This may be a seminal moment in the history of my SQ4. For years it's had an oil leak which I have always assumed to be poorly sealed pushrod tunnels at the head joint. However, having addressed a problem with a leak from the oil tank cap, something else which it has always done, I resolved to look at the drip from the rocker feed pipe.
The oil tank cap has always had a weep from the breather:
Looking at that first picture, I got to wondering why the cap has a vent hole when the tank has a piped breather that I have taken past the rear wheel. Surely the cap should be sealed?
It turns out that Square Fours don't use the same cap as other Ariels. I noticed that the 1951 SQ4 parts list has a -32 number for the cap - most bikes (other than Square Fours) I've seen use a -29 number. Maybe 5854-32 has no breather hole.
A blob of solder will sort it.
Onto the rocker feed. I ran the engine cold (75 psi on the gauge) and as the oil warmed up the leak appeared:
Now, my bad - I forgot to take a camera to the workshop when I fixed it. It turned out the tube was not pushed into the fitting at all - it was just held in place with a fillet of solder at one end, and had been like that for years - probably eight years. It's been leaking for most of that.
All fixed now.
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