1965 Benelli / Motobi 200 Sprite

[Canuck750]

Some parcels showed up this week, being at home for a week after surgery is starting to get old. I packed up my parcels and drove to my shop to have a present opening!

I got a very nice 22 mm Dellorto carb ( the 24 will go on my Aermacchi 250)



A new chain, a rear brake light switch, a NOS speedo and some rubber grommets for the ignition wiring passing through the crank case





I also received a whole bunch of NOS parts for a 1968 Aermacchi 250 short stroke motor I am rebuilding, con rod and pin kit, oversized piston and rings, valve guides, gaskets and so on. The parts availability for the 60’s Aermacchi Harley Davidson’s is pretty good! 

By the time I dropped the Aermacchi parts off to the machine shop for a crank rebuild, cylinder hone and guides I was pretty much worn out.

[kballowe]

It's amazing to me that any of these parts are still available !

I'm guessing that you need to be a good detective.

[Canuck750]

It's amazing to me that any of these parts are still available !

I'm guessing that you need to be a good detective.

I like the searching for parts and researching the history of these old bikes

Installed the speedo today.



Fitted a new chain

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Santo Di Motociclio sent me this real nice NOS wire grommet, it’s real deep to fit through the case casting

[url=https://postimg.cc/FYnTyRVq]

I welded up a bracket to hold the rear brake light switch



Works like a charm



Moved some wires around to get the chime lever to be clear of the high tension led

[kballowe]

Great pictures. 

Thanks


 

[Canuck750]

The day finally arrived to try and fire up the Benelli Sprite 200, installed a new spark plug, set the points and timing, I filled the crankcase with 2 litres of Castrol 20/40, attached the fuel bottle to the carb. After a couple kicks it started and briefly ran. After that it would not catch, it was close but it was kicking back a bit and only trying to start on full throttle. Spark is bright, kicking it without a battery as it does have magneto ignition. I have the air screw set to the recommended 1 full turn out from bottom. Turning the screw out richens the mixture.



I checked the timing again and its still spot on so I cant figure out why the kicking back feel. It seems to be flooding, perhaps I don't have the carb set up right. None the less it did start so that is positive, I will give it another go tomorrow.

Any ideas?

[kballowe]

Nice.  Very nice.

Can we get more more pictures ???

[cliffrod]

Glad to hear it did start.  As far as starting manners…. My singles have generally been good to start at approx the correct settings.  But some benefitted from minor tweaks.  If it’s kicking back hard, the timing could be slightly advanced.  Before you change timing, some minor kickback is probably normal.  Even if the process is generally similar, It seems like each single has its own individual starting procedure and will not tolerate anything else.

But you may have a carb or condition (like only starting on full throttle, then stalling) that’s rich , which promptly fouled the plug so that now it will not spark hot enough or at all to function.  Even if they were the same heat range, gap, etc, Some plug brands always seem to work more reliably in my old single bikes than others. I’ve got a coffee can with several brands, including some pink Lodge plugs that always seem to save the day.   If you haven’t swapped a plug (new plug, burned dry with torch or bead blasted) yet, I would give that a try first before I started changing anything else.

[Canuck750]

Glad to hear it did start.  As far as starting manners…. My singles have generally been good to start at approx the correct settings.  But some benefitted from minor tweaks.  If it’s kicking back hard, the timing could be slightly advanced.  Before you change timing, some minor kickback is probably normal.  Even if the process is generally similar, It seems like each single has its own individual starting procedure and will not tolerate anything else.

But you may have a carb or condition (like only starting on full throttle, then stalling) that’s rich , which promptly fouled the plug so that now it will not spark hot enough or at all to function.  Even if they were the same heat range, gap, etc, Some plug brands always seem to work more reliably in my old single bikes than others. I’ve got a coffee can with several brands, including some pink Lodge plugs that always seem to save the day.   If you haven’t swapped a plug (new plug, burned dry with torch or bead blasted) yet, I would give that a try first before I started changing anything else.

Good points Clint. I have a pink Magneti Matelli plug in but will try some others tomorrow, I have some NOS Champions to try and the typical NGK as well.

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

I steer clear of Champions since they seem to damage the threads in alloy heads too easily. I've had issues with NGKs - my V50 III would barely start and would only run on one cylinder with new, properly gapped BP7ES. Installed a pair of Denso W22EP-U and it started right up and ran perfectly. Runs even better with Denso IW22 (Iridium).

This poor little Benelli is for sale near me. If I didn't already have five projects waiting. I'd think about buying it.

[Canuck750]

I steer clear of Champions since they seem to damage the threads in alloy heads too easily. I've had issues with NGKs - my V50 III would barely start and would only run on one cylinder with new, properly gapped BP7ES. Installed a pair of Denso W22EP-U and it started right up and ran perfectly. Runs even better with Denso IW22 (Iridium).

This poor little Benelli is for sale near me. If I didn't already have five projects waiting. I'd think about buying it.

That Benelli would make a decent parts bike, it would cost me far too much to ship it.