Model A - headlamp supports

 Well I guess you have to start somewhere. Looking around the bike I realised that the headlamp supports - which are just bits of flat bar - weren't fitted correctly, and one of them was very bent. 

Take a look:

The other side was upside down as well, but not as bent as this. This is how it is supposed to fit:

Model A - valve caps

 A post on the club Facebook page and a chance conversation with the Black Ariel spares officer has me looking at the valve caps on the Model A.

A fellow member was struggling to remove the exhaust valve cap on the club 1928 machine and ended up taking it off in pieces. I thought I would have a go with the club spanner I bought a few years ago:

The inlet cap came off quite easily - the exhaust cap is still refusing to move!

Model A - on the bench!

 With the Square Four at Tom's house, the initial service on the FH complete and some of the running repairs to the W/NG finished we can swap the bikes around in the workshop and put the Model A on the bench. I've had this bike for 5 years or so and have been steadily making fasteners and collecting bits ever since so it appears very complete although I haven't done any repairs to the broken parts yet.

Let's have a look at a few current pictures.

Five years ago I wrote an article called 'Broken and Missing' which outlined what I found when I took delivery of the bike initially. What follows is most of the text from that article updated to reflect the state of play today. Some of the pictures in the text date from the original article.

Frame

To date, I haven't found any problems with the frame mainly because I haven't dismantled the bike yet. The paint is good, all the threads I have seen have been good or have been repaired in the last few years, but looking at the saddle I suspect the saddle nose mount will be quite worn.

The engine plates are all there, along with a pair of footrests from AOMCC Black Ariel Spares. The footrest bar is bent but is just a bit of 7/16" round bar. I have the two engine plate covers around the dynamo, both of which need weld repairs.

The rear stand came from Ariel Klub Slovakia and I have one of the last of the reproduction Es-way side stands.

Forks

The forks are complete and straight, but feel like they are quite worn - and these forks do not have bushes. The components, with the exception of the grease nipples are all there.

It may be that this bike has been assembled with no balls in the steering head - it certainly wiggles around as though the races are empty. It might be wise to sort this area out first to stabilise the machine.

One of the stay bolt holes in the fork end had a broken bolt in it - I drilled that out and reclaimed the thread a few years back.

Tank

The petrol tank, cap and oil pressure gauge are all there and in nice condition. The cap needs a small repair internally; the tank has a few dents but little obvious rust and the chrome plating is intact. There are three of the original mounting bolts; I will make a fourth. Some of the original mounting rubbers are there, but I have a complete set from Jeff Hunter Engineering.

The knee rubbers and their plates are all there, though the rubbers are thoroughly squashed and unusable. Again I have a replacement set.

The oil pressure gauge pipe and fuel tap are missing. I have acquired a suitable period tap with the correct adjustable corks from eBay:

It's a 1/4" BSP tap and has an adapter. I'll have to make a filter for it.

Front Wheel & Brake

The front wheel needs truing and a spoke replacing. I'm hoping to get away without replacing the original rim, but that will require much closer inspection. The few spokes I have looked at appear sound and the nipples turn - I have dosed them all with Plus-Gas. The wheel turns freely and smoothly.

The brake plate is there - the arm is there and it feels like the shoes are too. I have the brake rod and the torque arm; I've also sourced an adjuster and made the spring box.

You can see that broken stay bolt I mentioned earlier in this picture.

Rear Wheel & Brake

The rear wheel runs true and turns freely, but it is missing at least two spokes. The sprocket, which is integral to the brake drum is worn and will need replacement; the brake plate, arm and shoes are there but the wheel spindle nuts are quite poor, one is missing a spacer and the other is seized on. The chain adjusters were both missing but I have made a new set.

Since I took this shot, I have fitted the rod, made a new rear brake adjuster and realised the cam spindle is very worn. I made a new pin for the rear clevis but the front trunnion is very poor.

Engine

The engine turns over - that is about all I know! It's lost a few fins, and one of the valve caps is broken but I guess that is patina. The timing chain case looks fine. There appears to be a braze repair to the base of the barrel but only an engine strip will reveal more:

There's a lot of broken fins up there. See the big lump of braze?

Primary Transmission & Clutch; Final Drive

The chain & sprockets are there; the clutch looks complete apart from two missing springs and appears to lift when you operate the arm at the gearbox end.

I've seen much worse clutch drums than this:

There are several repairs on the primary chainguard like this, using rivets. The clutch dome is also split. I will probably weld up these riveted repairs as they are not adequately fixing the chainguard in place:

The rear chain guard is there and in good shape.

Gearbox

The gearbox appears to be complete apart from the kickstart spring and it's cover, and the kickstart lever cotter. The gearbox engages all three gears, but the hand change rod, one of it's clevises and some of the tank lever parts are missing. These are all parts that can be made on the lathe which is a good thing, as they are unlikely to be available anywhere.

I'm not sure about this kickstart shaft - it looks much longer than any I've seen...

Carburetter

The carburetter is the correct Amal model 6, with the right float bowl but that's where the good news ends. It's probably in very poor condition as I can feel the air and throttle slides rattling about.

We will have to make some difficult decisions about this. It's an old original carburettor and while you can buy a new 276, you can't buy a 76. Buying a new 276 would be the sensible option of course...

There are no cables but I do have the remains of the fuel pipe.

Exhaust

The exhaust is there, the plating is poor but no worse than many. The fish tail appeared one day delivered to the railway I volunteer on by a very kind club member. The AA badge is missing from the silencer and the silencer bracket is bent; one or two of the clamps are missing:

Another small issue with the exhaust is that the silencer has been pushed into the bracket - which looks a mess.

Oil Tank & Lines

The oil tank is present, as are all the oil lines and unions. The tank cap is missing, but I am using one that came from Italy on the W/NG for the moment.

Mudguards, Stays, Carrier and Number Plates

The front mudguard and it's bridge were missing. I made the bridge using the W/NG one as a model and the guard has been replaced with a pattern D guard from Feked trimmed to the right length and drilled for stays. The original number plate and it's mounts is there, the front stay is also there as is the front stand - the front stand is pretty rusty and will need surgery.

At the rear, both parts of the guard are there but there will be some welding to repair fatigue cracks. The carrier is there and in good shape, but all the fasteners are missing; the double mudguard stay for the detachable section was missing, but was delivered from Scotland after turning up in the previous owner's stash.

Something that looks a little odd, and it seems to be quite common on these late 20's Ariels is that the detachable part of the mudguard doesn't line up properly with the fixed part - leading to the bike looking as though it's mudguard is too big. This may be something to do with where the stays fit, or whether the stay is inside or outside of the mudguard blade.

Headlamp & Tail lamp

The Lucas H52 headlamp and MT110 tail lamp are both in place; the headlamp is quite battered. The plan is to dismantle both lamps and clean them; I have a sandbag and will knock the headlamp shell back into shape, hopefully the rim as well. The lamp mountings are bent - it looks like the front end took a knock perhaps.

The rim is in particularly poor shape:

The H52 is very interesting - it has no internal wiring, just contacts:

I'm delighted these are all intact.

This is a later number plate. It's clearly an original, but it doesn't have the registration number painted on it - so where did it come from? Perhaps from the previous owner's stash of parts?

Handlebar and Controls

The handlebar, twist grip and both inverted levers are there. There is just enough plating on the bar to show it was once chromed. There are no handlebar rubbers, clips or cables.

I found the Bowden-type clutch lever and the double air/ignition levers from eBay at vast expense.

Dynamo

The dynamo is the correct Lucas E3, and looks to be all complete though I believe part of it's clamp is missing. The drive end bracket has a large crack right across it.

I've realised I don't understand how the dynamo clamping arrangement works - there appears to be some sort of bridge across the engine plates, but haven't seen a picture yet. Something to research.

I'm hoping to get the end plate clean enough to use an adhesive repair.

The chain cover is also there, and will need a weld repair to one of it's feet.

Battery & Electrics

The battery tray and it's clamp are there, though the clamp will need further repair and some nuts turning up on the lathe. There is the remains of the wiring harness attached to the headlamp which looks like it was rubber sheathed; the dip switch, horn button and horn are missing.

The sales catalogue from 1930 indicates that the electric horn option was a Lucas Spartan type so I have sourced a 6 V version and built a handlebar bracket for it. It might be a bit big...

Magneto

The original Lucas KSA1 magneto has been replaced some time in the past with a BTH KC1, so this is probably a period repair or upgrade - the factory despatch record does not mention a non-standard magneto being ordered.

Saddle

The saddle is in place, with all it's springs and spacers - the nose bearing is pretty worn and the cover is missing. I'll make a new cover.

Toolboxes

The toolboxes are both entirely missing. I will make new boxes, learn to work leather and make the leather fronts, and find as many tools as I can. I've started already as you can see from this post...

Next steps 

The policy this time is a refinement of the two stage approach I usually take, that of restoring with no painting or plating followed by commissioning and then repainting and plating. This time it's going to the four Rs:

• Replace missing parts 
• Repair broken parts 
• Rework worn parts 
• Refinish everything

I can't wait to get stuck in!

W/NG - Air Filter: improving the kit

I saw this air filter on eBay some while ago. It's an Indian made copy of the Vokes air filter used on military bikes towards the end of WW2. It looks OK, but it needs to be treated as a kit of parts to be fettled, supplemented and perhaps bits will need to be replaced...

As the bike has only just arrived from long-term storage the air filter hasn't been near it until today. Let's take a look. 

In this picture I have adjusted the feet so that they lift the main body of the filter clear of the tank. I've fitted the brackets used to retain the filter to the tank more or less in the right position.

The quality of this piece of equipment is nothing to write home about but the main body is more or less ok - the threaded retainers holding it to the tank are awful and are probably not usable. You can see how the misplaced bolt holes do not allow both bolts to be fitted. The retainers don't actually look very much like the originals anyway.

You can see here that the main box is fitted such that the inlet hose going to the carburettor will route down the back of the tank.

Here's another view from above which gives an idea of where the hose will run.

So we need to think about what we're going to use and what we're going to replace. At the moment my thinking is that the retainers will be replaced completely as will the brackets they bolt to on the filter itself. The eBay purchase did not include the hose to the carburettor or the felt filter tubes.

The filter tubes are made from some 2 mm thick felt sheet cut into 3 1/2 inch widths and sewn on the machine. They will be cut to length, turned inside out, and retained with some spring clips.

Here's all five felt tubes cut to length and completed.

I've bought these clips from eBay which look a lot like the original ones, though they are a bit wider. We may have to make a special tool to open them and get them in position!

I can't do much more with the felt tubes at the moment which I really only made to get them off the sewing table and because it was raining. We'll move on to some metal work on the main air filter box.

I've removed the nasty brackets which were braised and riveted to the main box. They are unusable, or at least this one is because the holes are completely out of position and at any rate whilst some of the original WD equipment is quite cheaply made it's not this bad!

Now that I have removed this bracket and flattened it out we can use this as a template to make a new one. I have some excellent pictures of an original Vokes air filter from the WD motorcycle forum.

This is the new one I have made to replace it, cut from a sheet of 1.5 mm steel. The nuts are M6 and brazed in position and the whole thing has been pickled to get rid of the flux.

The trunnions supplied with the Indian kit were completely hopeless - way too small for a 1/4" thread or even the M6 thread they were supplied with. Here's the Mini-Lathe in action parting off some new ones, drilled 6.5 mm in the tailstock V-block for clearance on 1/4".

Here they are finished, with the tool that I used to create the dome in the ends. Looks very authentic!

Here are the new straps for the trunnions - these look a lot more like the originals and are a more appropriate size. There will be slots such that the straps can move around on the bracket on the filter body to align the filter retainers with the holes in the fuel tank.

Here they are again coming along a bit further with the slots cut and the holes drilled. These will be slotted eventually and the whole strap will be made a little shorter.

Here's one finished and in place:

Here's the other side. The next step is to fit the hose and see how it is going to pass the seat nose and the tank: