Greg Field

Enzo: You know damn well what I'm talking about: a rat's nest of shitty wiring patches throughout your bike. I've pointed it out to you several times. Each time you have told me how screwed up the wiring was made by the previous owner. Sell the Cobra or put it out of its misery. Why torture such a fine machine?

VG: If you had seen the state of his wiring, you would realize I ws not being haughty . . . understated would be more accurate.

Enzo: You and Jimmy may have done all that, but you did not spot the two frayed wires to the electric petcock. These are far more exposed and easy to see than most of the rest of the wiring. If you missed these, imagine what else you might have missed. It certainly could be the regulator, but it might not be. Remember the first fuse, way back on Wind River Road? Its plastic sheath was melted before it blew. That's from heat. Heat comes from resistance, as VG has already pointed out. Over current alone will just instantly blow the fuse. Just consider the possibility that you have multiple intermittant problems going on here. Such problems are the most frustrating to find and solve. Keep this in mind so that you do not get discouraged if the first attempt at fixing it fails. And look to all the shit that was changed or modified first.

Enzo, since you won't listen to me, listen to Doc. Your wiring is as bad as any I've ever seen. And I see plenty of bad. SOmewhere along the line, someone hacked and spliced and used shit connectors and so none of it is trustable. It may have a short that took out the first reg/rect. and will do in the new one.

I have a 1997 Sport 1100i engine with the sump completely taken off of it. The sump was taken off several years ago so I could take one of Pete's plates for the regular Guzzi engine and modify it to fit in Enzo's V11 Sport engine. During that effort, I screwed in its dipstick, laid a ruler across the bottom surface of the block, and looked at how the bottom surface and full mark on the dipstick compared. The full mark about 1/4 inch below the bottom of the engine block. A plate should work very well at limiting oil migration away from the pickup. Dr. John Wittner told me that the sump was broadened to make it have the required volume while reducing the depth because fast riders were dragging the old sump on the test machines. The pickup point was moved to allow the hatch that allows changine the filter without removing the sump. And how do I know the manual is wrong? Well, with the oil halfway between full and add, checked by my method, which means it would be very near the full mark checked by their method, I was able to starve the pump of oil under quick acceleration. That is proof that the Guzzi recommended oil level is too low for safe operation of the engine. Given the choice between believing the manual or what my oil-pressure gauge tells me, I'll believe the latter.

Nog: Every engine is a little different. Mine, for example, appears to consume little or no oil (no change in level 2,000 miles). From what I've seen, most of the oil consumption is in the form of oil that gets through the breather system and is routed to the airbox. The amount of this will depend greatly on the condition of your bike's ring seal and the interplay of all the components in your breather system. The dipstick thing is what we have been recommending at Moto I for several years. We have seen a lot of torched rod bearings, despite this advice. And it is noteworthy that the manuals for the Breva 1100 and Griso now recommend thise very same procedure. Keep yer erl topped up, for erl is far cheaper than crankshafts and bearings are.

TxRider: The plate will be sandwiched between the engine block and the top half of the sump. You will not need to remove it for oil changes, even if you remove the lower half of the sump.

I work at a Guzzi and Aprilia shop. The Ohlins forks and shock on both start leaking at fairly predictable mileages. How is it you think they reduced stiction on these components? TiN, sure, but also loose seals. Average seal life is probably 6,000 miles. The Ohlins shock on the back of Billy Bob is a warranty takeoff from a Scura that started leaking after about 5,000 miles. I had it rebuilt and will probably have to have it done again in about that many miles because I ride a lot of dirt roads, which is a very harsh environment for seals. The real Ohlins oi is also very expensive, about $60 a quart. Ohlins work great but the maintenance costs are high . . . So, who wants to get out from underneath their high-maintenance Ohlins forks?

Dave: Check your oil by slipping the dipstick into the hole but not engaging the threads. Yes, the factory manual says to thread it in, but the manual is wrong. Doing it this way reduces the likelihood of ever seeing the flickering oil light because the oil level will be higher to start. This will mean oil changes of 4 quarts or more. As for Guzzichondria, I'm not supposed to worry when my oil pressure goes to 0 and stays there for several seconds? (The oil level was halfway between full and add, as checked by the method described above, when the pressure went to 0 on a drag start.) Or even better: I'm not supposed to plumb in an oil gauge to find out if the flickering oil light is really problem at all? There's also a syndrome called "head in the sand" at work among Guzzisti.

Nog: With the dipstick screwed in, the "full" mark is just below where the sloppage plate will be. The plate isn't a perfect solution, but it looks to me like it will help.

Does it have the p.i. (hydraulic lifter) engine? If not, no worries about having the 1-plate clutch.

Pavel: Clutches have not been recalled. If they had been, yours would be eligible for a free fix, even out of warranty. Rather, those clutches that fail or are showing signs of failure are being replaced under warranty. It is POSSIBLE, though not likely, that a service manager could convince Guzzi to warranty yours. I will ask our service manager what the likelihood is and see if he has any time to pursue it. This is our very busiest time of our very busiest year, though, but I will do what I can. Before I do that, I need you to do a little inspection and report the results: 1) Can the cable be adjusted at either the handlebar or transmission end to get some freeplay in the cable? If so, do so and see if the clutch stops slipping. 2) From the right side of the bike look behind the transmission for a silver lever that pivots on the back cover of the transmission and to which the back end of the clutch cable is attached. Check to make sure it is not in contact with the frame or swingarm. If it is, you may be able to adjust it to get rid of the slipping. I'll tell how after you report back.

It should work on a Sporti. After all, the one I made for Enzo was made using my Sporti engine guts as the pattern.

I'm in. I don't really need another project right now but would really like to see this get done. If you want to do it, OK by me.

Yes, they should stup up. Don't look for them to, though. Clutch parts are listed as a wearing parts and thus not covered for the full warranty period, like brake rotors and pads, batteries, etc. Given that, I'm surprised they are replacing the single-plate clutches on the Calis at all and expect them to slam shut the door on this at any time, similarly to the way they did on warped brake rotors fairly recently. This is doubly likely to happen in the case of clutches because they do not have the parts and appear to be having great difficutly obtaining enough. The easy route for them would be to say, no more.

An '03 would have come with a single-plate clutch. Are you sure there is slack in the cable and that the clutch arm is not fouling the frame? Look at these first. The single-plate clutches do fail, usually in a few thousand miles or not until many tens of thousands of miles. If in warranty, we replace them with dual-plate clutches. Unfortunately, the parts supply for these is very spotty, and we have had to buy them from all over hte world in order to get enough to accomodate our customers. If out of warranty, we (Moto International) offer a replacement plate that is far more durable than the original. I put one of these warranty-takeoff single-platers with the new plate in my ELdo. It is the best Guzzi clutch (smooth takeup, low lever effort) that I have ever felt. I have less than 10,000 miles on it, so far, though all the miles have been in-city commuting, so I cannot tell you how many miles it will last.

Football, huh? Not really. The goalie uses his hands.

One reason soccer has never held any interest for me, either to play or to watch, is that the participants are barred the use of hands. Silly and artificial in a game for men, foregoing use of upper-body strength. This head butt shows how far "e-armulated" you soccer boys have become: Even when committing a blatant and violent foul on your fellow players you eschew your arms and hands. Too effing funny! Is a head butt less violent and more acceptable than punch or grabbing him wih hands and tossin him to the ground? What? Either let the players use their arms or disallow the goalie use of his, too. Make him block shots with his face only, perhaps?

Yeah, o-rings. My head's stuck in Eldorado-land, I guess.

Check the crush washer that seals the hole for the access plug to the short inboard cylinder stud.

Certainly, no apologies are necessary. I do think a windage plate will help, so long as we keep its aft half as free of holes as possible. I'll try to find time to start on a pattern this weekend. FWIW, I tried braking really hard last night also, just to see if it would starve from that, and it appeared not to.

So, in effort to merge into packed traffic from my position of a dead stop, I accelerated pretty hard into a tiny opening in traffic, keeping one eye on my mechanical oil-pressure gauge. Not only did the gauge's needle twitch this time, it went all the way to zero and stayed there for several seconds as I chopped power in order to avoid harm to my rod bearings. Finally, it stopped sucking air, and the oil pressure quickly rose to normal, and I was able to accelerate into the traffic hole. This is not OK. Time to build a windage tray or some sort of dam around the pickup before my bearings die a slow death by periodic starvation. I checked oil when I got home, and it was halfway between full and the add line. Damn. I did not need another project . . .

Since mounting my Billy Bob's headlight on V11 Sport headlight mounts, I have put both the Guzzi carbon-fiber fairing and the Coppa fairing on, and there was no 2 inch extension with either fairing.

OV: I ride year round in Seattle, in saltwater rain. The best stuff for failsafe pickling of metal is a product for firearms called Rustguard-it. It's a waxy type coating that works great but is a mess to clean up in the spring. Parts ike axles can be left permanently pickled, though.

Sorry to hear of your plight. Yes, a lawyer might be necessary to get this fixed, or at least marked well. In the meantime, heal well!