Scud

"Driving a car is like sitting in the living room; driving a motorcycle is something like riding a horse - it's driving and controlling something that is almost alive." - Soichiro Honda, as quoted in Honda: The Man and His Machines by Sol Sander (1975) If you can find a used copy, it's a great read and an interesting view of Honda in 1975, when they were not sure how well the whole "car thing" would work out.

That's an excellent book.

This bike has only 5,000 miles. There is no noticeable gear wear. But I do think it's worth removing as much rust as possible from the output shaft. I'll remove the rust from the driveshaft too - then use Staburags grease for the splines (that's the recommended lube for BMW K-bike splines, but the Guzzi is assembled dry). The seals all looked good and with such low mileage I decided to leave them in. Just put a little gear oil around the lip when you re-assemble. First time I did this I was really nervous. But I've done three now, and the other two work. Like a lot of things, it's not so hard once you get into it. And a tranny service can be very expensive.

Yeah, you can find used subframes on ebay. But this one was in great shape, except for that one spot. I masked it around the weld. Nobody's gonna see it. But there are some little chips and rusty bits on visible parts of the frame and porkchops - so a bit of touch-up paint would be welcome.

Thanks, but it really won't matter. It's just a small section that goes behind the porkchop - where the bolt goes in. It was rusted so bad from the battery acid that I had drill the head off the bolt. I think I might send one of my daughters on a mission to match the color with nail polish for touch-up. And the fork caps... the RH fork is leaking. If I need to take them off, I suppose I could paint the caps. That spotty aluminum corrosion is really hard to remove.

Admire your work. A six-speed V11 tranny is a thing of beauty. I only painted the rear case, because it was peeling badly. How long are you supposed to wait to put oil in? Read the directions on your adhesive. Then put the tranny in and go riding (some other steps required). I swore I was gonna remember to attach the ground cable to the tranny... but I didn't. Shoulda put the cable with all my other stuff on the table. Now I have to pull one of the bolts out and re-torque it over the cable (after scraping the paint off that spot).

Put the input hub back on. Special tools required. But you already have the special tools, cuz you used ‘em when you removed the gear. Torque to spec and fold one tab of star washer into a slot on the ring nut to lock it. You might want to use a new star washer, but I think that as long as you don’t fold the same tab twice that you can re-use the star washer.

Get the transmission in neutral by disengaging all the gears – by sliding the selector arms. Make sure the pre-selector is in neutral. Dry-fit it to be really sure. Are you sure yet? You don’t want any adhesive on till you’re sure. Are they both in neutral? Really? Are you sure?

Put the shift arms (which you kept organized in exactly the right locations) onto the grooved gears and make sure you can slide the gears back and forth. Then put the shaft in through the case and into the arms. Note that one end of the shaft is threaded. This is helpful for disassembly too. Then put the rear case on and insert the clutch pushrod, throwout bearing and cylinder. Sorry, I didn't take a picture of this step, but you can see that it's on in the next photo.

Gears are in the case. Did you remember the bolt that goes in from the other side? I think the leak in this one was caused by the bolt at the 8-oclock position. It was very loose on disassembly and that’s where the leak was coming from. There’s no way to access that bolt without removing the rear cover. No anti-seize compound needed. The bolts get bathed in gear oil.

OK – nervous time. Reassembly. Do I have all the right tools? Is everything clean? What adhesive am I going to use? What torque settings for two different size bolts? It’s a good idea to dry fit the parts a couple times before applying the adhesive. The shop manual shows this step with a special tool that holds the case upright in a vise. I borrowed one from Andy once and it was very convenient. But you can lower the case over the gear stack instead. Note that you cannot lower the gear stack into the case, because one of the shift selector gears will fall off. I used Threebond 1184 (after a final quick-clean with alcohol). This is a very stringy grey adhesive – super strong stuff and about the same color as the transmission cases. Originally, this tranny had unsightly dark red-brown adhesive lines on it. Permatex Right Stuff also comes in grey (or black) and is very good. It cures faster than the Three-bond, so it's really good for just doing the pre-selector with the tranny in the bike. You can ride after 30 minutes.

We should not tolerate rusty output shafts….

Clean up all the mating surfaces. I use a flat blade and a little oil – followed by a scotch-brite pad to remove all the old adhesive. I use a pick around the locator pins, which have a lot of goo on them. Try to work so debris and dust falls away from gears or bearings – or cover them while you work.

Keep your stuff organized; there’s a lot of it. Clean the adhesive off the bolt threads. Clean the breather. Where is the little washer that goes at the bottom of the speedo drive gear? If you don’t know, it’s probably still in the main case and you don’t want it to fall into a bearing. This is a good time to refer to the Lucky Phil shift improvement thread if you are inclined to do stuff “while you’re here.” This is a also good time to decide whether you are going to replace any or all of three oil seals: Input shaft, output shaft, gear selector shaft. Actually the time to decide that is probably before you start so you would have the seals on-hand. I didn't replace any seals or mess with the pre-selector, because this tranny only has 5,000 miles on it.

Step two, break the tranny. Remove input hub (special tools needed, see reassembly for picture). Remove shift pre-selector. Then the rear cover. Some soft mallet and leverage required, especially around the locator pins, which probably have a lot of adhesive in them. When the rear cover is out, you can remove the shift arm shafts and the arms. Then the gear stack comes out of the main case – but not until you have removed the speedo gear. This case will also be stubborn around the locator pins. I used carpenter shims to drive the cases apart – a steel screwdriver can cut into the aluminum, but I still had to use a wide screwdriver for leverage in a few spots.

Here’s the basic process of removing, disassembling and resealing a leaky transmission. Two years ago, this was in the “do not attempt” category for me. But now that I’ve done a few with help from other members, I figured I should share what I learned – because the best way to really learn something is to teach someone else. Ready, set, remove transmission. Some pre-steps required. The frame is strapped to the ceiling by ratchet-straps (not shown) to enable “crabbing” the frame.

...and here's how the aluminum paint looks on the light cover. I think it's a pretty good match for all the other silver stuff up there. I also replaced the rusted-chrome top-nut with a brushed one from a 2002 bike and replaced the aguila badge. Now, what to do about those fork caps?

The front of the swingarm and one corner of the subframe were badly rusted from a battery leak. Used VHT Gloss Black Rollbar and Chassis paint for the swingarm. It's a good match, but it's not my best paint job... mostly concerned about grinding off the rust and stopping further rust. I used the Chrysler, Duplicolor Flame Red that LowRyter suggested on the subframe. It's a great match from a distance, but up close it's a slightly darker red than the original. Horns de-rusted and painted. Alternator cover stripped, sanded and painted with VHT nu-cast aluminum and gloss clear coat. It's a pretty close match to the wheels and the swingarm end-covers, which has me looking at the poor-condition paint on the final drive... And one of the main reasons for digging in this far... the tranny is all sealed up and has fresh paint on the rear case. I didn't paint the other three cases, because I saw the slippery slope leading to the engine. Had a pep-talk with the parts on the left of the picture: "OK men. You need to get yourselves onto the towel and ready for installation."

Uhhhhh.. Aw c'mon Chuck. It's cheap, effective, and there's a high risk of injury if the tourniquet sticks start spinning like propellors.

If you have to ship it, consider a shop that has on Ohlins specialist on staff. I think Chuck spoke highly of Ducati of Indiana. Many Ducati or Aprilia dealers would probably be willing to service the forks. There is a very well regarded suspension shop in Northern California: Kyle Racing. Dan Kyle is known as sort of a Ohlins guru. I had a good experience buying parts from him - he will also accept shipped components.

Yeah - at that price, it's a collector's bike, not a rider's bike. I looked at some close-ups - it seems to have a lot of light surface corrosion (which might clean up). Then you've got all the old fluids and tires to deal with... but if it's just gonna sit in the living room next to the grand piano I guess none of that matters.

How do you like my spring compressor tool? And here is Czakky's old shock, installed on the Greenie (but with spring and shiny blue bits that were originally on the Greenie). Thanks again. That's one thing off the garage floor today. And the offending crack on the lower mount of the original shock. Does the shock with the crack have any value to anyone - or is it trash?

Used Sachs shock arrived from Czakky... and used voltage regulator on the way to Wisconsin. Good trade. I love this place.

Hmmm... we are seeing some differences. Here's an illustration with my actual measurements.

All measurements same as Andy's. I only posted things he didn't.