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I first got to www.rossopuro.com but that wasn't the one http://www.rossopuroitalia.it is better The flag Dan describes is a bit hard to see, it's cut in half diagonally... and it doesn't even matter what you chose, it's still mostly Italian. After getting to the actual site, you have to chose again, right below the menu to the left. "Choice Language", chose "Inglese Internet Default" and then it seems OK. Bad web design, good product design

I've seen many references to that 'global warming thread' but never stumbled upon it on a search. Was it not only stopped but also deleted from the site? Or am I just lucky.

Yes that's not as common and much more colorful. Are you seriously not trying to wind anyone up? As I read it, Ratch says the guy was not taking it out for a ride since the oil lamp did not go out after starting the engine while you seem to focus on the fact he even started the motor. How could anyone know beforhand the lamp wouldn't go out?? If you crank your engine up and the oil lamp is still lit after 2 seconds, would you stop it and drop the pan? 3 seconds? 5? I was convinced you were just having a go with Ratch. Which would be fine

Yeah, nylon gears. No. Seriously, I haven't rebuilt an engine but I wouldn't hesitate, backed up with the pdf version of Roper's excellent descriptions and this board of experienced lunatics that struggle to come up first with serious and good answers while having a good laugh at the same time.

So you mounted it yourself? I'm not saying you screwed up, just that this time we have a chance to ask. How was it torqued? By hand, tool, torque wrench, counting threads? I wonder if this is happening with any type of filter or is it just UFI? Maybe a bad batch of them, with bad or wrong gaskets. This is pretty wierd.

Mind you it could also be the inaccurate driving of the oil pump you have when merely using a sloppy chain to drive it

Pete gives 69,200,000 hits. Nick gives 150,000,000. Bill gives 360,000,000. He wins

Ooops, sorry'bout'that

Yeah, they're 24/365. They don't stock the common smaller o-rings though.

That's good news since I ordered 6 GEI relays instead of the 4 that needed replacement. The six of them cost 1/25:th of a CF hugger (as if I didn't buy that too ). It seems to me one of the Best Things[tm] you could do to treat your pre-Norge Guzzi is relay your headlight. Together with Philips Night Vision bla bla bulbs I expect the light to be an order of magnitude better.

Some 15 years ago I owned a Kawasaki GPz 550. It was my first bike apart from a Yamaha RD 125 cc. I don't even remember what model year it (the Kawa) was, probably 1982. I just got the idea to google on "gpz 550" and see what comes out, and as expected, something unexpected and good came out. Some guy named Nick Ienatsch wrote an article in Motorcyclist Magazine, November 1991. Googling that name (which I reckon is pretty unique) gives some 13,000 hits ("Pete Roper" produces some 2,900 hits as a curious comparison) and he seems to be the author of some books. This text is well spread across the Internet and I expect lots of you to have read it. For the ones that did not, here it is. It's very good and not too long. Since it's spread all over the 'net I guess I can just paste it in here. If that turns out to not be OK we'll replace it with a link. Here goes. Think of it as "May the Pace be with you, Luke" http://www.micapeak.com/info/thepace.html

I appreciate your efforts Carl. You almost convinced me now... but no. I will stay with the battery example since it's easy to picture. Let's replace the alternator and regulator with a huge car battery. What we now have is just two batteries in parallel. The better battery will charge the worse one. Say the smaller battery is very weak and the bigger battery is very powerful. Now put a 10 ohm resistance on the negative wire. Would you say there would be more than 12 volts across the small battery now? I think not. If the alternator was a 20V DC source with a common ground to the regulator and battery, you would be right. Like a bad grounding of a 7805 voltage regulator. But this is not like that, it's more like my example above. Or am I wrong? The rest of your reasoning is of course correct. I think noise and spikes is what kills the ECU. A bad grounding on a Guzzi is anything but a static resistance.

Thanks, that diagram is pretty near what I had in mind. OK so what will happen when there is a really bad ground connection? Let's say the battery has 12 volts. The regulator will see little less than 12 V battery voltage (the voltage drop is very small now since there's virtually no current). It gates some current through the thyristors. Now this current results in far more voltage drop over the bad ground (lets say 5 volts) so the battery (and the rest of the bike) doesn't get much off it, but the regulator doesn't know this. It thinks the battery immediately raised to 17 volts so it will lower the current. Repeat. This will probably result in really nasty ripple and possibly ugly spikes. And it will definitely result in bad charging or none at all. But I can't picture it resulting in high sustained voltage on the battery side. Now spikes can of course fry stuff too. I'm sure it does, I just try to figure out why. My woman is a black box to me, not much else

With all due respect I still have the feeling you miss my point. The regulator bleeds 0.001 amp or 24.995 amps or whatever to heat, just to regulate the voltage to a target value. But it does that before the grounding problem. It does that internally. It couldn't care less what we call ground or not. Anyway, that is my assumption. This is my whole point and the reason I don't get this. Now I could be completely wrong and I probably am, but you still haven't convinced me you understand what I mean. OTOH, I will re-read this tomorrow when I've burned those beers to heat. MMMV. Cheers!

Testastretta is italian for testosterone, right? congrats!

I was humble enough to make that extra grounding anyway and I'm definitely not saying you are wrong (I mean, you made my schematics ), but I still don't get it I think of it this way: From the alternator to the rectifier/regulator is separate AC wiring not connected to ground. At, or in, the regulator this current is rectified and regulated to a reference voltage. Is that reference sourced from or compared to something outside the regulator? I don't think so and maybe that's where I'm wrong. If I'm not, it means the output from the regulator will be correct (at its terminals) regardless of voltage drops anywhere later. Which in turn means the voltage after that point can only be lower. So, is the reference compared to something external to the regulator? Looking just now at your great schematics (btw, thanks!) I can see there are two more wires, one for the charge light and then one more, that could very well be some input for the regulator. Hm. Maybe I get it now. So should I submit this post or just shut up. Nah, I can't shut up I'm not sure I can spell to inquiring minds, but you know the phrase

Regulator is what I meant Still, the flow is from a nominal 12V at the regulator, to the bike, with a voltage drop in between. How could that result in too high voltage anywhere? Anyway, if it's bolted to ground this is not an issue for Gary of course.

Some people say if the alternator has bad grounding it could give too high voltage at the battery, since the alternator has a different point of view. I'm not sure it could have that effect though. A bad grounding would equal to a voltage drop, and a voltage drop from an alternator giving 14V should produce too low voltage at the battery. On the other hand, a bad grounding may result in more complex scenarios than a static resistance, so maybe they are right.

I just bought some from http://www.stagonset.co.uk/ (someone here mentioned them I think). I'm quite happy with their services. Quoted from their site: "Small quantities are our speciality and there is no minimum order"

Oh no, that would be too heavy!

Yeah, you should stop now, Guy. I'm not sure it could get better!

I take it you are now talking about the ordinary relays. I ordered a full set from Pyro Dan and it was in my mail box (in Sweden) within a week. He even sent them before receiving payment. And the shipping costs were next to none (I ordered 12 pcs).

We can't have you stuck this long a time so I'll go for a try again. Have you seen Carl's schematics? I guess this 2004 V11 Sport should be pretty similar to yours. Pretty nice compared to the one folded in my OHB anyway. Please check what happens if you remove the starter relay (number 23 in Carl's drawing) and try pushing the starter. It can't start of course, but what we want to know is if fuse #4 still blows or not. Are you sure you're crazy, blind, senile and dyslexic? I mean, are you sure the fault didn't move when you were moving relays around? If so, it's got to be a relay fault. The fact it's not common doesn't rule it out. Don't worry, sooner or later we'll narrow this down. So keep us posted! EDIT I now see you switched all relays. Still: are you sure the fault didn't move? First you said #5, then no fuse blows, and now you say #4. When did fuses start to blow again? Was that when switching to the new relays?

Yep, that will be fine. We'll get to that when they arrive at my place.

In those days my 160 rear tire would have been really fat. Now my dealers don't have much alternatives on stock to chose from, because most tires are 180 or wider. I guess 260 would be less wierd than 160