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slug

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Posts posted by slug

  1. The nasty looking oil is mayonaise. It is caused by water getting into the oil. In the case of V11's this a particular problem with the gearbox as the breather is in a direct line with the fling from the rear tyre and there is NOTHING fitted by the factory to keep water out.

     

    Most folks who ride a bit in the rain will find the problem can essentially be cured by fitting some sort of shield between the rear tyre and the breather. Most folks do this by simply making up a triangle of plastic that will fit in he swingarm between the pivot cross-member and the two connector bars to the shock mount. It can simply be tied in there with cable ties. Once in place this stops the water being flung forward onto the breather which is where it leaks into the gearbox.

     

    Pete

     

    When I lived in Seattle I rode in the rain a lot and constantly fought the "pea soup in the gearbox" syndrome. My solution was as follows:

     

    1. Remove the vent plug from the gearbox.

    2. Tear off the venting thingy from the top of the plug.

    3. Solder a short section of 1/4" OD copper tubing in place of the venting thingy, making sure that the copper tube sticks out no more than 1/2" from the top of the plug.

    4. Slightly flare the top of the copper tube.

    5. Put the plug back in the gearbox.

    6. Attach a section of rubber hose to the plug with a small hose clamp.

    7. Route the hose somewhere up under the seat where water doesn't splash up.

     

    Haven't had a problem since. :nerd:

  2. I found that the reason the pegs get locked in the upright position is that the spring loaded ball gets a groove worn in it where it makes contact with the hole in the little lock plate (ball metal is softer than the plate metal + wear from dirt). The groove prevents the ball from rolling out easily when you try to put the peg down. Once the groove is there, you'll have to replace the ball since it'll lock up again...

     

    On my last V11 I replaced the balls with some stray ball bearings (probably from one of my three torched rear wheel bearings :rolleyes: ). You can also get loose bearings from Home Despot/Lowes/Whatever in their fastener section. They're generally harder than the ones that come on the bike. And as stated before, use a dry lube when you put everything back together, since grease can attract dirt.

  3. My rear Diablo met an untimely demise last weekend; something poked a nickel-sized hole in it in a construction zone. <_ fortunately i had a spare rear that should hold me through the rest of season. so looking for best internet deal on set michelin pilot roads. them before and really liked them. does anyone have favorite online tire dealer carries>

     

    Cheers,

  4. Acetone will also work very quickly, but can soften and damage the resin of the CF much more quickly. After the paint i removed the CF will be very dull looking, traditional buff and wax trechniques will quickly bring it back to life.

     

    I think more often than not, carbon fiber is laid up using epoxy type resins instead of the more traditional poly/vinyl ester resins. IIRC the epoxy resins are more resistant to acetone than the poly/vinyl ester resins.

     

    Instead of doing the buff/wax on the carbon fiber, personally I'd spray several layers of a UV resistant top coat, then buff and wax. For my stuff I use clear System Three WR-LPU topcoat. Not cheap at $54/Quart, but well worth it.

  5. Argh. The shift return spring on my '04 Ballabio broke on Monday night, in a teeny-tiny little town, 215 miles from home. Stuck in first gear. My spare spring? Somewhere in storage, 215 miles away. Thought the '04s had the 15mm boss, so I didn't bother putting it in my incomplete tool kit. After struggling with getting the gearbox open with inadequate tools, one of the four circlips that anchor the two cogs, decides to fly ten feet away, landing in either grass or gravel. Great. Fantastic.

     

    333652055_oeY7h-M.jpg

     

    So, I was able to re-bend the broken spring and get it working well enough to get home. Some friendly local-yokels were able to scrounge up a replacement circlip and loaned us some proper tools. We got back on the road around 10:00. About 40 miles later, we pulled of the highway for gas, and my shift lever became disconnected from the linkage. Someone forgot to tighten that part. Oops. Fortunately we were at a truck stop and I was able to buy some machine screws and nuts to get things back together. I finally got home at 2:45. I had to get up for work at 5:45.

     

    Last night as I was replacing the broken spring, I measure the boss and it was 15mm. <_ looks like i should carry a spare...>

  6. Hi All,

     

    Have read all the threads dealing with this lubricating this joint but so far have been thwarted with a workable solution. I have the back wheel off and the bevel box removed so the shaft is accessible. Have tried a swivel tip extension even ground down and still can't get it over the zirc. Just tried an injector needle; got it into the zirc but the grease just squirts back out the zirc when I squeeze the handle rather than entering the joint.

     

    What am I doing wrong here? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

     

    Hi Woody,

     

    Disconnect the rear shock from the swingarm. That'll give you just enough clearance to be able to use the swivel tip. When you reconnect the shock to the swingarm, don't forget to slather some marine grade grease on the long bolt the shock pivots on.

  7. If anyone is looking for a CF seat cowl, I make them. They aren't perfect, but they still look pretty good. PM me for info.

     

    I'm also experimenting with putting a new top layer of CF over the original, using UV resistant resin and a UV resistant top coat. I messed mine up pretty good last year and I figure it'd be cheaper to do that than replace the whole thing since I have all the materials. I'll keep y'all posted and if it works out, I may offer a refurbishing service for this.

  8. Glad it worked out. You may want to do Greg's "Swiss cheese" mod on the rubber wedges. I did mine and left half out as well.

     

    Yep. Did it but left all the wedges in. We'll see how it feels. If anyone is interested, I measured the durometer of the wedges and they averaged at 72 (they're about four years old.)

  9. Aces! B)

     

    That and a couple squirts of WD-40 between the splines on the plate and hub-tube ((for lack of a better term) did the trick.

     

    Thanks!

     

    I'm doing a huge ride-prep on the bike and I'm finding a lot of things on the bike were grease inadequately or not at all at the factory. Grrrr.

  10. So I'm trying to get to the rubber blocks in my cush drive, but I'm stuck.

     

    I got the six buttonheads from hell out without any trouble, and the silver pie plate is off, but I can't go any further. For the life of me I can't get the steel plate with the rear drive splines & vanes out.

     

    I've looked at a few other threads but they're either unclear how to do it, or their links to special instructions/tricks are outdated.

     

    Tips & tricks from the peanut gallery?

  11. When checking valve clearance with feeler gauges, how do you tell when the clearance is right? Should the feeler gauge go freely between the rocker and the valve, or should there be a slight resistance? I've done my valves many times before and always went with a slight resistance (that's what I was taught back in my welder/fitter days), but I'm curious what other people think/do.

  12. So I'm over on the east side of the state for a few days visiting family and what do you know... Heat wave... Temperatures the past couple of days have been in the upper 90's to low 100's. Personally, I like it, but it seems like the bike doesn't, at least that's my best guess.

     

    What's happening is that the engine semi-frequently hesitates, misses, lurches, maybe even pops a bit when below 3K rpm, especially when it's under a light load. Above that it's fine since I usually try to keep it above 3500 rpm, but when slowing down to go through small towns it's a bit unnerving.

     

    Here's the setup:

     

    '04 Ballabio with:

     

    - Guzzi Ti pipes w/race ECU.

    - Stucci X-Over.

    - Stock intake & filter.

    - Stainless x-over shims up front

    - Old style fuel tank w/external pump, mounted on the side of the spine.

    - Always run 91 - 92 octane fuel.

     

    Intake boots look to be in good shape and throttle bodies seem to be mounted fine.

    No obvious exhaust leaks at the headers or x-over.

     

    I have a brass temp sensor housing which I plan on mounting this week when I get back home...

     

    It wasn't doing this when it wasn't so hot... Any ideas? Many thanks!

  13. Thanks mate. Absolutely no hurry. Im busy with suspension and tuning at the moment. Indicators currently working so i can ride. Leds will happen when they happen. Are you happy with the your signals in terms of strong daylight effect on Leds ?

     

    I was sort of happy with mine (that bike is no more <_ i think it depends on which led indicators you get. had some cheapo shock racing mini indicators. they put out a lot of light even in bright sunlight for their size but would recommend larger ones overall. like the aprilia puts bikes. greg field has set his v11 and look great.>

  14. Not sure where I came by this pic but it's one nice looking Guzzi (assuming I can figure out how to post / attach the pic). Assuming it works, do you know anything about this bike?

     

    I know I just wet myself.

    I know it's beautiful.

    I know Motorhead's version of Louie Louie is dreadful.

    I know the motor won't last too long without filters on those velocity stacks.

    I know if the owner left that in my garage, I would assume ownership and he/she would never see it again.

     

    Now the guesses:

     

    Alpina wheels?

    Ghezzi Brian tank & frame bits?

    Rossopuro foot controls?

    V11 frame?

  15. There is a thread on this somewhere. The front signals are wired like a bastard. I have a flasher unit that can compensate for leds or standard globes but this alone will not solve your problems.

     

    Cheers

     

    Bruce

     

    P.S. Hey Greg- any luck with your funky diode circut fix ?

     

    Here's my LED Turn signal thread

     

    Bruce: I totally spaced it... I'll finally have a bit of free time next weekend, so I'll try to do one for you then.

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