Back from the dead
 

An old friend just sent me the before and after shots of a bike he's been working on for a year.

1952 Ariel Square Four, just waiting on the tank to come back from the paint shop.

JC

Sweet!

that's freakin perty.

Damn, that's some nice work

Very interesting motor. Are those cranks counter rotating? Timing it must be a bitch

nice rebuild

nice!

Yes, yes and yes.

And my bad, it's a 1956 model.

JC

He got lucky with that chassis. Looks very well preserved for that year of bike.

A cut away view of the '39 model, (same basic design).

Check out the camshaft location.

JC

Excellent, from the description I read I had thought the cranks were mounted longitudinaly but this makes
More sense with a drive chain. That in block cam, looks like just one to drive both banks? How'd they swing that if they counter rotate?

That's a good question. I've never had one apart, but the two crankshafts are coupled by two geared central flywheels, so that explains how they counter rotate. How that works with the camshaft, I'm not sure. I would think that the camshaft is somehow geared to those flywheels.

I'll ask my buddy WTF is going on in there. :lol:

JC

Wow. What an incredible amount of work. Well done.

Cool, I love shit like this.

Actually I was just thinking that they could get away with a reverse spin camshaft if the slave bank's intake and exhaust ports were reversed and the banks timing was offset from the master...

THe local bike shop, before it was bought buy a company and absorbed into the powersports network, used to floor several Ariel Square 4s. I bet I was the only 17 years old in the shop who used to drool over them. I'd walk right past the all new FZR600.


That bike is nishe.

I talked to my buddy yesterday. The camshaft is gear-driven off of the forward crankshaft. The camlobe pairs are offset 180 degrees. Timing was actually quite simple since all the gears are indexed and keyed, (no degree wheel needed).

Basically, it's impossible to fuck it up, as it only goes together one way.

JC

Huh. Cool

I could fuck it up. :lol: