Model A - mudguard bolts

 Way back in the dim and distant past I made these mudguard stay and rack retaining bolts copied from the ones on the W/NG. I didn't realise at the time that the ones I removed from the W/NG had a thick spacer attached to them - and I had faithfully copied the bolt with the spacer in place.

With the collet still in place on the lathe, we'll remove these spacers:

That's better:

The proper length of these bolts allows the stays for the rear half of the mudguard to sit much closer to the frame such that the one on the near side no longer fouls the brake lever:

FH - revising the plan

 Today I learned that my chosen front tyre was out of stock and wouldn't be delivered for six weeks - I needed a new plan.

Instead of building the wheels and leaving the bike rolling but tyreless, I'll rebuild both brakes and test them before I touch the rims. That way, I'll be able to get the brakes sorted and still be able to test them, albeit on old tyres. I'll only ride it across the yard, and I'll be able to sort out several other little jobs in the meantime.

To start with, I've been looking at the rear of the mudguard. The seat hides two of the bolts:

Or at least, it does if the seat is mounted in the wrong place. The mounts on the frame are slotted, and if you push the seat forward it not only closes up the ugly gap behind the tank, but you can get those bolts out too!

FH - first badge

 I sometimes think Ariel must have employed a Production Engineer in the mid 1950's, as there are several locations where his cost-reducing influence shows - think about the Spire fasteners in the nacelle, seat base and rear mudguard, or here, on the mudguard tailpiece. There's still a nice little Ariel badge, as there had been since 1952 or 1953, but this one is no longer enamelled and screwed on - it's die cast, and retained in place with Starlock washers.

They push on over a couple of 3/16" legs cast into the back of the badge:

Looks good doesn't it!

The pretty rib on the nacelle fits in a similar way, after polishing:

FH - Forks and mudguard

 With the arrival of the excellent seal holders from Draganfly Motorcycles, I can assemble the forks:

This is followed rapidly by the front mudguard stay, front stand and finally the mudguard blade itself. 

I had to check the parts book to be sure, but I now know I'm missing the damper spring and the washers for the fork top nuts:

W/NG - Number Plate and Rear Lamp

 For a while I've felt that I wanted to impart a more traditional English look to the back of the W/NG, which for years has worn its Italian number plate and lamp:

I chose the 5647-35 number plate which I found on eBay. It's designed for the flat 'D' mudguard with no rib, so I have cut a notch in it for the rib.

It's got a replica MT110, which would have been a standard fit for civilian machines in-period:

FH Dry Build - Front Stand

Amidst various domestic and railway activities, the FH Dry Build marches forever onward - and I am beginning to run out of jobs. Did I really say that out loud?

I took a series of pictures for the dating certificate and this one reveals graphically that the front stand is wrong - it's either not Ariel, or perhaps is for a bike with a smaller wheel, though I can't see that somehow. The FH has a 19" front rim and none of the bikes I am aware of use a smaller rim than that, apart from the Leader & Arrow neither of which use a front stand.

Anyhow, it has the right fitting at the rear and is the right shape, so I am going to use it.

Removing the stand in the safety of the workshop reveals it is about 3/4" too short:

What I have done is cut both legs as square as I can and trimmed them up on the linisher. Then, I've taken a piece of 5/8" x 16 swg tube and cut two 3/4" sections on the lathe; I've also cut two pieces out of a scrap footrest bar (which was bent) to support the spacers and keep everything aligned:

I've set it all up on the bench, and cleaned the areas to be welded on the wire wheel. There's a bit of 5/16" bar through both ends to keep them aligned while I tack it together:

Two autogenous butt welds on each side, 40A:

And there we go, problem solved.

All we need now are a couple of Thackeray washers and I can make the pivot bolt spacers on the lathe. 

Here they are now, 5/16" ID, 3/8" OD and 7/16" long 303 stainless:

Bolts are 5/16" CEI x 1". This is how they fit:

The stand pivots around the spacer and the Thackeray washer prevents it all rattling. You can drop the stand by loosening the single nut at the back of the mudguard.

FH Front Mudguard

I have had a bit of a debate with myself about which mudguard to use on the FH. It arrived with this one, which is an A10 front mudguard and is not so odd as you might think - it fits, is larger and therefore more protective and it is much stronger than the proper Ariel mudguard which has a reputation for cracking.

It's ugly as sin, but it does suggest that the previous owner moved in Ariel circles as this is quite a common mod. Another option was to buy an earlier mudguard, the ribbed C section guard used with the single sided brake, which is much better looking and matches the rear mudguard.

The final option is to use this, the correct one (i.e. the one which is prone to cracking!), which came from eBay and is in pretty good shape. It does have the beginning of two cracks which will need reinforcing...

The A10 mudguard had this stay in it, which is actually an Ariel centre stay that has been extended in width to suit the BSA guard. The PO was clearly handy with the welder.

I've chopped a little out of the centre to bring it back to size and re-welded it.

It all fits, so that's another job off the list:

Model A - Front Mudguard

Since the FH is going to need some floor space pretty soon, I will need to move the Model A. I may even move the A onto the bench - we will see. I have had a front mudguard standing in its place for a while, which falls off every time i move the bike, so I really need to get that fixed.

I've had some black mild steel flat bar knocking about which I bought to make mudguard brackets like this and a dose of bending around various bits of scrap (a 6" length of scaffold pole is very useful in the workshop) had it more or less in shape.

The target shape was defined by various AOMCC members, notably Stan, providing pictures of original brackets.

I fitted the front stay first and let that dictate the mudguard's relationship to the wheel rim. I used an electronic level to establish the correct position of the stay, by measuring the angle from pictures of other bikes

The rolled edge of the guard needs to be flattened where the stay fits, in order to accommodate the width of this original stay:

Once I was convinced the guard was in the right place, I drilled the mounting holes to the forks:

Some time on the linisher had the ends rounded off and looking tidy:

In amongst the pile of bits that came with the Model A were both of the original number plate mounts and the number plate.

I placed these using a couple of reference pictures that I got from members of the AOMCC.

Model A - repairing threads

It's a wet day here in Norfolk, and I have some domestic stuff to do in the workshop so while I'm at it I might get distracted...

I'm looking at the workshop layout with a view to getting a bike lift in there, so I have shuffled them around and the Model A happens to be accessible, so we will have a look at a couple of loose ends. The front mudguard has been hanging off for a while (and still is) because there are a couple of dubious threads in the forks - one, a broken bolt, and then two other threads that are just fouled.

Here's the broken one - I have put a 1/8" hole through this broken 1/4" bolt, to see if it will come out with an Easy-Out. They never do, but I have to drill the hole anyway!

Of course, it didn't come out and I moved through the drills until I was one size under tapping size for 1/4" CEI. I then applied the 1/4" CEI taper tap and used it to clear the thread - it moved the remains of the bolt:

Next stop, same problem at the back. I made the mudguard & rack fasteners a while ago and could only fit one side, because I found someone had broken one of the 3/8" bolts in the frame lug, drilled and tapped it something like 5/16" and put a new bolt in. Today, I removed the broken 3/8" stump using a diamond burr in the Dremel and chasing out with a 3/8" CEI taper tap, so this shot shows it all back together with the stand spring fitted at last:

I also took the opportunity to chase out the chain adjuster threads. Grovelling about on the floor makes me realise that a hydraulic lift would be a nice addition to the workshop!

Back at the front, I now have both sides of the mudguard stay fitted - to cut the mudguard, I need the centre bracket and the front stand fitting - unfortunately I have run out of 5/16" screws, so that's the next job.

Comparing the next picture with my picture above, you can see I have the mudguard stay too far forward:

Model A - Fasteners on the Mini-Lathe

Updated: First published December 2020

After making some tank bolts for the W/NG, I thought I would make a start on all the missing fasteners for the Model A. After all, I like turning and I'm a bit fed up with welding after the QR50 exhaust. I'll need:

• 2 off E1/58 special bolts for the rear stand. I have the 1/2" Thackeray washers to go with them. E1/58 was renumbered to 5505-26, which is used on the W/NG and many other Ariels. I can copy these.
• 1 off E8/245 petrol tank bolt, like the one I made here.
• 2 off E8/921 special bolts for the rear mudguard stays, with their nuts. The bolts look like Ariel parts 5655-30, which is used on the W/NG so I can copy these; their nuts, E8/922 are not the same so I will have to find out what these look like. Looking around the reference pictures I have, it appears the hex size on these matches the stand bolts, whilst the hex on the W/NG ones is smaller and matches the bolt they attach to.
• E8/762, the big nuts for the top of the oil tank. These are different from the later ones as used on my W/NG and SQ4, because the oil tank bracket has a smaller hole as does the sidecar mount in the frame and the later nuts would not fit. E8/761, the stud that goes with this nut, was renumbered to 0182 and is a standard Ariel part. It's a 5/16" CEI x 1 15/16" stud.
• The lock nuts for the chain adjusters, E8/925 renumbered to 5744-30 and the the chain adjusters themselves, E8/924 renumbered to 5740-30. Both of these are used on the W/NG so I have patterns I can copy for these.

I'm making a start with the stand bolts, since I have the Thackeray washers, the stand and and the springs. All these bits will get lost if I don't make the bolts and get them attached to the bike.

I'm starting with a bit of 0.82" hex in EN1, since I will be chemical blacking these and don't want to use stainless. In this picture I have turned the 1/2" OD register for the washer and the 3/8" major diameter for the thread

Here's the thread going on using a 3/8" CEI die in the tailstock die-holder:

Here's one, mostly finished. I have to turn a chamfer on the other side, but I will make a few more bits before I rig up for that:

Turning the head chamfer, after facing off the head and discovering that my parting tool was not quite square!

Finished and ready for blacking:

I'm going to make the E8/921 special mudguard stay bolts next, by copying the ones on the W/NG. These bikes are so easy to work on, properly designed for easy maintenance:

Here is one of the bolts, with it's locknut and the special nut which fastens the moving part of the mudguard:

Post script note: years later, I realised the picture above includes the spacers used when there is no pannier rack fitted. I corrected this error in this post...

Using the same set up in the lathe, same turning and parting tools, the three jaw chuck and the tailstock die holder with the 3/8" CEI die, I'll make a couple of these bolts to this stage:

Since the next stage for both these and the stand nuts requires me to put the threaded end in the chuck, I will change over to the ER25 collet chuck to avoid damage. I only want to do that once, so with the the hexagon bar stock still in the 3 jaw chuck I'll make the two special nuts:

So in this picture, we can see one of the completed E8/921 special mudguard stay bolts with it’s E8/922 nut, which retains the detachable stay. Also pictured is the E8/761 (0182) 1 15/16 stud for the top of the oil tank.

These are the E8/762 nuts that retain the oil tank to the sidecar lug. The sidecar lug is much smaller on the 1930 frame than the one on my 1942 W/NG. 

Last thing on the list is the chain adjusters. The nuts are first, and these are made from a bit of 0.445" hex in the lathe. They have a short 5/16" BSC thread inside, and most of the outside is plain:

The adjusters themselves are a bit more involved. They are basically 5/16" round bar, but they will have a 1/8" BSW size hex (3/16" BSF) which is 0.34" across flats. This is unobtainium, so I will build up the rod with weld and mill the hex in. I'll start in the lathe, just to start the threads square:

The hex is not much bigger than the diameter of the bar:

Here they are again built up with TIG. The two tubes are the footrests for the QR50.

Here's the setup in the Mini-Lathe. Usual vertical milling slide replaces the compound on the cross slide, and the rotary table is attached to the vertical slide. The saddle is locked to the bed, and the tailstock backs up the vertical slide:

We are passing the work over the cutter, to avoid making climb cuts; the plan is to make a pass, turn the table 60°, and make the next pass. After one turn we will advance the work using the vertical slide - otherwise the vertical slide is locked. I've also tightened the lock screw on the cross slide gib a bit, to take out as much play as I can:

Here's the first one. The target is a 0.340" hexagon, which is 1/8" BSW. It's barely bigger than the 5/16" bar (0.3125" diameter). Currently it is 0.007" oversize.

Next step is to tidy up the hexagon  and face the end to length, adding a small chamfer. 

Next, we'll cut the rest of the thread:

And that's it, apart from the finish: