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
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
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