Ariel Owners Motorcycle Club

Hi Guys
Been having problems with gear change on Sq4, so stripped clutch and found severe wear in the clutch basket and hub bearing.
Just received a service exchange basket complete with bronze bush and replacement rollers from Drags. However when assembled there seems to be a lot of free play in the bush, i.e. basket wobbles a lot on the hub. I appreciate that when the clutch is all set up this will lock up to the clutch plates and hopefully run true, but i was wondering what is the acceptable freeplay on this bearing?

Hi,
Just a thought but carefully measure the diameter of the new needle roller bearings, should be 2.5 mm. I bought a new set for my NH and the play in the clutch bearing was worse than before. When I measured the needle roller bearings they varied in diameter but all were under 2.5 mm. In the end I took a trip over to Peter Kemp's house (Single Spares man) with my digital calipers and he sorted out a second hand set that measured up ok and that got rid of the excess play on my clutch basket. Quality control is not all it seems on some of these items !
All the best with it,
regards,
Keith.

Its funny you should mention that.I bought loose balls from a bearing supplier for a steering box[recirc ball nut type.]and the new ones were unusable.I then checked dias,and they were all over the place,from 010under to 010 over.Took them back and the kid at the counter said"What can you do?Everything is like that".Ended up at SKF,where each ball cost $1,but were dead on size.Welcome to the world of Chinese bearings.Regards John.

It's true the plates will lock together and rotate as if solid but the basket and sprocket will still go all over the place if a lot of play or end float. This will prematurely wear notches in the basket Nev