear and re-assembled and still it would not go.
Earlier in the year I had met a man at the Bakewell show called Colin Reed who, if you are a member of the Ariel Owners Club, you will find is one of the technical experts listed in their magazine "Cheval de Fer". So I gave Colin a call and arranged to take the Ariel up to him at Clay Cross. After a couple of days Colin called me to say that the problem was lack of crank case compression. Apparently the new crank case oil seals that I had fitted were of inferior quality and just not good enough to seal the crank case. (How was I to know?) Anyway Colin fitted some higher quality seals and phoned me two days later to say that it was now running. I went up to Clay Cross to collect the bike and hear it running for the first time. Great!
After bringing the bike home in the trailer, I couldn't resist trying the bike up and down the car park at the workshop. So I had my first ride and to my relief the original wheel wobble I experienced when I first bought the bike had gone. But on my third trip up the car park the engine died. It didn't seize, it was just as though the ignition had been turned off and no matter how hard I tried it would not start again and what was worse, after much kicking suddenly the kick start locked solid. I rang Colin, and he didn't immediately come up with an answer, so I said that I would strip the kick start and have a look.
So it was time to strip the bike again. Taking the side off the gearbox is not straightforward and requires the removal of the offside exhaust pipe, footrest, chrome engine cover, clutch cable, kick start pedal and gear lever. Once inside the gearbox it was obvious that there was nothing wrong in there at all. So now I had to look on the primary side of the engine. More stripping.
With the near side exhaust pipe, foot rest, rear brake pedal, chain tensioner and primary chain cover removed, I took a look at the primary chain and in particular at where it passed over the lug that was welded onto the crank case end cap. I released the joining link on the chain and removed the chain. Immediately the clutch and gearbox shaft became free, confirming that there was nothing wrong with the gearbox. I then put my belt wrench on the flywheel and with the spark plugs out tried rotating the crankshaft. It was free. This was a red herring. What I did not realise was that I had rotated the crankshaft backwards. The significance of this will be revealed later.
In my head, the problem was obviously the primary chain flexing and catching on the welded lug. So I bought a new primary chain with no joining link and whilst I was talking to Draganfly I had a conversation regarding the non-running engine. Fortunately I spoke to the original gentleman who started the business and when I told him that I had "lots of spark" he asked "what colour is the spark?" I said "Yellow" He said "It should be "Blue". Apparently this would indicate that either I have faulty HT coils or a faulty electronic ignition kit. So as I'm using the original 54 year old HT coils I felt that I should start there and ordered a new twin HT coil at the same time as the primary chain.OK so back to the primary chain. With the new chain fitted, and this involved removing both the clutch and the flywheel, I rebuilt the primary side and put everything back together again. Now came the job of fitting the new HT coil. This involves removing the dummy fuel tank again and undoing the two bolts that took me an hour and a half to tighten under the tank. To remove the tank the handlebars also have to come off along with the front brake cable and the clutch cable and the head light and the dip switch wiring. Fitting the new coil was not too difficult but I decided that I was not going to struggle again with the tank bolts so I fitted two captive nuts in the frame so that I could simply put two 6mm bolts in place when I put the tank back and that cured that problem.
So everything back in place it was time to see it the bike would now run. I kicked it once and it kicked me back. Good sign!. I kicked it again, same again. Third kick and - - - the kick start locked solid again !!!*** bugger !!***.
Still thinking that it must be the primary chain locking on the welded lug I stripped the primary side down again. To my surprise the chain was clear and it was now obvious that it was the crankshaft that was locked up. I rang Colin and he couldn't think of anything in the crankcase that could lock up the crankshaft. So I agreed to return the bike to him.
Two days later I got the call and all is finally revealed. The crankshaft is in two halves, held together by a central Allen Key bolt. This bolt has a circlip on it holding it in place. This circlip acts as a retainer and allows the bolt to push the two halves of the crankshaft apart separating the taper when stripping the engine. Because of this, this circlip is quite substantial. I had bought a reconditioned crankshaft from Draganfly and the circlip had dropped out into the bottom of the crankcase locking the crankshaft against the crankcase. The bad news is that you cannot simply put a new circlip in and another replacement crankshaft is now required.
So that's where we are. Colin is sending off the crankshaft back to Draganfly for replacement again and the bike is still in pieces with Colin and we still don't know for certain if the new HT coil has cured the non running problem. Still it looked nice with its seat on!
Copyright K. Hopcroft 28.09.15 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
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