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David, This outstanding news! Really great you have you bike running well and that it was actually nothing major. And they did the tranny work as well? Do you notice any difference in it?

I just looked at the BMW GS at the dealer at 20,000USD plus the (really nice) bags. Even then it's a tall and awkward thing with rear drive woes and a stuffy dealer base. I really want to see one of these Stelvios . . .

Well, looks like the tensioners are pretty cheap and they're really not that bad to r&r, so more than a few of us are anxious to see what happens next . . . To a fault I'm always looking for the simplest of solutions . . .

Actually, I'm pretty sure yer fooked. It's the same as when you rebuild yer forks and they squeak like yer kid's swingset. Whatever's going on with your bike is the same affliction Nose2Bleed has. We tried swapping his coils (fixed the brackets in the process) and it still coughed and missed when hot. Could it be the pick-up itself is faulty? Seems a damn sight easier than pulling the timing chest and all the sprockets . . . I thought the 'wiggle test' worth a try. I learned this trying to sort a turbo Merkur (Sierra). The Brooklands publication "How to Prepare the Sierra for Motorsport" declares in the troubleshooting section for electrical systems: (and I paraphrase with reference to five years watching folks sort their V11s), "The most common electrical faults in [Moto Guzzis] are caused by wiring faults i.e. breakage of wires or connectors, electrical shorting, poor or intermittent connections, or contamination by water or mud, rather than by component failure." While there is no substitute for meticulously sorting your harness I must admit my Merkur (Sierra) was plagued by a component failure in its fuel management system. It ran so well when I found it , I slipped the clutch and blew a head gasket!

This has all the ring of the dreaded '02/early'03 broken pawl spring. Good news is : it's actually pretty easy to fix.

And, really, the 'squeak' is much better than in the beginning. I may try to polish the 'rebound' spring a bit more and see if I can 'tune' the noise away. After 49,000 miles working to ride this bike well, it is remarkable the change in its manners. Of course, it is notable that I've spent $1100 on a $5500 bike. And it's still just worth $5500. Even as in 2003 when I crashed the Sport and THE FORUM rescued me, I feel a great debt of gratitude to the patience and indulgence of posters and the efforts of Jaap and Paul Minneart making this all possible. I must say, Ratchethack and Dlaing make a most curious balance of input. Perhaps you two don't want to hear it, but I've been on this forum a while and the effort put forth by your intense postings is most appreciated. "Users" have come and gone. Some (like me and Joe Camarda) have gone and come back again. I'm no big-time internetter, but this is the most forgiving forum I've ever clicked on. Even Ben, bless his heart, has had an education in Danish vs. Dutch without being flamed or hooted off the board. Again, I wish to express my gratitude to those who have helped me along the 49.000 miles of my Guzzi way. I know I would have had to give it up without your help, all of you. In the words of the Dane, Mikael, of guzzitech.dk , "I owe more than one guy out there a beer."

Glad I did. And so: The air gap was surprisingly low in both forks: 120mm compression / 125 mm rebound. Correcting this meticulously to 100mm certainly improved the firmness of ride even more! The 22mm setting on the blue retaining nut is exactly what allows the cap to shoulder fully. Less would certainly defeat the adjusting rods. More is not possible. I polished the springs with 400 grit and deburred the flats and corners. Perhaps the surface change is visible in the photo: left to right: polished TD, unpolished TD, original Marzocchi. The squeak yet remains seemingly on the rebound side. I must now suspect I may have bent the damping rod to the cartridge during the set screw debacle. Sure does ride great though!

Ratch, did you compare the strobe signal from side to side? I wonder if it could be dropping the signal on one side only? Also, a wiggle test might be appropriate where you have an assistant watch the strobe and you wiggle every wire and connector you can get to for the timing pick-up, coils etc. looking for any effect on the signal.

Thanks for the replies, guys. I guess I'll open the fork and take another look at the oil level. I am considering polishing the outside of the spring with some 600 then 1500 grit paper. Any thoughts?

Reading the TD instruction it is emphasized that the retaining ( blue) nut must be threaded on far enough that the cap then bottoms or shoulders fully before moving the blue retaining nut back out to lock the cap. It makes sense that if the cap is prevented from shouldering then the adjuster rods will not be seated. I have renewed my hope that my forks are just low on oil. Must ride this am, but I'll check levels this afternoon. One can hope! BTW, which was the thread with the debate on 'progressive' vs straight rate springs?

Certainly possible that the oil levels have dropped and are too low. I guess the spacers and springs have to come out to recheck and correct the oil levels. If the air gap is too big it would help explain why the dive seems little better than the stock springs when the forks were overfilled. The Marz springs are 1.37" and the TD are 1.35". ( and 1" shorter than the stock springs). The original sag was 39mm. I increased the spacer length from 109mm to 118mm to get a laden sag of 30mm. The higher ride height concerned me as I didn't want any increased rear weight bias so I dropped the triple trees 9mm. (I've left them there for now.) I couldn't find that 22mm blue nut setting anywhere. Is that 22mm from the top of the blue nut to the top of the threaded cartridge rod? I tried emailing Todd at Guzzitech but haven't heard back on the polished Hyperpro spring. Again, I didn't think I wanted a rising rate spring. I know it's been debated here before, but I missed the pros and cons.

Jason, Show us how you end up wiring in the relay. I'm guessing you can activate one relay with either switch. I've already added four relays, a circuit breaker and three fuses to the Sport. Surely there's room for one more.

Although the cams have certainly changed. I remember in Field's book Wittner discussing how much went into the V11 cam development with Crane. Yet I have no idea how it compares to other cams even the Sport 1100 or 1100Sporti. I'm going to try to get the strobe on mine today. Should be especially good since mine idles well and doesn't flame out . . . Watching the gear teeth through the window they jump 2-3 mm every 6-10 seconds. No change as it came up to temperature. I'm pretty sure it was fully warmed up after touching my elbow to exhaust. Certainly no 7mm jumps as that would shift the tooth from bottom to top in the window. Ratch, are your marks jumping around constantly or periodically ?

Aye, but, North Carolina? V-twin heaven!

Both switches gone south? That's like your wife and girlfriend both leaving you at the same time. . . Well, it's been known to happen. Poor bastard then, ya . . .

I'm looking forward to simply trying a smoother spring surface. I'm sure I've drug some fluid out of the forks everytime I pull a spring out. Next time in I'll recheck the luftkammer and reset. TD spoke to me about the 'WD40 cap measure'. Dan equated this with about 10mm height and the point at which most of us could tell a difference. I haven't yet quantified the WD40 cap measure. I'm not sure I have one of those caps . . .

I would think it could be the spacers are out of square, but the beautiful counterbored aluminum spacers that TD sent did it too. I'm thinking more and more it's the nodular surface of the wire material and the ribbed inside of the fork housing. Maybe polishing the spring surface would do it. I've asked Todd at GuzziTech for his input regarding the Hyperpro product. I really didn't think I wanted a 'rising rate' spring, but (obviously) what do I know? I left the oil in the forks that I had changed during the unseated cartridge debacle. Looking at Peter Verdone's charts I'm sure I could do better at choosing oils. This "centistokes@40 degrees centigrade" looks like a remarkable tool for fine tuning. "Thicker" for compression and lighter for rebound, ya think? I'm vague ( does it show ) on the luftkammer. I set mine to 100mm with the froks in the vice. Can it be set in situ ( with the forks on the bike)? With the spring and spacers in place, forks fully compressed?

Having upgraded the rear shock on the Sport to the Ohlins I moved to respring the front as well. Traxxion Dynamics recommended 1.0 kg/mm straight rate springs 1.35"x10.6" with 120mm spacer for my 185 pound riding weight. (Marzocchi spring: 1.37"x11.6") The ride is improved and sag is respectable. With 3/4 tank of fuel: 23mm static/37mm laden. 1)There is still a good bit of initial dive in sudden braking which I thought would be much improved going from 0.65 springs to 1.0. (Although the TD springs come up 0.85 on the "calculator"). Perhaps a stiffer spring is in order? 2)Worst of all, jouncing the front sounds like a squeeky swingset. TD suggested there should be a washer between the spring and spacer. My forks didn't ever have one and I'm not sure I can see how that would change the squeel. The surface of the new spring is quite nodular, or rough, compared to the original which is smooth. I wonder if springs from another source would be 'smoother' and won't squeek? TD offered to send me some 1.1 springs to try. They have been very cooperative and helpful. Yet, I do hate taking the forks apart again and again.

it does sound like a fuel supply failure. Make dure the fuel line from the petcock to the pump is groomed away from the cylinder fins. It may help to move the pump forward in its mount to straighten this line as much as possible. Shortening and even shielding the line are also options.

Those sockets have a reputation for being pretty weak. Once the soft contacts on the bulb wear down from the vibration (which is amplifed hanging at the back of the subframe) the connection is very poor. Seems like I was able to get a probe in the socket and bend the connections out a little. Adding a dab of copper antiseize paste is good. Also, change to a new bulb with fresh contacts. The 'long life' or Euro style bulbs have an eliptical contact that protrudes more.

What does it do when you try to restart? Pump whir? Starter truns over? Clicking?

I thought the Ducati and BMW ( Bosch) replacements are for the pre '02 big headlamps with the steel bucket.

The trick with the blue nuts ( sounds like it would hurt ), aside from being sure they are right side up, is to make certain they screw on far enough that the caps bottom ( or 'shoulder') completely before using them to lock the caps. I also learned from the Traxxion Dynamics excellent instruction package to preseat the rebound adjuster. The handling just keeps getting better. Tonight I did about 10 miles of high speed ( 85-95 mph) cruising past interstate trucks and such. I thought I had the weave sorted well before, but the high speed stability is remarkable with the new shock and springs. Four of my experienced and trusted companions listened to the noise this evening and shrugged saying, "Yeah, sometimes they do that." Sort of the same thing Traxxion said.

Seems like Sarasota would be a lot more pleasant for you to get to than anything to the north. Any luck getting the trans recall certified?