FH - building up the miles

 This week, we are mostly decorating in Cromer! The FH now has 205 miles on the clock, and is still smoking a tiny bit and leaking a bit of oil, possibly from the head gasket.

Here it is, collecting caulk from Screwfix and CO2 from Argos...

I've checked the points today and am pleased to record that they haven't closed up.

I also checked the QD hub nuts after an unusual sound began from the back - they had loosened off a lot.

There's no picture, but yesterday I rode a couple of miles along the main road at 1/4 throttle, killing the engine and coasting to a halt. The timing side plug was brown on the centre electrode, black on the outer. I won't be making any carburetion changes for the moment!

QD Wheel Nut Spanner

 As regular readers will know, I enjoy making things and in particular the more elusive tools for the various Ariel on-board tool kits. Some while back, I made an early version of the special tool kit spanner for removing the nuts on the QD hubs, which is an extended box spanner to reach in between the spokes. I wrote up the job here. At the time, I didn’t realise that the later bikes (after 1950) had a different spanner. AOMCC member Klaus Gerhard sent me this picture, from his 1951 NH:

Scaling off the picture gave me this drawing:

Starting with a bit of 3/4” EN1 round bar, I set the bar up in the lathe with a revolving centre to support the end of the bar and set about reducing the centre section to 3/8” diameter:

I had a 3/8” diameter round nose tool which I made last time to form this radius:

The hexagonal bit is a section cut from a cheap Melco box spanner. The holes you see are for the tommy bar - I’ll weld those up later:

In the picture above, you can see that one of the ends of the main part has been reduced in diameter very slightly to fit inside the box spanner part. The other end needs a radius and a hole:

I made the radius by turning two or three chamfers at different angles and smoothing them off with a file in the lathe. 

Best test it:

The cross drilling is 8.5 mm, to clear the 5/16” tommy bar; I drilled it in the bench drill paying very careful attention to centring the drill over the bar, and drilling in three steps (4mm, 6.5 mm, 8.5 mm). 

Apologies for the awful picture. There’s a peripheral weld around the circumference of the box spanner and two plug welds filling in the tommy-bar holes. Those with keen eyes for a pinhole will note that I used the last of the Argon on this weld!

At some point, hopefully this year, I shall set up a plating plant and deal with a long list of small FH bits that need cad (or as near as is available today) plating. This QD hub spanner will be plated - but for now, it's happy with some gloss black U-Pol.

One last thing. You might recall that the 1950 version of this spanner has an extension, 6611-50:

My interpretation on how it's used is this. With the extension on the spanner and the tommy bar pinning the two together, you use the extension to steady the spanner with your right hand while turning the tommy bar with your left - you can actually get a lot more torque on the nut like that:

Thanks for reading, and I hope you found it useful!

QD Wheel Nut Spanners

QD rear hubs need a special spanner to reach the hub nuts through the spokes:

This is the 1938 version, as shown in the 1938 singles parts list. Drawing number G1/126, PN 6608-38

I'm not sure what that hole on the LH end is doing - there are no dimensions?

Note that the LH end hole does not appear in the assembly drawing:

Access to the gearbox bolts are a problem with the oil feed pipes on the SQ4, and I have found that something like the QD wheel nut spanner is useful to get at the top nut, and to drive a small socket in the top nut

Looking in the 1939 SQ4 parts list, it seems Ariel had a similar idea. 6608-38 now has something like a roll pin in one end, and drives an extension (6611-38), with a slot to receive the roll pin in the other:

1939 SQ4 Parts List

1939 SQ4 Parts List

Now, my mission is to be able to replicate the QD wheel nut spanner and the gearbox top nut extension for my own SQ4, which is 1951. Here's the parts list:

And here's the problem - the part numbers are different. I thought this may be extra length associated with Anstey springing, but that would not explain why the gearbox top nut extension was changed; fortunately, and this is yet another 'AOMCC to the rescue' story, I have been sent this picture of a 1950 Pattern Spanner sent to me by Klaus Gerhard in Germany. It's a tool that came with his 1951 NH:

Guessing again, I thought that the gearbox nut extension 6649-50 was just a hex tube to fit over the front of the spanner. Wrong again! Find out what it is here, with the write up on how I made the 1950 version.

Reproduction 1938 Pattern Spanner

So, I have purchased some 0.600" EN1A hex bar with which to reproduce the QD wheel nut spanners and since I have no drawings of the later spanner my 1951 SQ4 needs, we will start with the older one. Another job for the brilliant new mini-lathe!

Starting with the handle component, part no. G1/126A we chuck the steel bar, face off, centre and chamfer the end:

Changing the chuck for the revolving centre, we can start turning the reduced centre section

Turning the radii with a specially-ground form tool:

Finish turned and ready for parting off:

After parting off, I faced and chamfered the cut end.

For the extension, I will use a section of my most-damaged 5/16" BSW box spanner. This is the Moore & Wright type made from hex tube - very useful for this job. Here I am parting off a 1 1/2" section for part G1/126B.

The two components, ready for drilling the tommy-bar hole and welding up.

Best try it out before we spend any more time on it! A small test reveals there is plenty of length, even for my Anstey frame SQ4:

Drill and de-burr the hole for the tommy-bar:

And welded up:

Welding is looking OK - 2.6 mm electrode, 60 A:

Let's try it out:

U-Pol etch primer, U-Pol Matt  Black and a little oil for mock Parkerizing...

Good job.

Grease Everywhere

Some while back, on a very hot Norfolk Summer day, the SQ4 decided that the rear hub had had quite enough of that nasty, sticky grease thank you and vomited it all over the rear tyre and brake.

The trip home was rather gentle, especially as I had to descend from Norfolk's highest spot (!) to sea level, about 90 metres.

Pulling it all apart, there was grease everywhere. The parts washer is a very useful tool:

There are quite a few parts in the QD rear wheel, which is why I am writing this post. Here's an illustration from Draganfly, where we buy all the parts we need:

Putting wheel back together goes like this:

Put in the 4440B-50 grease retainer

Next comes the bearing. I'm using a modern double seal bearing, so we don't have a repeat of this grease leakage problem:

Knock the bearing in

Add the spacer 4346-50

Use a good quality peg spanner designed for the job, and the locking ring will go in easily. I've omitted the original seals, since I am using double sealed bearings.

Eagle eyed readers will notice the 4346-50 spacer is missing...

Locking ring trial fit

Turning the wheel round, we put in the 4471-50 Bearing Spacer Tube, whose smaller end locates in the 4440B-50 Grease Retainer. The Spacer Tube serves to allow the wheel spindle to pass through both sides of the wheel easily. The larger end of the spacer tube locates in another Locking Ring on the other side:

That's the wheel finished. Next, we turn our attention to the brake drum. Clean the bearing recess thoroughly, and include the slot for the circlip. I use Wagamamma chopsticks for jobs like this. Being bamboo, they are strong, flexible and be carved to the shape of the slot. When its all clean, press in the new bearing.

The pictures show the bearing in place, along with the 4440-50 Grease Retainer and the circlip.

Don't be fooled by this picture though, the fixed spindle comes next, with it's circlip.

With the grease retainer in place, you can fit the fixed spindle but you can't get the circlip in...

Michelin...

Hurrah for QD rear wheels:

It makes changing tubes so easy. A lot has appeared in the press lately about the quality of unbranded inner tubes, usually relating to poor vulcanising around the valve. The tube I took out was not unbranded, but wasn't one of the big names. It had a small split along one of the mould lines:

Its under that blob of Tyreweld. All fixed now, with a nice new Michelin tube from Vintage Tyres.

Oh, and it started first kick (well, first enthusiastic kick)!

Wheels again...

Work on the engine has stalled for a moment whilst we wait for FW Thornton to see if they can help out with a ring problem. The bench is now clear, so we can start on one of those other 'waiting in the wings' jobs that we use to fill in when the main workface stops for some reason. Bike building is like that - there is always something else you can do to fill in when waiting for parts.

And so to building the wheels. The 'jig' I use is just a piece of 19 mm ply that used to be part of a desk. The cutaway sections make it really easy to get to the nipples. It has a hole on the middle for the wheel spindle, which is a piece of 1/2" round bar. Using the spindle as a centre, I mark the outer diameter of the rim on the board. Using the offset measurements I made from the wheel earlier (before I stripped it) I make up four wooden blocks to lift the rim off the board to the correct offset. The brake drum, which I use as the datum, is placed face down on the board.

And that is it. There is a much more sophisticated version of this idea in Frank Farrington's excellent book 'The Vintage Motorcyclists Workshop' which includes blocks to control the concentricity of rim & hub - I don't go this far, since when rebuilding a wheel from an intact but rusty version I can buy spokes to exactly the right length and I find that I get very good concentricity by virtue of that spoke length.

So here we go. Set the hub up on the jig:

Add the blocks to establish the rim at the correct offset:

Start adding spokes according to your lacing pattern. You did photograph these wheels before you cut them apart didn't you? It helps if you lift the hub above the jig at this stage, so that you can insert the spokes from both sides. As you add the spokes, try to lay them out according to the lacing pattern. Start with half of the spokes on the lower flange, placing them in alternate holes, pointing in the anticlockwise direction (in the Ariel's case, these spokes have the nipples on the outside of the hub). Then, add the other spokes on the lower flange, pointing them clockwise and crossing the anticlockwise spokes according to the lacing pattern (in Amelia's case, these spokes are threaded from the inside out, have the heads on the inside of the hub, and cross under the anticlockwise spokes).

Then you move on to the spokes in the upper flange, again starting with the anticlockwise spokes. When you have finished, you will have this nice little nest of wire:

Next, lower the hub back on to the jig and lay the rim over the top. Look carefully at your reference photographs, paying close attention to the location of the holes in the dimples in the rim, and make sure you get the rim the right way up. You can easily assemble the whole wheel with the rim upside down, and not notice until you are snugging down the last of the nipples. I know - I have done it!

Now, again we must be careful and work to a pattern, but a slightly different pattern this time. We don't want to scratch that shiny new paint! Starting again with the spokes in the lower flange, and your handy lacing pattern, locate the dimple nearest the valve hole that corresponds with an anticlockwise spoke on the lower flange. Insert one of those spokes in that hole and screw a nipple on a couple of turns. Then, moving clockwise round the rim, insert all the anticlockwise spokes in the lower flange. Then, start on the anticlockwise spokes on the upper flange and continue until you have a nipple on all the upper & lower anticlockwise spokes.

The reason for doing it this way is twofold:

1. Working on spokes that point in the same direction means that the wheel is very flexible, and you can rotate the rim to get the spokes in the holes without endangering the paint.
2. Working on the upper and lower spokes in the same direction means that you cannot 'trap' the unfitted clockwise spokes whilst you fit the anticlockwise spokes. Because the clockwise spoke crossings are inside the anticlockwise spokes, they can't get stuck behind spokes that are already fitted.

Keep the nipples really loose to maintain flexibility - you are only trying to establish the lacing pattern and get the spokes in the right holes at the moment.

Next, fit the spokes pointing clockwise. Start at the from the valve hole, and fit the first spoke from the lower flange, followed by the first spoke from the upper flange. Moving clockwise around the rim, fit the spokes in turn - lower, upper, lower, upper - until you have all the nipples fitted.

Now, take the wheel off the jig and have a good look at it. Give it a shake. Make sure all those spokes are entering those holes easily - there should be no tension anywhere at this point. If you are happy, put the wheel on the jig and wind the nipples in until there are 3 threads showing, and repeat the look/shake process. You will probably need to use a screwdriver now, as the wheel will stiffen up.

Now, with the wheel back on the jig, wind the nipples in until there is no thread showing. As you do, make sure the spoke heads are seating properly in their countersinks. Look & shake again. Next step, run all the nipples down until the end of the spoke is level with the bottom of the screwdriver slot in the nipple; then go around again until the end of each spoke is level with the very end of the nipple - you will need a spanner or a spoke key this time. Off the jig again, you should find you have a very stiff wheel. If one or two of the spokes are still loose, snug them down now, as evenly as possible.

This gentle step by step approach to spoke fitting ensures that the wheel comes off the jig needing very little trueing up.

So next, trueing up.

Hopefully, having built the wheels on the jig, we will have very little truing to do. However, there is usually some runout, but the offset is probably good. By the way, the offset I measure from Amelia's original wheels was:

• Rear 9/16" on the brake side
• Front 1 1/4" on the brake side

Now, what is runout? There are two types of runout - lateral runout and radial runout, as illustrated by this handy picture I made:

Radial run out is, pretty obviously, an eccentricity of the rim relative to the hub. Lateral runout is when the axis of the rim is not parallel to the axis of the hub. Easier to explain with the pictures!

So, how to fix it? Well, you can do miracles with a spoke key, but first you have to figure out what is wrong. To establish this, you need to set the wheels up in a jig, like this:

This is made from two pieces of timber, glued and screwed to a cross member, held in the vice. There is a V-notch in each piece for the wheel spindle to rest in. At the bottom, adjacent to the rim, are two pins:

One is set up so it almost touches the side of the rim; the other so it almost touches the outermost edge of the rim. Spin the wheel in the jig, and you will be probably be able to see both lateral and radial runout. Move the wheel slowly, and you will be able to quantify the run out in both directions - it is essential to mark the rim where the runout is worst.

You'll want to get the runout down to 1 mm, or 1/32", in both radial & lateral directions. You've probably got about 3 mm or 1/8" now, right?

So the key to tackling runout is the proper adjustment of the spokes. Here's another of Simes' handy diagrams:

Ain't that pretty! A few words about it:

• The dotted lines show the spokes on the non-brake side
• The solid lines show spokes on the brake side
• The 'upper half' and 'lower half' relate to positions on the wheel relative to a mark you will make on the rim during the truing process
• The green spokes go ant-clockwise
• The red spokes go clockwise

Tackle the radial runout first. Roll the wheel in the jig again, and  relative to your pointer, mark the rim where it has most runout, i.e. where it is lowest against the pointer, where the distance from the outside of the rim to the centre of the axle is greatest.

Roll the rim until that marked point is at the bottom, and now you will have  spokes in the lower half and spokes in the upper half. Because we have the worst runout at the bottom, the spokes in the lower half need to be shorter, and the spokes in the upper half need to be longer, to reduce the runout and make the rim concentric with the hub.

So, you must appreciate that the spokes which are more or less horizontal, and radiate from the extreme left and right of the hub don't have any effect on the runout. Conversely, those running vertically are controlling the runout and it is these that will be adjusted most. Those that run diagonally from the hub have more or less effect depending upon how vertical or horizontal they are.

So, using this diagram:

We can see that the spokes within the red arrows have more effect on the runout than those that are outside the arrows. To correct the runout, hold the wheel in the same position (with your mark at the bottom) and loosen the spokes within the red arrow at the top by, say, 1/4 turn. Loosen ALL the spokes within the arrow - the red, green, dotted and solid ones. Then tighten the ones at the bottom, within the arrow, by the same amounts.

When you have finished, measure the runout again. It should have reduced a little. Now  repeat the process until you are satisfied that you have minimised the runout.

Correcting lateral runout is a little more complicated. Remember:

So again, locate the point where the runout is worst, and mark it. In this case, 'worst' means the point where the BOTTOM of the rim is furthest to the RIGHT, like the diagram above.

To tackle this lateral runout, adjust the spokes in this sequence:

1. Loosen the SOLID spokes in the lower half of the wheel by 1/4 turn
2. Loosen the DOTTED spokes in the upper half of the wheel by 1/4 turn
3. Tighten the DOTTED spokes in the lower half of the wheel by 1/4 turn
4. Tighten the SOLID spokes in the upper half of the wheel by 1/4 turn

Here is the diagram again to remind you:

When you have finished, measure the runout again. It should have reduced a little. Now  repeat the process until you are satisfied that you have minimised the runout.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is that. All that remains is to file off the protruding spoke heads:

File them flush with the nipple, so there is no danger of them popping a neat hole in your inner tube. Fit a nice new rim tape, put the tyre on and go and have a beer in the garden.