Ariel Owners Motorcycle Club

Thanks David, That's a relief, so hopefully all I need to do is source the ball and spring (I see they are out of stock on the Draganfly site. From the part numbers, it looks like they are not the same as the oil pump ball and spring.
So, what would have been the effect of riding the bike a reasonable distance without that ball valve in place (assuming the pump was working o.k.) ?
Bevan

No effect at all Bevan - it's a back-up to the ball-valve in the pump (although if you did have an oil pressure gauge it wouldn't show any pressure without it).
I think Ariel left it out themselves for a few years.

SG

Bevan,
Glad you took my advice and pulled that gasket off

I think that it would be worthwhile to replace the pump with a recon unit, Drags and John Budgen should be able to help. You are only going to have to do it once and at least you will be confident that you have a good flow and return in the future.

As you have gone this far it may also be worthwhile to remove the inner timing case and replace the additional round washer that is required on the return circuit, a small measure to take to ensure one is there and that the return side of things is property sealed.

As has been suggested you can also check the integrity of the return pipe between sump and the timing case and,with an oil can, force some oil down the mainshaft to ensure you have good flow coming out of the big end.

Re the oil coming out of the mag/timing cover hole, if the return side of the pump is not working correctly this could be the cause

Cheers
Alan

Thanks Alan,
Would I be right in presuming that, when reconditioning the pump, they just ream them to ensure roundness and make oversized plungers ? Just wondering if I could get that done here in N.Z., rather than sending it back to the U.K.

Bevan
Yes that's what they do, just thought if you are getting other parts from Drags it may pay you to get a pump at the same time...ahh I see what you mean because you have to send them the old one first. So maybe you could get some new plungers made up in NZ

Yes. I've sent them an email asking about turn around time. But, as you say, I need other parts, so perhaps sending the pump over is the best idea.
Its a lovely old bike, so I want to make sure its in good shape. Notwithstanding the current issues, it does run really well (needs gearing up though - am waiting for a bigger sprocket from single spares - not available until April apparently).
Thanks again for your assistance.
Cheers,
Bevan

Not seen anybody mention this but I had a problem with oil leaking in the same manner. After much head scratching and messing about it turned out that that the gasket in between the the inner timing case and crankase was profiled incorectly and was blocking the drain hole. Easy to check and fix.