Dan M

Sorry, but I awoke to yet another snowfall this morning, I have not been able to ride anything two wheeled since late November and perhaps I harbor some resentment toward the Luigis who stayed behind and didn't migrate to the land of opportunity as my grandparents did. Because if my ancestors stayed behind, I'd likely be waking in San Benedetto on the Adriatic today which seems like a better place to be right now. And besides in my view the Luigis have not suffered at all. Like I said, spending the average midday hours sitting in a cafe musing about Italian motorcycle design is not what I consider a life of suffering. So excuse my lingering ill will but it seems like an appropriate focus. All joking aside, if they did engineer these things like Hondas what would we talk about? Seems you & I are in agreement about the plastic thing Ratch. I believe it slows response and makes fuel mapping easier especially for the WW2 era ecu we use. Sometimes in the effort to improve things we get away from the hows and whys things were designed to operate and we create problems.

That's the genius of it Raz. At some point in the late 1990s at a cafe on the shores of Como after an afternoon of linguine, several Peronis and a few grappas to top it off. It was discovered while doing some figuring on a Campari cocktail napkin that if you take a coolant sensor, mount it in a plastic holder and locate it on the inside surface of a V's cylinder head, viola! you get oil temperature.

I agree. Once a design gets to production they pinch pennies at every turn. Sometimes changes are made post production but MG used this combo of plastic holder and an air gap for a number of years. It does look to me like every coolant temp sensor I've ever seen. I think the plastic holder was a stop-gap fix. If I recall there is no way the sensor can make metal to metal contact with the original plastic holder. It seems to me the factory mapping was done with the plastic holder in the mix. Any changes that will cause different readings (accurate or not) will alter the fueling. The plastic holder and air gap will not only insulate the sensor from showing actual temp but it will have much slower response to changes. Like Pete said that style sensor is usually in coolant. Liquid cooled engines change temp much slower and keep a much more even temp than air cooled. I'm thinking the insulating plastic is used to mimic that and slow readings. Like I said in an earlier post, after I packed mine with paste to take up the gap, I experienced some lean misfires on hot days. (the bike fueled perfectly before that) I don't know if there was a correlation but it would follow that if the temp sensor was seeing hotter temps than before it would be leaner. This spring I will certainly try to run it the way it came from the factory. Just throwing stuff out here. Edit: Greg, when setting up V11s were you altering mapping at the same time or just adding the brass & paste.

Inspiration sure, what about hero worship? Thanks John, great video.

Sonofabitch. I wish I could play too. I love this stuff. It's 11F here with about 10" of snow cover. The garage is heated but not big enough to ride around in. Edit: it would be interesting to know how fueling would react if the brass holder had some some small holes for air circulation. You don't have 2 do you?

Please do. Am I the only one that finds it curious that MG designs the map on a temp calculation rather than actual head temp? I've always practiced having good clean contact between temp sensors and the surface of whatever they are reading. The sensors can convey a fairly accurate read to the ecm if they are contact. So, one would ask, why the air gap? I wonder if it is because we are dealing with an air cooled head and temp varies considerably compared to a liquid cooled motor. Perhaps in situations like running slow in traffic with a high head temp the engineers were avoiding leaning out of the mix creating even hotter combustion temps. The air gap might not only lower the temp of the sensor but slow the response too. Seems there must be a reason? Just thinking out loud, winter in Chicago and all of that.

Here's a place that makes them in pewter. Can't find a Guzzi but they'll put a photo on it for you. Just a thought, you may want to have one made with a pic of an XGF so you can enjoy seeing her with bugs in her teeth. http://www.beltbuckleshop.com/page/belt/CTGY/photo

Unless you get one of these...

Snow is doable and sometimes even fun on a dirt bike as long as you are off pavement but as the boys above said, leave the full size street bike at home. Black ice will put you down faster than you can get "sonofabitch" out of your mouth. Take the Jeep. There will be plenty of time to ride later.

Pete, you should think about putting your skills to use developing some impractical Ducati, no, better yet, Harley Davidson gadget that promises a lifetime of reliability and more horsepower. Much bigger audience who collectively can not pass up such bolt on miracles. (one born every minute as they say) You then can buy a big enough boat and stock it with enough beer to have a proper party for all of your Moto Guzzi brethren here. EDIT: Disclaimer: Note the use of emoticons indicating a light hearted nature to this post. No persoal attacks intended and poster does not make reference to any items currently developed by or sold by any forum member. (other than oil filter hose clamps, of course)

This may be obvious but back it off a quarter turn then tighten it.

Too cool.

Hey Rich, The injector is a simple solenoid. Unplug the injector and see which wire is hot with the key on (they will both be hot when plugged in because the power is going through the injector) Once you determine which one has power, plug it back in and back probe the other wire with a 12V test light. Hook the clip of the test light to battery +. Crank the engine. The light should flash as the ECU is grounding the injector. It is a very short pulse, only a few milliseconds so the light will not light bright but you should see it flicker. Obviously a lab scope is the right way to check for injector signal but you should be able to see the light flash. Verify the flashing matches the working side. Hope this helps.

Here we go... Ten months ago I called this thread "molly warming" in post #18. Guess it just had to simmer for awhile. tic-toc, tic-toc

Excellent way to check for any vacuum leak. Just keep the propane away from your plug wires in case one is faulty and don't smoke.

Regardless of manufacturer or quantity made, those valve covers are beautiful. In 2008 I did the Marvic wheels, Pirelli Diablos (170 rear) and a headlamp relay. Other than that it was just fine tuning. I recently bought a 2007 Tuono R. Looks like my modification $ are headed elsewhere this year. I originally thought I would have to sell the LeMans. But as of now I'm keeping her.

Remember, you can read 12.7 or more and not have a fully charged battery. You may be reading surface charge. If you are using a tender, give it at least 10 hours on charge before trying it again. The rapid clicking is certainly a sign of not enough battery power to hold the solenoid in. If you do get it to crank the cranking speed should be considered along with the voltage gstallons gave you. Measuring during cranking, if voltage is 11 to 11.5 and the engine is cranking normally things are good. If the voltage is lower yet the the engine seems to crank OK the battery is likely to be a little weak. If the voltage is higher and the engine cranks slowly you have a faulty connection between the battery and the starter. There can be an issue with the starter drawing too much amperage making the battery appear weak but it is not likely. You would need more testing equipment to isolate that trouble. I'm confident after you completely charge that battery things will be good again.

Good health and happiness to all.

Gesundheit from me too Carl. That is a great resource for the rest of us.

It sounds like a discharged battery to me too. Although in your first post you say all you got was a succession of rapid clicks but in this post you say the starter is cranking well. Which is it? There can be plenty of power to run the lights and fuel pump but the starter draws a great deal more. If it is clicking rapidly, you probably wore the battery down by repeated starts then didn't run it long enough of at high enough RPM to get it to charge back up. That rapid clicking is coming from the starter solenoid. That tells you the power is making it there (rules out all of the switches) but you just don't have enough umph to crank it. As others have said, put it on a charger for several hours. And try not to start it 4 times before every ride.

Yes, happy holidays to all and a healthy & prosperous 2009!

+1 on the MPH kit. Comes with brake & clutch lines. Has an added benefit of spacing your grips about 2"-3" further apart for greater leverage.

I use ATT mobile with a basic 4 band phone. Besides the US, I've used it with good results in Europe & Mexico.

Always bad to hear this kind of news. Heal quickly and get back on the horse Orson.