New forum member

[JoshJ]

Vincent,

You are correct, thanks for pointing that out. I think about it now and I remember seeing pics with them bent back but it totally skipped my mind when I picked up this one. The good news is the guy I got this off has shelves of Amal carbs and parts so swapping this with the correct one shouldn’t be an issue.

On another note, as I know next to nothing about Amal’s…what issues do I need to look for with them?

Cheers

Josh

[Simon.Gardiner]

Josh
There's a stack of Amal stuff in the members' online library, although possibly 'too much info'.
There have also been quite a few Amal discussions on the Forum, although details might be scattered over quite a few different threads.
Maybe this thread would be useful.
https://forum.arielownersmcc.com/viewtopic.php?p=73310

SG

[JoshJ]

Thanks Simon, I’ll check it out.

[Paul Gasson]

I don’t have an external rust problem as badly as your oil tank, my problems have been rust inside the engine, gearbox, forks and wheel hubs! Most of my issues have been overcome but it’s taken some time, I am hoping to be on the road during our summer. It’s amazing that your oil tank has rust, it’s usually full of old oil! I have the same problem with oil pumps that are worn out although they should be well lubricated.

I used Flowliner Biorust as I had some left over from another project, it’s quite gentle if you have the time to let it work. Not sure you have it near you? I read a lot of positive things about vinegar and will try it next time I have a tank to clean.

Just keep posting questions and you will get replies, viewers do like photos to help explain your questions so keep adding them.

Paul

[Simon.Gardiner]

Rust removal - try using a bath of citric acid (100gm powder to 10 litres water) for a few days.
Citric acid powder is pretty easily available (used in the food industry among other things) - in the UK I get mine from Amazon, probably easy enough to do that in Au too?
If you can warm the water up it'll make things happen quicker (maybe with an aquarium heater).
Here's a link to someone using it to clean up a piece of rusty old MGB (hopefully the link will go to post #338, the start of the de-rusting with a citric bath):
https://www.mgexp.com/forum/mgb-and-gt- ... sg-3992005

SG

[Vincent.vanGinneke]

Under 'WNG Restorations' I've put in a guideline how to de-rust using Soda and a battery charger.

[JoshJ]

Thanks Paul, Simon and Vincent.

I’m going to throw a couple of handfuls of screws inside the tank along with the vinegar and start shaking her to try and get out what I can. Hoping that should remove what’s left. Then I’ll need to work on the oil lines to ensure they are spotless.

This is the inside of the tank after I descaled it prior to starting with vinegar.

The guy I purchased the tank from (Tony), has the largest shop in Western Australia for British Motorcycles spares “Vintage and Modern”. Though I’d say 70’s era bikes is as modern as he gets.

Sadly he had a stroke a few years back and now only opens the shop up on Saturday mornings with the help of his son, here is an article I found that some may like to read:https://bikeshedtimes.com/vintage-moder ... tish-bits/

He has a huge selection of British bike parts covering 3 or 4 industrial units, the tank I purchased I found buried under another dozen or so tanks on the top of a shelf. There were two other Ariel tanks there, another 4 pint which was missing the top mounting bracket which had been ripped from the top of the tank, and one of the larger tanks. I didn’t take much notice of the internal condition of either of these tanks but will have another look next time I’m there.

I was also looking at gearbox’s he had, he has a good selection of CP gearboxes (and others) there however they have all been stripped. I’m contemplating printing out an exploded view/parts list and returning to gather the parts for a complete gearbox from the best of what he has. Im very confident I could gather all the casings, shafts, gears etc to build a good gearbox (Would need to get new bearings/bushes etc) however I’m a bit hesitant due to to the fact I don’t know the gearboxes and identification of the correct parts would be difficult. Im aware there ar some differences so getting it all right will be a headache for the uninformed..Me. The other thing I was little concerned about is the mixing of cases, can they be freely changed/mixed or are they like engine cases and should be matched?

Cheers

Josh

[nevhunter]

Pitting from the inside is pretty common.The water is more dense than oil and stays on the bottom under the muck. Old oil has acids in it that combine with water. Nev

[Karol Burger]

today there are already many tank repair products on the market. There is always a reading chemical in the kit. It always helped me to save the original tank

https://www.arielklub.sk/magazin-utesno ... ucuku.html

[JoshJ]

Thanks for the suggestions guys but I think my tank will become a shed hanger. Whilst I had it soaking in vinegar I added a few handfuls of screws/nuts and bolts and every hour or so I would pull it out, give it a good shaking for 5 minutes and then throw her back in the vinegar.

During this time more and more holes appeared, majority of them on the sides with a couple on the back. I’d seen in another post on here that by gently grinding down the brazing you can seperate the back plate from the remainder of the tank.

So I got to work and gently ground down the welds with a flappy disc, doesn’t need a lot and once you get down through the weld the two seams become visible. Worked my way around and then slowly and gently prised it apart. It came apart relatively easy and if wasn’t rusted would have been even easier, definitely not a difficult thing to do and could be brazed back on again without issue.

So I got her split and am sad to say that my tanks days are done, top half’s pretty good however the lower half is toast. So I’m going to give her one last hit with some rust converter, give it a good coat of metal primer inside and out and she will spend her days watching over me in the shed..bugger!