1928 Ariel some wood and some tape ..

[Damien Towning]

Something I forgot to mention about the forks that made me laugh was they seem to have come out of the same spot in regional Victoria as the frame did so many years ago and I have a vague memory that parts on the table at the particular jumble were similarly tagged and labelled as a tag that is on the forks now. Not saying they are related. Just found it a bit amusing that they seem to be!

The motor also came out of a different dragons hoard that was really worth the long drive to see and again from Victoria. Much respect to the bloke in question as I do believe it was his fathers collection and that he had passed on from whence the motor came. Fellow could have charged tickets and put in a viewing gallery for what I saw! I may never again see so many veteran pieces all in one spot. I was dumb founded at the level of intense squirreling that had occurred. It didn't make me feel greedy though just a bit sad for the loss of whoever the guy was that is most likely now gone. Had clearly all been very well stored and cared for and a series of amazing projects were all lined up heading towards various stages of completion. Apparently some nasty people had been in and turned over boxes and such like just to have a rummage. Bit impolite and rude. I took exactly what I paid for and just gazed for a bit in awe. I would expect whoever it was perhaps had a shop or was a known restorer. My sense is whoever pulled the motor down was the sort of person who likes to store motorcycle snacks for later. Crank and piston gone. But the top end had a bit of oil sprayed in it and then all the important bolts put back like somebody cared and planned to return to it. Has a number written in white chalk of some kind on the top of the cylinder also.

It is great that these bits turned up here in Victoria and moved my project forward. Now if only I could find the right rear mudguard. That bit I think needs to be exactly right since I need it and the associated other gubbins to help line up the rear bits of the frame. Pannier and stand pieces. Anything at all to do with the rear end of it is still eluding me.

[Damien Towning]

Also on the topic of what is pukka and not so pukka I do remember an occasion where I was about a week in to a particular desert trip in Australia and feeling rather pleased with myself for having got that far on some cobbled together affair not much beyond a two stroke bicycle and then from nowhere some chap happily passed me in the other direction on the most tremendous old veteran beater I have ever seen. He was like a ghost or a mirage or something. Right out of the 30's he was. What struck me about it was that I was on some sort of adventure and this chap on the other hand just appeared to going along like he had come from somewhere and was going to somewhere like it was of no great import. I was towing a big cart of supplies behind me and covered in dust with a beard and this fellow on the other hand was carrying nothing else at all! What sort of hard man rides a cobbled together veteran through the desert like that and to get to what exactly? Fetching the milk??? What was he doing all the way out in that place a week from anything in any direction. I really don't mind if that bike or the fellow had the wrong forks on them. It was entirely pukka! Tweed! Yes he was wearing tweed ! In the middle of the desert !

[MGriffin]

When you sandblast frames,all sorts of tiny letters and numbers appear,possibly placed by assemblers or machinists.

Can anyone ID the markings on my 28 frame gearbox mount?
Fabricator’s tags?
MG.

[Damien Towning]

Have not been here for a bit. Saw your build is going along. My frame the bottom plates are just a disaster. Welds on top of welds. My understanding is they tend to crack in the bottom area. Mine has been so modified I initially thought it had some sort of other engine bolted in to it. Up on the top tube is where my number is. Was your frame cut up or just twisted? I am quite interested in what you are doing to replace the tubes. Some of my lugs have been cut off leaving no stem to weld a new tube to. I have not done this yet but my plan is to put them in the Lathe and turn out the old tube from the inside. Your frame looks to be in much better condition than mine! Quite clean. If you have found one without the bottom plates being all mucked up that is excellent. How much of the bike have you got? Mine was barely even a carcass when I found it.

[MGriffin]

I’m getting along with mine. I’m enjoying the sorting out and dry assembling/making things process.

[Damien Towning]

Thanks to Karol and the Slovenská was at last able to get the rear engine bracket. In the progress of sorting out my workshop space and fixing up my old Hercus lathe. Collecting together all the pieces is taking a very long time. Going to use the Hercus lathe to clean up the lugs and turn up stubs to sleeve in to them. I am sure somebody mentioned this somewhere back in this thread but is it possible to drop a later crank in the 1928 cases? I am coming closer to having most of an engine. Now have head and cylinder to go with the 1928 cases.

[Karol Burger]

You are another of the Ariel Angels. One of the long-lost machines will be born under your hands.

[Roger Gwynn]

I am pretty certain that almost any crank will fit as the crank pin didn't change until the end! The shafts do change a bit, the drive side one is shorter and a different taper to the post 1935 ones, there are several versions of the timing side shaft, not sure how they vary. Con-rods change mainly to do with small end bush size and weight of the flywheels change every Thursday but as far as physically fitting, only small problem.

[MGriffin]

Regarding alternate cranks, the issue you will likely have will be getting oil to flow to the big end.
Dry sump cranks (29 onwards) have a quill tube (32 onwards??) directly receiving oil from the pump and inserted into the timing side stub shaft with galleries through the timing flywheel to the gudgeon pin.
The 28 crankcase is a wet sump total loss type with an entirely different oil pump and hence crank is designed to feed the bigend via an external transfer arrangement designed into the timing bush and crank flywheel but with a gallery still inside the flywheel. The discussion link attached shows this arrangement.
viewtopic.php?p=81684&hilit=1928+oil+pump#p81684
M.

[Damien Towning]

1928 Crank turned up a few days ago thanks to Draganfly. Looks to be something I can work with to. Threads seem all right. Not checked it much further yet than giving the rod a wiggle. Moving on I began digging in to the other motor I picked up several years ago. Will post some more pictures shortly. Later motor than a 28. Cylinder and head seem to have good fins that are not broken. Before I make a conjecture what do others read what is written on the cylinder as ? The stroke on the cylinder is not what I was expecting. So I wanted to ask do the cylinders on these go right down in to the pancake on the later motors? This cannot happen on the 28. It has the webbing in the top. This confused me a little bit because the cylinder depth is almost double what I expected. Push rods would line up fine. Everything else seems fine. But this cylinder would never fit the 28 because it i projects so much further down. Just pottering about as usual in confusion ... !