Float valves

[BarryCambs]

Having booked my ferry ticket for the French Rally, I rushed outside and pulled the covers of the 250 to see what it needed by way of TLC. It started up ok, but petrol was dripping out of one carb after a minute of running. It's had a weep from the carb bowls end of the summer, as if the fuel level was a bit high, though I did check the float heights when I ultrasonically cleaned the carbs and fitted rebuild kits and the tick over has been a bit hit and miss for a while.

My guess was the float might have had its day and I was right. I dried off and a couple of minutes later I could see petrol seeping out of a crack. Whether it's down to old age or ethanol, I don't know.

While I was in there, I thought I'd check the float valve sizes which turn out to be 200. I checked the other jets against the table on the Netherlands page and all look ok, though the idle jet is 42 rather than 40. It did tick over like a well oiled clock when it was originally recommissioned, so it makes sense to leave that alone.

https://morini-riders-club.com/Nederland/carb.html

The table doesn't give the float needle size and the only thing I could find was on this forum saying the 350s should have a 150 in them. Does anyone know what the standard is, or shall I just go down to a 150?

IMG_20250318_184725034.jpg (249.35 KiB) Viewed 1400 times

[Steve Brown]

I would think now you've found the leaking float the problem will be fixed by a new item. I would also suggest staying with the float valve fitted. From memory 2 sounds about right and I think the 350 is either 2.5 or 2 also. I suspect that 1.5 will potentially be too small. The needle tip is more likely to be old, crusty and leaky so I'd check and replace that first.

[BarryCambs]

The needle tips look smaller than those on the EuroCarb website, black rather than red and don't have the marking for genuine Dellorto on them. I'm sure I'd have replaced them as a matter of course while I was ordering the rebuild kits and they certainly had new choke plungers as the old ones had gone brittle and the levers snapped. That said, odd decisions do come to light from the days of sleep deprivation from the kids!

[BarryCambs]

I've just heard back from EuroCarbs and the needle is a 200. He attached a very comprehensive table with jetting for all Morinis from 1974 - 1985, in Italian. I'll ask permission to upload it to the website. It shows 200 for everything 250cc and upwards apart from 1984 Camel 501 which is 250 for some reason.