Ariel Owners MotorCycle Club

Cam, As a first thought - primary chain tension is checked and correct? Is the shock absorber tight enough? any chance that the big nut loosened? Then check the obvious - any bolt, nut or screw in the inner primary case come undone? I used an engine endoscope through the primary case inspection hole...

Hi everyone, Having some discussions outside of the forum, I now realize I did have some things wrong. The problem was I had some shims in the boxes of bits that came with the bike that don‘t belong to it. They have an outer diameter which is the same as the thrust washer, so basically they could ne...

The investigation went further and here are the results. Lack of oil: I rechecked all the the oil passages and they are clear. Used an oil hand pump and just pumped oil into the passage that feeds the rear bush and clear oil came straight out of the holes on the plain bearing. By covering one hole w...

Hi Phil, Many thanks for the offer, that really very kind of you. I wouldn't know that shipping to other parts of Europe would be different to the UK, but you could always ask what are the charges to Germany. Just say it's an emergency air lift because the Russians are coming or something :) Anyway ...

Hi Chaps, So finally got to the bottom of it. Literally! The endoscope showed nothing broken and I had tears running down my eyes like a little 8 year old girl as I disassembled my engine all the way down to splitting the cases. Everything was free except the front crank which even after taking out ...

Thanks Phil, of course - the MkII already had a dual seat. I also think the chrome mudguards etc look very nice, even if not original. Still looks great and I always think these bikes always look better with a saddle rather than a dual seat. Thanks for your blog and I already knew it before. I even ...

I'm not sure. I think maybe because everything was still very tight after the rebuild, and somehow it was easier through the camshaft? I mean, it wasn't stuck like now - I could do a few degrees back an forth but not more than a full rotation before I became afraid that something would brake or be d...

Gui, I don't understand why you might be able to move the engine with the camshaft nut and not the crank nuts. Hi Roger, misunderstanding there. I meant before when I was assembling the engine. At the moment everything is locked. I’m getting an engine endoscope from a mate and try to peek in to see...

I just had a horrible thought. Is it possible that a cylinder sleeve could drop down? That as the engine got warmer there was enough expansion to allow the steel sleeves to move? Is it even possible for something like that to happen?

Wow! She looks lovely. It's amazing how a "small" thing can make such a difference. Glad you sort it out, and enjoy the ride, and congrats for all the work! Mine also took 2 1/2 years but I 'm still struggling with some issues. Still hopeful it's nothing major, but dark clouds at the momen...