MartyNZ

I removed, backflushed and cleaned my injectors when I did some work on my fuel system at 80,000km. My injectors were held in with loctite on the screws, so don't do this if you don't have time and patience. While I was replacing the fuel filter & hoses, I noticed some brown fuzz matted in the external fuel pump intake screen. I found lots more on the tank outlet manual shutoff screen, and a little of the same stuff in the screen of the pressure regulator. Where did it come from? My guess was an old fuel filter was slowly coming apart. I decided that there must be some of this fuzz in the injector inlets too, so I took them out, and backflushed them. I also washed out the fuel tank with hot water & detergent. Afterwards the bike ran just the same as it did before : awesome! So do you need to remove your injectors and back-flush? Probably not, but if you are like me, you want to. Scud posted a picture of the backflush tool. There is two kits, one in NZ, one in USA, so just ask one of us if you want a loan. http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18805&page=17&do=findComment&comment=215317

No, but it won't meltdown, it just stops lighting anymore. If the fan stops, then the LED will fail as soon as the heatsink gets too hot, which may be 10 minutes, or never. Hi-power LEDs have a limited life, anywhere between 5,000 hours and 50,000 hours, depending mostly on the temperature of the silicon chip. As they age, they gradually get dimmer (after about 30,000 hours). Cooler is better, hence the fan.

This is a good question! The fan is mentioned here: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19941&page=2&do=findComment&comment=220873 The incandescent lamp is tolerant of the heat that it generates, and most of the 60-80 watts of heat leaves via the glass at the front. A LED is a little solid state chip of silicon, and the 30-40 watts or so of power would destroy it if it wasn't bonded to a heatsink. It can't withstand its own heat without it, so the heatsink conducts heat away to the surrounding air. The heatsink without a fan would be large. Using a fan means the heat transfer to air is faster over the little fins, so a smaller surface area is needed on the heat sink. There are options that don't need a fan, they are always larger, but don't have any moving parts. I fitted a LED lamp without a fan, believing that it will last longer (have you had a computer fan fail?) and so far I'm it happy with it. http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18532&page=4&do=findComment&comment=209448

Steven, you make some interesting and helpful points, but you included some criticisms without much explanation. It may help those of us who wonder "is he talking about me?" to elaborate on some things. You say: "... ignorant speculation and assumptions over the internet..." & "...a lot of bad assumptions being made by people who are not subject matter experts...". Do those comments refer to this topic, this forum, or elsewhere?

Amazon are watching Scud's distribution center techniques closely, and hope to use them themselves. I know that I will, when the NZ allocation arrives.

You can buy the bits at https://www.stein-dinse.biz/Complete-partlist/Unsorted/Plastic-angle-90-GRAD-hand-and-rear-master-cylinder::227475.html I bought one from Moto International, along with the rebuild kit 110436292. . BTW, brake fluid or brake cylinder assembly lubricant is best for lubricating brake hydraulic system parts. Scud did an excellent test which shows that WD-40 swells brake system rubber parts. http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19330

I don't know anything about reliability of the neutral switch, but I see on the circuit diagram that it provides a ground for two items. 1/ neutral light ground. 2/ sidestand relay coil ground. If you short the wire at the neutral switch to ground somewhere on the bike, while the ignition switch is on, you should hear the sidestand relay click, and see the neutral light come on. If yes to both, you have a faulty neutral switch. It may just need cleaning. Exercising the switch with lots of solvent or WD40 may clean it. Or you could take up Scud's offer. Guzzi PN GU19207220.

You know if we can ship some here to Aus I can distribute and probably fit them as well if needed. Ciao I'd be happy to act as NZ distributor. If Scud's field test proves ok, and anyone else in NZ is interested in a genuine Improved Spring designed by Chuck, you could send me a personal message. I can send on at cost.

As they say, "standing on the shoulders of giants". This forum is full of knowledgeable and helpful people (including you). That's the reason that my bike is roadworthy. Incidentally Cash1000 took my bike for a thrash around the block, which could have been harmless, but he made my "to do" list longer. He said my bike vibrated more than his, so I'm going to dig out the synchronizing manometer this weekend. Also his front disks were thicker than mine. Out with the vernier, my disks are worn below the minimum thickness that Brembo stamped on them. Sigh!

There were two faults, both related to the relays. In the relay base, a connector spade lug was pushed back from the starter relay terminal. This was 87A on the start relay which is wired to terminal 30 of the headlight relay. Being pushed back meant that it made intermittent contact with terminal 87A on the starter relay. We then followed Kiwi_Roy's instructions and tightened all the relay base connections. http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15718 Also we found an ugly burnt wire splice at the headlight relay, which jumpered pins 85 & 87. Possibly put there to repair a headlight relay which had gone bad at one time, or they didn't have a 5 pin relay available. Took the splice out, repaired the partially melted wires, fitted a 5 pin starter relay, and everything seemed to work. Waiting to hear from Cash1000, hopefully everything was fine when he got home. I forgot to check that the battery was charging after all the poking around. We are going to do a combined order of Docc's recommended relays, as some of the relays that have accumulated in our tool kits are a bit manky. Docc says here: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19755&page=5#entry216605 *Best* relay commonly available for the V11 appears to be the High-Current OMRON G8HE-1C7T-R-DC12 available from DigiKey here: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/omron-electronics-inc-emc-div/G8HE-1C7T-R-DC12/Z5645-ND/2755412

The wee guy must have got something right with all his wild flailing around. Cash1000 tooted his horn as he left this evening.

I think you could be overstating things. Cash1000 has seen my shed. See pic Kiwi Maintenance.jpg We may just drink beer, and hope the little guy knows what he is doing. We don’t want to look as if we’re trying too hard, just in case someone is watching. ... and Beer Island... That beer island was a great trick to beat the New Year "booze ban" on that beach. Even the local cop was impressed. It was an international cooperative venture (well NZ & USA anyway) . https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/100305744/meet-the-crew-who-built-new-zealands-booze-ban-island I'm surprised that there were no Aussies involved. Some of them take their beer drinking seriously.

I think you could be overstating things. Cash1000 has seen my shed. See pic We may just drink beer, and hope the little guy knows what he is doing. We don’t want to look as if we’re trying too hard, just in case someone is watching.

Nigel, If you can make the trip into town interesting enough that you don't die of boredom on the way, you could visit next weekend and we could try a few things that were suggested. I have meters to measure horn current and earth resistance, enough spare relays to troubleshoot, and enough grease, goo, and goop for a lifetime. KiwiRoy's relay base repair fixed an intermittent snag on my bike, so we can check that. I have beer too. PM me. Marty

Yes, happy 2018 Docc & everyone. Just to provide a global perspective, us southern hemisphere Guzzi owners are enjoying a great summer. Not everyone on the planet is miserably cold at the moment. The photo is of a little care and feeding for my V11, using the new maintenance stand I finally got around to making. Having the bike sit level overnight on this stand means that I can check the, engine, gearbox & transmission oil levels accurately. Shockproof Heavy is too thick to show the level on the gearbox sight glass when I hold the bike up off the sidestand. Usually I got tired of waiting, and added oil. The gearbox oil "leak" disappeared when I drained the oil level down to the middle of the sight glass after settling overnight. The bevel box was a little overfull too. Just removing the level plug after sitting on the stand overnight drained off a little excess oil.

I plan to cut the rear driveshaft spline "pinch slot" a little deeper, next time I have it apart, so there is better clamping onto the bevel box input spline. Mine has a tiny amount of free play that I think might lead to spline wear.

One thing that is difficult to design against is vibrations. Could the spring buzz itself to death? Are there any wear marks where the spring sits in the shifter mechanism? If, for example the spring resonates at 4000rpm, then the fatigue cycle count could get into very high numbers without much shifting. Changing the resonance frequency could make a steel spring last forever if the design stresses were below the fatigue limit. A resonance change could come from different thickness wire, different length spring, different oil in gbox. Just a thought. I know it doesn't help your design, but it may explain why you can't break that spring by shift cycles alone.

...and me too! I'll buy two. I expect someone over here could use one, and I'll use the other. For interest, I had two broken shift springs examined under a microscope by an expert. He said both springs broke at defects in the wire, one at a rust pit, the other at a gouge from something like pliers or clamping jaws. So a marginal original spring design, plus a defect in the wire, can equal a slow trip home.

Nigel, I may be able to clobber something up, but I'd need your chin pad for a few days, sometime after 12 November. When you say "a lot flatter", do you want it completely flat (easiest to make) or do you want some curvature? You would have to paint it yourself. Would aluminum alloy be okay, or do you need steel for magnetic attachment? If steel, then it should be cadmium plated before painting if you want durability, but this adds costs.

My bike is set to 0.25mm (0.010") on both in & ex, and it is awesome.

Never mind, I saw the red seat with Öhlins and got excited... Yes, it looks a bit like a Scura R, but has Marzocchi forks. That red seat is kangaroo hide. The owner is an upholsterer, and he made an excellent job of covering the seat. It looks great. Which bike is that? Can you copy/paste an image? Sorry Docc, I couldn't find a way to paste the pics, but links are below instead. Maybe Jaap's new security settings changed pasting? https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxnfKnNo4vVwMjFsYlJmS0FHVjg/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxnfKnNo4vVwR2V3cWlSemQ2b1E/view?usp=sharing

Never mind, I saw the red seat with Öhlins and got excited... Yes, it looks a bit like a Scura R, but has Marzocchi forks. That red seat is kangaroo hide. The owner is an upholsterer, and he made an excellent job of covering the seat. It looks great.

I didn't notice a Scura, but could be wrong. DD had his Nero Corsa there, doing dangerous things. He set off first from Hilltop towards Akaroa, so I thought "I'll follow him". But at the first downhill, off camber, blind corner, where he passed two cars, I thought "No I won't". That guy made it look so easy.

Yeah, there were two Magnis there. One built on a Daytona engine with lots of goodies added, the other built with an 1100i engine/gearbox, but both had that clever parallelogram swingarm. That yellow moto batt battery on the 1100i Magni did stand out alright, and I thought it distracted from the good looks of the rest of the bike, but I'm sure he knows that. As for the rally name, I think it was originally called Rattley Tappet, but I don't know what why the change. Perhaps the Griso riders felt excluded?

About 70 people showed up for the 24th Tattley Rappet 2017 Moto Guzzi rally. There was a few V11s, some newer Guzzis, and a lot of older Guzzis. I set off for the first meeting on Friday evening, stalled on the way, and no restart! Relay failure! Just as well I had five spares stashed in the monkey paw trap. (Thanks Docc). We went over the hill to Akaroa on a Poker Run on Saturday, and we went to Kaikoura on Sunday. I got passed several times on the twisties by guys on round barrel Le Mans bikes. Even a scruffy Convert with a 1000 LeMans engine was no slouch. Those things are awesome, or is it the riders? Some of us went north past Kaikoura, on as far as the road is still open. It was closed by slips after a quake a year ago, but should be open again by the end of the year. On the way home I stopped at Parnassus to get fuel. It was an unattended fuel stop, but it took ages to get fuel. 15 minutes talking to a local guy, then fuelled up, then there was another quake, or was it an aftershock? (5.8 is enough to get your attention). There was a cop with a radar just down the road, and he drove up to me and he said "didja feel that? I'm not staying parked under those power lines with that kind of carry on". He was a motorbike cop in Christchurch in his early years, but he was polite enough not to say anything about my bike. So that took another 15 minutes swapping stories with him before I got going again. Good weather, great people, excellent weekend. Apparently the next Tattley Rappet will be in Palmerston North in 2018. Pictures of bikes here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BxnfKnNo4vVwWmZkNkNaam5Pdmc?usp=sharing Look out for the little Stornello there. The owner just finished restoring it, and rode furtherest to get to the rally. If the pictures don't open for you, please PM me and I'll try posting another way.