MartyNZ

Is it possible that the front crank seal has a slight leak? The alternator rotor could turn a drip into mist. It's only four screws to remove the cover to look at the alternator.

Well, I didn't want to say anything bad about your bike, but now you mention it...

Yes, I opened up the ignition switch, cleaned and lubed it, but it looked pretty good. It's a tricky thing isn't it. I cleaned and lubed the run switch, but I don't think it was the problem either. Things got a lot better when I replaced the 3 rear-most relays. Yep, all 5 relays are now G8HE. - So the bike started fine. Tach working? Yes. Headlight working? No. Oh wait, the headlight is still sitting on the bench. Tailight works, so all good now.

Out for a wee blast, engine surged and cut. Feck! Still plenty of speed, clutch in, through traffic on the next lane, and onto the shoulder. Checked fuses, swapped some relays, heard the pump run, so off home. On the way the tach stopped, then on, then flickered... Now I need to do the same to my bike as we did to Cash's Rosso Mandello. (and yes Docc, I have some supa dupa Omron G8HE relays fitted in 3 places, but I think I need to revisit KiwiRoy's relay base fix).

Those circuit breakers are designed to act as both a cb & a maintenance switch. That's why there is a rim on the head, so you can pull it. You are not ruining it.

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2000974783262577&id=100000502240025&set=a.854976921195708.1073741832.100000502240025&source=48&__tn__=EHH-RA V7 with 1400ccs wedged into it.

Pete Roper wrote about this here: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2391&do=findComment&comment=21056

What? Your V11's Rocket Propulsion, Trans-Atlantic Space Displacement System is on the fritz? Check the relays . . . . 68C, it's only the EURO Spec bikes have that RPTASDS. Ditch it. It's a waste of time. DD disabled his, and now the bike does 240kph with the pontoon floats attached.

New Zealand converted to metric in 1976, and despite predictions, we didn't slip back into the dark ages. Australia got started in 1971, which probably was the motivation for NZ. There are still 3 countries left on the planet who haven't officially adopted metric. However, there is plenty of room for non-metric measurements, for example the Helen, used as a unit of beauty. Helen of Troy is known as "the face that launched a thousand ships". Thus, 1 milliHelen is the amount of beauty needed to launch a single ship. A derived unit, the negative Helen (the power to beach ships) also exists. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_humorous_units_of_measurement Also things like a wee dollop, a good biff, a handful, and a decent shot, don't conform to SI.

Also check the bottom of your tank for rust, The 1000ss tanks seem to rust a bit so the ST3 is worth looking at. If you have rust inside a steel tank, PR-1005L is good stuff. You will never be bothered by rust again if the inside of the tank is coated with this:http://www.ppgaerospace.com/Products/Sealants/Specialty-Products/PR-1005-L-Buna-N-Slosh-Coating.aspx One can costs about $90, & is enough for several tanks, you slosh around and drain back into the can. Just be careful, spillage cleans up with MEK (methyl ethyl ketone), which also attacks paint, don't smoke while you are doing it, and don't do this on a V11 plastic tank unless you know for sure that PR-1005L won't attack the plastic.

Do you think that re-bleeding the clutch hydraulic system could help?

I removed, backflushed and cleaned my injectors when I did some work on my fuel system at 80,000km. My injectors were held in with loctite on the screws, so don't do this if you don't have time and patience. While I was replacing the fuel filter & hoses, I noticed some brown fuzz matted in the external fuel pump intake screen. I found lots more on the tank outlet manual shutoff screen, and a little of the same stuff in the screen of the pressure regulator. Where did it come from? My guess was an old fuel filter was slowly coming apart. I decided that there must be some of this fuzz in the injector inlets too, so I took them out, and backflushed them. I also washed out the fuel tank with hot water & detergent. Afterwards the bike ran just the same as it did before : awesome! So do you need to remove your injectors and back-flush? Probably not, but if you are like me, you want to. Scud posted a picture of the backflush tool. There is two kits, one in NZ, one in USA, so just ask one of us if you want a loan. http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18805&page=17&do=findComment&comment=215317

No, but it won't meltdown, it just stops lighting anymore. If the fan stops, then the LED will fail as soon as the heatsink gets too hot, which may be 10 minutes, or never. Hi-power LEDs have a limited life, anywhere between 5,000 hours and 50,000 hours, depending mostly on the temperature of the silicon chip. As they age, they gradually get dimmer (after about 30,000 hours). Cooler is better, hence the fan.

This is a good question! The fan is mentioned here: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19941&page=2&do=findComment&comment=220873 The incandescent lamp is tolerant of the heat that it generates, and most of the 60-80 watts of heat leaves via the glass at the front. A LED is a little solid state chip of silicon, and the 30-40 watts or so of power would destroy it if it wasn't bonded to a heatsink. It can't withstand its own heat without it, so the heatsink conducts heat away to the surrounding air. The heatsink without a fan would be large. Using a fan means the heat transfer to air is faster over the little fins, so a smaller surface area is needed on the heat sink. There are options that don't need a fan, they are always larger, but don't have any moving parts. I fitted a LED lamp without a fan, believing that it will last longer (have you had a computer fan fail?) and so far I'm it happy with it. http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18532&page=4&do=findComment&comment=209448

Steven, you make some interesting and helpful points, but you included some criticisms without much explanation. It may help those of us who wonder "is he talking about me?" to elaborate on some things. You say: "... ignorant speculation and assumptions over the internet..." & "...a lot of bad assumptions being made by people who are not subject matter experts...". Do those comments refer to this topic, this forum, or elsewhere?

Amazon are watching Scud's distribution center techniques closely, and hope to use them themselves. I know that I will, when the NZ allocation arrives.

You can buy the bits at https://www.stein-dinse.biz/Complete-partlist/Unsorted/Plastic-angle-90-GRAD-hand-and-rear-master-cylinder::227475.html I bought one from Moto International, along with the rebuild kit 110436292. . BTW, brake fluid or brake cylinder assembly lubricant is best for lubricating brake hydraulic system parts. Scud did an excellent test which shows that WD-40 swells brake system rubber parts. http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19330

I don't know anything about reliability of the neutral switch, but I see on the circuit diagram that it provides a ground for two items. 1/ neutral light ground. 2/ sidestand relay coil ground. If you short the wire at the neutral switch to ground somewhere on the bike, while the ignition switch is on, you should hear the sidestand relay click, and see the neutral light come on. If yes to both, you have a faulty neutral switch. It may just need cleaning. Exercising the switch with lots of solvent or WD40 may clean it. Or you could take up Scud's offer. Guzzi PN GU19207220.

You know if we can ship some here to Aus I can distribute and probably fit them as well if needed. Ciao I'd be happy to act as NZ distributor. If Scud's field test proves ok, and anyone else in NZ is interested in a genuine Improved Spring designed by Chuck, you could send me a personal message. I can send on at cost.

As they say, "standing on the shoulders of giants". This forum is full of knowledgeable and helpful people (including you). That's the reason that my bike is roadworthy. Incidentally Cash1000 took my bike for a thrash around the block, which could have been harmless, but he made my "to do" list longer. He said my bike vibrated more than his, so I'm going to dig out the synchronizing manometer this weekend. Also his front disks were thicker than mine. Out with the vernier, my disks are worn below the minimum thickness that Brembo stamped on them. Sigh!

There were two faults, both related to the relays. In the relay base, a connector spade lug was pushed back from the starter relay terminal. This was 87A on the start relay which is wired to terminal 30 of the headlight relay. Being pushed back meant that it made intermittent contact with terminal 87A on the starter relay. We then followed Kiwi_Roy's instructions and tightened all the relay base connections. http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15718 Also we found an ugly burnt wire splice at the headlight relay, which jumpered pins 85 & 87. Possibly put there to repair a headlight relay which had gone bad at one time, or they didn't have a 5 pin relay available. Took the splice out, repaired the partially melted wires, fitted a 5 pin starter relay, and everything seemed to work. Waiting to hear from Cash1000, hopefully everything was fine when he got home. I forgot to check that the battery was charging after all the poking around. We are going to do a combined order of Docc's recommended relays, as some of the relays that have accumulated in our tool kits are a bit manky. Docc says here: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19755&page=5#entry216605 *Best* relay commonly available for the V11 appears to be the High-Current OMRON G8HE-1C7T-R-DC12 available from DigiKey here: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/omron-electronics-inc-emc-div/G8HE-1C7T-R-DC12/Z5645-ND/2755412

The wee guy must have got something right with all his wild flailing around. Cash1000 tooted his horn as he left this evening.

I think you could be overstating things. Cash1000 has seen my shed. See pic Kiwi Maintenance.jpg We may just drink beer, and hope the little guy knows what he is doing. We don’t want to look as if we’re trying too hard, just in case someone is watching. ... and Beer Island... That beer island was a great trick to beat the New Year "booze ban" on that beach. Even the local cop was impressed. It was an international cooperative venture (well NZ & USA anyway) . https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/100305744/meet-the-crew-who-built-new-zealands-booze-ban-island I'm surprised that there were no Aussies involved. Some of them take their beer drinking seriously.

I think you could be overstating things. Cash1000 has seen my shed. See pic We may just drink beer, and hope the little guy knows what he is doing. We don’t want to look as if we’re trying too hard, just in case someone is watching.

Nigel, If you can make the trip into town interesting enough that you don't die of boredom on the way, you could visit next weekend and we could try a few things that were suggested. I have meters to measure horn current and earth resistance, enough spare relays to troubleshoot, and enough grease, goo, and goop for a lifetime. KiwiRoy's relay base repair fixed an intermittent snag on my bike, so we can check that. I have beer too. PM me. Marty