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Morning all,

At the end of September I will be going off to Spain for the annual Piston Rally for classic bikes and this year I am thinking about taking the 500 Morini instead of the 750 Bonneville I usually use. It's a pretty demanding couple of weeks though and it is definitely a "good idea" to carry a few well chosen spares. The Morini is going well, but I am very conscious that the CDI units are 40 years old and have fairly recently been woken up after a very long sleep. They are probably fine, but I think it would be sensible to carry a spare. I've been watching ebay for a good while without any luck - well, I've seen a couple of sold as seen examples, very rough looking and very pricey. I read that Lambretta units are interchangeable and those can be had cheaply. Can anyone confirm from their own experience that these really are interchangeable and compatible with the red pick-up?

Any other suggestions on sensible spares would be appreciated. For the Bonnie I carry wire, tape, cable ties, bulbs, a spare fuse, spare chain link, spark plugs and a clutch cable (because I happen to have one). Touch wood, I've never needed any of these things, though other people have found them useful! Ideas?

Regards,
Joe.

After my continental trip on the 350 Sport last year, I'd suggest you take a couple of main bearings, just in case...

...and a Butler to carry you and your luggage when you do breakdown.

I can't confirm compatibility with the 500 (though at the price from India it might be worth a punt), there is an article on the Dutch club site which may interest you:
http://www.motomoriniclub.nl/tech.html

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vespa-Ignitio ... SwB-1Y33an

Is the Lambretta unit only compatible with the 'green' dot version for 250/350?

In my experience carrying a spare pickup is also worth it.

Now that the 'racer' is NLM 'performance pickup' powered I have the luxury of being able to take an OEM type 2 red one as a spare and also a borrowed (now known good replacement) NLM module. A stator and puller might be a bit OTT, but the spare pickup and transducer strategy saved me on the K2 in France trip twenty years ago.

Thanks for the replies!
Main bearings - I hope not! But the Bonneville is looking strangely more attractive now you've said that!

I do agree that a spare pickup and transducer is a great idea, if I only had them. I'll follow up the article on the Dutch website.

Thanks again!

Joe.

Reading the article on the Durch site again (I have studied it on more than one occasion!) I reckon a Lambretta type transducer would do as a "get you home" solution for a failed one, though timing would be off a bit on one cylinder (as it was when I mixed and matched transducers and pickups on the K2 - but at least it ran on two cylinders).

Yes, that's the conclusion I came to as well. I was then considering getting two of these Vespa transducers, then I noticed they have no output for the rev counter. OK, not the end of the world for a "get you home" spare, but another disadvantage. I did another search on ebay.co.uk and ebay.it but no Morini transducers or pick ups. Hmm, now wondering what to do. I suppose I could take the pickup and transducers from the K2 to carry as spares, and put them back when I get home. The advance range is 34 deg instead of 30, but it would run and I suppose I could keep the revs down in run for home mode - better than pushing anyway! A lot of faffing about though!

FWIW I have one of the Indian units marked Mitsubhi and I tried it on my 250T (single cylinder). It ran OK but the advance curve is definately not the same as an original (the spark is actually stronger at kickstart speed). According to Soren Hansen's video, the Ducati Energia transducers with number 32398112 are suitable for the Morini V twin. When I last looked on eBay most seemed to be coming from Germany and were at least twice the price of the Far East versions (although look quite similar).

Similar units seem to be used on some trials bikes. No clue as to country of manufacture. Note specifically mentioning 125 and 250 single though.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131116445625

I reckon we need to get a batch of printed circuit boards made up. Then it would be (relatively) simple to make up our own replacement transducers.
I might have a go using veroboard this winter - if so I'll post the layout.

Ive done both the MC Piston rally and the MC Indianos Colombres rally twice, and always on my 500/5 - much prefer the later Colombres event

I always take a pair of spare transducers, a pick-up, brake & clutch lever, handful of nuts and bolts, zipties, and tools inc socket and extension to reach the sparkplugs

Thankfully Ive never needed to do anything more than adjust the chain...

I have a quantity of printed circuit boards; I got one of the 5th years to make up a load for his 'O' level project when I was teaching electronics. I got him to solder up the components and tested using a coils form an MZ 250 (6v) on one of the bikes. This printed circuit diagram was courtesy of the Dutch club. I still have the finished board and the mask for photo etching, but never potted it up and it should be in one of my 'it works but cannot be bothered to finish it off drawers'.

Thanks for all the replies. These transducers do seem to be a bit of a problem area. I have ordered two of the £10.89 jobbies off ebay and if they arrive in time I'll give them a test and carry them as spares. I'll have to take a chance on the pickup. If they don't arrive in time or don't work, I'll probably play safe and ride the Bonneville, which is no hardship, it's well suited to the terrain. I just fancied riding the Morini for a change.

As for the longer term solution, I'm not sure. Making them is easy enough, but I haven't seen a circuit diagram specifically for the 500 variant, so I don't know what the differences are, and we are still left with the question of the pickup. From what I've read here, the NLM pickup can be problematic for some people. Looking at the Dutch website, people have adapted various electronic ignitions successfully, but since these are generally intended for Triumph/BSA/Norton with a 38 deg advance range and Morini seem to have deliberately reduced the range to 30 deg for the 500 (from 34 deg on the 350), how compatible are they? The Sachse system sounds OK and has various selectable mappings, but people have reported problems contacting Sachse, and you may well need support for anything like this!

Finally, Tri-spark, who do excellent systems for a variety of classic bikes, have recently introduced a fully programmable version, though they don't do a pickup for the Morini. After some email correspondence a year or so ago, they would provide support and guidance for making a modified pickup. I may sound them out again, but I don't really want to involve myself in major hassle! Hmmm!

Joe.

penman wrote:... Making them is easy enough, but I haven't seen a circuit diagram specifically for the 500 variant, so I don't know what the differences are, and we are still left with the question of the pickup. Joe.

The only differences shown on the cct diagram are 1) a diode which is needed if you use a black pick-up (but which could be connected externally if you wanted to build a unit that could be used on either). 2) a resistor which is 68 ohms for the 350, 270 ohms for the 500 (again, you could make up the unit with an external link to choose which one you were configured for).
New pickups are available from Nuovaray, Marcus Heilig and others.