Leaderboard

At least that's how I phrase My Problem to Kathi, my indulgent Perfect Pillion and Polish Princess. Just bought a V7 III Special from my brother -- who thought it "vibrated too much" See attached. We are spent last night in Hillsville, Virginia -- where we still lounge around the hotel, in no hurry -- after annoying other folks on the interstates yesterday. It is interesting maintaining 62 mph on the slab. Stream after stream of 80+ mph cars and trucks pass, with many minutes of calm solo travel. Odd. My biggest concern out there is oblivious folks rear-ending us! Anyway, the new sweetie will be in the Moto Grappa tonight. Bill

Todero did the development work on the high cam, but the basic powerplant is still the old Carcano architecture.

Weird in that I expected it to have failed already. After my overcharging incident I expected that to have killed the battery, instead it looked just fine. Bike started and ran perfectly a few weeks ago. We had another beautiful day today and I was looking forward to a nice ride. Turn key on... 6.3v Not quite enough. I didn't realize this was a Moto Guzzi branded battery. It can't be original, not after this long. The PO might have notes on when the battery was replaced. I need to go back and look. Undeterred I looked around the garage at the 4 other bikes... Bultaco? Yeah, no battery. The other two? Batteries too big. The Norton battery is really small, obviously no electric starter so it just needs to hold a charge to kickstart. Since the Norton is on the bench waiting for a heart transplant and I was desperate to ride I give it a shot. While too small overall it was the right thickness. A little padding (gloves) and give it a go. I'm not sure what the CCA are but I'm sure it's minimal. The bike did crank and start and that was good enough for me! So off I went down the road in search for some lunch. I ended up in Willamina, which use to be a logging town, and although there are still plenty of logging trucks I'm sure it pale in comparison to the good old days. Bike made it there and back and that's all I could ask. I've got the old battery on a charger but I don't think it's going to come back. Now I need to find a replacement, luckily it will be raining for a while so I have time.

$120AU plus postage which last time I sent some was, from memory, about $30AU. I'm on holiday in NZ at the moment but I'll price up freight when I'm back next week. On the subject of the Quota and other non V11, non 'Broad Sump' models I really believe that unless you are going racing a sloppage sheet or windage plate is overkill. With the V11's it is the combination of the shallow 'Broad' sump and the low gear ratios in the bottom end of the box coupled with the naff oil pick up location that makes the plate at the very least a wise investment if not a necessity.

hi tom. that front showa gold fork for my KTMito690. not for sale.

The New Zealand authorities have acted in an exemplary manner. A gun-crazed murderer caught alive? I doubt even England could manage that these days.

If / when you decide to look , make sure the magnets are still stuck / glued to the housing . Inspect each magnet to verify they are not broken or cracked . Use a bright light to examine for cracks . Look and make sure they are indexed perfectly opposite each other . It doesn't matter where they are just that they are separated equidistant from each other . HTH .

JRD, thanks for the feedback It's interesting you should find it necessary to increase the wire size but I can see why. I calculated that the Valeo starter solenoid should draw 50 Amps inrush at 12 Volts but in fact it's draws well under 40 Assuming you have the Startus Interuptus fix this would be due to the wire gauge and resistance in the relay and base along with the fuse resistance. I don't have figures for 18 gauge but between 14 and 16 it's about half. 3 feet of #16 would drop around 0.5 V at 40 Amps 3 feet of #14 would drop around 0.36 V at 40 Amps # 18 is probably closer to 1 Volt Any Guzzi after 2002 comes out of the factory with the Start relay wired through the ignition switch (including the 2008 Norge), this in my opinion is crazy, I wonder how much this has hurt Guzzi in lost repeat sales over the years. I still maintain the factory don't have a clue as to how the starter works. With the fix the inrush current will be more like 40 Amps so a 20 Amp fuse is appropriate.

Well its been several months so I thought I would update this post. As stated above I replaced the 15 amp fuse with a 20 amp and the problem persisted with and without the pigtail installed. Next step was remove the starter and inspect the internals of the solenoid. Spotless and no indication of corrosion inside or on any of the terminal ends. OK, what is consistent on this bike and others that have reported the same problem? The skinny yellow/orange thin wire from the starter relay to the starter solenoid and also, the LI starter relay. Called MG International and learned they had been having a run on these relays recently. Hmmmmm. Ordered new relays. Two days later (kudos MGI) received two Mitsubishi relays in the mail. While waiting for the new relays I replaced the skinny 18-20 ga. wire from the starter relay to the stater solenoid with a heavier 14 ga. wire. I even went back to the 15 amp fuse just to be safe. Well I am happy to report that after 4,500 miles in a 22 day trip from Florida to Nova Scotia, Canada and back, I DID NOT HAVE ONE SINGLE STARTER ISSUE!!!!!!! During the trip the 2009 Norge also on the trip began blowing the starter fuse. Replaced the relay to solenoid wire and used my spare new relay and he had no further issues either. Conclusion, I think the "startus interruptus" problem was caused by faulty relays, the wrong wire gauge or a combination of the two. Anyway, thanks so much to Wayne and everyone else who contributed information on this issue.

Jerry, "Startus Interuptus" is caused by too much Voltage drop in the solenoid circuit, The MPH fix cures that by bypassing the ignition switch, other owners simply snip the yellow wire going to pin 3 of the relay and splice a new hot to the relay end. I have a theory the factory don't even know about "SI" they only work on bikes with pristine components and their starter diagram bears no resemblance to reality. The VII ignition switch is really easy to remove and clean I don't know about the Norge The early VIIs like my 2001 never suffered because the start relay was wired from a dedicated fuse http://www.thisoldtractor.com/guzzi007/schematics/1999_V11_sport.gif Later VIIs suffer like all modern Guzzis from silly wiring. http://www.thisoldtractor.com/guzzi007/schematics/2004_V11_Sport_Catalytic.gif Trace the wire from terminal 30 of the start relay back to the battery, you will see the difference Early bikes will still start with switches measuring 10 - 20 Ohms because the heavy current by-passes the switch.