callison

The part number for the Buell turn signal is for the one that bolts up to the V11 Sport turn signal mounts with NO modifications. I just don't know how the LeMans mount their turn signals is all.

I've been putting the Bugswatter back together. I would have had it back together before now, but there have been a few detours on the path to happiness, namely, totalled my V11 Sport, totalled my truck, married off a daughter and a son and then had the family van get rear ended plus trying to achieve certification for some stuff at work. Busy year. Oh yeah. Things you shouldn't do. In the initial steps of trying to determine just what in heck was wrong with the Bugswatter, I sent the injectors down to my local NAPA parts store where they clean them up and put in new o-rings. If you think that this is a good way of making certain that the injectors are fresh, you'd be wrong. After putting the bike back together, there was no evidence of fuel entering the ports. Assuming (and you know where that gets you) that the injectors were the LEAST likely source of trouble, I spend a lot of time head scratching, gnashing of teeth and bloodying of knuckles assembling and disassembling the fuel system. Eventually, I got it down to the point where every thing was apart and only the fuel pump and the injectors were connected. No computer, nothing else, nada. Energized the pump, hit the injector with 12 volts and... nothing. Zip. So, I took an injector off of the California (also in many pieces in the garage) and stuck it in the same spot and tried the test again. Fuel. Lots of it. The moral of this story is if you're going to have the injectors cleaned or you suspect that there's a problem, find a shop that specializes in injectors and offers a warranty. I'm probably going to have to shell out for a new pair of injectors. I also ran across the following information while trying to find another source for fuel injectors in case mine can't be salvaged. Weber fuel injection specs for the typical MG injector. General Specification Type: Electromagnetic petrol injector, calibrated orifice type. Construction: Fully sealed unit. Electrical: Standard 2-pin Minitimer connector. Weight: 100 grams. Sealing, 'O' ring. 14mm O.D. is available separately. Part Number 4156504700. N.B. Matched sets of injectors are available to special order. Part Product DC Static Flow Number Description Type Color Resistance (3 bar) WFI91 Injector IW031 Green 16.2 Ohms 270 cc/min

Not really, the wife knows this is my hobby and passion and allowed me to keep some of the profit from re-financing the house. Other than that, it's overtime when I can get it, or scrape and save when I can't. There was also this bit of insurance payoff from when my neighbor backed into me, severely damaging the bike - not a recommended method of financing bike alterations

Sorry to hear of your incident. At least you're not injured. Good luck finding parts on a Sunday though. The relevant part numbers we're part of this thread. Somewhere on v11lemans.com To be honest, I've never looked closely at the turn signals on a V11 LeMans and how they mount. Are they the same as the V11 Sport? There are two differenct Buell turn signal assemblies that have the same form factor as the V11. They have different size threaded portions though, and you need to use the small one on MGs, Buell part # Y0504.02A8 TURN SIGNAL, RH/FRONT, LH/REAR. I don't have the part number for the alternate corner since the shop sold me four of the same. The only difference is the moisture relief hole anyway. The Buell part uses the threaded part with a nut. On the Guzzi, that part is just where the wire goes through and a separate screw secures the stalk. The Buell part number I've listed does fit through the hole without any drilling or anything, and is secured with a lock washer and nut on the other side. I don't know what's inside of where the turn signal mounts on the LeMans, so if you choose that route, let us all know how it's done. The Ducati footpeg will slip right in without the spring. If you want the spring, plan on spending some time with a file changing the angle of the slot on the peg to match that of the Guzzi. I haven't done it yet, it may be easier to have someone mill it. Also, when I did start filing, my Ducati footpeg casting showed a big hollow in it that I'm going to have to fill with JB Weld.

Mike Rich's statement to me was that the 2 valve motor was good for about a 100 HP reliably, based on the ability of the head to dissipate the heat, the lack of under crown oil piston cooling (up until 2003 anyhow), the strength and thickness of the material between the cylinder lining and the pushrod tunnels and a few other things. Speed is measured in cubic dollars and the cubic dollars necessary to keep it running. Mike said that if the bore is increased to beyond 94 mm, the pushrod area tends to crack. At 95-97 mm (97 is maximum bore for the 2 valve), the heads need copper gaskets to transfer the heat, but the same copper gaskets don't yield like the composite stock ones. That, coupled with the typical added compression, pulls the cylinder studs out of the cases. Overbore Gillardoni kits have too thin cylinder bases and move around too much, causing damage. Big bores need the cases machined to accomodate the sleeve if it is to have enough material to not flex. The list goes on and on. The potential for shrapnel increases as you push the engine further. This is true for engine and it's why racing and land speed record attempts etc are so prohibitively expensive. The four valve engine cylinder head has better and higher temperature alloys to handle the extra heat of the higher output engine, that's also why the Daytona's were two years late getting to market after the original made its debut. Mike's suggestion for a reliable engine is to stroke it and not exceed 94mm bore for reliability. 95mm is acceptable, but needs more attention to prevent calamity. Typically, the Megacycle 620/10 cam is the hottest street cam that can be dropped in without recessing the valves a bit in the combustion chamber. When you start to address what you want out of the engine, you need to plan ahead a bit. Since I know diddley squat about engine building, I defer to the experienced individuals and follow they're recommendations. To that end, when I had the $1600+ worth of head work done for the Sport 1100i, I had Mike put the allowances for the 630/10 cam. Whether I put one in or not isn't relevant, the thing is, the heads are configured for it, so the option exists. I also am buying the last stroker crank RaceCo ever made for Moto Guzzis with the tapered crank nose for the alternator. If you wanted one made now, it would set you back $3000. I'm not paying that much obviously, because I'm buying an older "production" piece. When I'm ready to rip the engine apart, I'll have the crank. When I'm ready to bore the barrels, they go L.A. Sleeve and Mike's computer program will order a custom piston ring set of the proper size. His pistons are cam ground. They are not round, they are shaped so the they will be round when the piston is at operating temperature. This the optimal type of piston for competition engines. Planning ahead again. The Sport 1100i has terrible characteristics for it's ECU. I have the Cliff Jeffries unit and my bike is wired to take either that or the stock one. Planning ahead again. WIth Cliff's unit, I can accomodate the timing changes to optimize for the dual plug heads. Do I know much about dual plug heads? No. But the heads can operated as single or dual plug. Pierre in San Diego has already forged ahead in this area, I defer to his knowledge and will use his settings as the basis of mine as I go. If I split the cases, I can opt to use Carillo rods, but necessity of having the entire unit balanced will add to the cost and delay of the project. Plan ahead again, or opt not to go that route, based upon desired engine changes. I'm not even budgeting for this project, I'm just buying the parts when they are available and setting them aside. At some point, the fun begins.

The BMW bike dealer in my town carries them, and says the exact same thing about not leaving them on the wheel. Must be a reason...

Well, it does sort of look like his bike has it's pants off...

Well, it seemed like I got hit by the dreaded vapor lock problem today. Maybe. I did refuel last night and immediately started having some surging symptoms as the engine ran. So I suspect the vapor pressure rating of this tank of fuel at the least, or the probability of water from the bottom of the station tank in the fuel. Either/or. Doesn't matter, because the engine died in traffic on the way home. Twenty seconds by the side of the road and I had it running and happy again. The fuel line, which has been re-routed and has too much slack in it, is pushing hard against the newly installed manual petcock. So much so, that as it heated up (or the gas formed a vapor bubble - take your pick) the gas line kinked and shut off the fuel. Something more to check I suppose.

That's a much better design than the Kimpo brand (Korean) items that I get from my local Buell dealer for about $25. I wonder what the low heat draw is in watts. It would be nice if they showed some pictures of the two types of heat controllers too.

Uh huh. Light bulb flares over my tiny brain. I always wondered what connector #57 (V11 Sport Wiring Diagram) was for. This is the trouble shooting bypass for testing. Since the ECU times out if not running, you can't check voltages at injectors etc. without a bypass - and this is it. However, since most of us (except Al, the fiend) don't have an AMP connector set, the easiest thing to do is to pull the ECU relay (#49) and use a jumper or clip leads to connect terminals 30 and 87 together. This will make the injector, coils and pump circuit live when the ignition is on. This can make for an interesting mess if the gas tank is off as the pump is going to run when you bypass the relay and turn on the ignition. Unlike the Sport 1100i, which has a connector to easily disconnect the pump, the V11 Sport has to have the pump disconnected at the terminal. Lest you desire the smell of fuel or the rapid acceleration outward and possibly upwards from your work locale as the fuel ignites, you should probably disconnect the fuel pump before checking these circuits. Now that I know this, I can continue work on the Sport 1100i to get it running.

Carl is 52 years old and 40 lbs lighter over the last two years. Acceleration rates improve as belt size diminishes!

Wouldn't it be funky if the problem was actually the electric petcock screwing up from engine heat? Mine just died, so I've substituted a manual type from a Sport 1100i. I never had the vapor lock problem though, so I'll never know if this is a cure or not. Maybe someone that has switched to the manual petcock that has had the vapor lock problem can check if the problem has ever arisen after the petcock switchover. FWIW, the electric petcock is poorly located and damn fragile.

I don't think Mike's lacking for work, but is lacking for time. 99% of whatever he's told us has been posted here anyway. Basically, it comes down to whether you want to believe what he's passed on to those that have conversed with him. I'm just dreading the inevitable valve job on my V11 Sport because I'm up in the higher mileage regions already. 29,000 isn't a gigantic number, but as Al's bike showed, the damage can occur at quite low mileages and I'm well past those.

These guys don't have big valve Guzzi's. The milder engines have harder valves. The stronger engines have softer valves. Go figure.

Well, you can always surf over to http://www.daes-mototec.de/, click on Produkte and then rader/bremsen and admire the PVM wheels. They did have a set on clearance last month. Yellow.

Then this might have been a Ducati wheel. Things are becoming clearer now, the Guzzi bearings are Front L # 6205-2RS (Dim: 25 x 52 x 15) Front R # 6304-2RS (Dim: 20 x 52 x 15) The extra 5 mm width on the front left Guzzi bearing would certainly be the difference between the Ducati fork width and the Guzzi fork width. What I don't understand here is that if the fork distances between the two makes are an even 5mm, why doesn't the Guzzi bearing halve that for 2.5 mm instead of 5? Are our wheels 2.5 mm offset? That doesn't make sense to me so my math or understanding must be in error somewhere. Of course, the Guzzi bearing could be set 2.5 mm deeper in the hub too. When my replacement brake disks come in next week (?) that I got off of eBay (Sport 1100i in England, hope they aren't warped...) for cheap (that's me. El Cheapo), I'll disassemble my bent front wheel from the accident and measure the bearing insert depth. I measured the width of the hub for the rotor mounts at 121mm for both the wheel of unknown bike and the Sport 1100i wheel. After wondering why it was an odd mm increment, I switched my digital calipers to inches and got precisely 5 inches for the hub width. Gotta love this digital stuff. I do suppose that there is a possibility that the rotor carrier mount holes are not metric, so I'll need to check that too, but I'm not expecting any surprises. I'm pretty much convinced that the only differences for these wheels is the bearings each bike maker fits to them in accordance with their own fork width and design. Rotor carriers may too, be generic, but until I can get down to the Ducati shop and check the offset, I won't go far as to say they're the same. I would guess that the carrier offsets are available in several stock displacements from Brembo and that they aren't custom, just off the shelf choices for the designer of the bike. Wish I had access to a Brembo OEM parts list to check that out.

Front wheel: I bought a Marchesini aluminum front wheel off of eBay. It was advertised as fitting a number of Japanese bikes. However, its just a generic 120x17 rim with two 6304-2RS bearings and a spacer along with a 90˚ air valve. Looks like a Ducati wheel (nicely polished). A V11 Sport axle slides through it quite nicely (thanks Al) so that leads me to believe that it will fit a V11 Sport with no alterations OTHER THAN - making a different spacer for the side of the wheel where the inner spacer protrudes beyond the surface of the disk carrier that the small shiny spacer slides over. In other words, these parts are more generic than I would have ever suspected. The Guzzi assembly has a weird inner spacer (a good design really) that requires the use of two different size bearings to accomodate it. It does not appear that this is the way that things have to be however. The internal spacer looks like it would be a constant width no matter who makes the bike, the surface of the bearings are just supposed to be nearly flush with the surface of the wheel casting where the bearings are mounted. The external spacer on the left side of the wheel centers the assembly within the fork assembly. The right side axle shoulder provides the other spacing. It appears to me that ANY Brembo or Marchesini rim are drop-ins as the width through the hub remains the same. How do I know this? The current crop of rims for V11 Sports are Brembos. The Sport 1100i's were Marchesini and they are fully interchangeable. And, they are both stock, off the shelf items from the wheel manufacturers and are not made for a specific motorcycle brand. This is a good thing. If Ducati foot pegs cost 1/3 of what MG charges and Ducati wheels are much cheaper (they are, but I don't remember how much), then replacing a front wheel has now become measurably cheaper. All you need is a new spacer. Too bad having a shaft drive precludes the same approach for the rear wheel. Unless one of the metric cruisers has a shaft drive and uses a Marchesini/Brembo rear wheel. I'm going to keep my eyes open... Turn signals: Buell turn signals fit fine, but get the correct ones as there are two different stalk sizes. Something too big and something just right. You want Buell part # Y0504.02A8. This is for the RH/Front, LH/rear (I just bought 4 of these because they were there, there is another part number for the other corners but I don't have it. Don't let that hold you back). On the V11 Sport you have to remove the headlight, then the turn signal mount extension, then the turn signal itself. The Buell part will slide right in with the appropriate lock washer and nut on the inside of the extension casting. I haven't done the rear ones yet, but it couldn't be any more difficult. The Buell unit is rubber, so it should not be as damage prone as the Guzzi one. BTW, these things are made in Italy, so why hasn't Moto Guzzi gotten a clue? Expect to spend a whopping $26 USD or so to replace all four units along with the nuts and lock washers.

I fairly certain that you don't have to remove the tank and stuff, although that would add very little to the task and probably make it easier. If you have or have downloaded the V11 Sport Maintenance Manual (http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/v11manuals/) you can see the basic stuff on pdf20 with Acrobat Reader. It looks as though you have to remove the exhaust, block up the rear of the engine/transmission, remove the swingarm and then unbolt every thing attached to the plates. Not having a lack of thumbs (10), and being ambi-klutzrous as well as digitally dyslexic, I would say that it would take about 3 hours to get the plates off.

He must have had most of them on hand already, MGNA is not capable of that kind of response. I ordered exactly one part for my wrecked V11 Sport - a silver front fender. 10 days later it arrived. The back section was painted and the front section was unpainted. So it has to go back and this all starts all over again. I've had the V11 Sport running for two days now. It runs fine, but I need to get my PCIII back from Joe. Al sold me his LeMans forks and after measuring Joe's V11 Sport I know why mine now leans so far over on the sidestand. LeMans forks are about 20mm longer and I need to slide mine up in the triple tree. Handles kind of funny too. Floppy. Too tall I guess. I also borrowed a LeMans fender from Joe, so now the bike has black forks and a black fender and I really don't like the looks. Sooooo....... What's the best way to remove black anodizing, chemically or really fine sandpaper (crocus cloth)? The alternative is find another set of forks and sell these.

The answer would have to be no. When the magnetic field collapses, it induces a very high voltage across the secondary. The secondary's load is the spark plug. With no plug - hence no load - the secondary voltage will probably rise high enough to puncture the winding insulation and ruin the coil. Even hooking up a spark plug out in the air on the second lead would be preferable to operating it without any load.

I saw Al's garage when I picked up his old forks Saturday. It's, well, full...

The pin on my Pit Bull front stand measures 17.5 mm and it fits in the hole under the triple tree. That's not a bad installation job, but if this for a heated vest, its probably not the best location after stringing the wire across the tank, around tank bags etc. I'm very much in favor using RCA jacks for electrical connections to things like vests. They slip free easily and won't tether you to the bike at an inopportune moment (read: crash), handle enough current to do the job, are not bulky and can be easily found at any Radio Shed when replacement is needed. I have one attached to a small chunk of aluminum bar stock that resides in a Minimag flashlight cover. The wires exit through a small punched in the bottom of the holder and the whole thing slips under the seat out of sight when it isn't needed.

No respectable machinist is going to change valves without checking the guides. Mike Rich did both on my Sport 1100i. Mike has done extensive hardness testing on Guzzi valve stems and he says they're too soft. I have no reason to doubt him. In the process of the valves getting replaced, so do the guides. At this point, it doesn't really matter whether the wear is the valve and/or the guide. They get replaced and fitted as a set. I finally got my V11 Sport running last night after nearly two months of downtime. There is a fair amount of smoke wisping out of the right exhaust after shutting down after a two minute engine run. I'm hoping that it's just oil in the cylinder from when the bike was laying on its side. With 28,000 miles though, this could be the next dreaded valve job.

Well, shops see what gets sent in for repair. They aren't going to see the good ones much, so it's inevitable that the apparent ratios are skewed. The evidence that the valve stems on big valve Guzzis is sub-standard is more than anecdotal though.

Al, maybe one from a Sport 1100 will fit. Sport 1100i parts in France