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After more than 30 years this wee Strada breaths fire and lives again thanks to the assistance of Simon at NLM. I was unable to trace my errors in the electrics when rebuilding and at the point of throwing my Teddy out of the pram I resorted to the experts. Thanks to Simon he had it running in under 90 minutes. It still needs fine-tuning but the mere fact that I know it runs is more than enough for me to want to finish it. Its almost there and will hopefully be completed by mid December before I go on holiday.

It’s taken longer than I anticipated and a wee health problem in July took the wind out of my sails for a few weeks but at last I have a smile on my face again. That said I’ve still had my other bikes to maintain and ride in Spain etc. to keep me occupied when not working on the Morini.

Today I’ve rechecked the valves, timing and made a start on the carburation, which seems a bit rich based on the stink of my clothes. I’m sure it will take further fettling to get it somewhere near where it should be as at the moment it stalls at under 2000 rpm. Perhaps lowering the needles 1 notch will help. I’m at about ¾ turn out on the mixture screw and 3 ½ turns on the idle screw.

Next up will be oil change and oil filter clean although the oil in it is very clean never having run for such a long time I don’t think it will be up to much in the way of protecting the working parts.

If any of you knowledgeable gents want to throw some hints my way they will be very welcome.

Nice looking bike,like the black wheels put a few more pictures up when you can

Dave

Sounds encouraging.Once it is running for a bit and properly hot you might find water /mayonnaise coming out of the breathers but that should clear once it's had a good blast. When replacing the oil filter cover I always forgot which way up it went back on so now have scratched an arrow on the inside. I put 2.5L of halfords 10/40 semi synth in using a 4L milk bottle with a suitable mark on it. You'll need some sort of bendy funnel or similar tube to get the oil in or if not down the back of the engine!
Theres a table of carb settings on the Dutch site.
www.motomoriniclub.nl/carb.html
also
www.northleicestermotorcycles.com/carb-ballance.pdf

Are the spark plugs dry or wet when it is not running properly?
best of luck.
John

Pleased for you Archie. She's looking good & your hard work looks very worthwhile . It's an inspiration to the likes of myself, who've a long way to go with our restorations yet. Good luck with the snagging & keep us posted as you get her as you want her.

Cheers

Gary

Thanks gents for the encouragement.

Chirpy, I will put more photos up in due course.

This was only a taster really to let those who have offered advice and help along the way that progress is being made. The pictures do show it in a good light but it's strange in some ways
as I'm working on it I think why didn't I replace that or that and when I added up how much it's cost over the past 10 months it's actually quite scary! When added to the cost of the bike to begin with.
To give you some idea! To date it has cost £3800 which includes £1200 purchase price and tbh it's not yet complete! I recon (hopefully) £4k will see it complete. Only yesterday the lights switch fell apart so I've had to take it apart and it doesn't look like fun trying to replace the missing detent ball, the spring is still there so maybe I will find another ball. Or, I may try and graft a more modern unit if I have the patience to work it out. Time will tell.

John, Lots of water dripping out of the exhaust headers at the junction with the silencers which are not so silent.... I thought it would have been quieter with those to big units. Halfords Oil will do nicely although I still have two cans of 20/50 from when I was a Beemer rider.. (don't swear) I know.

Plugs were wet to begin with when it wouldn't start but now that it runs they are dry obviously albeit a bit on the rich side. Thanks for the link to the carb settings they will be helpful i'm sure. I did have the the NLM info and had downloaded it and it did help in the initial setup.

Gary, keep at it and you'll get there although I know exactly how you may feel at times. I questioned my sanity at times but the challenges are nothing that can't be overcome.

Thanks again gents.

I’m sure it will take further fettling to get it somewhere near where it should be as at the moment it stalls at under 2000 rpm. Perhaps lowering the needles 1 notch will help.

Leave the needles alone. You're on the parallel part of the needle until around 1/4 throttle.

If you read through the forum you'll find many discussions of running rich at idle with modern fuel. A change to leaner idle jets is common and sometimes a larger slide cutaway is needed.

The mixture screws needing to be only 3/4 turn out might indicate that the float level is too high, or that the float needles aren't doing their job quite right.

Hi Paul,
As usual sound advice and thanks you. I'll leave well alone then and check the jets for sizes and yes I do recall reading your notes previously about running rich etc..
Thanks

Great to see another bike being brought back. Listen to Paul, he knows his stuff. I had to drop the idle jets from .50 to .46 and even then the mixture screw is only 3/4 a turn out. I might need to check floats as well I think.