North Leicester Motorcycles is pretty much the only place you can get some of the more obscure parts for old Morini bikes and I went there for the first time last week.
It reminded me of an old ironmongers shop, the like of which you dont get anymore with almost any part you care to name in stock.
I came back with a centrestand bolt and the hollow spacer it goes through, the old one of which I had to blowtorch off the frame, and some assorted gaskets and a new set of half rings- I was initially surprised to discover there are three different shapes of these, fortunately I got the correct ones as I forgot to take any samples with me.
I was initially disappointed to find the new half rings didn't seat onto the new castle nuts, but while looking at them all it struck me the ones that I removed from the from outlet was oxidised red- rust = steel and therefore too hard to easily file to fit.  The new ones didn't seem as heavy but were hard, after checking with a magnet, the smaller old set and the new set were not steel and five minutes of trimming with a file and the new half rings nested comfortably into the new exhaust nuts.

The two nuts in the foreground are the ones that were on the bike, the half rings were on the front outlet held by the nut on the right, they nest in that one easily, they dont fit into the other one or the new ones at the back.
The new half rings(at the rear right) fitted after a bit of trimming.

Back in March I went to the Scottish bike show, I usually avoid these glorified jumble sales but the Moto Morini owners club had a stand and I wanted a look.
It was good to have a look at another 350 and best of all I discovered that the panel badges were available from them at a very modest price, I was also going to get tank badges but only had a small amount of cash in my pocket, at least I know they are available and where to get them rather than the chancer on ebay who sells them at four times this price despite getting them from the same source.
Usefully they also had the little rubber bungs that secure the side panels so got some of those too.

I may try and visit North Leicester Motorcycle next week,who are the main suppliers of Morini bits in the UK.

On my list are a few small but awkward to source parts like the centrestand bolt and spacers.
Also I've discovered I need new half rings as, oddly, after comparing the shiney new castle nuts I've found they are the same as only one of the old ones, the really tight one on the front that caused me all the problems is bigger- a different colour and taller than the rear one and its internal diameter is bigger.
Probably another bodge by a previous owner. Fortunately the new nuts seem to fit securely into the exhaust ports so at least that hasn't been damaged.

I've finally got round to restarting some of the little jobs on this bike after a long time doing other things- and then having a cement mixer block the entrance of my garage for a few months while I built a garden wall meant I haven't done anything purposeful for ages.
Not quite true as some little things have been done, I just haven't got around to writing them on here.

Today I changed the cambelt.
This was a major pain at first, after buying a flywheel holder and faffing around trying to undo the nut I gave up.... for three months!
I eventually bought an electric impact driver and the nut came off in seconds, out came the small spring washer and the puller went in, this also needed the impact driver to get it off  but off it came.

Not a great picture, but the alternator is held on by three screws and on undoing them I discover the securing plate is broken around the right screw. I'm hoping that doesn't cause me problems later.

Then after thats off, theres a spring on the shaft,then a circlip holds in another spring and a guide plate for the belt on the bottom pulley.
The belt itself is just walked off and the new one goes one with a bit of effort, I checked the two timing marks matched and bolted it all back together.

I did notice the old belt was a size 'A' to match the engine (only a factor when the engines were new,any proper sized belt will fit now) and it had a Moto Morini logo on it. I have a suspicion that this was it's original factory fitted belt and is now over thirty years old, that said the old one looked OK.


I was expecting to have new steering head bearings by now but after holding onto the old ones for months the local shop has told me it cant get them, this was a disappointment after all that time, I'll just clean up the old ones now and put them back in soon as they are in decent condition other than some rusting and flakey chrome on the outside.

The frame is now recoated, RAL 3020, Traffic Red. A bit brighter than I had really wanted but as I'll get the rest of the paintwork to match it should all look the same.
I had it coated by a firm in Kilmarnock, most of it is OK but they promised to press out the swingarm bearings and never bothered, instead powdercoating them in place and affecting the finish around the bearing by allowing the grease to run out and spoil the finish, Sloppy work but it wont be seen when the swingarm is refitted thankfully, I'll need to take it to a local bikeshop who'll press out the old bearings and refit the shiny new bronze ones I have bought.

The seal kits for the carbs have arrived and I'll wait until I have cleaned the carb bodies up properly before reassembling them, I may yet have to send them away to get this done properly.

The first of the forks is now disassembled, I puzzled awhile over the circlips holding the seals in place as there seemed no obvious way to get them out, but when the grime was wiped away I noticed one end was tapered out and the other tapered into the fork bottoms, a small screwdriver was then used to catch one end and lever it inwards and upwards slightly which gave me enough purchase to remove it completely.
 I'll make a start on stripping the horrible red paint first but both slider legs will need rechromed which is a real pain, it explains how they were both leaking though.
As with may of these little jobs, its only when you start them you find your missing a little tool to make it a straightforward task, in this case a 12mm allan key to undo the top fork bolt.

Gubbins

A Dellorto VHBZ 25BS carburettor

Pretty much all the seals are past it and will need replaced.
A new seal kit is ordered and I'll fit them after I clean all the little bits. The internal components don't look too bad actually, I think I'll have a trickier task getting the outside of it clean.
The throttle stop screw was 2 full turns and one eighth turn out from fully in.