guzzimeister

Hi, almost certainly a TPS failure. Fuel pressure would have to be very low to give the symptoms you describe, and crank phase sensor failure is on/off ie won't run at all. Weak battery is unlikely but not unknown, but bear in mind the TPS operates at 4.8v so again unlikely. You will need to check voltages at idle (around 150mv) and full throttle (around 4.8v)

Hi Brent, most likely and easiest to check - faulty barke light switch. The rear brake cylinder is fitted with e pressure switch on the top with two wires connecting to it. Simply short these out with the ignition on and if the light shows, there is your problem. Next problem will be to get a replacement. If you can't leave the brake cylinder as it is (it will work fine), but you'll have to connect a brake switch via a spring to the rear brake pedal as per old British bikes or your R90S, and run the wires to that instead - very cheap and effective. You may find a FIAT or similar Italian pressure switch (oil pressure) to fit, looks very similar to a FIAT engine pressure sender to me. Hope this helps and enjoy the bike Cheers Guzz

Hi JB the later ones can screw straight in. Re the washer, it's not shown there but it's a standard feature unfortunately on the big blocks. I would draw the spindle straight out, and check if you can see a washer there - almost impossible. If in doubt, put some grease on the end of the spindle, push it in again and withdraw slowly and the washer should come out. If not maybe it was not fitted. V11s, especially early ones were a bit variable and they certainly had a series of largely undocumented changes throughout their lives. So maybe they deleted it on later models. Hope I haven't worried you unnecessarily. Cheers Guzz

Hi be very careful if you are lifting the drive shaft with the worm gear up out of the gearbox. There is a thrust washer underneath it which can (will) fall into the gearbox. The angle drive is not essential. Later V11s had a drive cable screwing directly into the gear box with out the angled drive. Angled drive virtually unobtainable now. I would check the lubrication of the drive cable itself. I greased mine after two drive failures and never had another one. They are poxy weak little things anyway. Cheers Guzz

Hi if it's running continuously, definitely a failure in the pressure reg in the return line, rare but not unknown. That would explain all the above plus non starting, as it gradually failed. Standard fuel injection part, available at a good FI specialist, needs to be set to 3.2 Bar. hope this helps Guzz

Hi speaking as one who eventually changed 3 TPSs over 90000 miles, it has all the symptoms of TPS, or a lambda sensor failure. I had the latter problem with pretty much the same symptoms on a V7. As the TPS (marelli PF3) is now almost unobtainable and was 300 Euros when I last bought one, I would suggest doing a lambda sensor check first. This consists of measuring cold resistance as a start, but it might just be easier to buy a new one as it's a standard Marelli part and about £40 if you shop around. Try also just unplugging it and starting the engine - it won't damage anything, and if it runs ok you've found the problem. That's how I fixed the V7. The TPS can be replaced with a Marelli PF4, as used on MY2000 H-D Evolution engines, about $50 in 2009 when I bought one.

Hi one other pointer. On mine the prop shaft coupling to the bevel box was loose on the shaft despite tightening the pinch bolts as hard as I dared. I cured this by disconnecting the shaft from the bevel box, smearing Quicksteel (metal loaded epoxy) over the shaft and reassembling. The bevel box pivot bearing is the most likely culprit, it's an unsealed very cheap roller bearing which rusts to nothing in 2 years if not regularly greased. This allows the box to wobble on the wheel spindle producing the clunk as play is taken up under load. Cheers Guzz

Hi Denis give me a call on 07912 540160, so I can understand wht the nature of the problem is and how I can help Cheers Jon

Hi the nut is a bog standard nut, as is the washer. I bought a stainless version with nyloc for around £3. Quite sure you will find an engineering supplier who can help. Cheers Guzz

Hi the ECU uses a basic table of TPS position i.e. fuelling against rpm. This basic table is modified a few per cent either way depending on what the oil and air temperatures are, the air pressure, and what the lambda sensor is saying about the combustion, The Power Commander simply alters those values for each box in the table depending on what you enter into it. The values given are per centage changes in the original fuelling values for each of the TPS % vs RPM boxes It just adds its values (a tiny voltage correction) to any values in the original ECU map. My advice: don't worry about any of this, just get out there and use it. The beauty of the PC is that if you put in a fuel map that doesn't suit the bike, you can immediately plug it into the laptop and go back to any other mad you like, it takes 30 seconds. You don't need a dyno to optimise the settings although it's easier. I set mine up by trial and error (just like we used to do with carbs), noting the rpm/throttle opening every time I found a flat spot, and then adjusted the value for the combination (and say the two either side of it) by 2%. If it made it better I kept it, if it didn't I deleted it. It took me a year to get it right, but it's very satisfying when you do. And a lot easier than carbs. Any further advice, I would be happy to help. Cheers Guzz

Hi Guy not had an injector leak but I did have a nasty incident where the supply pipe to the regulator slit and sprayed petrol vapour everywhere. Couldn't understand why everybody got out of my way as I pulled into the local bike caff......... might be worth checking for split pipes too rather than the injectors. As these are the same as used on various cars in Europe, and I have never seen a leaking injector, it would seem more likely. The leak didn't affect the running of my bike either.... certainly made me run once I realised what was happening. Cheers Guzz

Hi just a word of warning based on my own experiences. My V11 has around 75K miles on it and up to 60K miles, it was eating wheel bearings quite regularly, 3 times at the front and 4 at the rear. Being a suspicious sort, I then checked the bearing spacer length and compared it to the distance between the bearing mounting faces, and found the front was 0.2mm undersize and the rear 0.5mm(!). I then reassembled new bearings with bearing shims to correct the problem and have had no problems since. The bearings incidentally are very common sizes, and are available anywhere. Two frustrations for me are the lack of any weather protection, just the rubber seals on the bearings, and those bloody different sizes at the front....... Cheers Guzz

Hi fellow masochists just a postscript to this discussion, but alu porosity is a well-known curse of the casting industry, especially die castings. I used to be involved in such stuff, and porosity usually occurs where there is a sharp change of cross-sectional area, or in very thick pieces. Standard cure is to avoid such features if possible, but where it is not, foundries use vacuum impregnation to fill it (like the sound of that). Basically the casting is put into a vacuum chamber filled with resin which fills the holes. Guzzi at one time even sold a two pack resin to fix such issues, I think there is a number for it in the V11 spares list. I also have Royal Enfields, and the standard procedure was to paint the inside of all crankcases with a paint called Glyptol, which did much the same thing at a surface level. Thanks for letting me empty my over-crowded brain of a little useless trivia; now to fill it with some more..... Cheers Guzz

Hi lights that should come on when the ignition is turned on are: Neutral, Battery, Oil pressure. There are no electronics on this bike except for the ECU, so don't expect any dinky pre-fireup test routine. If the batt light is not lighting, I would check the wires of the regulator, especially the single wire on its own (white on my bike). If this is not connected there is no voltage sensing and the reg may fry your battery. You can check if all is well by starting the bike up with a voltmeter across the batt terminals. If at 1000 rpm it's showing around 12.8 - 13.5v, and at 3000RPM it's showing between 13.5 and 15v all is well. Above 15v indicated either voltage sensing fault (broken wire usually), poor earth to the reg (see various posts in this forum), or a reg that is dying. Sorry for that blast of negativity but a reg is £60 and a battery is £100. Ask me how I know..... If the neutral light doesn't light, this could be the neutral switch itself or the connection to it. Easy check: earth the neutral switch lead to the gearbox case and the light should shine. If it doesn't, you have a break somewhere. Quite rare, the neutral switch is poorly specified, and fails about every 20k miles. Hope that's brightened your day, lol All the best Guzz

Hi Stew you haven't moved it with your foot. Some V11s are set up very lean between 2000 and 3000 indicated RPM, and they can spit back through the intakes and blow the rubbers off. Happened to me. Check also that there are no cracks. especially in the LH intake rubber which doesn't really fit properly and is under some strain. This can exacerbate the problem. Cheers Guzz

Or send it to Stein Dinse (stein-dinse.de) who operate a repair service, to fix said coil wire. Might be the cheapest option. Very common fault, induced by the characterful vibes from the engine.

Hi I just love stuff like this, bet you're a long time Guzzi owner. Guzzi owners seem to thrive on stuff like this. I have met a guy who filed down some alternator brushes he had in the garage to fit his G5. These things cost £10, but he did it because he could. Like another guy I met who made a rack and pannier system out of central heating pipe, or the guy in the MGCGB who has sleeved down his engine, fitted a heavier flywheel and a single carb, again BECAUSE HE COULD. All this tells you that Guzzi owners especially V11 owners are special Good luck with it. The standard item overreads badly; at 1000rpm indicated it is actually doing about 750rpm. I would imagine you can take a signal off the diagnostic port as I have a very crude diagnostic system based on a Palm (remember them?) and this is how I know the true rpm differential. All the best Guzz

Hi the reason you don't hear about it, is that it's not necessary to do it usually. I've seen engines with six figure mileages on them without any significant top end maintenance. All Guzzis have a very healthy top end oil supply; I take my oil pressure readings from the banjo double union feed to the rockers and it never indicates less than 80psi in normal temperatures. Cheers Guzz

Hi I assume you got the bike like this? It didn't just shatter? I have seen this before when the butcher who owned the bike for some inexplicable reason used it as a levering point. The shroud is not strong and won't take it. For the same reason, if it suddenly appeared I suspect a stone had somehow wedged in their and split the case. It's a clear application of point load. Apart from being ugly it doesn't affect the functionality of the bike except that road crap will end up on the drive splines of the box. If you ride in dry weather and don't mind pulling the wheel off periodically to check, I wouldn't worry. I guess if you were good with plastic metal or similar filler, you could repair it. Shame. Cheers guzz

Hi would suggest you use Dowty rings instead of the wahsers these things are fitted with. These are like a plain steel washer with a rubber instert and seal well at low torques and are reusable. Any Hydraulics dealer will have them. Cheers Guzz

Hi Roy, Thanks for this and the wiring diagrams you sent. Why Guzzi (and other manufacturers) can’t do simplified wiring diagrams is beyond me…. Had a good look at it today, and swapped the suspect reg with another couple which were an unknown quantity. What was interesting was the effect my temporary earth had on things. I basically just plugged the replacement reg in and earthed it with a jumpstart lead from the reg case to the engine block. Both regs raised battery voltage to just about 13.2 volts at 2500 rpm, with the charge light on one flickering at about 1200 rpm and the other at 1000 rpm. My faulty reg apart from not extinguishing the charge light showed 13.7v at 2500 rpm, so I hoped that a better earth would improve things with one of the others. Incidentally the case on one of the regs was so furry, that even after really grinding the lead jaws into the case it still sparked intermittently, so the earthing arrangement that Guzzi provides (as you pointed out) is just a joke. I earthed the reg case directly via a 30A lead to the battery on the basis of minimising resistance after the last reg blew so this wasn’t too much of a surprise. Anyway, the point of this is that on installing the better of the two replacement regs with a cleaned up case, toothed washers etc, battery voltage was back up to 13.7 @ 2500, and the charge light out at 600rpm. So I learnt two things: • Charge light doesn’t tell you much except that it is definitely charging. My old reg charged but as you say in your schematic, it looks like an internal resistor blew. I’ve kept it as an emergency anyway • Earthing makes a huge difference and can’t be stressed enough. Anyone with a Ducati reg should now be removing it, and cleaning it up as per your suggestions. Otherwise it WILL fail. Many many thanks Roy and safe riding. Jon

Hi all Have searched the forums and can't find much on this. Just wondered if anyone else has come across this one. After a long run on Sunday, with no issues, I started the bike up again on Monday, and the charge light stayed on with the engine running. I have a voltmeter fitted to the bike which shows the battery charging, also confirmed with a multimeter across the battery terminals. Checking the output from the white regulator lead, compared to earth showed zero volts. Putting 12v on the blue charge light wire which connects to the white reg lead, but for this test disconnected, lights the charge light so no issue here. My guess is the 12v output on the white lead has failed. No big issue cos I have the voltmeter but would appreciate some input into: - is my guess correct? - if so, will I damage the battery? Can't see how I could but they are expensive! Have checked all fuses and headlamp relay, headlamp works fine. Regulator has a big brown wire running from its case to the battery negative, having lost a batt and reg in the past. Cheers Guzz

Hi reading the above, would respectfully suggest the following: - undo the allen bolts holding caliper to mounting bracket. - with an old towel to protect the wheel, jiggle cliper from side to side until it slides off the disc This can be done justr like the front brakes with the bike on its side stand and literally takes 5 minutes. Then as Docc and others suggest, heers Guzz

Hi Also late model Cali ones ie with square rocker covers will fit. Basically the V11 engine is a Clai engine with hotter cams and a few minor details altered like the sump/oil filter arrangement. Cheers Jon