Right then let's have a look inside the Ariel Huntmaster Engine and see how the old girl has stood up to the test's of time. Judging by the state of the primary drive ( I will cover this later ) I didn't hold out much hope for the main lump and I was not disappointed.
Firstly I was told there was no mag drive gear so off came the timing cover and true enough there was no gear but everything else so far looked as expected. The dynamo drive chain grease had gone a little off shall we say and I think was probably the wrong grade but that was expected too. Ariel Huntmaster dynamo drive chain lubrication should be approximately 4oz of a light grade lithium based grease as there is no direct oil flow to this area. As the engine gets warm the grease will thin out and get flicked around lubricating the drive chain. Rocker Box Now to the rocker box, after removing the tappet covers I backed all the tappets right off until all were slack and then removed the rocker box. After taking out the rocker shafts it was obvious something had been very wrong with the set up on the old Ariel.
Problems found with this rocker box are; Cracked tappet cover, Inlet centre journal badly broken, Both centre journals badly scored, Both rocker shafts badly scored and a pushrod cup broken. This rocker box is well past it, I have tried to find an Ariel replacement with no luck but I have managed to source a good condition B.S.A A10 complete rocker box that will fit, so at least for the moment this will be fitted. The only exterior visual difference's are the A10 has 4 x tappet cover fixings per cover and the Ariel has only 1 per cover, also the Ariel has a round inspection cover on top but the A10 has not. Cylinder Head
Ok the cylinder head will be chemical dipped back to bare metal and ultrasonically cleaned to get rid of all the carbon, then I can fully inspect it. I know already that the valve's & guides will need replacing due to obvious wear and the valve seat's will also be re-cut. Cylinder Barrels
Now I am reserving judgement on the barrels until they have been stripped back to bare metal and fully inspected. With a bit of luck they will just need a hone and the pistons re-ringing. I have noticed that far too much silicone sealer was used when this engine was last built, this is not good as any excess will be squeezed into the engine when you tighten the part up again, this silicone that is now in the engine could block oil ways etc. If you need to use silicone then use it sparingly. Separating the crankcases was pretty uneventful apart from when I saw the full extent of the damage to the camshaft, this will definitely need replacing along with the worn followers.
On the plus side I have taken the crankcases to work for cleaning and they are now looking a lot cleaner. There are a couple of places will need ali welding though, hmmm long bolt in a short hole I think.