Ariel Owners Motorcycle Club

Hi David,
Adding to what Will has said, the frame no. is on the left down tube and the latest VH frames (1958) started with the letters CAPR followed by the digits. Could what you have deciphered from the front left down tube be CAPR rather than 6ARR ? It also looks like there are too many digits as well but an 'expert' will be along to further comment soon ! 1958 models would certainly be registered in 1959 as the four stroke range was dropped by Ariel then in favour of the new two strokes they were about to market. May take a bit of time (and money!) but you shouldn't have much trouble getting it sorted out. The club are very helpful and have a good spares set up. Draganfly are the other 'go-to' firm plus there is also ACME Stainless Steel who are excellent and firms like Feked, armours etc. It is clear it is a 'bitsa' but get on to the AOMCC for a Dating Certificate which may help with further information.
Good luck with your new project.
Regards,
Keith.

Push rod tubes are easy - available new. Push rods themselves are more difficult, although if you've got a 350 rod you could take the ends off and put them on a longer piece of steel tube.
Exhaust pipes for that combination of head and frame are extremely difficult!
(I ran iron head VH top-end/'56 bottom end and frame for a few years with that exact same 'screw' in the stud-hole between the push rods.)
Drags have a reference doc for the engine/frame year prefixes here:
https://draganfly.co.uk/wp-content/uplo ... el_vin.pdf

SG

Far from original but at least functional I've run an upswept exhaust pipe from a rigid 350
on a small exhaust port alloy 500 in a swinging arm frame for many years.

I wonder if an upswept pipe for a rigid iron 500 would work for an iron 500 in a
swinging arm frame?

So to paraphrase;
I have a 1957 / 1958 VH Bottom end with bottom end matching 1957 / 1958 gearbox.
I have an iron / steel barrel which should be Alloy ( ? ) ........ or just could ... be alloy ??
I have a friend with a tube bending business , he will make a stainless exhaust pipe as required ...

Edited: Yes, you may have a set of 57/58/59 crankcases/bottom end as the Ariel model year usually started in September of the previous year meaning a 58 model would run from September 57 and, in this case, right through to the end of four stroke production. The gearbox is dated as a January 59 GB40 Burman gearbox, Burman dating their boxes alphabetically for each month from January of the particular year. The top end is an earlier one as previously said, the later barrel for a VH also being cast iron but with enclosed pushrod tubes. The later alloy head has a 'push in' exhaust pipe.Your frame should start CAPR for a 58 model. Note that the frame reference for 58 models was used for the NH,VH,VB and FH models. If your frame reference does start with CAPR then it may be correctly numbered. Hope that clarifies things for you David. I have a feeling that the last models also came with a fully enclosed rear chain case (FERC) but am not sure. A dating certificate may be very helpful.
Regards, Keith.

What length are the VH pushrods ?

Apart from this forum you can find a lot of information on the DraganFly website:

https://draganfly.co.uk/product-categor ... ottom-end/

who'll even sell you some if you want.

Hi Will,
I'm off to a great big autojumble tomorrow ... guess where .... I understand that the NH and VH pushrods are different lengths ..but otherwise the same, the DF website is great for pt.nos., but stall holders aren't ... I wondered if i could check by length ....?

According to the DraganFly page

https://draganfly.co.uk/product-categor ... ottom-end/

the pushrods are 11" 5/16 from end of ball to bottom of cup. Not the easiest of things to measure
but worthwhile as it's not unknown for the cups to wear quite badly.

Hi David, FWIW I have CAMB1890 - and its in a bit of a bitsa too. It was in a scrambles outfit with an HT frame when I got it 40+ years ago. I swapped the rolling chassis for a '56 VH as one just happened to turn up at the time, & one day.... I must bring it back to life!
Mark