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

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

14. Ariel Golden Arrow - Time to Stand Up for Yourself

This is the moment that I have been waiting for. At last I have the exchange centre stand painted and ready and the engine mounting bolts back from the chromers. So now I can fit the stand to the engine and remove the support frame that has held the bike up for a year.

It's not too easy to paint, as I don't have a proper paint booth. So I have to do one side at a time, then turn it for both undercoats and top coats.

However it can now be fitted. A support tube passes through the centre of the stand which it actually pivots on and the the rear brake pedal shaft passes through the tube to support it and give it strength.

The stand spring then joins a wire hook around the centre of the stand to a "U" shaped pivoting bar fixed to the engine. Unfortunately, whilst I have a nice chrome "U" shaped bar and wire hook, the new stand spring that has arrived is rough and a little rusty spring steel. So I've decided to send the spring off for chroming and have joined the hook to the plate with a temporary small wire rope to hold the stand in place for the time being.

That done the bike can now be removed from the support frame and be allowed to stand on its own.  That done, the rear shock absorber mounting points are now free.

Now that The engine is in place, the rear swinging arms can be fitted, which also are mounted on the engine casing, and not on the frame as with a normal bike. This is reasonably straight forward and just requires them being slid between two lugs on the engine block with two thick nylon spacers between the swinging arm and the casing and a large bolt passed through the casing and the arm.

As the original mounting bolt is back from the chrome platers, I've been able to fit the swinging arm properly complete with new lock plate. This pivot bolt has a thread down the inside of it on the near side to accept one of the primary chain case fixing screws, so it's important that you use the original bolt and not, as I had originally intended, a stud with a dome nut on each end.

The shock absorbers have already been painted, but the mounting plates and rubbers were all still in their original condition and although you can't actually see any of them, when they are in place, I just could not put them back on as they were. So I cleaned the metal cup plates and the tubes which pass between them and resprayed them to match the bike. The rubbers, although dirty and showing signs of paint from previous owners were in usable condition and were returned to a nice clean state with some paint thinners and elbow grease. I pressed the bottom mounting rubbers into the shock absorbers using washing up liquid as a lubricant and the vice and then pressed their centre metal tubes into the rubbers by following a tapered drift through the rubber bush with the tubes.

The shock absorbers could then be fitted and the bottom fixings finished with some nice new stainless steel dome nuts.

The next stage was quite ambitious. I decided to fit the gearbox. This had been lying in a draw since the day I stripped it, however after a year much of my memory of how it went back together had gone and what made it worse, some of the gears and selectors had fallen off the assembly. This picture shows it when I first put it in the draw:

 So I washed each individual gear and shaft and the casing and then tried reassembling the jigsaw. To my surprise, it went together quite easily and was quite logical. I then offered it onto the engine casing along with a new gasket and blue sealant. It fitted perfectly, so I clamped it in place using spacers on the studs to substitute for the missing outer section of the box, which I still had to renovate.

Well I looked at it in place, and hated it! Although most of it could not be seen as it would be covered by the large right side chrome cover, it looked dirty and out of place against my nice clean aqua blasted engine casing. There was only one thing for it, it all had to come off again!.

I took it off being careful not to break the new gasket, removed every gear and shaft and then set about polishing the casing. Three hours later, I rebuilt it again and refitted it. Now I was happy.

Now it was time to look at the outer gearbox casing. Determined not to make the same mistake again, I stripped it and polished the casing before attempting to rebuild it. Fortunately the only thing that needed replacing was the kickstart return spring and that done, the outer casing could be offered in place. It fit beautifully, and I was admiring it when I realised that I had not fitted the clutch lever. After several attempts to fit the clutch adjuster on the lever shaft through the hole it the side of the outer casing, I managed to drop the nut inside the gearbox!!! **!!**.

So it all had to come off again. I fitted the clutch lever and mechanism and tried again. I should mention that in order to fit the outer casing you need to fit the kickstart pedal to the outside and wind up the return spring as the outer casing will not fit with the spring unwound.

However, there it is in place and looking good.

Next blog, it's time for the clutch.

Copyright K. Hopcroft  07.03.15 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

13. Ariel Golden Arrow - Other bits & Electrics

Having got the engine back together, I could now start refitting some more bits. The first easy bit is the flywheel, which has the primary drive chain sprocket on the back of it. Nothing wrong with the old one, so a quick clean in the parts washing bath and slip it onto the left hand end of the crankshaft. There is a small woodruff  key on the shaft to stop the flywheel slipping and just a little care is needed not to disturb it when sliding on the flywheel. That done, it's time to look at the lock washer and the centre nut.
Oh Dear! the lock washer has been used several times and is beyond re-use and the nut looks like someone has used a hammer and chisel to tighten it with previously. I rang Draganfly and a replacement lock washer was posted immediately, but they had no stock of the nut. So I decided to pop it in the lathe and reface it and as you can see it looks OK. After trying the new lock washer in place, it was obvious that it sat too flat on the flywheel to be able to get a screwdriver behind it and bend it over, So taking note of where the flats were on the tightened nut, I removed it again and bent it away in the vice first. I then popped it back on and just had to tighten the nut. The problem is holding a round flywheel still while tightening the nut in the middle.
The answer came with a tool that I had bought earlier. A "Belt Wrench". This is basically a handle with a strong rubber timing belt fastened to it. You slip the belt around the flywheel and pass it back through the handle. As you tighten the nut, the belt grips the flywheel and locks the handle against the side of the flywheel. It's incredibly strong grip holds the flywheel perfectly even under high torque settings. The lock washer could then be bent over and secured against the sides of the nut. Job Done

Whilst on the left side of the engine, I decided that it was a good time to fit the final drive chain sprocket, bearing and oil seal ready for the gearbox to be fitted later. At last a stroke of luck! The same mandrel and drift that I had made for the main crankshaft bearings and oil seals also fits the gearbox final drive bearing and oil seal, so it was really simple to knock them into place and fit the retaining circlip. You can just see it on the right of the flywheel on the picture above.

Now to the right side. On the right side of the crankshaft fits the Alternator, this generates the electricity for the bike.This picture shows it before I stripped it off the bike. Nothing too difficult about refitting this, I just needed a good clean in the parts washer as it was soaked in oil and a new woodruff key and it fitted back onto the end cap with three fixings. The centre nut then needed tightening, using the same belt wrench holding the flywheel on the other side.

I could then fit the newly painted covering cap over the alternator and pass the wires through the hole in the cap with a new grommet to stop it rubbing through.

By the way, you can just spot the "Belt Wrench" in this picture!

As I now have the first sign of wiring appearing on the bike, I felt that this was a good time to take a look at the wiring loom. The man that I bought the bike from had given me a new loom that he had bought, but said that he had never been able to figure it out! I looked at the new loom and then the circuit diagram in the workshop manual and decided that, as many of the colours of the wires did not match the diagram, that it was the wrong loom for the bike. So I ordered a new one. It came in a sealed bag with a new circuit diagram, these didn't match either! I phoned Draganfly and they said "send it back and we'll send you a different one. It must have the wrong diagram in with the loom. So that's what I did. A few days later, loom number three arrived. This didn't match the new different diagram with it either!!! I then had an idea, I had made a photocopy of the first diagram that I sent back and so took another look at that one. Low and behold, that one matched the third loom (they are obviously being packed in the wrong bags by the manufacturer.  OK so now I could start.

The problem with circuit diagrams, rather than wiring diagrams is that circuit diagrams show what colour wire connects to what but the diagram does not show the end of the wire in relation to it's position on the loom or the bike. The only two wires that I could definitely identify were the rear stop and tail light wires. I made the decision to start there, connect the stop and tail light wires and then lay the loom forward on the bike and the remaining wires should line up with the things that they are supposed to connect to. Wrong, wrong, wrong!!!. Nothing lined up and the loom didn't even reach the headlight, I even had ring connectors finishing up under the rear mudguard and it was no good looking at the original wiring that I had taken off the bike as that was home made. I phoned Draganfly again and asked if they had a wiring diagram? The answer was
"No". So I decided to draw my own and send it to them with some relevant questions. I am afraid that that wasn't much help either as no one could really help me. I've found this with Ariel's, that there is much less knowledge and printed information available than when I was rebuilding my BSA A10.

I was lying in the bath, thinking about wiring the Ariel (as you do) suddenly it came to me. The two ring connectors under the rear mudguard must be the battery connectors and if they are then the whole loom needs to move forwards and
the wires for the rear light must finish just at the front of the rear mudguard and need extending over the mudguard to the rear light. When I got to the workshop, I disconnected the wiring from the rear light and moved the whole loom forward until the two ring connectors reached the battery position. Low and behold, the loom now reached the headlight and the tail light wires just poked through into the rear mudguard. Got it!!

OK, so that meant that there must be another loom that fits under the rear mudguard and connects to the rear lamp and the stop light switch and to the end of the main loom. I looked in the parts book and there was nothing, so I rang Draganfly and they said that they didn't do another loom, so the only thing to do was make one.

So with some lengths of different coloured wire and some heat-shrink sleeving, I made a "Y" shaped loom and connected it up. Brilliant, it fits and all the wires now branch off in the right places.

As you can see from the picture, the rear shock absorbers are now in place, but more about that in the next blog.

Copyright K. Hopcroft  22.02.15 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