Pressureangle

Ohai, For you guys in the Spineraid garage, the terminals I found and cleaned were not the run switch, they are the brake light switch wires. I went for a ride of about an hour and a half, and the intermittent run fail appeared right at the end of the ride, though very mildly. I'll have the tank off today to investigate all the connections and connectors as well as the relay connections and ignition switch and ECU connections.

Today, I tested; The old starter, when hit with the battery, actually turned- and intermittently spun, slowed, stopped, shook loose and turned again. I performed amp draw (best I could holding the meter and screwdriver) I used a good automotive battery on the old starter, so it may deliver more peak amps than the bike's Odyssey. That said, test results peak observed amp draw; New starter, 54a to start, ~40a turning the motor Old starter; 80a min turning, 394a siezed. I did not miss the decimal point.

Backstory; Starter front bearing locked up on my '97 1100 Sport-i. It appears to be the original starter, but may not be. I replaced it with the $100 'not-Valeo' unit from MG Cycle. It appears that the only difference between the two is the sticker- even the rivets holding the housing together are identical. It fit perfectly, spun fast, started instantly. Never has it started so quickly and easily before, and it's been cold for over a week. Huzzah. To dig just a bit deeper, I've had this bike for ~15,000 miles now. I've only used this new starter one time, but it's apparent that the old starter had been working hard for quite some time- even though the cranking speed never made me think that anything was going wrong. I've had a lithium battery and now Odyssey in it, and with the lithium it cranked and started easier, but the reserve crank on the lithium just wasn't good enough. With the Odyssey, I had to crank it 3-4 times to get it to fire. After the starter locked and the battery 'failed' I brought it home, checked the battery which I thought had shorted and verified that it was in fine shape. Here's the punchline- the locked starter took the fully charged Odyssey to ~5.6 volts while (attempting) to crank. The ECU if it's of standard construction won't operate below about 9.5 volts. So my wager is that this starter had been drawing too much amperage for quite a long time before it seized and gave up completely. I think I'm going to dig out my Amp gauge and measure both the new starter in situ, and the old starter on the bench for comparison; the purpose and question here is, 'is this slow, long-term failure common?'. Has anyone done an amp draw on theirs as a matter of interest in the past?

Can't know until I can start it. After the garage find, I went 4 miles to my lodge and back to the coffee shop where it died. Starter on order. The cheap scary one from MG Cycle.

So, at least Odyssey is off the hook for a failed battery. starter

"Packard style" references the origin in the Packard Motor Company. Loosely, Packard style wires have a conductive wrap around the center conductor to absorb and redirect EFI, as opposed to using center conductor resistance to mitigate EFI. This also reduces the pressure to jump through the insulation, making them far more resistant and durable to rubbing and point failures. Nology is the best, FireCore has proven themselves to be without fault over 10 years of personal use, and I can't recall the name of the company in Cleveland that manufactures their own wires, and may be the source for 'USA' branded wires like Taylor, Moroso etc. which have pretty good history. FireCore and Nology will both custom make wires for you if you give them dimensions. With Nology, it's mandatory since you can't make them up on the bench. As you know, the 'Sport hasn't had any electrical upgrades, so is running with the stock wires and new NGK caps.

Also on my '97 Sport. When purchased, the cam sensor was already bad. When replacing, I carefully moved everything away from the plug leads and coil bodies as much as possible- this really should be standard practice always. Still that dip was there, noticeable to me even after tuning the MyECU. What cured it was the timing gears. I still have no solid explanation for that. I haven't even looked, are the plug cables replaceable? In any case where it matters or I have the opportunity, I use Packard-style USA made plug leads for replacement, or Nology HotWires in critical applications. EFI control is good in both.

Well it was good to see everyone and at least make an appearance... Following the electrical discovery in the garage Saturday night, I came to coffee the following morning, and when went to leave the battery completely failed; 12.54v at rest (low from cranking obv.) to 5.4 while attempting to start. That Odyssey PC545 doesn't have 200 miles on it, a few months old, and has been on my NOCO smart charger no less than 3 times for insurance before this trip. So I put everything on the trailer and watched all the Indiana Jones movies. I never realized how awful the sequels are. Monday, moved the truck to put up the other bike, and the bendix on the truck starter exploded. Literally finger-spin dead. Brand new Powermaster $300 unit with *maybe* 2000 miles on it. So unload the one good bike, bring a starter from NAPA and do a parking lot change. We did get home uneventfully, eventually. Bleah.

We're at the Mountain View Cabins, just off the Cherohala. I'll drop in after eating for a looky-loo if the garage isn't overfull.

Got the truck fixed, may come tonight if I can find a room lol otherwise, tomorrow morning to say hello and pick up my package. God willing and the creek don't rise.

It's a long wait, but I don't even know if there's any way to get it sent from anywhere near the Lodge. Thanks for the offer, if I can't get something else working before then I'll take you up on it.

We're between Martin and Lavonia just off I-85, northeast. South of Toccoa.

So... Yeah, not gonna make it. I have room 202 booked Tonight (thursday) through Sunday night, so if you're looking for a room it's open. 500 miles into the trip, the PCM on the pickup puts me in limp mode. While investigating, discover that the tail cover has gone missing since the last gas stop. Nice. So I've had my seat shipped up to the Lodge at great expense from home. Drive 1-1/2 hour at 45mph. Changed some components this morning. Ignition module and coil, test was good; got 10 miles up the road, back in limp mode. WTF. Back to the house, unload and repack to ride the bikes up- only 3 hours. 15 miles up the road the Sport decides to get the hot sneezes, leading to a long slow jerky ride back to the house. Of course, the last restart and 5 miles it ran flawlessly. Did I mention I forgot to load my spares for both the truck and the bike? If somebody can be so kind as to receive my seat/bag from UPS and send it to me here in GA, I'll fix you up with a box of Krispy Kreme donuts and the freight bill- since the seat bag also has my truck spare PCM in it. FML

My housemate has recently acquired her cycle endorsement, after wishing after it for decades. She learned to ride on my '74 Aermacchi, and will eventually graduate to my '89 Mille GT- which she likes very much already and will probably end up owning it. But she's not a forum lurker.

Still toying with the notion of bringing the Aermacchi.

Mine was generous enough that it wasn't an issue, but what I'd do is take a round jeweler's file and open the small hole as necessary.

Has anyone actually scaled their V11 for an accurate wet weight?

Here's a professional update, with professional protocols. https://covid19criticalcare.com/covid-19-protocols/

Though at first it seems so, my '85 LeMans went through tires at the same pace- and I put so many more miles on the 'Guzzis than I did on anything else I ever owned, changing tires happens much more frequently so maybe it only *seems* like they wear out faster. I don't remember ever owning another motorcycle that I put a third set of tires on before owning a Goose.

In prep for my 'long tour' I started with the Bridgestone T31's. They lasted 5k miles, the last half of which was from Yellowstone NP through Montana, Idaho, the Cascade range and down the coast to San Jose where I got them changed. I say 5k miles, but I didn't actually get them off until pretty near 7k- and it was scary how worn they were. The point is that they never gave any indication while riding them hard in the canyons that they lost any grip. I replaced them with Pirelli Angel GTs before hitting the Southern California canyons and back to Florida. The meaningful distinctions; The Bridgestones lasted longer, were extremely stable at high speeds (not to say the Pirelli's are not, but less) and though they were both 160/60 rears the Bridgestone was significantly taller. The Pirelli's are more agile and confident in hard tight turns. My next fitup will be a Bridgestone T31 160/60 rear and Pirelli Angel GT Front though I may try a different front just for comparison.

There's no obvious defect in the photos. Consider the possibility that the threads in the upper portion have a crack or porosity. I'd have to find the root for peace of mind, but even if that's the case (no pun intended) I'd just use a high quality thread sealer like Gasoila, and let it ride. There is no pressure to speak of down there, and as mentioned above oil level can be a contributor. While the bottom is off, check your dipstick against the Roper Plate to see if you actually have oil standing on the joint at rest. On my '97 Sport, the high mark on the dipstick is actually just at the top of the plate, so I run at about halfway between the low and high marks.

Let's have a photo of the gasket surface. If you have a good straightedge, or a good flat piece of glass, or even a surface plate to check flatness that would be good too. Your photo isn't clear enough after posting to see details, but I see what could be a crack. If it's flat and the gasket surface doesn't have any defects, you have to verify the crack- you'll need a magnaflux or dam it up enough to make a puddle and leave it sit with acetone in it to see if it creeps through. Not an easy task.

Thanks guys, It's been more rewarding than I expected to be able to keep these plates available and keep the cost down. As for the leaky bolt, if it's one of the plate bolts it can only be as Lucky Phil says, I think all of the wide joint bolts are blind holes or outside the oil box. I wouldn't think warpage is a problem, but I just had the sump off my '89 Mille GT and the gasket surface was hammered by somebody who must not have known there were the 4 hidden bolts inside the perimeter. It took some time with a large mill file to get it flat enough to make me feel good about it sealing. Then I forgot to tighten those 4 inner bolts, and discovered so by finding one of them laying under the bike after the test ride.

Let me throw some kindling around the conversation. 1. These are motorcycles. In no universe can either electric or ICE be construed as "Good for the environment". It's an argument of degree and scale, not + or -. 2. ICE and electric are not mutually exclusive. They both exist to serve your leisure. So does your pool, and your pool table, and lawn mower. There is no philosophical difference. 3. The debate about the origins of the electricity do not encompass any place in the positive end of 'good for the environment'. Only the degree of the negative end. That said, I would not trade any one of my ICE bikes for any electric, regardless of the economic stupidity of that statement. But given the right circumstances, I'd absolutely add one to the stable.

It seems unlikely, but has anyone ever seen a broken spring or trash holding the pressure regulator open? I've seen it in automotive before, if rarely. As long as we've opened the 'unlikely scenario' can of worms, has anyone ever seen a sheared oil pump key, where the sprocket remained in place but loose from the pump?