guzzimeister

Hi very quick and easy test. Take bike up to 30 mph, and simultaneously pull clutch in and roll off the throttle so bike is freewheeling. Then hit the kill switch. If you still have this vibration it's the UJs. Doesn't always manifest itself as right floor board only, but as the guys here say it usually does. At 29000 miles though it should be good, a friend of mine took one to 120K plus. Warning! When you do this pick quiet stretch of well surfaced road. Also allow bike to come to a complete standstill before letting the clutch out or you will lock the back wheel. Practice at slow speeds first until you are confident. Hope this helps Guzz

Hi Tom almost certainly the regulator. Two checks you can do. You will see two yellow wires from the alternator which plug via bullet connectors to the loom. Get a multimeter, set it on a range which will handle 600v AC, and with the engine at idle check the voltage. It will start off quite low but by 1500 rpm or so it should be showing up to 600v, certainly 100s of volts. This will tell you if yoiu have an alternator issue. Next, plug the alternator back into the loom and using 20v DC on your multimeter, check the voltage at the battery. As engine revs rise you should be seeing 13.5 - 14.2 ish volts, and the voltage should rise gently with engine revs. Anything less than 13.5v suggest regulator is iffy. Finally if both these check out OK, start the bike and put the headlights on. If the lights get significantly brighter as you blip the throttle, you might have a failing battery, ie it's taking charge but not keeping it. A sure sign of charging problems on V11s it that when volts get low, say 8.5v, the tacho stops working. If you see this happening on your bike, don't assume it's a dud tacho, ride home asap and check the above. Hope this helps Cheers Guzz

Hi the Becker stand although quite clever does not look like it has any leverage points to help you get it onto the stand. I have fitted a centre stand to my V11, but before I fitted Hepco and Becker luggage to it and gained a few rails as grab points, it was nearly impossible to use. There are no really solid grab points von the rear of a V11, they are all shrouded by brittle plastic. It is very difficult to use now as the balance points which are in the same pivot area as the Becker stand are too far back so you are effectively trying to lift 100 kilos onto the stand. The Guzzi stand is better as it comes with a long lever which makes flicking it onto the stand far easier, definitely a one man job. Last time I bought one was in 2001 and it was £60. If you know a friendly welder it would be easy to reproduce.I'm not sure you could buy one now that the bike has been out of production for 4+ years. It comes with a bar to but under the front of the sump to put the front wheel up too. Good luck Guzz

Any half decent Guzzi dealer will know this. The two pins locate in ball bearings pressed into the swinging arm. If the Pin has come right out, you might be lucky and find you have only damaged the top few threads in the pork chop. But really it's immaterial and I would be pushing very hard (legally) for a new prok chop and possibly spindle. This arrangement has been on all the V twins since 1967. Who is the dealer so we can all avoid him? If you get stuck, I think I have 2 pork chops RH in the parts skip at home, I will check. Guzz

Thanks very much with all the input fellas. I will try the strobe light trick and let you know how I get on. Guzz

Hi got a 2002 V11 with 53,000 miles on the clock. Engine has the usual Guzzi clutch clatter and slight whirr from the timing chest. Bike has been used sympathetically throughout its life, I owned it from new. Engine goes well, with no issues. I just wondered at what point one was supposed to change the cam chain or tensioner, as I can find no reference to it in any of the manuals, CDs or handbooks I have. Anybody know this? Little bit wary about changing it without any need as I hae done this on other bikes at relativel high mileage and found the chans to be pretty well perfect. On the other hand, would be a shame to haveto do a top end rebuild. Any advice much appreciated. Cheers Guzz

I have the same issues on mine...look up world class valve specs, and verify the 525mv at idle on the tps...it helped mine considerably. I'm in the process of making some intake runners in an attempt to lengthen the intake length closer to stock while keeping the K&N's. Also, read up on the ETS holder threads...I think there's something to be said for the plastic holder if you're running the brass one. Following all this, I'm going to have a map made up at a local dyno shop with Guzzi experience. Let us know what you come up with. Hi I'm running a V11 with K& N panel filter in the airbox and Mistrals. 53K miles on the clocks. Most of the misfires I've seen on mine and other bikes are very similar to what you first saw: 2500 - 3000 rpm. I found that iridium plugs made it better, and balancing the bodies did too, but did not eradicate. You will find that the airscrews are for fine adjustment of the TBs during the balancing process, and have virtually no effect on the bike when motoring at reasonable speed. Even the Power Commander map for my set up didn't cure it. I am fortunate enough to have an MDST diagnostic kit which plugs into a Palm pda. Won't bore you with the details but I found that it occured at 2500 - 2700 rpm (pls note the Veglia tacho overreads by 10 - 15% above 2K) and at throttle openings of 5 - 20%, by reading the data of the pda while riding at the misfire point. I then altered the mapping there and then with my laptop and retried it until I got it right. The attached map has cured it, note it is now significantly richer in this operating zone. I think there is a weak spot too at about 1800 rpm but it's not enough to worry me. Hope it helps. Guzz v11 j2.djm

Not me boss, I'm one of the good guys ;-)Don't work for them now anyway, but still in the bloody automotive business. Even murderers get parole after 30 years....

Hi since you ask, started off as a quality manager and ended up after 11 years running the specialist brake division of Continental Teves (brand name Ate), 2nd biggest brake producer globally. Any brake assembly fluid is OK, mineral oil is the killer. In the brake industry mineral oil seals as used by RR and Citroen among others are coloured bright green to avoid confusion. Happy to provide further input Guzz

Hi I used to work in the brake industry. I suspect you have contaminated the seal with the grease and it is damaged. You have nothing to lose by blowing the pistons out of the caliper and soaking them all in brake fluid for 24 hours. There is a fair chance this will restore th contaminated one so long as it is not physically damaged. If it is, you wilol not get another seal from Brembo because they ceased to supply seals for calipers or master cylinders for recent product after an exepensive product liability action in the US which they lost. Apparently some twat put cheap aftermarket seals in as a repair, crashed and sued Brembo cos they didn't tell him not to do it. Another option is to measure the piston and do some research and try a seal from another barke brand. The seal is very simple, just a square section O-ring, which is made by gring a rubber tube accurately to size on a mandrel and then slitiing it into individual rings. Try your local Are or girling supplier you might be lucky. Failing all of this, plenty of calipers on Ebay but most at silly prices. Let me know how you go. Cheers Guzz

cos if they were they wouldn't be very good at absorbing shocks. RS in UK or I imagine radio shack in US would stock replacements. I got mine from RS for about £5. Also used a lot in radio control model boats so worth trying there too. Cheers guzz

Hi definitely the regulator. The tacho works just like the rest of the system down to about 8v, then it dies. When it sees 8v or less it stops working. Very handy early warning system. When it happened to me I changed the battery too to no avail, and on checking the output from the regualtor it was about 12v, high enough to put the charge light out, but not actually enough to do charge the battery. New reg gives about 14.5v. PPut a voltmeter across the battery terminals when the engine is running, and gradually increase engine revs, after about 1500, you should see 14v plus. Hope it helps Jon

Hi I think you may be worrying unnecssarily about a low idle and low oil pressure. I have a pressure guage fitted to my 50k V11, and I check the idle using a diagnostic kit not the inaccurate rev counter. I have a genuine steady idle of 800 rpm, which with balanced throttle bodies is fine. Even whenm warm ie oil temp of 90 degree+, at idle the guage is showing a steady 60psi. From the comments above, I reckon you have a dodgy oil sensor, possibly a flutter caused by low oil level. I suspect the formaer. £ seconds with 2psi will restroy an engine and you will hear nasty heavy knocking sounds particularly under load. Change the oil sensor, they are about £10 from any Fiat dealer. They used to go on my old Fiat 128 too...... Hope it helps guzz

Hi chaps I run a voltmeter (analogue)on my bike permanently. Mine at idle shows about 12.5 - 13v and when in normal running say 3000 rpm it's showing about 14v.Running an HID setup and heated vest and grips and never have had any issues with battery voltage. I guess on average it's doing the job. The alternator generates 300W so I can't imagine there is any real issue. O/C voltage off the alternator is 450v plus (AC)even at idle. Cheers Jon

Hi Mike you lower the footpegs - I can't upload pics as they are too big. If you want them write to guzzimeister@aol.com. I had mine machined from ali bar and they are grossly over engineered, you could easily reduce the thickness along most of the length by half and tidy the corners up a bit. My mate did these so I didn't like to presume on his kindness. The actual pegs I got from M&P, stainless, for a tenner. They use an M10 fine thread but I bastardised a M10 coarse bolt into each one by filing a groove on the latter's thread and using it as a tap - they will not vibrate ogff. At the frame end they are held to the original hangers with M6 bolts as I found the original footrest pivot pins and circlips tended to vibrate loose. Angle of the dangle was about 19 degrees as I remember but measure it from the drawing with a protractor to be sure!! I wouldn't stand on them to get on the bike but they are plenty strong enough once you are on. Mine have done 37K so far without issues. Hope it helps Guzzimeister

Hi Roy many thanks for the new schematic, what an invaluable diagnostic aid! Ignore the moaners, always amazed that people whinge and are then not prepared to d better. On the headlamp issues - definitely two relay system is the way to go with halogen bulbs. I noticed an improvement at 60/55W bulbs, and the uprating then allowed me to experiment with 130/95W bulbs. These were so bright you could see half a mile up the road on DIP. - better still is to buy a HID kit from ebay, these use an arc instead of a filament at 23000v. They are so bright that headlamp adjustment is essential to avoid hurting other road users. I connected mine into the standard lamp socket with a good separate earth and main feed straight from the battery. This allows me to use a standard halogen bulb in the event of failure. You do have to ditch the relays with this set up though. You don't need them for the HID anyway as it only draws about35W anyway. Thanks again Jon

Hi for the record front bearings 6304 6205 rear bearings 6204 2 off All are 2RS1 C3 2RS refers to 2 rubber seals covering the race either side, C3 is angular clearnce, ie the sloppiness of the bearings. This is more important than you think. A very tight C1 bearing will not tolerate any spindle deflection under riding lodas without destroying the bearings, a c3 will. Norton Commando main bearings were C3r sloppier because the crankshaft used to flex so much on the 850 versions.... Personally, if the nearings turn smoothly, don't change them, no pont. ANY roughness, change them. While you're at it measure the distance betweem the bearing recesses in the whell and compare it to the wheel specers. A pound to a pinch of shit that the spacer is undersize, although in your case probably not as they've lastedso long. On my 3rd set of wheel bearings in 47000 miles, really gotta start sorting out the spacers,,,,,,, Cheers Guzz

Hi Concensus among V11 oiwners of my acquaintance is that if it doesn't mist up it will fail, if it does it keeps working. My first v11 was a dry tacho one, whereupon the tacho failed after 4000 miles. My current tacho is misty but is still working after 47000 miles... A word of warning. Tacho repeatedly dropping down to zero is an indication that the voltage supply to it is being lost. Two reasons, the +ve feed is intermittent through chafing, corrosion etc, or as I found out 50 miles from home, it happens when your battery has8v left in it as the result of a rectifier failure...... good early warning feature on V11s, the charge light didn't come on at all, beacuse it was charging but hardly enough to keep the battery going. Yours sounds like a genuine fault though Mick, but might be worth checking Guzz

My two hap'orth: - filter is off a Fiat Panda, common car in Europe - if I would put an unbranded filter in my car I would put it in my bike. I wouldn't blow my car up either - for the UK people Halfords ref HOF218 - it just has to be the same dia to get the oil flow, have the same fitting, and have a pressure relief valve in the middle. That said you can use anything that fits - why don't I use UFI? Too expensive, no better than a decent unbranded, and only available from MG dealers - any BMW filter removal tool fits in the manhole, cost £10. Contracting leg types do not, and the pressed steel hex types are often too flimsy to grip the filter properly, necessitating removal of the sump. Why wouldn't I remove the sump? Because MG provided a half decent solution which works OK - why wouldn't I tighten the filter up tight? Because heat often bakes the rubber seal to the engine and the filter, and this can be very hard to undo. First filter change on mine, as tightened up by Luigi, involved me prising off the jagged remnants of a filter from the stub, after a contracting leg filter tool had crushed it, it was really that tight - I follow car mechnaic wisdom, which is hand tight plus 1/4 to a 1/3 by spanner. Got to 47K without issues.. - if you have no 27a/f nut or the correct tool, knocking it round with a bit of hardwood against the ribs, and a soft mallet works in an emergency That's my contribution to the teasure trove of wisdom. Always fascinated to read the different approaches to the same issue, usually all of them right but from different perspectives. Anyway sun's out and I'm off. Cheers Guzz

Hi surprised at the need to chamge SA bearings, mine are OK after 47K. I have heard they are somewhat tough to remove..... I used the same method as Jaap to line up the SA, works alright for me. The frame is probably =/- 1mm anyway. I'm not a great rider so I probably wouldn't notice anyway Cheers Guzz

Well chaps, I've learnt something today. Always wondred how people claimed to lubricate the front bearing in situ, I didn't realise swivel head fitting existed. Always dropped the swinging arm down to do it. Can now do the whole op in 20 minutes, timed myself on Saturday. However it ain't a job you would do casually and therein lies the danger. You put it off until the joint goes pop. Can't wait to try this. Which swivelhead did you use, Steve? Guzz

Nothing at all, stays stuck at the one resistance reading which I can't remember now. Boy was it F*cked. Now having it mounted on a chain so I can wear it as it is more expensive than any other jewellery I own

HI Charles V11 gearbox is noisy anyway due to to 3 shaft design. You may have two noises, there is lost of rattling and whirring in neutral at idle due to dry clutch plates. Pull in clutch and it goes. The other whir could be anything, I wouldn't worry about it unles you are seeing debris in the oil or it's very loud. Cheers Jon

Hi Roy, firstly cool balancing gauge, simple but very effective, true engineering. Re the drive shaft, mine has done 47k miles with one grease at the rear end at 24k and another at the front end at 36k. I use general purpose grease for both, and have just bought another cartridge of it. No problems whatsoever. All commonly available greases are now lithium loaded, and frankly if your transmission gest up to 180C you've got other problems. Pundits tell me the transmission could warm up the grease and drop it out, but I suggest you feel the drive shaft and UJs after a good run, they stay pretty cool. Incidentaly when I did my greasing, there weas plenty of old grease in the joints so it's not as critical as Guzzi would have you believe. I could only grease the front joint by removing the swinging arm despite using a needle. People tell me it can be done insitu so I'm going to give it another go....... Cheers Guzz

Thanks Docc, after spending the big bucks on an PF3C, I bought one of these as a backup because despite received wisdom, a crank sensor is not the only EFI component which will leave you stranded. At last with this TPS I can install it, and set it so the engine will run well enough to get me home. I replaced the TPS and the fault is cured. So I have now given some thought to a) how one would have diagnosed it, and ( what one could do without a diagnostic kit Let's analyse the symptoms: - misfired when cold, diappeared when warm - did it have a spark? Yes so not the ignition system. Coils, plugs, leads get worse when warm so it couldn't be those - why did it disappear initally when warm? Lean mixture on starting, no problem when warm - why was it lean? Because the Power Commander was in the circuit. When the PC was removed it went rich. It could have gone either way depending on whether the TPS failed at low voltage or high voltage - How could I tell if my TPS was working? With the PC it's easy, just look and see if the fuel lights move when you twist the throttle. If they don't, your TPS is shot - If I don't have a PC how could I tell? Only way I could think of would be to start the bike, and at idle turn the TPS while keeping the throttle body at idle. Any raising or lowering of revs would be an indication. If you're not stuck at the side of the road use a voltmeter. - It's running rich - check the TPS first, if OK almost certainly the oil temp sensor - It's running lean when warm - must be the TPS All the above assumes the bike is serviced. clean filters, plugs, no leaking rubbers etc. One thing I will say for EFI is when the fault is found the fix is absolute, and it stays fixed. On carbs, it's often not quite that simple. Hope it helps. Guzz