In response to a query...

In response to a comment on the blog, here is a photograph of the front stand bracket:

And some dimensions:

On to brighter things?

After the doom & gloom of the gearbox story, I fitted a few more parts and had a general clear up of the summer house - we don't want domestic bliss to be troubled by Ariel parts in the way of deck chair deployment!

The oil tank went in first:

Fitting was relatively straightforward; the ding in the filler neck was not as bad as I had remembered but the dent in the front was a worry.

This was laid to rest by the ever helpful Brenton Roy, AOMCC member & correspondent from Australia who confirmed this is as Ariel intended and is there to clear the distributor.

Not so the other picture!

A Dutch correspondent, and another fellow AOMCC member, suggest that the dent in the oil tank behind the battery was probably due to an exploding battery...

We may leave that one alone, since you can't see it when the battery is in place.

However, also visible in the picture is the very nice stud arrangement from Acme Stainless, holding the oil tank in the frame lug under the saddle.

Here's the oil tank again from the battery side, with the inside primary case in place albeit loosely.

Apparently the spare hole in the engine plate is for the clutch cable.

Here's a view of the primary case from behind, to try and ascertain what happens here. That shiny bit (there is only one shiny bit) is the brake lever stop, another Acme Stainless component. You can see it behind the primary case where there should apparently be a spacer. Thanks again to various AOMCC folks.

And here she is as she is today, looking a bit more like a motorcycle!

Father's Day

Having spent most of my spare time this month either working on the house or stripping the Bantam engine, Father's Day bought the first chance to take a look at all the bits I had collected for the Ariel and to try some of them out.

An eBay auction brought a pair of handlebars purporting to have been taken from a plunger NH - these should be correct for the Square Four if indeed they did come from a plunger NH, which I am beginning to doubt - they look a bit high to me:

Whatever they are from, they look a lot better than the flat 'Norton Straights' that were previously fitted, snaffled from the box of bits that came with the MZ.

The next job was driven, as I have said previously, by a suspicion that the gearbox was wrong. In an earlier post I reported that a G106J51 gearbox comes from a 1951 KH, VH, KG & one or two others. There was a suspicion that the main shaft was different and I was trying to get the transmission together to check the chain alignment, and I though I had achieved that. Secondly, a Burman BA gearbox purporting to be a 1951 Square Four gearbox, labelled G107K51 (the correct code) appeared on eBay - but it was quite obviously not a Square Four gearbox casing - or even an Ariel casing - however it was attractive (or would have been at the right price) because the kickstart housing carried the correct number and the clutch cable abutment was intact - mine is broken.

I'd also checked through the engine mounting plates & studs, and started to talk to Acme Stainless about replacements, so it was time to get the gearbox in it's plates. The result was not too happy.

See the arrows? In this picture, the bottom lug of the box is in the correct location in the frame. The left hand engine plate, on the right in the picture, is fitted correctly to the frame lugs, but there is a 1/8" gap between it and the gearbox. This gap is repeated on the other side, where it appears at the frame. This is because the casing on a Square Four box is different to that for the singles & twins, because for some reason the gearbox is shifted to the left. Research reveals that the mainshaft is also different.

So, pleas are out to DragAnFly, the AOMCC members, and to the nice lady from Essex to try and locate the correct box!

Broken Bantam

Regular readers may have noticed that there has been a wanton lack of progress on the Ariel lately... as I mentioned earlier, the Bantam has decided that it doesn't like it's crankshaft.

We were out for a nice little bimble about, such as can only be found in North Norfolk's finest countryside, when she started clattering and misfiring. After the usual carburetter cleaning, plug gapping etc. and a couple more miles with enforced stops, I turned to the points only to find the cover very loose and the screws backing themselves out.

So I pull it all apart, and find myself with the flywheel in the road:

This signalled end of play for that day, and for the first time she came home on a truck. Several weeks of DIY activity plus a trip to Houston and a busy time at work followed, until last weekend we had the engine out & stripped.

It's now on it's way to Rex Caunt Racing to have the mainshaft replaced.

Hopefully, since the Bantam is down (but not out) we'll get some Ariel time this weekend!

Stainless bits...

Here are some parts from Acme Stainless, a new supplier I've discovered who copies original motorcycle parts in stainless.

These are a few parts totally missing from by boxes - a gearbox pivot bolt, gearbox adjuster and gear position indicator.

Also shown are a set of tank bolts & the tiny 2BA CSK screws for the tank badges.

Here's the brake rod - again totally missing from my bike. The butterfly nut is original.

And here is the clevis at the brake lever end. All very nicely machined & presented, and at a good price.