Splicer

Shucks! Just read your thread. Only thing I can think of off the top of my head that would destroy your cam & tappets like that is the V11 being a flat-tappet engine that requires a decent amount of ZDDP in the oil. If someone ever changed the oil using some of the "friction modified" low wt. automotive oils suited only to post-'95 automobiles, well, might that have done it in over time? Edit: just saw your post wrt the early life of the motor when you were in SFO & realized that w/o a Roper plate, normal acceleration from a stop up some of those steep grades would have been enough to create occasional, temporary oil starvation from an uncovered pickup. Bummed that you deep-sixed the bike so fast: I understand that you might have just wanted to put yourself out of misery from staring at it, but suspect you could have made a better deal if you hadn't rushed... Hope I'm wrong, for your sake! So, is your next bike going to be a shiny new Stelvio w/ the tasty QV engine? I sold the bike to Ed Milich, who will hopefully do something good with it. He also said that he would give me a postmortem after he gets around to tearing it down. However, he did say from the lack of metal bits in the oil that it probably isn't a bottom-end issue. Which, well, I knew that much but good to confirm it. I wonder if I killed another camshaft. If so, whatever I've been doing has been destroying cams more often than some people change their oil. As to your last question, and the following one… Probably neither. I mean, who knows? But if I was sitting on a pile of money and went shopping today I'd probably put myself on a Triumph Speed Triple. Modern Triumphs aren't quite like getting a Japanese bike. I used to have a 2002 955i SpIII and loved it. I might own another Guzzi again but I think I need a break to try out some other stuff. I *do* hate to have given up on the Nero Corsa, but it really was doing me no good. Having that bike be my only motorcycle basically cured me of riding. I used to ride close to 20K miles per year, and the past couple of years it's been more like 3K. The Nero Corsa had about six months of honeymoon (though even that was not without its issues) and for the last two years I haven't been able to keep it running well/reliably enough to take to the mountains for a quick day of riding, never mind go on longer trips. It's sad. It was a beautiful bike. But walking is hassle-free.

Sold the Guzzi carcass today. It's a sad day.

It was making bad noises. Rackety, "who dropped the box of ball bearings into the combustion chambers" kinds of noises. Mechanic told me that I needed to replace the camshaft, tappets, and pushrods. I took the camshaft and pushrods to Ed Milich who confirmed that the camshaft was toast. Photos of the damage can be seen here: https://plus.google.com/photos/+StevenScotten/albums/5631924300347451473 There was never any explanation or theory set forth as to how the camshaft got that damaged in 12,000 miles of use. I thought maybe oil starvation and that I ought to get a Roper plate, but folks (I think here) told me I was being silly unless I'd been wheelieing down the road. At the time I did live in San Francisco where I was no stranger to 20+% grades, and I've never been exactly gentle with the throttle. But for the last two years I've lived on a totally flat island and other than some brief (less than 20 miles) highway travel once every couple of weeks or so rarely have gotten the bike over 30mph.

So I don't really have a question here. I'm wondering what the heck I could have done to destroy my motor. I've owned the bike since it had about 9,000 miles on it (three years ago). By the time it had 12,000 miles I had to have the camshaft replaced. I thought I'd posted about that here, but I can't find the topic so I must have hallucinated it. I've had problems with it for quite some time—problems like stalling out and having hard starts when it was warm. if the bike had been sitting and it was 50 degrees out it would start right up. If I let it idle to warm up and then rode it a mile it would start stalling out at stoplights and then I'd have to try a few times to get it started again. Well, I was on 880 last week on my way to a doctor appointment, and the bike started running worse than usual. It was hesitating at speed, and I didn't like that. The motor sounded extra loud, which I thought was bad considering that I had my helmet on and there was wind noise. I was considering whether I should pull off when that decision got made for me. The motor stopped and the rear tire started to skid. I pulled the clutch in time, the rear wheel started spinning again, and I made it off the freeway without getting run over. If the clutch is pulled or it's in neutral, it rolls. If not, it's like a brick wall. At best, the rear wheel slides without rotating. So unless there is some other explanation that might cause this, I think I've turned my Nero Corsa into a parts bike that I might be able to give away for the cost of towing.

I hope there won't be a next time, but if there is I'll know better. Thanks!

I took the fuel pump to a machinist and had it threaded for a brass nozzle after I broke mine. The threads need to be cut correctly (I forget what that was called, "pipe threads" perhaps?) like for any fitting that needs watertightness (or fuel-tightness.) Then a little plumber's silicone tape for good measure and I haven't had any leaking so far. http://splicer.com/2012/07/17/breaking-perfectly-good-fuel-pump

OK, awesome. I *had* seen HaydnR's thread (and many of the other ones) but all of the photos showed what appeared to be a three-pin rather than a four-pin connector. (Many of them were at enough of an angle that they *might* have been four-pin connectors but it was hard to be sure… but this is the V11 Le Mans forum, not the Product Photography Critique Forum!) This was the missing piece of information: The 3-pin connector is the right one, and the 4-pin connector is totally unrelated. I'm going to run downstairs and find the correct connector then order the cable today. Mine is a 2004 Nero Corsa. I'm not aware of any differences between the Nero and Rosso (other than the paint, of course) so I'm not going to worry about the fact that my O2 sensor connector isn't connected to anything. Awesome awesome awesome! I've been banging my head against this one for months. I didn't want to start a new thread because there are so many threads that cover this stuff but I wasn't getting anywhere. Hopefully looking at the right connector I'll get some traction on these issues!

PS just to be clear, I know that old eBay auctions can give me a hint at the correct part, but none of those old auctions have photos that show the mate to the connector I have. Many have a similar shape but three pins (evenly spaced) rather than four.

I've been trying to troubleshoot my Nero Corsa running like chitty chitty bang bang—which it's been doing for months now. I'm getting about 20 miles to the gallon and fear for my life as every streetcorner means a chance for a backfire to give me a violent jolt while leaned over (even ever so slightly) throwing me into a highside and breaking my neck when I land on a fire hydrant. Haha, OK. Well, it would be nice to get these issues sorted even if I probably won't die from a rough-running engine. And there are plenty of threads about how to diagnose this. Many of them suggest that I ought to check the electronics for a failed sensor. Apparently the on-board diagnostics port will help me with this. I have access to OBD readers, but no connector sold on earth seems to match the connector on the Guzzi. So I have two questions. First: Is this the OBD port? (if yes) Second: where can I get a cable? (I've found a number of threads that purport to source this cable but they all lead to eBay auctions that expired years ago. Sadly that does not help.) (if answer to the first question is no) Where is the connector I should be looking for and what does it look like? Bonus question: if that's not the OBD port, what is it? Bonus bonus question: why isn't this information in the shop manual? Bonus bonus bonus question: if it is in the shop manual, what page is it on? I'll feel like a real idiot but at least I'll know. :-) Thanks!

Had a spill recently and my left-hand clip-on became bent. Everything else is intact; I don't need the clamps or all that. Just need the bar itself. Will consider buying a set with the clips, but am trying to keep costs down so I'm hoping someone has a spare sitting around. (I suppose I could even go with a right-hand bar—the notch for the clamp would be the same but I'd have to drill a new hole for the controls. Not a huge deal.) Thanks! Steve

Heh. I get a very consistent 22-23 miles per gallon with my Nero Corsa. If I'm doing my conversions correctly that's about 9km/l.

Fuel pump relay ? New to this and am sure that I should be directing this to a technical forum but anyway: Motor died during a (spirited) run a while ago. She wouldn't restart and I noticed that I couldn't hear the fuel pump kicking in when I turned on the ignition. Assumed it was a relay and ran into a nearby auto electrician, got a replacement and popped it in at the side of the road. Hey presto, she fired up and ran fine until Saturday when she wouldn't start in the garage. Again the fuel pump was silent, so put in another relay (from a breakers yard!)and she's fine since. Your reply suggests that I might be barking up the wrong tree. Any pointer to a relevant technical thread? Just had mine blow too. It was slightly maddening determining the issue as it went intermittent before it died entirely. Don't have a technical thread to point you to, but I bought a bunch of replacements to have spares from Dan Prunuske: http://www.dpguzzi.com/relay.htm Buy three or more and they're US$3.10 each postpaid in the US. I bought one relay from my local shop and it set me back $38 and the least expensive I found them online elsewhere was about $4 each before shipping. I'm sure it would be a bit more to ship internationally, but it's worth asking Dan.

Yes, that's right, I'm the insane guy who wants to trade a wonderful custom Rich Maund saddle for the plain ol' original. Why? The original owner had this done to make his wife more comfortable and the rear saddle cover won't fit over it. I'm not married and I'm dating a woman with her own bike so I only have a pillion on occasional short rides and that's someone who is used to motorcycle saddles anyhow. I'm not a fan of the way the big cushy saddle looks and I'd rather go back to the stock. To reiterate, what I HAVE is a Rich Maund-customized saddle. What I'm hoping to GET in trade is a stock saddle. Prefer to trade with someone in the SF Bay Area to avoid shipping costs but will consider shipping. Also if you're local we can just trade up without being sans-saddle for the time shipping would take. Also someone local would get to look at it in person before committing. Saddle has a crease that ought to be addressed, but it hasn't yet turned into a tear.

Thanks everyone! I unbolted the caliper without disconnecting the fluid line and was then able to stick a rod through and use it to push the pistons back using both thumbs. It was slightly awkward getting the pads in, the caliper back on, and keep everything lined up so I could put the spring and pin back, but it was definitely do-able. My first brake pad replacement was completed in five days. Now that I've done it, the next time will be more like an hour. After that I'll start trying to hit that 15-minute mark Lucky Phil mentioned. Many thanks!

Wow, I'd rather not get into the rear brake "never" versus "infrequently" discussion. I'm not one of those who uses the rear brake routinely, but neither do I think it is dead weight. It has a purpose and I use to for hard stops or slippery conditions. Also, living in San Francisco I probably make more hill stops in a week than most riders do in a year. (Many people call a 5% grade a "hill" and a 10% grade a "steep hill". I call a 20% grade a "noticeable incline." That's just where I live.) Also, I'm not the original owner. I don't really know how it was ridden before I got the bike. What I know is that I had metal on metal grinding with no brake pressure applied. It was past time for the pads to be replaced, even if I disconnect the rear brake and never use it again. So the real question is: how do I get these new pads in? It sounds like I've already blown the chances of ever getting the new pads in, because it's too late for me to do anything with the old pads in place. The old pads are already removed; I can't unring that bell. I (perhaps foolishly) followed the instructions (and photo) in the shop manual: http://splicer.com/files/imagepicker/1/IMG_0079.png I pulled off the plastic shield, popped the pin out, removed the spring, then slid out the old pads. That's all. Now I need a way to get the new pads in.

Replacing my brake pads myself for the first time, so please forgive the newb questions. I'm replacing the pads of my rear Brembos of my Nero Corsa. (I had a lot of fun getting the old pads off: http://splicer.com/2012/07/09/pin-brembo ) First thing: the old pads came off and are worn quite unevenly. The right pad was worn pretty much down to nothing. The left pad has 2mm of material left on it. Is that a symptom I should be concerned about? Maybe in combination with the next thing I'm going to mention? Second thing: I'm having a dickens of a time getting in to add the new pads. I've seen the suggestion to get in with a screwdriver (perhaps wrapped in a rag or paper towel) and push the caliper back to make the space to slide in the new pads. Well, I don't know how to get enough space to get the screwdriver in. I tried an (expired) credit card, and it is too thick to jam in between the caliper and the rotor. I thought maybe if I could get two playing cards in I could then slide the credit card between them, then maybe slide the screwdriver between one of the playing cards and the credit card. No dice. With great effort and sliding back and forth I am able to get one playing card in between the caliper and the rotor. I cannot get the second playing card in at all. The left side seems much more open. I still haven't gotten the pad in, but I don't have any trouble getting at least the credit card in between. My thought is that if the caliper is that firmly jammed up against the rotor it accounts for the uneven wear. So: any thoughts about what I could do differently?

Thanks Mike. The dealer price on the camshaft is $416, and I'm mostly interested in getting back on the road, not making performance enhancements. So right now unless I can source a used but usable camshaft, I'll just go with the I did go over to Werkstatt to talk to Ed Milich, who is not officially working there but anyway he told me that the pushrods are AOK. That will save me a bit of money. Dealers tend to replace stuff rather than bothering to look and see if the old part is still good. But he agreed that resurfacing the camshaft would be dicey at best. Thanks for getting back to me, too. I'll contact you off-line if not later today then over the weekend.

OK, I've got some pictures here: https://plus.google.com/photos/101800996101419154554/albums/5631924300347451473 I think those should be public. One set of buckets (not shown) is 1/8" more worn down than the other set. So I'm having to replace buckets, camshaft, and pushrods. And of course a few hundred dollars worth of seals and screws (thanks to having a quote from a dealer with all parts at 1000% markup—home of the $40 relay.) I'm trying to source parts now, and see whether the pushrods can be resurfaced. It looks like the camshaft can't be. I don't even have a place to work on the bike myself if I were to try to learn how to rebuild an engine completely via the Internet. So I don't really have many options.

The shop (Munroe in SF) is telling me that without question the buckets and cam lobes must be replaced. Sounds like oil starvation. I have been known to accelerate hard on occasion, and I live in a place with very steep hills. I think I was going up such a very steep hill when I saw the oil light blink for a fraction of a second. It was just that once and like I said, I think I was going up a steep hill. Keep the oil well above full. OK. If this bike ever moves again, I will 1) replace the dipstick (though the holes drilled through idea seems brilliant) and 2) always put enough oil in that it's spilling out of somewhere.

Thanks. Looks like the "how" will be I'll find a couple grand somehow to pay the shop, wait three weeks for parts to arrive and then hopefully have a motorcycle again. The history I have is brief. It was due for valve adjustment right around now, and the valves have not been adjusted since I bought the bike 3000 miles ago. I had the shop do a presale inspection before I bought it and it had a mostly clean bill of health at 9,000 miles. My previous bike was a Stone (hydraulic lifters) so I was hoping to learn valve adjustment on this bike. Since I bought the bike in January, I've brought it to the shop three times for unrelated issues: two speedometer cables, tires and replacing the rear drive oil (presale inspection found the rear drive oil to be milky). The last time it was in the shop was I think at the end of March. I first noticed that the bike was getting louder about a month ago, and I attributed that to an exhaust leak—I have floppy crossover syndrome. I did a temporary fix with exhaust sealant, but then about two weeks ago noticed that the motor was sounding tappier, or clickier. Then, as I said before, "clicky" gradually turned into quite a racket. I haven't had much of a chance to be very involved in maintenance. I've had the right-hand injector housing slip off and had to get it back on at the side of the road. Like I said, I was looking forward to doing my first valve adjustment soon. Before that it was the previous owner who did his own maintenance after the warranty period was up. I have the presale inspection report and the guy's word and that's it. The link is a direct link to the video on my server. It may work if you copy and paste it into the browser address bar by itself. I don't have any other pictures, except of the bike in its intact state. My fear right now is that it ran dry on oil. I have never been able to read the stupid plastic dipstick. I unscrew it, wipe it clean, push the bike up with one hand, being careful not to tip it over onto the other side, push the dipstick in, and it comes out with a lot of oil at the end, gradually thinning until well above the fill line. Do I read by the thickest of the oil, or do I read by the halfway-as-much oil part, or do I read by where there is any oil at all? Worst dipstick ever, and I should have replaced it months ago. But I figured as long as I was seeing a good deal of oil around the "full" line that it must be OK. Also, the Stone never consumed a drop of oil, so it seemed normal that the Nero Corsa wouldn't either.

Six months ago I bought a Nero Corsa with 9,000 miles on it. I've ridden it another three thousand in the meantime, mostly around-town riding but a few trips into the mountains as well. First, a couple weeks ago, the motor started sounding clicky. Then the motor started banging. I was wondering whether I was experiencing Guzzichondria when it started making noises like there was a loose rock inside the left cylinder and convinced me that this was not my imagination. Here's the view from under the valve cover: http://splicer.com/files/CIMG0043.mp4 Loose pushrod! That can't be good. So the bike got towed to the shop. A few days later, I am told that I have to replace both buckets and both cam lobes. This will not be cheap. I asked how this could have happened, and the mechanic (a Guzzi dealer) said it had to be a material or design defect. There were no recalls on the 2004 Nero Corsa and I thought I would have heard something if there was any widespread problem with the V11s from 2004. Anyone have any idea how this could have happened?

Not here because I'm afraid of using up the 200K I'm allowed, but I do have a couple pics up here: http://splicer.com/2011/01/19/taking-black-racer-remote-office So... it sounds as though adjusting the idle is more complicated than I thought. I'm completely unfamiliar with both VDST and TwinMax. But thank you! You've given me leads for researching.

I have an '04 Nero Corsa with K&N pod filters and a PCIII USB, just purchased. I had Munroe Motors here in SF do a presale inspection and they reported that the battery was a little weak and that the idle was a little low—probably that these two things were related. They recommended that at some point we up the idle speed by 100 rpm. I got to thinking tonight (dangerous activity) and it would be great if I could learn to do that myself. I've done a bit of googling and searching here and this is what I think I've gleaned. Please correct me if I've misunderstood. A bike with EFI like mine doesn't have an idle adjustment screw like a carburated bike would, so idle adjustment would be done either through factory software or, since there is one on the bike, the Power Commander. If that's actually correct, then the thing for me to do is install the software to my laptop and make an adjustment to the map? If that's correct, then I'll get to learning about the PCIII so that I can ask some semiintelligent questions about changing the map before actually doing anything. If any of the above is wrong, I'd really love it if someone would steer me in the right direction so I can start asking the right questions. My approach to learning motorcycle maintenance is: let the professionals do most of it and learn slowly, one thing at a time. This seems like a good "thing" to learn, though if it's all software I'm not really addressing my lack of mechanical knowledge, am I?

Yesterday I did the first longer-than-around-town ride on my Nero Corsa—wasn't that long, just 110 miles but it was a weekday and I've only owned the bike since Saturday. I'm trying to get accustomed to it because I'm used to riding the Stone, which needless to say is a very different ride. What I've discovered is that the fairing/windscreen of the Nero Corsa causes tremendous wind noise in my helmet. On the Stone I found the X-Eleven to be quieter than the RF-1000, but a little late night freeway testing showed that on the Nero Corsa the RF-1000 is much less noisy than the X-Eleven, at least where my head usually is. I'm wondering what others have done to combat wind noise and whether others have found the V11 Le Mans windscreen/fairing to generate more noise than is generated on a naked bike. Folks on BARF have suggested I remove, replace, or cut down the windscreen on the Nero Corsa. I'm concerned that doing so without removing the fairing entirely would adversely affect the stability of the bike or at least the structural integrity of the fairing. Unfortunately my RF-1000 was retired due to a crash. It's suitable for testing but shouldn't be restored to active duty.