22. Ariel Golden Arrow - Finished !!!

Well the final missing part, the electronic ignition kit, finally arrived today and I could see if all of my work has paid off.

In the mean time, I've fitted the fly screen, which I must admit I was a little nervous of. It is basically a curved piece of Perspex and is not pre-drilled. So I mounted the fixing brackets to the handle bars and carefully measured the distance between them. I then stuck broad 2" masking tape across both sides of the screen where the holes approximately had to be. I then held the screen in place and marked through the holes in the fixing brackets, onto the masking tape, where the holes should be.  Thinking about it, it didn't seem sensible to just bolt the Perspex directly to  the metal brackets. I felt that even a small difference in angle or a little bit of over tightening would result in a cracked screen. So I decided to drill the screen large enough to take some wiring grommets and then pass an 8mm bolt through the grommet, with washers each side to fix it to the brackets.

This meant drilling 12mm holes in Perspex and I was pretty sure that if the drill snatched that would be the end of the screen. So I decided to drill a 3mm hole and then increase the drill size by 1mm at a time until I was up to 12mm. By using a pedestal drill and resting the screen on a wooden block I did the most careful drilling I'd done in a long time, but to my relief successful. It was then just a case of fitting the grommets and the stainless bolts and washers.

It then became obvious that the angle of the brackets and the curve of the screen were very different. The answer to this was to twist the brackets in a vice until the angle matched . And there it is perfect.

The only other bit that was to be fitted before I got the electronic ignition was the toolbox lid. This required the bracket that slots through the tool box, to hold it in place and has a threaded boss in the centre to take the chrome fixing screw that holds down the lid. I've had this bracket on order from Draganfly for 2 years and realise that I'm never going to get it. So I decided to have one made. So I did a simple drawing and took it to my friend at Gladex who made me a stainless steel one the next day and surprisingly it fit first time.

So on with the main event! The new electronic ignition kit arrived and, following the instructions, fitted easily. I then placed the spark plugs on top of the cylinder and kicked it over and low and behold two beautiful blue sparks. Then with a 25:1 mixture in the  tank and the plugs back in, I gave it a kick. Nothing!  I tried again. Nothing! Just before disappointment took hold I suddenly remembered, "this bike has an ignition switch ". Idiot!!!
I switched on the ignition and kicked again - - - and it burst into life, wonderful.

OK There was a small problem with the throttle cable sticking, but who cares. That was soon fixed and it was time to take a ride up the car park. I am pleased to say that, at last, it goes as well as it looks. Perfect and ready to show this year.

Well not quite! Three days later I decided to show the Ariel to a friend and guess what? It would not start! After kicking it to death it finally started and I rode it up the car park again and then back into my workshop and stopped it. I then tried to start it again and to my dismay it simply refused to start no matter how many times I kicked it. This was obviously no good if I was going to show it this year so once again I needed to investigate.

I noticed some oil seepage between the cylinder heads and the cylinders and suspected that the heads may not be seating correctly and also I did not trust the rather vague timing instructions issued with the electronic ignition kit. So for the umpteenth time I reluctantly decided to strip the engine again.

Taking the heads off revealed oil seeping down the cylinder head studs. That had to mean that the heads were not sealing against the cylinders. So I decided to have both the cylinder tops and the heads resurfaced. But before removing the cylinders, this was an ideal time to take a serious look at the timing.

With the heads off and the bike in gear, it was easy to rotate the back wheel until the left piston was at top dead centre, as I could now see it. I then took a Lambretta timing disc that I had and stuck it to the end of the crank shaft with blue tac and stuck a pointer to the crank case the same, pointing at 0 degrees. Then by turning the back wheel backwards, beyond 40 degrees, and then forwards to 20 degrees, I now had the engine at exactly 20 degrees before top dead centre. Which is where the spark is supposed to occur.

Now the timing disc could be removed and I could draw my attention to the electronic ignition. The instructions say "Set the magnet, which is on the rotor, in the centre of the green receiver block, which is mounted on the base plate" (Which is where the old points should be). Well that green receiver bock is quite large and roughly in the centre seems pretty slap dash to me. So I tried to figure out how to measure exactly where the spark happens.

Firstly I disconnected the two wires to the green electronic ignition receiver block and put a multi-meter across them and then, with the base plate loose on its screws, rotated the block past the magnet, hoping that the meter (set on Ohms) would register a contact being made. It didn't. So I then turned on the ignition and metered the two wires feeding the block and found that the white wire was carrying 12v. So I reconnected the white wire to the green block and put my meter (the old analogue type), set on 10v, on the output black wire of the green block and earthed the other lead of the meter (Positive Earth). I then rotated the base plate again past the magnet and at one point the needle on the meter gave a sharp flick. I had found the ignition point. Now as the crankshaft rotates anti-clockwise, I rotated the base pate clockwise until I got the flick and then locked it down with the screws. The timing was now exactly 20 degrees before top dead centre and looking at the position of the magnet in relation to the green receiver block, no where near its centre point. In fact I estimate that the original instructions put the timing about 15 degrees out.

So now I could remove the cylinders and send them off to be skimmed. They were back in three days and the engineer informed me that both heads were "wavy" and that one of the cylinders sloped towards one corner. He had to take 5 thou of one side and 6 thou of the other, but they were now back and flat. Now I could reassemble them with new gaskets, top and bottom and torque them down to the correct setting of 18 ft lb.

I also took the opportunity to fit new sealing rings to the exhaust pipes and seal them with some high temperature silicone sealant before tightening the nuts with a "C" spanner. By the way, I've had some spare "C" spanners made out of stainless steel and I'm selling them if you need one?

Well it was time to check the compression again and this time the compression was up on both cylinders and even to 100 psi. So that just left the spark plugs. In my frustration I had been talking to John Ellis, the man who looks after the two stroke spares for the Ariel owner club, (A really knowledgeable man) and he had told me not to bother with any other spark plug make other than Champion. So I threw away my NGK plugs and bought some Champion N4C plugs and set them to the recommended 30 thou gap and fitted them.

So It's time for the moment of truth! Petrol on, Ignition on, no choke, tickle carburettor, open throttle, - - -Kick --- IT GOES first time!   Brilliant.

To make sure that this is not a fluke I switched off and tried it again and it started first time every time. Fantastic. So this time IT REALLY IS FINISHED!!!!!!

Well that's it, I hope you've enjoyed the blog and please drop me an e-mail on hopcroftscoot@gmail.com if I can be of any help. My next two projects are not motorbikes.

16.11.22  THIS BEAUTIFUL ARIEL GOLDEN ARROW IS NOW FOR SALE

CONTACT ME ON: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My Other Blogs:
BSA A10 Super Rocket
http://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?view=timeslide

1971 Karmann Ghia Convertible Restoration
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk

Thanks again for your interest
Kind regards
Kevin Hopcroft

 Copyright K. Hopcroft  22.01.16 All rights reserved

I took the Ariel to its first show on 1st May 2016 and it won "Bike Of The Show" That's a good start to the season

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

21. Ariel Golden Arrow - A Little Progress

It's been three months since my last blog and the sad story relating to the slow restoration of my 1961 Ariel Golden Arrow. Well if you recall I had returned the bike to Colin in Clay Cross who had found out that the reconditioned crankshaft, supplied by Draganfly, had shed it's circlip and locked the crankshaft solidly in the crankcase. Fortunately the engine had not been running at the time and no internal damage had occurred. Colin had managed to extract the two halves of the crankshaft and send them back to Draganfy and we were awaiting a second, and hopefully better, replacement.

Well this took well over a month and it was towards the end of October before Colin phoned me to give me the good and bad news (as usual). The good news was that the new crankshaft had arrived and was fitted and that the engine was now free. He also told me that he had not only had the engine running but that he had also been for a ride up the road on it and that it had been running fine. You will notice that I said "HAD" been running fine. Then came the bad news; He said that he left it ticking over for a while and then suddenly it stopped and that he could not get it running again. He said that it appears to have no spark again. Will I ever get this bike running???

Seeing as I've replaced everything else, I decided that the new electronic ignition system that I bought must also be faulty. So I collected the bike back from Colin and stripped off the electronic ignition and returned it to Draganfly for replacement and guess what? They haven't got any! So as of this point I am still waiting, which I am informed I should get in the next couple of weeks.

However two other things have happened in the last three months. I decided that with the internal mechanics of the engine now all replaced and the ignition system replaced (apart from the missing electronic ignition kit), there was only one old weak spot left on the engine and that was the carburettor. So I took a look on the Internet and to my surprise found that Amal was still trading. Furthermore after talking to them a brand new carburettor was available for my Ariel Arrow. Wow!  I double checked with the sales person, knowing that the carburettor on the  Arrow was unique in that the air intake end of the venturi has a smooth collar on it to take the extra choke tube and butterfly assembly that slides over it. But the salesman assured me that they were aware of this and happily took my order.

Six weeks later my brand new Amal carburettor arrived and it was wrong! It had a threaded mouth on the venturi opening. I rang them immediately and was told that "that was the only replacement model that they now do for the Ariel Arrow".  I decided to take a look at it and see if I could modify it it any way to accept the choke tube.

To my surprise, it was really easy. The choke tube simply tapped over the threads and clamped down beautifully with no trouble at all. It was then just a matter of fitting the throttle cable, choke lever, fuel pipe and air hose and of course bolting the the carburettor in place and the bike has a super new carb.

It was during the removal of the old carburettor that I had noticed that there was no fuel in the float chamber, so I decided to investigate. Placing a bowl under the fuel pipe, I opened the fuel tap and no fuel came out at all. So I looked in the tank and the fuel tank was completely dry.  This leaves me with an unanswered question. When Colin left the bike ticking over and it stopped, did it really have no spark or had it simply run out of fuel? I'll never know as the electronic ignition kit is no longer with me to try.


Like many classic bike enthusiasts I have EBay set to inform me if anything new relating to my bikes are advertised and whilst I have been waiting an interesting little item turned up.
My bike has been missing this part from day one and I never expected to get one. But a chap called "Maurice", who incidentally has been following this blog, decided to make the cover for the front brake stabiliser arm out of glass fibre and sell them on EBay. So I bought one, and it fits. Brilliant.

The only modification necessary was that I had to remove the dome nut that I had already fitted and find a suitable standard nut and then turn the nut down on the lathe to almost 'half nut ' size, in order to leave enough room for the small bolt supplied to pass through. But a really nice result.

So that's it. I'm a little closer, but still no cigar! Hopefully within the next couple of weeks I'll have the replacement electronic ignition kit and I can finally have the bike running, then all that's left is fitting the fly screen.

Oh! Happy New Year for 2016

Copyright K. Hopcroft  03.01.16 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

20. Ariel Golden Arrow - Trouble!!

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

19 Ariel Golden Arrow - Exhaust & Handle Bars

At last I can fit the new exhaust pipes that my wife bought me for Christmas to my 1961 Ariel Golden Arrow. (I know it's sad! Who on earth asks for motorbike exhaust pipes as a Christmas present?) First I removed the very crude cast aluminium end cones from the new exhausts. These were not very good castings and had deep pit marks and sand casting bumps all over them. So first I put them it the lathe and spent some time smoothing them down with emery cloth and then filled all of the deep pit marks with body filler, finally rubbing them down with wet and dry until they were ready for painting. Then it was into the cardboard spray booth for several coats of high build primer.

Once dry I then made a mistake. I decided to use some "high temperature black enamel" paint that I had. This was not a a good idea. It reacted with the primer and never dried. After 48 hours it was still sticky and starting to blister. Obviously the two paints had had a chemical reaction together and this was not good. So I had to start again. I got the wet and dry out again and rubbed them both back down to bare metal again and resprayed the primer and this time, after drying, applied standard high gloss black and they look brilliant. It was then just a case of reassembling the silencers and fitting them to the bike with some nice new stainless steel exhaust clamps and they really look nice.

So, in order to finish the wiring, I need to fit the handlebars so that I can wire the dip switch and horn. One of the replacement parts that I have hated has been the plastic cap that covers the headstock nuts. This plastic cone that was damaged and beyond use presented a problem. I bought a replacement new one, but when it arrived it was in a black marbled finish. I thought that I would be able to simply paint it but after four attempts it was obvious that this was not the answer. Each time I painted it the paint flaked off and revealed the black plastic. So I decided to have a stainless steel one made.  Whilst I have the skill to turn one myself, my lathe isn't fast enough to turn stainless and the tools I have are not good enough to cut stainless. So I took it to a friend who made one for me for a bottle of wine (good deal) and all I had to do was polish it. I could then pop it in place and add the handlebar clamp and the new handlebars. I must admit that it does look so much nicer than the plastic one.

With the handlebars in place, the clutch and brake levers could be fitted and the throttle twist grip. I decided to clean up and refit the old red handlebar grips after checking various photos of Arrows and seeing that most of them had red grips. It was at this point that I also decided that I did not like the way that the front brake cable just hung loose down the front forks and decided to figure out a way of neatly securing it. The answer was to make a simple stainless steel "P" clip to fit around the front brake stabiliser arm nut. A neat and easy answer.

Back to the handlebars, I now had to make a four wire loom to carry the power to the dip switch, the main and dip return wires and the horn wire. Once made, this short loom reached from the left handlebar grip position along the bar and down into the headlight. I was about to connect the loom into the dip switch and secure it to the handlebars when I realised that I should take a look at the fly screen and how it fixes first. So you will see from the picture above that I've slipped the fly screen fixing clamps onto the handlebars so that I can work out the route and position for the dip switch wiring.

Finally, on the subject of wiring, I took another look at the wires coming from the electronic ignition over the side of the primary chain case and I still didn't like it. I know what you are thinking "Is this bloke never satisfied"? Well the answer to that is probably "no". Even when my bikes are winning trophy's I can still see all the faults. Anyway I decided to see if I could make a cover plate to hide some of this wire's path. So I made a cardboard template, traced that onto aluminium and then cut it out, bent it and polished it. What do you think?

One final touch. As you know, we no longer need to display a tax disc, but I thought that it would be a nice idea to have a tax disc that showed the original registration date of the bike in the style of the tax disc issued in 1961. I know that the more astute of you will say " if your bike was registered in 1961 then the disc will show an expiry date of 1962", but I really wanted one to show the true age of the bike. So I looked up on the internet what a 1961 tax disc should look like and then reproduced one on the computer using Corel Draw. The only difference being that I substituted the rubber stamp for the "Vintage Motorcycle Club" emblem. I then got a nice aluminium tax disc holder and fitted it on the bike. Not to everyone's taste, but I like it!


 Well that's it for now. Next time will probably be the final wiring and the fly screen fitting and possibly the first attempt to start the bike. Then all I'm waiting for is the new seat which I'm told will be at least 3 more weeks to wait.

Copyright K. Hopcroft  22.07.15 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

18. Ariel Golden Arrow - More wiring & lots of progress

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

17. Ariel Golden Arrow - Wiring Begins

On the last blog I was awaiting the arrival of the correct bolts to hold the chain guard in place. Well they finally arrived and, as you can see, the chain guard is finally in place along with the back wheel. You will note the large stainless penny washers behind the chain guard fixing nuts. This was a decision I made to hide the flaked paint around the fixing holes on the lower, fibreglass, half of the chain guard. The washers on the top guard are purely cosmetic so that it matches the bottom half.

This seemed like a good time to fit the rear foot pegs and rubbers. The original rubbers turned out to be in good condition, so it was just a case of giving them a good clean and pushing them on.

The next little job was to fit the new petrol pipe. As with the BSA A10, I built last time, I decided to fit a braided stainless steel hose. These look really nice, but the bad news is that I only needed 200mm and it is sold by the meter. So I've got a spare 800mm for future projects waiting in my spares draw. The trick with these pipes is to wrap the ends with insulating tape first before trying to fit the rubber end caps. If you don't do this the stainless braiding will pierce the rubber end cap as you push it on. As you can see the original petrol tap has been cleaned and polished and fitted to the tank. However I have resisted fitting the inner plunger in the tap and have left it soaking in petrol to ensure that it doesn't dry out before I need it.

 
I then thought that I would try fitting the front foot rests, the exhaust pipes and the side stand, all of which share the same mounting studs underneath the crank case.I was aware when attempting this, that much of it would need to come off again, but it is sometimes wise to do a "dry build" and this proved wise.

The foot pegs go on first and they were no problem. Then the side stand. This I had bought off the Internet and had sent the mounting plate and actual stand away for chrome plating. However, when it came to lining it up with the mountings under the bike, nothing lined up. There is no mention in the manual how to fit a stand and the bike had not come with one fitted, so it was down to common sense. After trying every combination of positions, I was beginning to feel that I had bought the wrong stand and in a last ditch attempt to find an answer I posted a question on the Ariel Owners Club forum. "How do you fit the side stand?". The answer came back in a couple of days and it turns out that my nicely chromed mounting plate is bent and that's why it doesn't fit. Once I knew that it mounts diagonally on two threaded bushes in the front of the crank case on the left side and shares one of the foot peg mounting studs on the right side, I could straighten the plate until it fitted. It's about time I had a little luck and this time I managed to straighten the plate without flaking the chrome.

Next came the two mounting bushes in the crank case. These are steel bushes set into the aluminium case and both threads were shot. After investigation, I found that these threads are slightly smaller than an M10. So I decided to re-tap the threads to the larger M10 size. The only problem was that I don't own an M10 plug tap. I thought of borrowing one, but in the end decided to get a new set of M10 taps (Taper, Middle and Plug), only £8 on the Internet and they were bound to come in useful again at some point. With the new threads cut the stand bolted in place. Now all that was left was the new side stand spring. This is very strong and needs a huge amount of leverage to hook it onto the two lugs on the stand. Well it was almost on when the screwdriver I was using slipped and the spring shot off across the workshop taking a piece of my finger with it! After the loss of some blood and the help of some sticking plaster, I tried again and this time it was successful.

Time to try the exhaust pipes in place. These pipes mount at the front with a toothed mounting ring and, with a welded on bracket, at the back to one of the foot peg mounting studs. First you fit the toothed ring, then a sealing ring and then it screws into the cylinder exhaust port. Well firstly the new toothed mounting rings that I had bought and had chromed, did not fit over the exhaust pipes and secondly they were 10mm longer on the threads than the original old ones that I took off. This meant putting the nice new toothed rings in the lathe and turning off 10mm of thread and then very carefully running a lathe tool down the inside of the ring until it just fit over the exhaust pipe. And believe it or not they fit!! The left pipe then fit into the cylinder and the rear bracket slipped over the foot peg mounting stud. But the right side was a different story. The ring went in the cylinder OK, but the bracket did not line up with the foot peg mounting stud. I tried everything, but in the end decided that the bracket would have to have an extra piece welded onto it and a new mounting hole drilled in it. As I've said before, "my welding skills are limited", so I've take the right exhaust pipe to my friends workshop and he's going to do it for me.

And that brings me to the stage that I have been avoiding for weeks, the wiring. Now I've a background in electrical and electronics but this bike has been previously badly modified to electronic ignition and 12v electrics along with electronic voltage regulation. It's now my job to get it right and I'm not looking forward to it.

Anyway the first step is to assemble the head light unit. So the new shell received it's new ignition switch and light switch, its refurbished speedo and a new 12 Amp Meter. The only problem here was the speedo mounting bracket. The original was missing and had been replaced by a piece of meccano and was unfit for re-use. I set about making a new one, which you can see in the picture. I then discovered that the wiring loom that I was given when I bought the bike (which did not fit) had these rather nice connecting sockets to fit on the ignition switch and the light switch. What a stroke of luck. I thought that would have to solder all the wires onto the terminals.

Well I've started crimping all the new bullet connectors on the loom and then I must remove the dummy petrol tank and commence trying to mate the new loom with the existing electronic voltage regulator and a brand new electronic ignition kit. This looks like it's going to be a long job and I'm going to study the wiring diagram carefully before jumping into this bag of worms.

More wiring next time.

Copyright K. Hopcroft  11.06.15 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

16. Ariel Golden Arrow - Several Steps Back

Well lots of parts have arrived since the last blog and I can now carry on with the renovation of my 1961 Ariel Golden Arrow. The parts to fix the chain tensioner have arrived and the parts from the Chrome platers, so where to start first?

I decided to get on with the reassembly of the primary chain tensioner (mentioned in the previous blog). The new parts had arrived and, as I had stripped this four times, I was pretty familiar with how to put it back together. The tensioning plate, which is actually a spring, slid into the aluminium boss on the crankcase end plate, the nylon tensioning block screwed onto the end of the tensioning rod and the rod slid through the spring plate and into place. Now it was just a case of re-fitting the primary chain cover with another new gasket. That done, I could now insert the nylon tensioning bush into the hole in the end of the chain case and locate it onto the end of the tensioning rod. The end of the rod is squashed to an oval and the hole in the tensioning bush has an oval hole in it so one should fit inside the other. However if the rod has the slightest bend in it, then they don't line up and mine didn't. I was determined not to strip the casing for a 5th time and decided to try and bend the rod with screw driver poked down the hole. Useless! So I came up with another alternative and got the nylon tensioning bush and ground a slight taper on the inside of the oval hole with my Dremel, just enough to allow it to find it's own way onto the rod. Success!

The tensioning bush could now be turned with a screwdriver until the nylon block inside bent the spring plate and added the correct amount of tension to the chain so that it just had 3/4" movement. At last! The end bung can go in to cover the tensioning bush and it's done. I decided not to fill the primary case with oil until I was sure that the clutch worked OK.

What next? Well typical of me, I love fitting the shiny parts so a dip into the chrome plated bits revealed the new centre stand spring. So I decided that was a nice easy place to start.

I removed the temporary wire rope, that I had fitted in it's place to stop the bike rolling off its stand, and hooked the new spring into the top "C" shaped bracket. Then with a piece of strong wire hooked through the other end of the spring, I wrapped the wire around a wooden handle and stretched the spring onto the bottom hook. And there it is, the bike is now safe and secure on its stand.

Take a look at this picture, you will notice what looks like a drain plug on the side of the gear box. It's true purpose will be revealed later in the blog!

As you can see, it was now possible to fit the rear brake pedal and the rear brake lever, chromed of course. The angle of the brake lever is quite important, fortunately I had taken photos before I stripped it so re-fitting it wasn't a problem.

So now the big one, I could at last fit the back wheel. If any reader has built an Ariel Arrow, they will now be shouting "NO". So in went the wheel closely followed by the back axle, the spacing bushes, now chromed, washers and the large nut on the near side. It looked great and also allowed me to fit the rear brake lever, actuating rod and long plate that stops the brake back plate rotating. You can tell that there is a problem coming but at this point ignorance is bliss.

Now with the wheel in place and the final drive chain around the rear sprocket, I could at last, check to make sure that the gear box is working correctly. So with the gear lever temporarily clamped to the selector shaft I selected the first gear and, with no spark plugs in the engine, turned the back wheel to see what I had got. Well after much pulling on the gear lever and rear wheel rotating I can tell you that I had three gears and no neutral. Bugger!!!

Well this meant a gear box strip again. My first hope was that I could remove the outer cover and maybe find something wrong with the selector mechanism. I removed the outer cover and tried selecting the gears with a screwdriver, still the same 3 gears and no neutral. So that meant taking all of the gears out again. (This picture was taken when I first stripped it, hence the dirt.) Well I looked at the gears but could see nothing obvious. It was then that I decided to take a look at the rubbish manual that I have bought. It is a photocopy and all pages have been reduced in size so that two pages fit onto one A4 sheet, making it almost impossible for a man of my age to read.

I took the manual into my office and carefully scanned each page, on the gearbox, into the computer. Then, using Corel Photopaint, I blew up the pages back to A4 and adjusted the contrast until it was readable again. I could even make out the grainy photocopied pictures. I then printed each page off back to full size A4.

As this had been such a rubbish manual so far, I had little hope that it would help, but anything was worth a try. Placing the new pages on my bike lift, I slowly followed the instructions step by step, gear by gear and reassembled the gear train. I re-fitted the the gears and inner casing and then went on to read the final assembly of the outer casing. This is where that "drain bung" comes in. The book said "Remove the bung and rotate the gear selector until you can see the neutral indentation through the bung hole". Ah ha! apparently nothing works unless you do this first. That done, I then read how to set the kick start return spring, which involves winding it up fully tight like a clock spring and ensuring that the kick start pedal sits at the correct angle to the actuating lever. This is trial and error and I had to move the spring around a notched sprocket several times until I found the correct position. The outer cover could now be re-fitted and it was time to try the gears again. Fingers crossed. Four gears and neutral, fantastic!!! I even filled the gearbox with SAE30 grade gear oil and no leaks.

I thought it would be nice to fit the carburettor next. So I stripped every jet, bung and gasket from the carburettor and then polished the body and all external parts. Amongst the new parts that had arrived was a complete set of carburettor gaskets and jets that I had ordered. So after blowing out all of the orifices I reassembled the carburettor complete with its newly chromed choke lever and fitted it onto the bike.

The original rubber hose then fitted in place and the throttle cable could be fed up and under the tank towards the handlebars.

Feeling that I was "on a roll" I thought I would fit the clutch cable and connect it to the clutch lever temporarily fixed to an old pair of handlebars to see if the clutch worked. Easier said than done. I could not move the clutch lever on the gearbox enough to get the nipple on the cable into it. I made a lever on a 4' bar to hook over the clutch lever and finally got the nipple in, only to discover that the clutch was now permanently disengaged. The outer cable was too long and didn't allow the clutch lever to fully engage. This was a problem. How do you shorten the outer cable without damaging the inner cable and without removing the soldered on nipples? Well the answer was to use my trusty Dremel with a miniature cutting disc on it. After pulling off the "crimped on" outer cable end cap,I carefully cut around the outer cable 5mm from the end. I then cut along the length of the 5mm piece on opposite sides and removed the 5mm pieces. Then with the plastic outer cover cut away 5mm I slid the outer cable cap back over and tried the cable back on the bike. Brilliant, it worked and I now have a working clutch.

What next, well I felt that I could fit the air filter. I had bought a new one, but the back plate didn't fit the Ariel frame and the front plate was painted black. So I repainted the old back plate white and had the front plate chrome plated and now with the parts back from the chromers I could re-assemble the air filter and fit it.  That said, I have a personal dislike of hose clips (Jubilee Clips), I just think that they are ugly and that was what was originally holding the air filter on. So I managed to find a stainless steel exhaust clamp of the right diameter and polished up it fit just fine and look so much better.

Well that brings me to the final bit and why I said earlier that fitting the back wheel was a mistake. I decided to fit the chain guard. This is in two pieces. The top half is steel  and the bottom half is glass fibre. Why I don't know and I'm not convinced that it is original, but that is what was on the bike when I bought it. It had been repainted with everything else and so I felt that now was a good time to fit it. Take my word for it, "you can't fit it with the back wheel in place". So the back wheel had to come off again and after much struggling I finally got the two halves of the chain guard together. The problem is that the glass fibre half springs open wider than the top half that it has to fit into and when you flex the bottom half to fit it the paint flakes off. I then discovered that I didn't have any stainless bolts long enough to pass through the guards to secure them. So they are currently in place with temporary bolts until the correct ones arrive that I have ordered. You can just glimps the guard in place on the picture above.

So that's where we are. Slow progress but I will get there eventually.

Copyright K. Hopcroft  25.05.15 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