Wishing all of us a better New Year than the last!
Happy new year to everyone.
I’ve been making slow progress on my 3 Stornello projects. It’s frustrating waiting 3 weeks for bits to arrive from Italy, but I am well pleased with how the Scrambler is coming along. It is basically a later 5 speed bike with a few of the nice bits from the earlier 4 speed models added in like the back mudguard, engine side cover and battery box.
Stornello scrambler by Don West, on Flickr
Nice.
Stuck Blue up on the table yesterday in preparation for an inspection of the timing chain and tensioner. Used the power winch to back it up the ramp but it’s still tricky getting it up there that way round. Pulled the front wheel and mudguard off in preparation. I’ll underseal the inside of the guard whilst it is off.
Front tyre looks thin so I ought to replace that. Wheel bearings feel OK but I’ll probably replace them at this point also. Exhaust headers will have to come off to get at the front mounting bolt and they are quite rusty so some stainless replacements could be on the cards, so might as well do the balance pipe at the same time.
Job’s looking expensive before I even get in there.
Had a helluva job getting the screws/bolts out of the timing chest cover. They were very tight indeed. The last two only came out after I shaved an imperial hex key and hammered it in.
And after all that the chain and tensioner look just fine and dandy. Ordering bits today to get it all buttoned back up. Undersealed the front mudguard - it’s not a stainless type. Engine oil looks pretty black so I’ll change that as well.
Don’t imagine I’ll be actually riding anything much this side of Easter.
Today I fitted a 26mm Jikov carb to my Airone. The old Dellorto SSF carb was still working but, after 56 years of service, is a bit tired. It is now in a safe place until such time as it can be properly refurbished.
The Jikov carb bolts straight on, but I needed to fit a new cable for the throttle slide. The bike now starts easily and ticks over nicely. I haven’t been able yet to take it on the road to see how it works at all throttle openings, however, after reading about this mod in a Gambalunga from 2019, I am confident that it will be good. I’ll update when I get a chance to take it out on the road.
If you haven’t seen a Jikov carb it bears a passing resemblance to the Dellorto SSF, with a remote float bowl. No doubt some “experts” will be happy to tell me it is not original but they also tell me other things are wrong when they are not, so I don’t really care.
Thanks for the heads up Richard I will put on my rivet counter’s hat and make sure I draw it to your full attention! 
I look forward to that day Chris. Fingers crossed it won’t be too long.
Standard fitment on 350 Jawa twins, of which I owned several over the years.
Got the front of the timing chest all buttoned back up on Blue, went with stainless screws/bolts for this. And plenty of grease for the front engine bolt. Then refitted the front mudguard and wheel with new bearing - 6004 2RS. Dropped the oil and put in fresh Duckhams 20/50. Just waiting for the new down pipes and balance pipe from Keihan now.
I must have done quite a bit of work on this bike now since I last ran it. Chances of it firing up now must be getting slim.
New pipes and balancer have arrived from Keihan. Look a bit too shiny for the old bus really. Much lighter than the originals though which is a big plus.
Pictures please.
If they’re stainless won’t take long to go yellow
All fitted easily and perfectly on Saturday. Looking too shiny for the old gal so the quicker they start discolouring the better in my book. It was pipes and balancer only as the silencers are already stainless, though of unknown origin. Richard, I always have trouble posting pics here so I don’t bother - they are on the dreaded fb but if you don’t go there that won’t help. Bike won’t get taxed until Easter at least so even if we’re allowed out I won’t be able to show it off for a branch meeting or two yet.
Also fitted a battery strap, it was the front one which is a pita as you have to loosen the battery tray and lift that to get it in there.
Also on my Keihan order was a set of stainless clamps for the Pearl. The rest of the system on that one is also Keihan but I’ve been running a pair of rusting jubilee clips to hold it all together. So they got fitted also.
All looking good but you know what it’s like, all dressed up with no place to go.
This Saturday Jug will go up on the table to have the neutral/starter inhibitor disabled.
It lives parked up on the table during the winter months anyway, so it’s only a matter of moving out the SP(370) and station bicycle (now largely redundant of course) so that I can get round it, and then pumping it up.
Butch, let me know if you would like a sketch for the wiring mods. 
Thanks. Got the notes you posted up earlier which I’m hoping will suffice. Either ways I’ll shout out if/when it goes bad. I’m not a complete clutz on wiring … only very nearly.
A bit off your manor I’d guess, but as a retirement project (if and when) I want to do a complete rewire on my '79 Suzuki SP370 - the loom has nearly run out of smoke now. If you have an encapsulated full colour diagram for that I’d be prepared to cross your palm with silver. But I guess there ain’t much call for them these days. It needs doing and I’m going to use it as practice before I do the Pearl.
In terms of actually riding one of my Guzzis I can’t even imagine when that day will come. Blue is on SORN for the winter anyway, and will probably only be MOT’d and taxed April/May time. Jug is exempt but would only go out on a nicer day. The Pearl is taxed up and legal (goes exempt on April 1) but with lockdown and lousy weather isn’t going out for the moment.
Maybe if Covid eases just enough for some kind of Essex branch meet up to go ahead in February.
TBH, and perhaps oddly, I don’t miss riding. And maybe that is why I’m not a ‘biker’. What I miss is having somewhere to go and a reason to go there.
If you have a wiring diagram to refer to, I could draw you a one off in colour, but as I expect there will not be a big market for the SP I will have difficulty recouping the time I spend without wagonloads of silver. We can chat about it before you retire!
I gave done a bit of experimenting with the Stornello electrical system to try and improve the rather poor electrics. There are two coils on the stator plate. One coil does ignition via an external HT coil and the other has 2 independant windings that do lights and battery charging (6V) I found out that one coil will actually produce just over 12V and the second one 6 volts. I am thinking to get this coil rewound to produce a single output something over 14volts, passing it through a rectifier / regulator and feeding it all into a battery to run the lights etc off.
The other possibility is to see if a Vespa scooter stator will fit as they come with 3 smaller coils and a set of points. Investigations continue.