Oil Lines

[simon.holyfield]

Chaps,

While working on my timing cover, magneto and lubrication system i noticed that one of my oil lines was fractured.

These appear to be original, from their 'patina', but surely military bikes did not have chrome plated oil lines?

[paul.jameson]

One would expect not but:

• a lot of civilian bikes were requisitioned for war use

• Ariel probably had a big stock of oil pipes when war broke out

• When bikes were serviced in the field, whatever spares were available would be used
  • when someone restored a bike after the war they often wanted it to look better than a war department bike.

So what you have may not be pure specification, but history associated with your particular bike.

[nevhunter]

Any plating makes them more likely to crack but copper age hardens anyway. They didn't tend to leave any shiny parts in Khaki camouflage but who knows what would have been done in the field. Does anybody have info on"Impressed " civilian bikes. (Specific machine identification numbers) I prefer Cadmium or zinc plating on pipes or nuts/bolts. Parkerizing is fine where used originally. Chrome became common about 1930. Nickel up to then but if either peel it makes a mess of the threads etc and often over buffing spoils the parts anyhow. Nev