pete roper

The reg/recs are a very common fitment. You should be able to pick one up for £40 or less.

It’s exactly the same clutch that is in the V11 and all other big blocks since the end of the Cretaceous. If he is finding that the clutch is only starting to lift at the very end of its travel the most likely cause is that the plunger on the lever, (NOT the span wheel.) is maladjusted. Also all the CARC bikes, (And V11’s.) are murder on their clutch fluid. If it hasn’t been changed regularly the bore of the master cylinder may be damaged limiting the efficacy of the piston’s stroke.

It’s written there on the receipt and the service book is stamped. I can think of no reason why it would cause a problem and the vehicle has an unlimited Km, seven year warranty. By the time it expires I’ll be 76 or dead! Probably the latter, so really, at the end of the day I don’t give a shit.

Took our new Hyundai in for its first oil change/10,000km service last week and they stuck a 10/30 in it rather than the 0/20 specified. My only concern was if it blows up will they honour the warranty? Since it’s all done through the ‘Official’ network they’d damn well better! I have ZERO interest in doing anything to this vehicle beyond topping up the screen washer bottle so if it shits itself and there are any issues it’ll be off to the courts toot-sweet!

Lard! Lard is good! Actually lard is a fantastic lubricant. All animal fats are. The problem is most of them aren’t liquid at room temperature and they get smelly real quick! One thing they keep very quiet is that sperm whale oil is still used as a lubricant in space vehicles because of its abilities to withstand extremes of circumstance. At least it was at the turn of the millennium. I have to admit I haven’t kept up…...

Just as a point of reference I had a customer I sold a new 8V Griso to way back when. It got its first service and its 10,000km service with me and he then moved away and there was nowhere nearby to service it. Now he really is a mechanical neophyte and didn’t to anything to it. He got in contact with me a few years later and asked if he could bring it in for a service, I said yes of course. Anyway when I was working on it I noticed the engine was absolutely filthy on the inside! What I drained out of it was absolutely gross! When he picked it up I asked him when he’d last changed the oil. He looked kind of sheepish and said “Never, I just topped it up when it dropped off the stick!” At that point it had done nearly 90,000 Km!!! Thing is, apart from being filthy everything else that I could check seemed fine! I got the chance to explore further about 30,000 Km later when it dropped a valve and destroyed a head, barrel and piston but whether the guide wear that promoted that was related I have no idea, the 8V’s do use valve guide oil seals after all. The whole engine as in remarkably good shape! The long and the short of it is Guzzis tend to be monstrously over-built and modern oils are very, very good at their job and last extraordinarily well. I have always used Penrite 10/60 in everything I’ve owned built this century and nothing has blown up yet. That seems like a good enough reason not to change. To my mind the 10,000km service interval is very conservative but draining the gribblies out is always good, it’s not particulates generally it’s the crap and byproducts of combustion that need to be got rid of.

It’ll still need a decent camchain tensioner and you’d be mad not to throw a chain at it at the same time. The fork dampers will be #@$&@#@ if they are the original sebacs, they used to blow as they rolled the bike off the end of the production line. Throw a set of FAC’s into it.

Oh, one other thing. Unless the rings are bedded perfectly or the bores have been changed to Nicasil it will need a sump extension and the oil moved away from the crank otherwise it will pressurise the case too much and fill the airbox with oil. After a few miles at higher speed it will suddenly go B-l-a-a-a-a-hhhhhhhhh! and slow down while producing a cloud of smoke like a WWII destroyer laying a smokescreen! It’s very disconcerting when it happens. First time it happened to me was on a motorway in blighty! I thought it had blown up! I pulled over, waited a few minutes and it fired right up, the smoke cleared and it was like nothing had happened! I rode off and a few miles later it did it again! I had no idea what was happening, I was only about 22 at the time and new to Guzzi but luckily someone showed me the breather system and explained it and it all made sense! After fitting the sump extension it never did it again. Crankcase pressurisation has long been a Guzzi bugbear. It effects the 1200-8V’s as well and they too will pump oil out if you try to keep it at the ‘Full’ mark on the stick.

This is one of those cases where only back probing the loom will isolate it probably. From personal experience I’d look carefully at the loom to the lights where it runs around the steering head and front sub-frame.

My first big block was an SP1000, I’ve owned a couple more over the years. They are yer basic, small valve, short head Tonti from the late seventies/early eighties and have one of the best and most effective fairings ever put on a motorbike. They are a mile muncher par excellence and will sit all day at 85-90mph. Most important thing to remember is that they are now all 40-45 years old and, unless they have been loved and refurbished, will invariably need work. Most likely things are frame bearings, all of them and a UJ support bearing and possibly a UJ. Fork dampers and shocks will need replacing if they haven’t been already. A camchain and tensioner for the motor at a bare minimum and the carburettors will be shagged out. Expect to buy a wiring loom from Greg Bender and replace the original that will likely crumble to dust when you touch it! My last one I built a mid valve 950 motor with a K cam in it and ran 36mm PHF carbs. It had an 8/33 bevelbox and an Eldorado flywheel. It was an absolute hoot! My mate Steve from Moruya owns it now. It’s a peach!

I’m guessing you won’t be installing the tensioner because it doesn’t fit due to the casting boss in the case?

The outrigger bearing in the bevelbox is particularly weird in that the inner race has a hole in it that seems Al mostly deliberately chosen to allow water ingress! You can of course buy an standard aftermarket bearing without this interesting *Feature* for a lot less than a ‘Guzzi’ bearing. Also just as a heads up if you’re having trouble getting the rusted, munty old bearing out of the box the factory expanding puller for the needle roller bearings in the old five speed gearbox works a treat. Just take your bevelbox to some crusty old fart who never moved beyond five speeds and, if you can stand being sprayed with phlegm for not riding an Eldorado, they’ll be able to pull it for you in five minutes.

Have you converted it to a trike? I’m assuming you mean the bevelbox? The pinion bearings on the Tonti’s aren’t sealed and if the shocks have collapsed or shorter ones are fitted the angle the swingarm operates at means oil gets flung through them and pools in the swingarm. This would probably also explain the low volume in the bevelbox itself. The two O-rings? One goes over the pinion carrier and acts as a crush seal in the chamfer at the front of the bevelbox housing. The other one goes in the groove in the front face of the pinion holder and acts as a crush seal against the end of the swingarm.

If you can get the ‘Toons repaired it will probably be worth it. A V11 with ‘Toons is one of the best sounding motorcycles ever built. As for getting it to run right? First a proper tune up, then remapif you feel it needs it.

I think we’re talking about the Cali 2 here Chuck in which case it’s yer basic Tonti ‘Crab’ project. The airbox is a trifle more involved than the earlier ones but really the ‘Nuts and Bolts’ are essentially the same. Many years ago when I was racing with Rob we used to be able to swap a clutch between practice and the race! The bike was a lot more stripped down though than a road bike.