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My observations are that the engine is very sensitive to fuel quality. I've seen a 10% difference in fuel economy between tanks across the country- octane is ping resistance, but it doesn't correlate directly with energy content. I've never heard my own engine ping, but I have a MyECU with the ignition base map having been worked out long before I tuned the fuel. A couple points- Octane obviously is the primary indicator of ping resistance; do you always use premium, or are you running 87 ever? At what RPM are you having the ping? Oil of any sort always reduces octane. Have you any indication of oil consumption? Though I don't experience it, I would expect a hot engine, such as having waited a long light on a hot day, to ping at lower (<4k) rpm with heavy throttle. As a matter of course, when I know I'll be riding less than aggressively I'll run a tank through with Marvel Mystery Oil to wash off any meaningful carbon deposits. I will also periodically run a bottle of Chevron Techron, between the two additives it keeps the combustion chambers and fuel injectors as clean as possible. I discovered upon having my injectors cleaned that the flow was down considerably from stock, and very different from side to side as well which made tuning impossible.

Out scouting out sites on a nice warm pre-summer day! The bike always puts a smile on my face even when parked! Got one zerk fitting lubed today on the Scura after putting fresh grease in the motorcycle trailer wheel bearings, now have to work on the other two "awkward" ones with a needle attachment coming soon.

A black wet plug usually has 2 main root causes- either there is a mechanical problem bringing oil into the combustion chamber or more likely, a weak ignition system. The first thing I'd check is the spark plug cap. The cap should be about 5k ohms, I've had old ones fail and new ones junk. If the resistor opens you may have intermittent and/or weak spark, or even spark tracking down the plastic outside the plug core.

so make sure the clutch is separating reliably. A dragging clutch can do that. EDIT: Bugger, @docc was faster. Again. I hate it when he beats me.

Seems that the OP, @Drahchir, has moved on to his idle issues, hence the change of the topic name. In that regard: A new map? A Power Commander? No. Really: A "Decent Tune-up."

Did you get the cap unlocked ?

Navasota Spine Raid has a nice ring to it !

I find that Top Tier gasoline does make the Guzzis run smoother...it's more notable on the Norge and Griso...haven't "felt" it as much on the Scura. Occasionally I'll run some Marvel mystery oil thru it or some LiquiMoly valve cleaner...but to be honest, I don't notice anything materially different. I have had my injectors reconditioned on the Scura and that was well worth it, they had a degraded spray pattern, and afterwards were perfect again. I recall Gstallons recommended it, so I did it and also bought a set of cheaper Ebay sourced injectors which also work just fine on my Norge. Are you noticing some degradation in "smoothness" or performance lately that causes you to want to open this up, or just looking for a fun project. It occurs to me it would be good for us to have a small Spine Raid in Navasota and compare the LeMans to the Scura in terms of engine smoothness to see if they are any different...yours should be better being a 2004 vs. my 2002 ancient Scura that I took out for a fun 150 mile sunset romp today.

Unfortunately not knowing precisely what you have done tuning wise is an issue. The sensors you have replaced is a good idea but mainly as a precaution related to old age of components. Highly unlikely it's affecting the idle. You can of course just adjust the idle screw on the LH throttle body until it idles fine without the fast idle lever input as a Q&D solution and if it rides and carburates fine and fuel economy is ok then Bobs your mothers brother. A full balance and TPS adjustment is the way to go though and don't forget to remove the air bleed screws and clean them including their seats in the TB. Count the number of turns to fully seat them then remove, clean and reinstall as they were before as a starting point. Phil

A band from Melbourne, perhaps slightly influenced by the Ramones. I recorded that a long time ago. 12 songs, multi-track recording and mix-down in 3 days.

It occurs to me "she rides a Moto Guzzi" would scan equally well, and paints a perfect picture for me.

And for some completely unknown reason, this just popped up. PS: by all respect for Mr. Young, I always hear "somewhere on a desert highway she rides a motorcycle". I can't quite come to grips with a Hardly Driveable in that lovely song.

Not sure whether or not that is high raise for your "Moderator" . . . Oh yeah, oh yeah, uh-oh What can you do? What can you do? With a brat like that always on your back What can you lose?

I ask because I have rebuilt my clutch master cylinder. Twice. The spring inside can fracture, sometimes into multiple parts . . .

Inspired by a post elsewhere in the forum this evening...

In addition to bleeding the clutch, assess the clutch lever travel. Is there excessive "play" in the lever travel before engagement?

The external shift mechanism and "connector rod" should be seen to. Make sure the foot lever is not striking the lower extension of the Frame Side Plate. That would give a "dead feel" trying to get into first. Once, I did fail to seat one of the cir-clips on one of the two shafts for the toothed gears of the shift plate. Yet, the outcome was that the Neutral Light would not extinguish, rather than difficulty getting into first. Again, this is most likely when the foot lever hits the Frame Side Plate on the downstroke into first gear.

I just looked back at the first post in this thread, and noticed this: I'm rather surprised that no-one has pointed to this yet: They are still available. @Scud has them.

Apologies. Lougi moto is in the UK. also not far from me is Max de Clifford who is a Guzzi guru Not far away from me.

@Weegie, thanks, i appreciate your comments, always something to consider. Yeah, same here, i figured MGC knows what'S what. I'm with you on paying attention aka "anal." the older i get the more selective i am on what i donate my time to. i'm 73 and can still fake looking like i can move like i'm 20, but the sun's stil the same in relative way , and i'm a year older, shorter of breath and... you know the rest of that song. And i just realized i have not posted pics of the old gal since she's back together, so i'll do that tomorrow (Sunday).

Aber Ich spreche kein Deutsch!

Nitpicking: if you're going to use German words, do it right. Not "spritzes", "Spritzer".

Why would you want to do that? The music is fantastic... Seriously, though: the video is from Stein-Dinse, so I would be inclined to trust it. It looks good to me, but I haven't had the heads off mine yet, so I can't say for sure. Perhaps @pete roper or someone else with appropriate experience can comment. The texts that appear in the video mean, more or less, this: Take out the spark plugs and undo all the valve cover screws. If the valve cover sticks, it can be loosened with a couple of gentle taps with a hammer Loosen off the valve play adjustment screws, and turn the crank to TDC to take the pressure off the rockers Undo the bolts holding the rocker shaft, and remove the shafts. Attention: take care not to lose the washers when taking out the shafts. Remove the push-rods Remove the "stopper" Loosen and remove all six head bolts, and remove the rocker block Remove the oil line Remove the head and the head gasket Remove the cylinder block Put something (a rag, for instance) under the piston to prevent small parts falling into the crankcase Remove the clip on the piston pin Remove the piston pin and then the piston Hope that helps.

Look, as I keep saying. If you want confirmation? Just pull the bevelbox and pull out the pinion carrier and pinion. You wouldn’t hesitate to pull the back wheel if you had a flat tire would you? Well it’s the same deal and then four more nuts that hold the bevelbox on. Once it’s on the bench all that is required to pull out the pinion carrier is to separate the flange from the casing. Sometimes it will simply pull out with a tug on the pinion. Sometimes you need to give the flange a couple of biffs with a hammer and drift to get it to separate a bit and then you can pry it forward until it comes loose and you can pull it out. Once it’s out the head of the pinion is staring you in the face. All these bevelboxes are essentially the same. All the way through from the T3 to the last of the California 1100’s. Yes there are differences in the lengths of the spacers in the box and these are easily swapped, then there was a change in about 2002 to the depth of the spline spigot in the crownwheel carrier, your Quota will need one of the earlier type. Apart from that the earlier Tonti boxes had 7/33 gear sets rather than the 8/33 of the Quota and of course the case has a shock mount on it whereas yours has a rubber bung filling the hole. Older Cali bevelboxes must be ten a penny in the US. Mark at Guzzi Classics probably has a dozen of them! If this had happened to me I’d just be buying a Cali box, checking it was sound and sticking it on. There is no need for it to be a Quota bevelbox. I can’t stress strongly enough. If you did ride 200 miles without oil there will be serious damage and you are taking a great risk riding it further. It will not of escaped unscathed.

Try pressing the cap firmly into the tank, then turning the key. Otherwise, insert the tube of your favorite spray lubricant into the key slot and "fill 'er up." Work the key back and forth gradually increasing force. Perhaps even let it sit overnight and repeat . . . Good luck with the "new-to-you" Le Mans! You're in the right place to get it sorted!

That's the best plan. My sister figured out the physics of it some years ago: When you look for something, the act of searching builds up an energy state that, if the search goes on for more than a couple of minutes, causes the sought after object to pop across into another dimension. Only when you stop looking does the energy state dissipate, allowing the object to fall back into our dimension and be found.