Model A - front forks dry build

 You might remember from the recent girder fork investigation post that we had a lot of movement in the forks - in fact a 3/8 inch variation in wheelbase. It was obvious that a lot of this was down to wear in the links and wear in the spindles.

I contemplated reworking the original links for a while but while chatting to the AOMCC Black Ariel spares specialist I discovered that reproduction links were available from the club at a good price, so bought a set. They're not perfect - for example the middle links are smaller in diameter than the originals so I will keep the originals and repair them at some point.

For some reason the top links on the 1929 and 1930 bikes are not fully threaded:

The club spares officer also recommended I bought a new spring. It's certainly true that old fork springs I've used in the past have been very soft and looking at the old spring previously it was clearly a bit stretched. Again new ones are available at a reasonable price:

Putting these bits together with the old spindles revealed a significant reduction in play.

A few days later, the new spindles arrived from Acme Stainless - and very nice they are too. On bikes of this era, you don't need the knurled washers - these arrived in 1934. I bought a pair of headstock nuts as well since I was one missing and pulled up the steering head bearings a bit more. 

Putting all these in place removed all of the play in the forks. I now cannot detect any variation in wheelbase.

Stuck in the steering column there is the beginning of the blanking plug that is used on the Model A which was not supplied with a steering damper.

That plug will be chrome plated eventually. I'll finish it machining it long before that happens!

FH - engine finished

 Yesterday I spent a bit more time attempting to finish the tappet covers. After clearing the threads in both the covers, clearing out the locating pin holes and straightening one of the locating pins on the inlet I finally got them to fit. The part numbers are identical for both inlet and outlet covers, but for some reason the one I had on the inlet fits the outlet and the one I had on the outlet fits the inlet. Go figure. There's obviously something around the locating pins, and I did notice that the original centre screw is longer than the one that I made; however, they are both on and done up and finished. 

Next I moved on to the timing cover with Wellseal and grease either side of the gasket as this cover comes off fairly regularly. 

The dynamo chain area is now liberally coated with semi-fluid grease and the cover is on. Some of the screw holes are obviously not clear for their full length and now that I have new Acme stainless steel screws I will need to run a tap through some of those holes again. I've ordered a tap from Tracy Tools - they do a very long (and expensive) tap called a 'nut tap' which will do the job nicely. 

The 'nut tap' is a very long taper tap - I'll need to cut perhaps half the length off the taper, as I really need it as a plug tap.

Next step is to close up the gearbox. I'm on the railway for the rest of the day, so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

One job I haven't really finished is the head steadies. Unfortunately despite the fact that they are retained to the head with half nuts, there is still not enough room to get a nut on the timing side - the drive side has a fin missing. It's extremely fiddly in there, there is no space, and unfortunately I have realised that you have to have the rocker cover slightly high before you can get the nuts on. I'll lift the rocker cover again next time. 

FH - primary case again

 Just a small update today. The primary case is now on and together; I fitted the outer cover with a gasket with Wellseal on the outside and grease on the inside. It took a while to identify all the screws (stainless steel from Acme), but it's finally together. 

The clutch basket is a trial fit for the moment - I haven't bent up the tab washer yet.

FH - bottom end complete

A little bit later than expected I am back in the workshop. My generator decided to burn out it's alternator winding, and took the battery charger with it which meant buying a new generator, building a trolley for it (it doesn't fit where the old one was) and building a trolley for the welders - because their spot is now taken up by the generator...

Having got most of that out of the way, I can strip the cases again to fit the replacement connector rod nuts, BSA part number 37-1691. These are genuine new old stock from Vale-Onslow. Looking at the picture below, from left to right we have the modified Draganfly nut, an unmodified nut, and on the right the new lower profile nut:

This, by the way, is the mark left by the Draganfly nuts before I modified them:

Here are the Draganfly big end bolt washers. These are laser cut stainless and whilst some suggested they were rather small, they are much the same size as the bearing surface of the nut so I am leaving them in place.

Stupidly, I forgot to picture the new nuts in place on the big end caps. Mrs H phoned to see where I had got to (I'll just be 10 minutes dear!), and that's always a distraction. Suffice to say that they were torqued up to 22 lbf. ft in accordance with the BSA data sheet and I oiled up the various bearings before closing the cases. I made sure to remove all traces of Threebond and was very sparing with it when reassembling.

The case bolts are all stainless, from Acme as usual and they fit beautifully. I made this chart from the diagram in the Draganfly catalogue to show me where the different bolts go:

Lovely and easy putting them in; I used my frame spreader to make it a bit easier.

Now that the bottom end is in, we've got a number of workfaces to tackle:

• the barrel and pistons
• the primary case
• the timing gear

We can look at any of these really but before we do there are some components around the engine that will become less accessible as we progress. The first of these is the engine breather shown here in the form in which it arrived:

This isn't how Ariel designed it. It's supposed to bend around and appear behind the FERC, above the gearbox sprocket somewhere.

Another item is the magneto. It's fitted here temporarily with the long bottom nut, which is on the job list for zinc plating. With the primary case loosely bolted in place you can see that it's quite restricted in there:

Something that surprised me, and thanks to Daniel Rix on the FH Facebook page for this, is that you cannot get the brake bell crank on with the primary case in place. That's a pain, because I want to get on with the mechanical build and I hadn't planned on doing any plating just yet... and the bell crank needs plating.

The other thing I must remember is to fit the oil lines before I fit the primary cases! Access will be a trifle difficult if I forget, so let's not get ahead of ourselves and we will get on with sorting out some of the details.

A little trip to Cromer

An evening ride to Cromer revealed a front brake that was much better, but which now had too much lever movement. Nipping up the adjuster two clicks improved the lever movement and there didn't seem to be any brake binding, which was excellent. There was still a juddering from the front, particularly on braking. Getting it home, I found that wheeling the bike backwards revealed that particular groan that only binding brakes make, so I've backed the adjuster off one click.

Back in the workshop, a quick check revealed loosened head bearings - wheeling the bike forwards and putting the brake on reveals a 'jolt' from the headstock which you can hear. To check them more physically, put the bike on the main stand and put your thumb here in the dim & dark recesses of the top yoke, across the gap between the dust cover and the headstock:

The Engineer's Thumb

With your other hand, grasp the front wheel and rock the bike backwards. This has the effect of pushing the steering column up through the headstock against the weight of the bike, and your thumb will be able to feel any movement. Don't vigorously rock it backwards & forwards - you don't want it rolling off the stand.

Mr. Waller suggests lifting the weight off the front wheel to perform this job, bit since I have no bike lift or any desire to damage my back I use the method described above.

So, having found some movement we need to sort out the problem. First slacken off the lock nut under the top yoke with your head race spanner. Clay at Acme Stainless has these, but you can also pick original ones up on eBay. Be very careful not to damage the paint on the tank - make sure the spanner fits well (so that the spanner doesn't slip) and that the tank is protected (for when the spanner slips):

Now, grasping the wheel again, roll the bike backwards against the main stand whilst attempting to tighten the lower of the two nuts. You will find that the nut is now loose and can be tightened down - you will want to perform this feat of coordination two or three times.

When you are happy that the bearings are snug, and you can feel no more movement, tighten down the top nut. Move the handlebars and satisfy yourself that they are not binding anywhere. 

If you use your steering damper, reset it and you are good to go.

Exhausts... Left or right, big or small?

So I have these lovely pipes from Feked... But which way round do they go? I also have the square head bolts and their brackets from Acme, and they just make the puzzle worse:

Timing side. Small kink?

Or big kink?

Drive side. Big kink?

Or small kink?

With the small kink on the drive side the pipe appears to sit inside the brake pedal and prop stand more neatly, and the big kink on the timing side allows the pipe to sit inside the swing of the kickstart. 

Is that right?

More bits...

Some more great parts from Acme Stainless:

Chain adjusters and rear shock absorber bolts for the Huntmaster, and reduced hex 5/16" nuts for Amelia's cylinder head.

This is what the end of the speedo cable looks like - posted here for someone that asked a question:

Two heads are better than one

Regular readers might remember that I was lucky enough to find a reconditioned head at Draganfly a year or so ago, and wrote about it here.

 

Here it is again, ready for the head studs to be transfered to it from the old head, so that it can be fitted this week:

 

 

 Good plan, flawed by the condition of the old studs:

 

Worn threads



Worn & distorted threads

A bent stud

 

So, back to Acme for more studs... and nuts... and money...

 

And guess what? It wasn't until I wrote this blog post that I noticed that my 'new' head has a chunk out of the bottom fin at the back...

Small steps...

Just a little bit more. Front brake cable finished, fitted & adjusted. adjuster from Acme Stainless, boot from Draganfly, cable parts from VWP.

More Goodies from Draganfly

This week, I have been mostly working... and shopping, getting ready for the top end rebuild. a few more parts from Drags and Acme, for the Square (and one, a secret one, for the Huntmaster). Otto head gaskets, rocker oil pipes, rocker oil pipe banjo bolt newly available from Acme, and the rocker cover locating pins lost during bead blasting.

And some more

And this, for the future - this is the strainer for the FH, recently available from Clay at Acme Stainless.

And a blast from the past:

The railway straight at Brooklands. Wonderful, magical place, right next to my office.

Shiny things!

Well, several small jobs going on at the moment. I'm filling in while waiting for the engine to come back. I've been looking at cables, brake light switches, the gearbox, the mudguards and the wheels.

I guess that is quite a bit really.

I've finished polishing up the brake bake plate. This is now assembled with the help of some lithium grease - not suitable for high-temperature disc brakes, but perfectly adequate for sparing use on the moving parts of a drum brake. It has a new brake arm spring and adjuster, both courtesy of Draganfly.

The plate eventually came up nicely, after an hour or two on the abrasive wheels and the polishing mops:

You will see that I have left the brake anchor slot free of that nasty little aluminium closing plate, and I have sprayed the brake arm black. There was no evidence of any plating on this original part, and i have seen them black painted in my reference pictures, so black it is.

This is now back on the bike, looking a bit better than it did a few months ago:

Apologies...

Apologies if there doesn't appear to be much going on, but I have been away travelling again. Last week was spent mainly in Stavanger (-7 degrees C) and Oslo (-18 degrees C) and I have only just thawed out.

When I am away working, I tend to order stuff to get busy with when I get back. This was a similar trip. I have been talking to Bernard Ashpole in Bishops Stortford about doing a few jobs on the engine. I'm going there tomorrow and hopefully the following jobs will be done:

• soda blasting the crankcases, barrel and the original head (so I can sell it)
• welding up the damaged fin on the barrel
• replacing the timing side main bearings, line boring them and replacing the camshaft bush
• tidying up the camshaft journal

I ordered the dipswitch, horn button, and the indicator switch from the VMCC - these are now stashed away. I also ordered the oil filter, which I have to make a bracket for. I'll zinc plate that when I'm done.

I've also ordered a few more parts from Acme, this time the exhaust brackets & bolts and the 5 nuts for the QD rear wheel, and the front brake cable adjuster.

I have a full set of stainless engine bolts from them, and the timing cover, primary cover, and coupling gear cover screws. All very nice, as usual, and a pleasure to deal with.

When I ordered the camshaft bush from Drags, Lee noticed that I had a battery box (the dummy Lucas GU11E) on back order - so this has now been delivered. Here it is in the tray I made earlier. 

And lastly, I have been looking at the wiring. Moved by a discussion on cable ties on the AOMCC forum (how many rivets in a BR Standard Class 5?),  I started to look closely at the wiring harness.

This discussion was so interesting that I have moved it to it's own post, here

Back in Charge

As an aside from the engine strip, which is challenging at the moment since Amelia is still resident in the Summer House and the bottom end is in the frame, and there is precious little light to use to continue the engine strip, I have been polishing up the chain case and making the battery tray.

You'll have seen the post Battery Carrier earlier in the blog and you will know that I had no part of the battery carrier originally. You'll also know that thanks to the generosity of the Ariel Owners Club members I have been able to get all the technical details I need to make one.

So, starting with Brenton Roy's drawing, the dimensions of the GU11E battery from an old Lucas catalogue and some 16 SWG cold rolled steel sheet, we could get started.

Using the faithful Bosch jigsaw, I cut an oversize blank just to have something I could handle on the bench. These days, having failed to make myself some engineers marking blue, I mark out using a Sharpie spirit marker before witnessing in the traditional way, with a dot punch.

The next stage was to cut out the shape with the hacksaw. The 'internal' tabs (those that the screws pass through, underneath the battery carrier) I cut out with a piercing saw, starting first with a 1 mm drill at each end of the cut. 

The shape was then finished off with various files.

The holes were then centre punched and drilled 7 mm, (clearance for a 1/4" BSCy screw).

The next stage was to fit the nuts. These were 1/4" BSCy full nuts, tacked in place with the trusty MIG, and yes, those holes are noticeably triangular - hard to drill perfectly round holes in sheet metal.

The next step was to bend up the tabs. I put both halves of the chaincase in the vice to check the overall width before I did this - I didn't want to end up with the tabs out of parallel or rebending them.

Here is the raw battery tray fitted to the chaincase for the first time. The special fasteners and spacers are from Acme Stainless. It's looking good.

That is about it really. I re-cut all the threads since the welding appeared to have caused a little distortion  I draw filed the edges and deburred, and since this picture was taken I bent up that tabs that retrain the battery. Might be a problem here - I have ordered a battery from Drags but I don't have it yet.

Last thing before assemble was to paint - the usual UPol etch primer, followed by Halfords gloss black acrylic, then final assembly, and that's it. Again, stainless parts from Acme.

A few days spent in a warm room saw it packed away in a box until the bike is assembled.

On with the engine...

Winter draws on... and I have no lights outside, so I am only able to work on the engine until dusk. It is in the summer house with the rest of the bike until it is small enough pieces to bring inside. This is something of a pain but my view is that the enforced pace allows me time to think!

I can't wait until the new workshop is up & running!

Here it is - it's a 20' x 9' garage I have bought in the middle of Sheringham, and it has a 9' square area upstairs as well. It has a solid concrete floor, is built from breeze block and has a tiled & felted roof.

There is no power or light yet but at least it is dry.

I plan to get rid of the up & over door to make it a bit more bike-friendly, and then get UK Power Networks to provide a 100A power supply.

Anyway, this evening I have been preparing to lift the head.

I've been using the tool kit spanners I have collected, for the sake of familiarity, to back off the fasteners around the head. I've slackened off the 3/16" BSW rocker adjusters and the 1/4" BSW rocker spindles so that we don't have any accidents on the bench later, which all came apart quite easily (though they were all pretty tight, apart from one of the rocker spindles (offside rear)).

I then moved on to the head studs, and now I understand where they all are if I don't know how to get them undone! The twelve nuts under the third barrel fin were easy to find, especially the one at the front offside where the fin is missing.

The four inside the rocker boxes look straightforward, though I guess they are 3/16" BSW and I don't have a suitable tube spanner for that - over to you Mr eBay.

I guess that I will be replacing these fasteners with more from Acme Stainless, or possibly plating them.

As for the last four, two at the front and two at the back... one I got to with a small 1/4" BSW ring spanner; but they are very inaccessible. Maybe a tube spanner from above, though not at the back where the inlet manifold covers them up, or mabe a slender Britool ring spanner my grandfather gave me many years ago. I've asked my ever helpful AOMCC colleagues for advice.

Anyhow, I have ordered a couple of suitable tube spanners, and I'm off to Leeds for work tomorrow. then I have a couple of important family events... Maybe some more activity this time next week?