Mirrors and seats

The Cagiva era Morinis
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nickst4
Posts: 185
Joined: 31 Oct 2011 06:55
Location: Diss, Norfolk, UK
Location: Norfolk

Mirrors and seats

Post by nickst4 »

OK, lots of cosmetic stuff to do on my 'new' Dart, 'cos if ever there was a bike that suffered from 'out of sight, out of mind' it's this model. Virtually pristine on the outside at least, but the mechanicals have suffered the ravages of weather and salt, so unclothed, it's a sorry sight!

Anyway, I started on the mirrors, one being seized and the other floppy. It appears that water gets in behind the mirror and sits inside, rotting the steel cup washers of the top ball-joint. The good news, having spent a long time getting the joints apart, is that the system works perfectly well without the steel cups! The plastic has the requisite hemispheres, and all that's needed is a spacer to take up slack and get the steel spring to apply enough pressure.

The seat cover had been chipped at the front, presumably by catching on the two fairing bolts. Fortunately, the hole was easy to repair invisibly, using a bit of spare blue vinyl from beneath and Stormsure PU adhesive.

Nick
chippit
Posts: 67
Joined: 06 Sep 2009 17:03

Re: Mirrors and seats

Post by chippit »

Hi Nick,
Good luck with the Dart, glad you found one. Mine has had different mirrors, I think they are off a CBR in white. They are quite good as they give a bit more rear view ie something other than your shoulders. The seat on mine is slightly damaged by the fairing screws.

I took mine to NLM who got it running beautifully, really enjoy this bike.
Regards Christine
morini_tom
Posts: 919
Joined: 05 May 2006 13:47
Location: Northampton

Re: Mirrors and seats

Post by morini_tom »

Nick,

Seems that you have found what sadly many darts suffer- beauty is only skin deep! Be warned- my quest to tidy up the 'out of sight' bits led me on a 5 year journey of repainting, replacing and modifying! But if your bodywork is in good condition then that's the hard bit taken care of already!

I think you'll find that mechanically all the important bits (suspension linkages, engine, wheels and brakes) stand the test of time pretty well and don't suffer undue corrosion or wear. If you are having a good poke around under the bodywork it's worth going through the wiring loom and at the very least cleaning up all the connectors. Mine was so badly corroded in a few places that eventually I started to experience electrical faults and misfires. The connector to the CDI box under the right rear panel is particularly prone. In the end I decided to make a complete new loom, which was a fairly straightforward process of copy the old loom on a bit of board. The outcome was fab and I've had 100% reliability since (even the fuel level gauge and sidestand alarm!). I managed to get new connectors of the same type so fitted new connectors and pins throughout. In hindsight I would use modern sealed connectors (AMP supaseal or similar) instead, but at the time I wanted to keep the original connectors to make the process of electrical fault finding/component replacing easier.

Sounds like you have the original blue mirrors? Hen's teeth those! You'll occasionally see C9 Freccia ones on Ebay but they are almost always red ones. At least you've been able to repair them.

Christine- If your bike still has the white mirrors I fitted, then they were generic aftermarket ones like these http://www.mandp.co.uk/productinfo/5253 ... Two-Wheels but in the absence of the original mirrors I thought they looked quite good and actually worked ok. I've got black ones of the same on my 501 dart.

Good luck with the dart and if you need any parts or advice then you know which forum to visit!

Tom
nickst4
Posts: 185
Joined: 31 Oct 2011 06:55
Location: Diss, Norfolk, UK
Location: Norfolk

Re: Mirrors and seats

Post by nickst4 »

Tom and Christine:

Thanks for your helpful replies! Yes, I do still have the natty blue mirrors, but since I haven't ridden the bike yet, I don't know if they work acceptably. I see those aftermarket ones have a narrower bolt spacing than the originals, requiring a bit of drilling/blocking. We'll see...

I did ask NLM about paint codes, but they didn't respond, even though I bought a new hugger. I'll call Stuart.

This w/e, I'll install some nice new Denso Iridium plugs, reattach a multiple earth lead I found hanging loose (!) and try to fire the minibeast. ACF50 is my go-to elixir for all electrical connectors, so that will be deployed too. Too much mud on East Anglian roads at the moment to want to ride it with or without the fairings.

By the way, has anyone ever found a true replacement for the large-mushroom-head fairing screws? Slot-head screws in stainless are easy to find, albeit the head is slightly smaller in diameter, and flange-head screws are easy too, though they also look odd. Since I might well want to paint them white, plated steel of the original pattern would do, but short of buying them at a Morini or Ducati dealer, I don't know where to look. None of the online sources I've scanned have them as stock items, nor does my local fastener shop. I'm not an originality-fetishist but prefer to retain the designed look of things if I can, especially if they appear to work well.

Nick, Norfolk
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