Ariel Owners Motorcycle Club

Hi folks, can anyone point me to a supplier of decent brushes ? I bought the ones shown in the attached photo from a bike parts supplier here in N.Z. - they worked for about one hour before coating the armature in carbon. So, far too soft - absolutely useless.
Cheers, Bevan

hi, have you been onto DRAGS for the brushes , or try Paul Goff he does brushes etc as well

Hi Bevan,
What happened to the ones you cleaned by lighting them on fire?
regards, Chris

They are meant to be soft otherwise they'll wear the commutator excessively. Check the commutator runs very true and the springs are not too strong and the commutator is undercut properly. Often there's an bit where the spring sits formed in the brush. The ends are at an angle also and will wear faster till it seats better.. Nev

Thanks for the replies guys.

Chris: I have refitted the old ones following burning the oil off them and they seem to work ok, which is good. I'm keen to have a backup though.

Nev: The new brushes make a much darker line on paper than the old ones do - they are definitely softer. You may be able to see the peculiar wear pattern in the photo, yet the commentator segments are smooth and shiny. I will check that the armature is running true as you suggest. Springs have not been changed and look pretty old, so if anything, would be weaker than original specification I would think.

Johnny: it may be significant that it does not say "Made in U.K." on the box I bought, so guess I should have been prepared to wait the exta time for a set from Drags or similar.

If the commutator has been turned down too small it won't help either. When you skim it use a fixed steady on the shaft to locate and a fine pointed HS steel cutter. Copper is a bit of a@%$$@ to machine. Undercut if needed first. Polish with fine glass paper NOT WET and DRY.. The wear pattern on that brush looks odd . Nev

hi Bevan ;
the new brushes can take a short time to "get going" i have found , it can require a short spell of higher than idle revs before the dynamo will "kick in " to life .
on the commutator you want to clean between the segments as it may have a build up of debris or simply worn down to a flat surface linked up with old carbon deposits , all i do to do clean it is take a 24tpi hacksaw blade and cut a 100mm length off it using an angle grinder and skinny cutting disc , so you have a sharp edgeat end of blade which you can scrape pushing and pulling along the gaps to clean out between each segment ,the hacksaw blade is the right width to fit in the "slot " between segments .
if you have oil in the dynamo that stops it working you can use aerosol cans of brake cleaner to give it a good clean out and then either let it dry out itself of blow it out with an airline .
hope you sort it .
ian
.

Modern Lucas stuff can be made anywhere but the owner of the rights of the Lucas name, I don't know who that is, only licenses it companies on the understanding that parts are made to the original high Lucas standards. The owner ensures that these conditions are kept to, so I would be surprised if the brushes are not good, one is unlikely to know if the old brushes were genuine Lucas or cheap pattern ones as it not only in recent years that others have been copying parts it has been going on since God was a boy.

wassel bought the rights to the Lucas name for motorcycle stuff, a lot of it is made in India, dont think much is made in the UK any more

The modern Lucas stuff is mainly made in Taiwan, not India but again quality control is good, just as it was when Lucas was alive.