Ariel Leader Restoration

A bit of a change from my usual video's. This is a very brief look at another sort of restoration and possible ebay purchase warning.

[@ewan53]

Excellent job. The engine sounds spot on. I had one as my first motorcycle. Thank you for sharing.

[@riceandpeas123]

Nice job we just purchased on from a auction 1964 only 3500 miles 👍 Thanks for the upload.

[@dixiefallas7799]

Looks and sounds great I had an Arrow years ago. Thanks and well done.

[@lyndafoster7340]

Lovely job, exhausts need a re-chrome, would great then.

[@johnpage4581]

My Friend Reg had one of these in the sixties ,went pillion with him on a tour of North Wales, great little bike,never let us down.

[@johnlaccohee-joslin4477]

This was the very first bike i ever owned and it never gave me any trouble at all. Mine was a fully covered in engine, which i took off and put waterproof rubber paint on which also made it less noisy. They were very reasonable fuel wise and motired along at a reasonable speed. Nice bike though.

[@stevetaylor8698]

I recall, Airfix did a model of the Ariel Arrow, the sportier version of this bike.

[@lathejack]

Yes I remember them, did the box have a picture of a gold or bronze coloured Ariel on the front? I bought plenty of their model motorcycle kits with my pocket money when I was a kid in the 1970's. Airfix also did model kits of the BSA C15, Honda CB450 Black Bomber and an old BMW with leading link front forks, might have been the R50 or R60.

[@user-vv9zo4sc4k]

Nice Colour scheme , get it finished and get back on the road with it , a great comfy bike this was my first 250 brilliant days

[@JerryWalker001]

Yes it is all finished now (except no windscreen) The front leg shields took some work as the bike had been dropped a few times by the look of it (broken centre stand) and they were badly bent so I had to separate the layers and reweld them but they came out really nicely. These are really nice machines although very heavy.

[@IBIZABIKE]

Nice

[@derekevans8266]

Well done. In my experience when I buy I always expect the worst but not telling you the engine was empty inside is naughty. What sort of a job is it to replace the inner crank seal.

[@JerryWalker001]

Yes I was not impressed with the seller but I am still glad that I boughts it. I think it may have been scrapped otherwise. It is now going well. As I was rebuilding the entire engine and having to have it rebored and the crank reground meant that I could easily change the seals. To do this as a separate job would be a fairly big job but not especially difficult. The main issues would be removing the engine side castings as they are a tight fit into the crank case. The only other real problem is being able to undo the centre crank bolt. It is really tight and you need some way to stop the crank turning so you can unscrew it. I made a simple tool similar to the one shown in the manual. I then cut off the bend of a suitable allen key so I could use it in a socket. The rest is fairly stright forward. The seals themselves just press in. You need to be careful not to damage them when you refit the crank and be sure to line up the two halves of the crank properly before trying to tighten the bolt. I also had to make a tool to loosen the sprocket nut.

[@derekevans8266]

@@JerryWalker001 Thanks the reason I asked was I rebuilt a Villers 2T and the centre crank seal is not a job you can do yourself it cost £250 to have it done.

[@JerryWalker001]

Which part cannot be done? I think that the Leader manual specifies around 10 special tools for this job but mostly they are not needed.

[@derekevans8266]

@@JerryWalker001 The crank needs a special tool to line it up and it has to be pressed together

[@JerryWalker001]

Yes the Leader is the same. The crank is in 2 halves and each half is pressed together. The two halves are then bolted together once in the engine. You have to press out the crank pins to change the big end bearings. I have a hydraulic press but I think that it would be difficult without one although I have done it with a big vice in the past. In the leader there is a section for aligning the crank but I think that without a press I would pay someone else to do it.