Model A - sorting out the footrests

 The footrests on the A are a bit of a mess. One is thoroughly non-original and is probably homemade, the other has been shortened radically, to the extent that it is useless. Also in this region - the spacer between the engine plates (that prevents tightening the footrests from squashing the engine plates) is missing, the brake lever return spring is missing and the brake lever spindle has been recut with a BSW thread - it has obviously been stripped at some point.

Ariel footrests don't change much and I have a new set from club spares:

The rod is bent, but worse the threads are worn on one end and recut to 7/16" BSW. I've got a large piece of stainless steel to make a new one. In that package of spares was a brake lever return spring.

The two footrest supports were also bent but a few minutes with the MAPP torch sorted that out:

Next, we need a bit of time on the lathe to make the spacer that goes between the engine plates. We'll use the manky foot rest to provide the material: 

With the power feed on, it doesn't take long to clean up this bit of bar:

It's turned down just enough to fit inside the brake lever spring, bored 11.5 mm to clear 7/16", and parted off at 2" long. It's lightly chamfered at both ends, inside and out:

So that is that for the moment. The bar is a little bit long and one of the nuts is very loose and needs replacing, but we will sort that out when the rear brake pedal shaft is finished and it all comes apart again.

FH - getting on

 It's really time to get on with some woodwork projects, but I have a few minutes passing by the workshop where I can get some jobs done. The first one is a strange problem with the brake light on the Square Four, which has stopped working. This appears to be down to me replacing the battery in its box and knocking off the live feed to the brake light switch from the fuse box. Easily fixed fortunately.

That strange contraption in the picture is part of the air filter for the Huntmaster. The filter box, or at least the top half, is behind it. I've poured straight 50 engine oil into the top and its soaking through the gauze ready for me to put the element back in the filter box and the filter back on the bike.

We'll leave that to drain for a bit and fit it tomorrow.

On my short ride round the yard I found that I could not get the bike into gear - not because of the gearbox at all but because the footrest was too far forward and the gear lever was too low - I just couldn't get my foot underneath the gear lever to put it in first.

You have to remove the exhaust pipe to get to the nuts that hold the footrests on, but that's easily done and the situation is soon remedied.

I've also oiled the side stand pivot, and I've ordered the rims, spokes, tyres, tubes and rim tapes.

Gulp.

FH - first ride

 Well, a little trip to the workshop today to prepare for a woodwork project resulted in the usual diversion to a motorcycle activity, in this case a bit of time on the Huntmaster. I needed to move everything out to get the table saw ready and that gave me an opportunity to roll the Huntmaster off the bench and out into the yard.

Confirming the starting technique, that of tickling it until fuel flowed onto the drip guard, showed that it starts easily with the choke on - actually first kick. Riding it across the yard shows it engages gear quietly and drives without any horrible sounds. It pulls really well, but the timing side footrest is too far forward and the gear lever is too low.

The brakes are useless. There's far too much lever movement and no bite. They might be covered in grease, they might be glazed, who knows. I will order the rims, spokes and tyres and pull each wheel apart for refurbishment.

Pumping the tyres up shows there's not much height in the centre stand - I've got around 3/8" under the rear tyre.

The side stand is stiff.

It looks great.

FH - pillion footrest

This post is to show you how the most simple small problem takes up and inordinate amount of time. You will remember that I mentioned that one of the pillion footrests was damaged and that the screw wouldn't go in. Here's the footrest mounting I'm talking about:

There is or appears to be a burr on the left hand side of the hole. Actually the whole footrest mount has suffered an impact from the left and the hole is distorted. I spent some time with the Dremel and a small grinding bit removing the burr and relieving the hole on both sides. The screw still wouldn't go in and I resolved to take a slightly different approach:

The new approach was to take the screw and stick it in a collet in the lathe and relieve the diameter of the head by a small amount, leaving the original diameter on a millimetre or so of length so that the outward appearance wouldn't change. This allowed the screw to go into the distorted hole, retain the footrest, and for none to be the wiser.

 

Model A - new bits from club spares

 I had a nice little present from AOMCC Black Ariel Spares this morning:

Here we see a pair of footrests, a brake pedal spring, the gearbox adjuster and a valve cap spanner.

QR50 - Footrests

Updated: First published February 2020

You might remember from some time back that the QR50 footrests had at some point been torn off. I talked about it in this post:

http://ariel-square-four.blogspot.com/2019/09/qr50-footrests.html

I left the subframe like this, to provide somewhere for the rubbers to go, in case I didn't get around to making some folding footrests.

So, I've got around to making some footrests. The design of these is commonplace, in use in lots of bikes. The obvious thing to do is make the brackets from folded 5/8" bar or thereabouts, but the distance from the footrest hole to the bottom of the 'U' is critical - too much and the footrest will flop about; secondly the width between the arms of the 'U' has to accommodate the footrest and the spring.

Therefore, I decided to fabricate the brackets from three pieces - that would let me loosely assemble the bits and weld up when I knew the layout would work. Having done that, I assembled the bracket with a M6 screw for welding:

Here's the spring I am using. It came from eBay:

This is the footrest, just a bit of tube that fits the rubbers I have chosen (they are from a CG125, similar to the original QR50 ones). The small hole is for the bent end of the spring:

 That's a 1/4" bar in a 6.5 mm hole:

The upper side of the footrest bar has to be relieved to allow the footrest the space to fold upwards. If you look carefully you can see the two ends of the spring:

Here's a little video to show you that it springs back into place:

Now, the next step is to get these little chaps welded on the subframe. Here's a picture:

The white line shows the plane of the side plates, which I have wired in place approximately parallel to the frame member that goes up to the engine mount. Compare it with this bike:

Although this picture would have been better as a side-on view, it shows that I do not have the mounts in the right place yet. Glad I didn't fire up the welder!

Here's one, moved to the correct position:

QR50 Footrests

You might recall a previous post where I discovered a wadge of polyester filler  covering some accident damage to the footrest mounts of our Honda QR50 Mini-Moto:

This is in the lower frame rails, which are a removable structure designed to protect the engine and provide a mounting for the footrests - it should look like this:

So, arming myself with the TIG welder and a bit of 16 mm OD x 2 mm WT ERW steel tube, I've added some short stubs:

The black paint is some high zinc content weldable primer. The next step, when I have the footrest return springs is to make the folding footrest mounts and the footrests themselves. Right now, I have these pattern rubber footrests which are quite similar to the ones used on the QR50 - these are meant for a CG125:

Looking better; small, but perfectly formed:

QR50 - bent frame...

You might recall a Honda QR50 appeared in the family stable some weeks ago. It's a bit ratty, and I have taken a few bits back to my workshop for some attention.

First is the frame, the spine of which forms the tank for the two-stroke oil. Here it is in the vice, assembled with the protection tube/footrest bar assembly:

Here's another picture on the floor:

That wavy bend in the smaller tube under the front of the seat is supposed to be there. However, if you sight down the tubes that run down to the footrests below the engine, you can see from the tube on the right that it has had a bit of a whack:

This black one, from eBay, reveals the footrests brackets are missing...

 A few minutes with the MAPP torch later:

Someone has attempted to fit some replacement footrests using this horrible bit of channel. It's loose at one end and the welding at the other is awful:

I've used the Dremel to cut it out and grind the tubes clean:

Here's the other end. In this picture, I have started to grind out the location of the replacement footrest stub and yes, that is Plastic Padding in that hole...

Rotating Footrest

Fixing the magneto and the timing case means that I have an opportunity, with a little more dismantling, to fix another minor problem that the W/NG appeared with after its leisurely Italian sojourn.

Fixing the footrests last year I found that the peg on the engine plate, that prevents the footrest from turning was missing on the offside. I fixed this temporarily with some 4 mm rod I wound around the footrest and poked in the hole left by the missing peg.

Removing the magneto platform is straightforward, and demonstrates why the 1/2" headless bolts have to go in from this side. One of them needed the thread chasing out and some of the washers are missing.

An Ariel single, with an engine plate out:

Here's the plate as I removed it, covered in grime. Notice the hole:

I'm loving the parts washer:

Here's the inside of the plate. I've welded in a short length of 1/4" steel rod, which I'll cut to length later.

Here's the repair from the other side, after cutting to length and priming:

Painted black:

And back in place:

W/NG Footrests

The parts book for my 1942 W/NG tells me my footrests should have rubbers.

The part number for the metal bit is 5383-29 but the illustration is not the same as the ribbed footrest Drags sell under this part number, which looks just like the illustration in the 1943 parts book:

I think my footrests should be plain and more round in section than the flat ribbed 'military' one, something like 5393-46 perhaps; thought these are curved unlike either version of 5383-29.

Whatever they should be like, this is not it. The offside footrest has a serrated boss, and fouls the gearbox cover nuts:

The nearside one also has serrations, but is not curved at all - which it needs to be, to get it in the proper position for the brake pedal - at the moment, the pedal is way too close to the footrest.

So I bought two 5383-46 footrests from Drags, and very nice they are too, because if they fitted the singles in 1946 I'm sure they should look the part on my W/NG, and they are made for rubbers.

This is what they look like:

You can see it is a much better fit around the gearbox.

Ignore the socket in the next picture, that is on temporary spacing duty. Someone has cut the taper of the offside (5375-29) footrest mount. Does anyone know how long a 5375-29 footrest mount is supposed to be? My footrest is too far out as shown here.

So in this one you can see that the curved footrest is in a better position for both the brake pedal and the clutch dome:

These are the genuine Ariel 5393-46 footrests on my SQ4, for comparison. This is a 1951 bike, and has a rather different arrangement on the gearchange side to the singles:

On the drive side, see the proximity of the footrest support hole in the primary case to the edge of the clutch dome, and remember that the SQ4 brake lever is different:

The footrests on two different 1949 NH, for comparison. Perhaps not surprisingly these are very similar to the arrangement on my W/NG:

Luckily for me, I have around 8 original footrest rubbers in the pile of parts that make up my Huntmaster kit. Two of these can go on the W/NG. which is early enough to have had footrest rubbers when it came out of the factory. They have also had a dose of black paint: