FH - centre stand

 I noticed as I was building the Huntmaster up that the rear wheel was in contact with the deck of the lift. Now I did specify rear suspension units that were marginally longer than normal to give me some extra travel and some extra comfort but I hadn't bargained for the fact that the centre stand had so little lift that the wheel touched the ground.

Shame I painted it before I noticed this, but that's the way it goes sometimes. I found a spare moment and removed the springs again using 2.5 mm copper wire wound into the open coils mainly because I didn't have enough thin washers to hold the coils extended. The springs came off relatively easily and I built up the stand stops which were rather worn, using the TIG welder. This picture shows one of the stops part way through the process: I added another layer because this did not prove to be thick enough.

Testing installation for the second time gave me 3/8" of clearance to the rear tyre. The lift has a removable panel under the rear wheel to allow the wheel to drop out and this is something like an 1/8" thick, so we probably have a total of 1/2" or so of lift off the ground. 

That job was a lot easier than I thought it might be. I had the welder set to 60 amps with quite a long stick out to allow me to get into the corners of the stand stops. I didn't have worried about the paint - it was scarcely burnt. 

Whilst I was under there I fitted the spacer between the frame and the primary case. Now all Ariels need this spacer and it is of somewhat variable thickness. Unfortunately I realised that I should have fitted the spacer before the primary case went on; withdrawing the gearbox bottom bolt at this point to fit the spacer would have released the centre stand springs that I had worked so hard to install.

This photograph therefore is here as a reminder to me to fit the spacer properly next time I take the primary case off. Right now the spacer is of a C-section so that it can be fitted without withdrawing the bolt.