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

12. Ariel Golden Arrow - Engine Rebuild

Having hung the engine block in place on the top mounting stainless steel stud fitted with dome nuts, I used the remaining pieces of threaded stud to support the back of the engine in the frame whilst I waited for the proper engine mounting bolts to come back from the chromers.

Rebuilding the engine could now commence and first was the renovated exchange crankshaft form Draganfly. This fits into the block in two pieces. However, before you can fit it, you first need to fit the central main bearing and the two "back to back" crankshaft oil seals. At first glance this looked easy. Simply knock them in! But I soon realised that I could not get a hammer deep inside the engine casing and so had to devise an alternative method.

The answer was that I had to turn a steel mandrel, just slightly smaller than the bearing with a central boss to pass through the centre hole of the bearing. I then made a long drift with a shoulder on the end to fit in the mandrel's hole that was long enough to stick out of the engine casing so that I could hit it with a hammer. This was time consuming but well worth it and the drift and mandrel worked perfectly for both the bearing and the two oil seals, which by the way, both fit on the right side of the engine.

Now the crankshaft could be offered in.
The left hand half goes in first and you need to extend the con rod out as far as it will go from the crankshaft and then hook it into the casing allowing the con rod to go up into the cylinder space, while easing the centre spindle into the main bearing.

Once in place, the right half of the crankshaft goes in from the other side, repeating the process. This is made slightly more difficult as there is a locating ridge on the right crank to make sure it locates in the right orientation with the left crank. The two halves then push together on a taper and a central bolt, down the middle of the crankshaft tightens to pull the two halves solidly together. This central bolt has an Allen key head and is deep inside the crankshaft.

You will recall from a previous blog that I had already bought a suitable Allen key for this job, to enable me to strip the crank, however it became obvious that I couldn't use a right-angle Allen key on my torque wrench to ensure that this essential bolt was the correct tightness. So I had to get another long Allen key and saw the bend off it. (Sawing an Allen key is not easy, it's very hard!). That done I could now fit a socket over the end of the straight Allen key and use my torque wrench on the socket. Done! It fits and rotates smoothly.

Now for the end caps. Fitted with new bearings and oil seals, I started with the left end cap. These end caps have to go in a particular way round, as they have a cutout on the back to clear the piston as it goes down into the crank case. A generous helping of blue sealant, on both sides of the gasket and the left end cap was gently knocked into place. It was whilst securing the end cap with it's six fixings that I discovered another problem. You will recall that in my earlier blog, I mentioned that the primary chain tensioner lug appeared to have been welded on. Well it was now obvious that I could not get a good fixing bolt into the hole adjacent to the lug as the welding was too large and offered no flat surface for the bolt head to seat on. When I stripped the engine it had a small Philips screw in the hole and I had thought that I would replace it with a proper bolt when I did the rebuild. Now I could see that this was not so straight forward. The answer came with my trusty Dremel. I carefully ground away excess weld with the Dremel until a good open and flat surface was clear enough for the bolt head, I then ran an 8mm tap through the hole to cut a new thread and finally fitted a new stainless Allen key button headed bolt and it tightened down perfectly.

Now for the right side. Same procedure, new bearing, oil seal and gasket. I don't really know what went wrong with this procedure, but as you can see from the picture, once the right end cap was tightened down, it was obvious that the gasket had split around one of the fixing bolts. There was nothing for it but to strip it again as I could not chance losing crankcase compression. Once the cap had been removed again I could see that the gasket was broken and, as I didn't have another one, I had to order it and wait. But eventually it came And the new gasket, fitted in exactly the same way, did not split.

The new pistons could now be fitted to the con rods and then it was time to fit the cast iron cylinders. I'd already had a similar problem when I rebuilt my BSA A10, so I was expecting that I would probably have to make a piston ring compressor in order to get the barrels to fit, and I was right. It's not too difficult, just a thin aluminium strip bent around the piston with a clamping bolt to tighten it just enough to compress the rings, without gripping the piston. That in place, the cylinders slipped over the pistons, with new gaskets underneath and the heads could now be fitted with new gaskets and torqued down with the newly chromed cylinder head bolts and washers. A quick turn of the crankshaft, to see that everything still moves smoothly and two old spark plugs screwed into the holes just to stop anything accidentally being dropped inside. Lovely!

Copyright K. Hopcroft  21.02.15 All rights reserved
You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com
 My Other Blogs:

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

11. Ariel Golden Arrow - Good News & Bad News

Having successfully mounted the HT coils and the dummy tank brackets, I decided to take a look at the real petrol tank. Quite good news! although the paintwork is dull and discoloured, it's in good shape. No rust or leaks and no damage. So I decided to simply clean it up and fit it. As it sits inside the frame and cannot be seen, it seemed unnecessary to respray it, so I gave it a good clean with T-Cut and it came up beautiful. Then it was just a case of sliding it down the inside of the frame and bolting it in place with new stainless steel bolts.

Two more bits can now be fitted. First I spotted the cap that covers up the headstock bearing nuts, in my box of newly chromed parts. However, this meant removing the nuts again, fitting the cap and then refitting the nuts and readjusting the headstock bearings again. On top of the nuts goes a plastic tubular cover to hide them. I had managed to pick up a new cover, but it was in a black plastic marbled finish. So it was into the cardboard spray booth and given a couple of coats of white paint and then slipped in place over the headstock nuts.

The next part to be fitted is the bulkhead, that fits inside the frame after the petrol tank. This is held in place by six nuts and bolts, however the top bolts also hold two of the four cups that the seat locates into. These metal cups had escaped the trip to the paint shop, so it was a case of spray them myself. I took the opportunity to spray the two plastic cones that cover the top of the front shock absorbers  at the same time. These plastic cones seem to be extremely rare as I had tried to buy new ones and found them impossible to locate. I even saw two sold on Ebay for £50!! and I've noticed several pictures of Ariel Arrows that have been renovated with these caps missing. So re-spraying them myself seemed to be a sensible answer.

Now the "good news and bad news". The good news is that I have received the engine block back from being aquablasted and it is now beautiful and clean, The bad news is that I had a call from the crankshaft engineer who informed me that he had fitted the new big end roller bearings and the play in the big ends is no better. It would appear that the wear is not in the rollers but actually on the crankshaft itself. This means that the big end surfaces on the crankshaft will need to be built up with hard chrome plating. A process that he can't do.  I did some searching around and found that my best option was to send off the crankshaft to Draganfy, who do a exchange service on crankshafts. However this posed a further problem. You may recall that, in a previous blog, I mentioned that someone had had a grinding wheel to the end of the left hand side of the crankshaft. As this would only affect the ability to fit standard contact breaker points, I had previously not felt that this would be a problem as I was going to fit electronic ignition anyway. Well now it was a problem as Draganfy would not accept my old crankshaft in exchange for the new one, if the old one could not be renovated back to standard. So now I had to find a replacement left half of the crankshaft before it could be sent off for exchange. The answer came from the Ariel Owners Club, who have a second hand parts service and just happened to have spare left half crank. So I purchased it and then sent off the replacement left half with the original right half to Draganfly.  A little more good news was that the engineer had managed to rebore the cylinders and these have now been give a new coat of high temperature black paint.

OK two more major parts can now be fitted. First, the back half (rear mudguard) of the frame. This needs a black plastic trim around the edge, where it meets the rest of the frame and is held in place by 8 nuts and bolts. This meant supporting the bike and removing the unistrut frame to allow it to be fitted in place and then re-fitting the support frame once the rear shock absorber mounting points were visible through the rear mudguard. I have to say that fitting this part really seems like a huge step forward, as the project is really beginning to look like a recognisable Golden Arrow now. It also allowed me to fit some more of the newly chromed bits. Including the exhaust hangers at the back and the stainless lifting handles.

The other major item that I could now fit is the engine block. The block is mounted on three mounting points on the frame. So it was a simple case of lifting it in place and loosely sliding in the three mounting bolts. After taking a quick look at the mounting bolts, I made a decision to replace them with 12mm stainless steel studs and dome nuts. So I ordered these off the Internet. I should have studied the old ones more carefully as only the front mounting point can be replaced by a stud with nuts on both ends. The other two need to be bolts and thread directly into the engine block. One of these bolts even has a thread running through the centre of it to take an allen key holding the timing side outer cover on. So I wasted my money on two of the stainless studs. But that's what renovation is like. So I sent off the two old bolts for chrome plating and now await their return.

The final two things to be fitted were the inner rear mudguard and the strengthening bracket to support the rear shock absorbers. This strengthening bracket hides two strange aluminium spacers, that I had been looking at for some time and wondered where they fitted. They look like two polo mints held together by a single thin web and whilst I had only removed one off the bike (actually it fell off during stripping and I never saw where it came from) I had seen in the parts book that the bike needed 2. Now I could figure out where they fit, which is between the support bracket and the frame.

That's it for now. Next is the start of the engine rebuild.

Copyright K. Hopcroft  08.12.14 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

10. Ariel Golden Arrow - The rebuild continues

On my last blog, you will recall that I had finally managed to fit the front wheel. Well it had to come off again! After studying the front brake backplate, I realised that there was an "A" plate that bolts to it, which is connected to the stay that stops the back plate rotating when you apply the brake. This "A" plate can only be fitted before the wheel is mounted in the forks, so there was no option but to take it all apart again.You can just see the top of the "A" frame sticking above the front forks in this picture. This "A" frame is one of the parts that had come back from the chrome platers, so it was the first bit of chrome to be fitted to the bike. Once fitted, the wheel was put back on again and this time I could add two more chrome parts, the front fork cover plates.

This set me off wondering what else I could fit to the bike ?
I decided to fit the two HT coils, which fit in a really difficult position, inside the front of the frame. Originally, when I stripped the bike,  they were fitted each with one large self tapping screw into a speed nut on the HT coil bracket and one nut and bolt, through the frame and into the bracket. The self tappers were obviously because your fingers just can't reach the outer coil fixing points. Well I decided to try anyway and fix them with new stainless nuts and bolts. This was so difficult that it took nearly two hours and a lot of swearing to achieve. But in the end they were in. Talk about "one step forwards and two steps back". I then decided to fit the support brackets for the dummy petrol tank. Guess what? Two of the brackets bolt through the frame ahead of the HT coils and the only way to reach them was to take the coils off again.

It was at this point that I decided that this was stupid and I needed to make an easy and secure way to get the coils on and off, as I was sure that sooner or later I would have to remove them again. So I removed the coils and looked at the fixing brackets. The answer as simple, my business already uses 6mm captive nuts, all I needed to do was file the holes in the brackets until the captive nuts snapped into place, the coils could then be held in place and the bolts passed through from the outside of the frame. The coils can now be removed and refitted as often as I like.

Now those dummy tank brackets. There are six in all, two on each side of the frame and two on top, near the headstock. In order to make sure that they were in exactly the right place and at the right angle, it was necessary to offer the dummy tank into place. With the the top two brackets just fitted with the bolts tight enough just to be able to turn them, I offered the dummy tank into place and then reached in through the tool box aperture and turned the top fixing brackets until they lined up with the brackets welded to the inside of the dummy tank. This turned out to be a good idea as the two welded brackets were not fixed at the same angles.

Then the four side brackets could be fitted, they mount very strangely. Each bracket has two tongues that protrude from the back. The two tongues pass through the large hole in the frame and into to matching slots cut in some round mounting washers that fit on the inside of the frame. In effect the bracket and the round mounting washer "sandwich"  the hole in the frame and secure the bracket whilst still allowing you a degree of rotation to line up with the threaded holes in the bottom of the dummy tank.


Well, all that's left to do now is put the dummy tank back on again and do the same trick. Tighten the side bracket fixing bolts just tight enough to enable me to turn them, offer the tank in place. Turn the brackets until I could pop some temporary bolts through the brackets into the tank and then remove the tank again and properly tighten the bracket fixing bolts. Then a final try in place for the dummy to tank to see how it fits and looks.

 What do you think?


Copyright K. Hopcroft  29.11.14 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

9. Ariel Golden Arrow - The Parts Start To Arrive

I think renovating a bike is a bit like waiting for a bus. You wait and wait for ages and then two or three arrive at the same time. Having waited a few weeks for parts to come back for my 1961 Ariel Golden Arrow suddenly the wheels were ready and the chroming arrived back so I was able to carry on with the rebuild.

I collected the wheels from Shirebrook Motorcycles and they look great with their new stainless steel rims and spokes and the rebuilt and painted hubs. So it was off to the tyre fitters, MTS of Nottingham, to have the new white wall tyres, that I've been saving for months, slipped onto the rims. And don't they look nice? The blue colour that you can see is a protective plastic coating on the white walls, that I am not going to remove until much later on in the rebuild,

Whilst the back wheel can't be fitted yet, as the rear swinging arms are mounted on the engine and I don't have a engine yet, I decided to try fitting the front wheel to the newly assembled front forks. This requires the newly polished front brake back plate to be fitted to the hub first and the the assembled wheel can be passed between the forks and into place. Next is the hard bit. You have to pass the front axle through the left trailing arm, then through the hub and then through the right trailing arm. The trouble is that the holes in the trailing arms are hanging below the forks, pushed down by the front suspension springs on the shock absorbers. It looked like an impossible task to line all three up and hold them there while the axle is passed through.

For the first time I found the information I needed in one of the manuals! There are some extra holes in the front forks and the trailing arms. What I needed was some pegs to pass through these holes, while the front suspension is compressed. These pegs, which I made from an old VW Beetle push rod, pass through all three holes and hold the suspension compressed while you pass the axle through. How to compress the suspension? Simple another trusty ratchet strap passed around the headstock and the bike lift and as the strap is tightened the front suspension comes down and it's in with the pegs.

Now the wheel can go in and the axle passed through from the left side. It was at this point that I found that the axle was too short!. The thread on the right side did not pass through the trailing arm far enough to get the nut on.  After studying the problem, I worked out that I had put the bush in the trailing arm in from the wrong side and that it should have been fitted to the inside of the trailing arm. So it was out with the axle and off with the wheel again so that I could remove the bush and push it in from the other side. Then back in with the wheel and axle and this time the nut went on the treads  and tightened down. Then the pinch bolt could be tightened on the left side trailing arm and the axle was in place.


Copyright K. Hopcroft  03.11.14 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