Hallo! I have found an almost new Morini dart 350
It has only 3.000 km on It and engine looks and sounds new
Replaced the belt, repaired the brakes and some earths the bike Is ok and ready to go
But i found a leaking fuel tank probably from the fuel sender and also from the welding on the lower part
Please Someone has some suggestion about repairing? Is It possibile?
About the fairings there are some cracks around
Is It possibile to fix? Some good materiale to use?
Please let me know
Have a nice ride!
New dart new problems (tank and fairings)
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elektrobank
- Posts: 42
- Joined: 06 May 2007 16:40
- Location: Napoli, Italy
New dart new problems (tank and fairings)
cosworth
924T
Camel 501
924T
Camel 501
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morini_tom
- Posts: 928
- Joined: 05 May 2006 13:47
- Location: Northampton
Re: New dart new problems (tank and fairings)
Ahh the two Achilles heels of the Dart…
Tank:
I think it’s fair to say that no permanent repair solution has been found so far. The normal reason for leaks is splits around the mounded in bosses for the fuel tap or airbox bolts, or people using too long a bolt or doing them up too tight. I have also seen them split at the seams for no obvious reason (aside from age, and maybe fuel composition). The best repairs seem to be by making a thick fibreglass patch covering much more than the area of the leak and then bonding this to the tank. But that will be hard to do in the area of the fuel tap and I’m not confident it’s ever more than a temporary fix.
I have had some success with using loctite 3450 epoxy around the damaged area, covering as much tank surface as possible with a few mm thick of the epoxy. It’s ethanol proof too. You need to roughen the tank surface to get it to bond. Eventually the epoxy patch will peel off and it’ll start leaking again. But it might keep you going while you hunt for a better alternative.
In 2017 the UK Morini club has a batch of aluminium tanks made. These are definitely the best solution. Unfortunately though all the tanks are long sold. We still own the tooling so we could look at getting some more pressings made, but there would be an amount of fabrication work needed to weld them up. Let me know if that is of interest and I can find out what’s possible.
Regarding the bodywork:
Fibreglass to repair them is possible. Sadly the original plastic is brittle so cracks are happening more and more.
The UK club has just paid for tooling to make more panels in fibreglass. The final batch is in production now, if you want a set and you’re quick we might be able to add another set onto the order. They are £600 plus shipping (could collect from us at our rally in Kent in June). The panels as supplied are plain white fibreglass and will need prep and paint.
Tank:
I think it’s fair to say that no permanent repair solution has been found so far. The normal reason for leaks is splits around the mounded in bosses for the fuel tap or airbox bolts, or people using too long a bolt or doing them up too tight. I have also seen them split at the seams for no obvious reason (aside from age, and maybe fuel composition). The best repairs seem to be by making a thick fibreglass patch covering much more than the area of the leak and then bonding this to the tank. But that will be hard to do in the area of the fuel tap and I’m not confident it’s ever more than a temporary fix.
I have had some success with using loctite 3450 epoxy around the damaged area, covering as much tank surface as possible with a few mm thick of the epoxy. It’s ethanol proof too. You need to roughen the tank surface to get it to bond. Eventually the epoxy patch will peel off and it’ll start leaking again. But it might keep you going while you hunt for a better alternative.
In 2017 the UK Morini club has a batch of aluminium tanks made. These are definitely the best solution. Unfortunately though all the tanks are long sold. We still own the tooling so we could look at getting some more pressings made, but there would be an amount of fabrication work needed to weld them up. Let me know if that is of interest and I can find out what’s possible.
Regarding the bodywork:
Fibreglass to repair them is possible. Sadly the original plastic is brittle so cracks are happening more and more.
The UK club has just paid for tooling to make more panels in fibreglass. The final batch is in production now, if you want a set and you’re quick we might be able to add another set onto the order. They are £600 plus shipping (could collect from us at our rally in Kent in June). The panels as supplied are plain white fibreglass and will need prep and paint.
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morini_tom
- Posts: 928
- Joined: 05 May 2006 13:47
- Location: Northampton
Re: New dart new problems (tank and fairings)
Here are some pics of the panels as they are delivered- no paint.
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- IMG_8318.jpeg (284.88 KiB) Viewed 644 times