Amelia Squariel: 2016

Thursday, 29 December 2016

First steps

Now that we have a little break from work and a bit more free time, the MZ assembly can start. Today the swinging arm is re-united with the repaired and painted frame:

Saturday, 24 December 2016

Two ends of the same spectrum

On the green end, in Norwich city centre, this nice 1958(?) AFS Matchless:

And at the silver end of the spectrum, a Can-am Spyder:

Tuesday, 22 November 2016

As I may have mentioned, when I ran the W/NG (for the second time in my care) a couple of weeks ago the exhaust detached itself at the cylinder head, due to the poor fit and inadequate clamp.You can see in this picture that the pipe is not quite aligned with the cylinder head stub - I am probably going to have to cut and shut the pipe to get it to fit. The rear stand also hits the silencer, so it may be that removing and refitting the exhaust will help but we have to start somewhere, and having the right bits is always a good place to start.

This is not the correct clamp, though it looks like some of the original brass parts are there. Here's the clamp illustrated in the 1940 parts book:

We can make one of these. First we will make a card template.

Clamped to a piece of 14 SWG cold rolled sheet ready for marking out

Cut & filed to shape

The clamp formed and ready for bending. The long centre section is now curved across it's width and the ends have been folded up

Bending the clamp - I'm doing this hot.

Fitting it for the first time reveals it is about 3/8" too short:

In principle the design is sound. I've run the bike with the clamp in place and the exhaust pipe joint doesn't leak.

We'll just have to make a longer one.

Here we go - use a similar pattern to mark out the clamp in 16 SWG cold rolled steel sheet, saw it out and file to shape. Bend up the lugs as before and dish the strap in the vice; this time I formed the curve around a short piece of scaffold pipe:

Final filing after bending up ensures the lugs are aligned and the slots are in the right places:

For the bolt, I made a tee out of some 1/4" BDMS round bar, with a TIG fillet all round:

Cut to a suitable length, and cut a 1/4" BSC thread on the end. Excuse the wet paint!

Monday, 21 November 2016

FH Tool Roll

Eventually, I will buy some material and make a tool roll for my FH.

Until then, here are some pictures of the 6640-54 tool roll supplied by John Sullivan, AOMCC member from Austin, Texas who did a lot of research into the later tool rolls which was written up into an article which appears in Cheval, July 2007:

Here's his description:

Material

The tool roll appears to be black Vynide (same material as the original Ariel seat cover). It is a simulated leather material of small pebble grain and texture with a black cloth lining for its offside, which becomes the inside lining. The main assembly consists of three Vynide pieces, the main body section and two end pieces. The body section is a rectangle 13" (330mm) long by 8 1/2" (216mm) wide. The top two corners are rounded, with a radius of about 1" (25mm), and the bottom two corners have a radius of 3/8" (9.5mm). Binding is applied completely around. Side pieces are rectangles 4" (102mm) by 2 1/2" (64mm) with binding completely around; all four corners are rounded with a radius of 3/8" (9.5mm). There is a black binding of the same material (Vynide) around each body piece, of approximately 1/4" (6mm) on each side; ie 1/2" (13mm) binding wrapped around from front to back side and sewn. Stitching is a medium-size black thread, probably cotton. Stitch length is approximately 6 1/2 stitches per inch (1/6"; 4mm) long. The tie is a black, flat, woven cloth ribbon (twill tape), 1/2" (13mm) wide and 24" (70cm). long. It is sewn to the tool roll in the pattern of an X within a rectangular box, 1 1/2" (38mm) long by 3/8" (9.5mm) wide, starting 5" (127mm) from the top of the open section of the roll and centered between left and right sides.

Construction

Sew binding around all three body pieces. Sew tie to main section at location indicated. Sew side pieces to main section after aligning edge of each side piece with edge of main body piece and with the stitches on the outside. Body stitching is approximately 1/4" (6mm) from edge, typically right at the edge of the binding (only through two layers of material) and only occasionally extending over the binding.

Here is the toolkit list from the 1956 parts list. Added to this for 1957 is a 'single ended box spanner for rear wheel nuts', number 6601-57:

Currently my FH tool kit looks like this:

A tool box full of spanners

And I found this:

So here we go. Here's the material marked out with a Sharpie. Very simple compared to the old canvas tool rolls:

Cut out and ready for stitching:

Binding the opening:

Opening bound and ready to start on the main section. I've skipped the stitching in two places, to allow the main section binding to fit under the opening binding:

I've hemmed the ends of the tie:

And here's the tie in place:

Stitched to the main tool roll as described in Cheval:

Stitching around the corners, binding as you go is not easy - the material is quite sticky under the pressure foot, and the binding is quite thick. The pressure foot slides sideways off the binding and this drags the stitching out of line:

Top edge of the flap. Unfortunately it's white inside:

Completed the prototype. You can see that I've allowed the binding to slip along that top edge:

Open

Closed & tied up

A bit untidy, but it will do for the moment. We'll fill it up and see how it goes in the toolbox.

And again

Here are a few links to my other toolkit pages:

Square Four Toolkit

After all this work on W/NG tool kits it is about time I paid a bit more attention to the kit on my Square Four, which has served me well for several years. Before we get into that, here are a couple of excellent examples from club members:

Here's Scott Williamson's 1949 tool kit from the Square Four belonging to his father. The tool roll should be a 6640-46:

Scott Williamson's 1949 Tool Kit

This is not a Square Four tool kit as such, but belongs to David's 1949 VH so is a similar period to my 1951 Square and shares some of the tools.

David Andersen's Tool Kit

Currently my own tool kit looks like this:

It's in pretty good shape, having been used for maintenance & repairs for a couple of years.

As you will know, until the early 1950's Ariel parts lists were conveniently illustrated. This is the last Square Four list that was illustrated, from 1949:

1949 list, courtesy of the AOMCC Members website

Here's the tool page from my 1951 parts list

The 6607-39 single ended spanner is the only deletion between these tool kits; the later list includes the tools for the QD rear wheel. Note that they both identify the 6640-26 tool roll which is a mystery, since the later civilian tool roll (6640-46) appeared in 1946 - the illustrated list gives the game away though, because it has the 6640-26 roll in the list, but the 6640-46 roll in the illustration. The entry in the list is obviously a typo.

The QD rear wheel tools are illustrated here, in the 1947 singles parts book:

Here's a list I made a while ago, to collate what I had. Decimal dimensions come from the factory drawings in Ray Tolman's list.:

Item	Ariel PN	Old PN	Function	End 1	End 2
1	6600-36	G1/125	Double Ended Spanner	3/16	1/4
2	6600-32	G1/110	Spanner for brake fulcrum adjustment
3	6603-28	G1/59	Double Ended Spanner	5/16	3/8
4	6604-36	G1/124	Double Ended Spanner	5/16" BSF	¼" BSF
5	6605-28	G1/66	Double Ended Spanner	7/16	½
6	6606-27	G1/55	Double Ended Spanner, steering head nuts and wheel cone nuts	1.01" 9/16" BSW	1.1" 5/8" BSW
7	6606-30	G1/55A	Double Ended Spanner, steering head nuts	1.01" 9/16" BSW	1.305" 3/4" BSW
8	6608-31	G1/102	Tube Spanner	9/16" BSW?
9	6608-37	G1/129	Tube Spanner for sparking plugs
10	6611-31	G1/99	Tube Spanner for hub spindle nut	0.825" 7/16" BSW	0.925" 1/2" BSW
11	6611-34	G1/122	Tube Spanner	0.445" 1/4 BSF	0.525" 5/16 BSF
12	6611-36	G1/123	Tube Spanner for clutch centre pins	0.375" 3/8" AF	0.375" 3/8" AF
13	6612-27	G1/57	Tommy Bar
14	6614-29	G1/94	Ring Spanner	3/8" BSF	7/16" BSF
15	6614-31	G1/103	Ring Spanner	1/4" BSF	5/16" BSF
16	6615-34	G1/118	Spanner for valve rocker adjustment
17	6616-26	G1/33	Screwdriver
18	6616-29	G1/86	Screwdriver for clutch spring nuts
19	6621-29	G1/81	Dynamo and crankshaft timing sprocket extractor and set pin
20	6623-29	G1/85	Set pin only for 6621-29
21	6625-26		Tyre Lever
22	6635-27		Grease gun type 7MC
23	6636-29		Tyre Inflator, 14” x 7/8”
24	6640-26		Canvas Tool Roll
25	6689-46	G1/150	Socket Key for Telescopic Fork
26	6699-46	G1/152	Spanner for locking ring (front hub)
27	6608-50	G1/168	Tube Spanner for Detachable Wheel Nuts (brake drum)
28	6649-50	G1/166	Extension tube for 6608-50
29	6611-50	G1/169	Double ended box spanner for wheel spindle nut

So here are the tools:

Item 1 G1/125 Open Ended Spanner

Item 2 G1/110 Spanner for brake fulcrum adjustment

Item 3 G1/59 Double Ended Spanner

Item 4 is slightly odd - not made for Ariel, but modified by or for them. It has the original makers name ground out and 'Ariel' stamped in its place; it also has the sizes in BSW form.

Item 4 G1/124 Double Ended Spanner

Item 5 G1/66 Double Ended Spanner

Item 6 G1/55 Double Ended Spanner

Item 7 G1/55A Double Ended Spanner

Item 8 G1/102 Clutch hub nut tube spanner

Here's one I made earlier:

Item 9 Spark Plug spanner

Here's a real one, courtesy of David Andersen; along with a real tommy bar and a hub locking ring spanner. As you can see, mine is not too bad.

None of the tube spanners in my SQ4 kit are genuine - they are modern or old spanners of equivalent size.

Item 10: This does service as the G1/99 wheel spindle spanner

Item 11: Modern tube spanner pretending to be a G1/122

This is the clutch centre pin box spanner that currently graces my W/NG tool kit - I only have one of these:

Item 12 - Clutch centre screw spanner

This modern one does the job:

Here's my tommy bar - just a bit of 5/16" rod. Note that the real one has two steps - the smallest one is for the hole in the front wheel spindle, and this is not the same tommy bar that appears in earlier tool kits:

Item 13 Tommy Bar

Recently I turned up a tommy bar to the Ariel pattern Here it is, with a W/NG one alongside:

I've asked Acme Stainless about making some reproduction tommy bars.

Item 14 G1/94 Ring Spanner

Item 15 G1/103 Ring Spanner

This is the tappet adjuster spanner - unfortunately I only have one of these at the minute and that is in the W/NG tool kit. I guess I will have to make a copy.