guzzidog11

I need to tap into the Guzzi knowledge well again. Yesterday, I rode my 2001 v11 sport to work in the early morning dark. I noticed my tachometer light wasn't working initially but would come for a second or two if I accelerated hard. My speedometer light and all other electricals appeared to be working fine the whole time. I also noticed my headlight would become slightly brighter when the tachometer light came on. After about five minutes of riding the tach light would not light up at all (even under hard acceleration). I recently have done some work under the gas tank, so my first thought was a loose ground wire. I checked the wiring under the tank and it appears okay. My tach is a replacement tachometer that I installed about two years ago, so I think it is still grounded okay. I still have my original Siemens relays, so I ordered a set of new relays last night just in case that is the problem. I checked the fuses and all are okay. Has anyone else had this problem? Is there something else I should check? Could a bad relay cause this? Any thoughts and/or advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. John

Ratchet- The spindles were indeed somewhat difficult to extract--I had to use a piece of wood dowell to persuade 'em to come out That should have been my first clue... Next time will be a piece of cake. Thanks again for the help. You are a great resource. You have helped me fix a tachometer, my electric petcock and now my rockers. I owe you bigtime. John

Wow! What a difference turning the engine over made. The spindles popped in without a fight. Interestingly, the right side was .004 intake and .006 exhaust. The left side was .003 and the exhaust was .005. This is the first valve adjustment in eight years and 18,300 miles. It's amazing how a little bit of knowledge makes all the difference. Thanks to Ratchethack and others who contributed. You guys rock! Best, John

So, I got brave over the weekend and decided to re-torque the heads and adjust the valves on my 2001 V11 Sport after 18,000 mostly trouble-free miles. I started on the right side, following the excellent directions that are posted on this site. I pulled the head covers, removed the plugs, found TDC on the right cylinder using the flashlight in the hole method to locate the D, popped out the rocker spindles along with the bushings and the springs and carefully kept all the parts in their correct order for re-assembly. I re-torqed the heads and now can't get the rocker spindles to go back into the slots they came out of. Is there a trick here I am missing? I removed the tank and am working from the top down as recommended. It seems like the clearances between the washers and the springs are so tight around the rocker spindle that I can't get the assembly to go back together when I try to jam it back in. I have tried to sandwich the silver washer, the spring and the brass washer together as recommended, but then I can't get the spindle to go back into the rocker arm. I have spent hours trying everything I can think of to get things back together without success. I am wondering if the pushrods are in the wrong position (maybe not TDC after all) or if there is another way I can get some extra wiggle room to line things up correctly. Any suggestions? Fortunately, I had the good sense to not take the left cylinder rockers off. Any help is appreciated. Thanks, John

So, to hopefully finish the story, I took the tank off to check the ventilation and rewired the electric petcock this weekend. I think I mentioned that the petcock had been disconnected or the wires had pulled out of their connector a few years back. After rewiring the petcock, I decided to see if I could make it stall on me. I rode about 30 miles (aggressively) with no problems at all. Even though it wasn't quite as hot outside as when I had my earlier problems (60 degrees F rather than 80 degrees F), I think I have this problem solved. Thanks to all of you who gave valuable advice. I am thinking I will order the non-electrical petcock and replace it anyway to avoid any future problems. It sounds like the right thing to do. Thanks again. You guys rock!

Thanks to everybody who responded. Guzzi people rock I am planning to tear into the petcock this weekend and determine why/where it is malfunctioning. I hate to have to take the tank off again, but so be it. I will start with making sure the wiring is where it should be. Then I will make sure the venting is right. Thanks again everyone! John

Great. I'll focus on fixing the pet cock issue and get back to riding. Thanks very much for your help. John

Thanks for the replies. I don't think it is a venting problem, because I don't hear a rush of air when I open the filler cap. I haven't had the rush of air or the compressed gas tank problem since I removed the extra plumbing. As for the pet cock issue, how do I tell if I have the electric one? I have the grey valve on the bottom of the right side of the tank with what appears to be a little vent on the bottom that swivels and I have the silver valve that hooks to my main gas line on the left side. The silver valve has wires attached, but they have been disconnected for many years. I am guessing the silver valve is the pet cock?? I did have the tank off recently as I was trying (unsuccessfully) to fix an oil leak on the top of my transmission. I might have reconnected some things incorrectly... Any thoughts? John

Ratchethack- Oops, sorry about not being more specific. The bike is choking off and quitting while underway--last night it happened in mid stride at about 40 mph. It coughs a few times and then stops. It is just like running out of gas--something I have experienced before . One other fuel line clarification: I removed all of the extra emission plumbing to fix the tank suck problem when the bike was new eight years ago. I appreciate any advice you may have. You were most helpful with a speedo problem I had a few years back.

I just realized I posted this in the wrong forum. I'll try it here. My apologies to the banter and silly stuff people. I have started to have an unpleasant problem with my 2001 v11 Sport. I have always had the issue with vapor lock on hot days. After shutting down the engine on a hot day the bike won't run again until it cools off. In the past couple of days I have started to have the engine quit while running. I use the bike mainly for commuting 11 miles each way back and forth to work. In the mornings it works perfectly. Going home in the late afternoon in 80 degree weather the engine starves and dies after about six miles--it has happened on the last two consecutive rides home from work. This is a major pain and makes for a long ride home... Last night after stalling I waited until the engine cooled a bit (30 minutes later) and it ran for about a half a mile and died again. A friendly motorcyclist/homeowner on my route offered his garden hose to cool down the engine and I was able to drive the remaining four miles to my home without a problem. I think the problem is fuel line related. The fuel pump sounds like it is working fine and when cool the bike is running as well as she ever has. I ride year round and had no problems this past winter. I have wrapped the main fuel line with some insulating foil tape to try to keep the fuel line cooler, but this hasn't helped. Has anyone experienced this or have any suggestions for a remedy? Thanks in advance, John

I have started to have an unpleasant problem with my 2001 v11 Sport. I have always had the issue with vapor lock on hot days. After shutting down the engine on a hot day the bike won't run again until it cools off. In the past couple of days I have started to have the engine quit while running. I use the bike mainly for commuting 11 miles each way back and forth to work. In the mornings it works perfectly. Going home in the late afternoon in 80 degree weather the engine starves and dies after about six miles--it has happened on the last two consecutive rides home from work. This is a major pain and makes for a long ride home... Last night after stalling I waited until the engine cooled a bit (30 minutes later) and it ran for about a half a mile and died again. A friendly motorcyclist/homeowner on my route offered his garden hose to cool down the engine and I was able to drive the remaining four miles to my home without a problem. I think the problem is fuel line related. The fuel pump sounds like it is working fine and when cool the bike is running as well as she ever has. I ride year round and had no problems this past winter. I have wrapped the main fuel line with some insulating foil tape to try to keep the fuel line cooler, but this hasn't helped. Has anyone experienced this or have any suggestions for a remedy? Thanks in advance, John

Since I started this thread, I thought I would give it a post-mortem. I found some time over the weekend to pull out the tach assembly and probe around inside. As suspected, what I found was a loose case stud that allowed the ground wire to flop around a bit and a loose connection on one of the other wires on the back of the unit. I tightened the case stud, reattached the other connector and voila! everything worked fine. There were a few "Italian" moments in the process. While I was testing things, the light on my speedometer quit working, which required taking everything apart again. While replacing the speedo light, the fuse blew. I replaced the fuse and everthing is working fine...so far. Thanks for all of your suggestions and the information from the forum. It's nice to have my baby fully functional again.

Thanks for all of the valuable information. I'm impressed with all of the knowledge on this board. I am still trying to find an evening to tear into the project. I have noticed that if I wiggle around the wiring harness that goes into the back of the tach, I get a temporary fix of the problem. I'll try to post something when I have some information to share. Thanks again. John Sager

Thanks, Ratchet. I will search until I find the thread. This is very helpful. I appreciate it.

Ratchethack - I didn't see Carl's thread. I am new on this board and I may not have done a correct search. It sounds like Carl's post is exactly what I need. Do you have a link by chance? Thanks much. John