Kiwi_Roy

I have been looking forward to this trip for over a year, it's finally less than a week away. I couldn't afford a Guzzi to ride so I will be on an old red Flying Brick. Hopefully the beamer will be as reliable as they are claimed to be but if anyone there can send me their phone No in a PM just in case I would appreciate it. The Fanau is particularly thin on the ground down the South Island. Thanks Roy

Just a reminder YOU MUST have a 5 pin in the start position, the Normally Closed 5th pin powers the headlight relay which powers the charging regulator. If you find yourself 1 relay short relay 3 can be jumped out by stuffing a wire into the socket from 30 to 87 (30 to 87A on some models), just look in the socket and see where the contacts are 30 ---- 87 ---- | | | 87A is the middle one You can also jumper the start relay 30 to 87 and the bike should crank just make sure you get power back to 87A once it's running or again the battery will go flat. (Unless you have an after market direct connected regulator)

From memory I think I did as Scud mentioned but grabbed the inserts with a pair of needle nose pliers from the back side, one leg of the pliers in the hole the other gripping plastic squeezing the two together. Refer to the second picture you'll see what I mean. Craig, can you remember how you dimmed the bulbs, a resistor about 2-5,000 Ohms I would think. It would be possible to have a lower Voltage common supply on the Red/Black wire with Day and Night settings but I rarely ride at night these days. The direction indicator LED might be more difficult. Low fuel should be bright, besides it never sees full Voltage.

I highly recommend replacing the incandescent lamps and lamp-holders with LED type bulbs. I have done this on several bikes now with good results To get the screws out remove the gauges then you can grip the brass inserts with a pair of pliers while undoing the Allen screws, don't worry if the plastic gets broken a bit JB Weld is your friend. I really like the type 194 single LEDs from www.superbrightleds.com, they are an AC lamp (have a built in bridge rectifier) so you don't have to worry about polarity and they glue nicely into the fitting. You need to select lamps to match the filter colour otherwise they won't show through properly The low fuel light is a special case, even when the tank is full the sensor is drawing a small current, if you just replace the lamp with an LED it will be on because the small current is more than enough to light an LED, The original lamp and sensor are a fine balancing act, when the sensors uncovered it heats up and drops in resistance, the lamp starts to heat up and goes up in resistance. The easiest way to deal with this is simply wire the LED in parallel with an original lamp, this gives the thermistor sensor the current it is used to, the extra load the LED draws is insignificant. Another thing you might notice is the oil light coming on in the rain, this is because the current tracks across the dirt of the pressure sensor the LED draws so little 5 milliamps is enough to turn it on, wiping the switch clean is usually enough to let the lamp turn off probably some CRC or a cover would help. The pictures below are from two different projects, sorry if they seem out of sequence. Here's what the original light fitting looks like complete with cracked screw holders I throw those nasty lamp-holders away. The brass inserts were spinning at this point but you can see they are easy to grab with needle nose pliers. Some Ty-wraps to take the strain off the wires, the wires are just soldered direct to the bulbs, I tried using the appropriate sockets but they just add extra stuff to go wrong. At the bottom in a piece of white heat shrink you can see the old incandescent lamp in parallel with the Low Fuel LED The next two pictures really belong in the Speedhut gauge thread. The lamp fitting in this case has been reduced in height to take advantage of the Speedhut Gauges that are only 1" high. A corresponding amount was taken off the cover, I used a strip of 3/4" masking tape as a guide and chopped the lump off where the speedo gears were smoothing it off with Bondo.

I highly recommend replacing the idiot lights with LEDs, I will start a different thread on that

I can tell you at minus 40 the battery freezes and you lose all cranking power, when I lived up North I had a couple of feet of heat tape around the battery of the car. Sent from my shoe phone!

I thought Loop referred to the loop the frame has on the rear fender. Sent from my shoe phone!

I find mine only loses oil pressure if I let the level drop below normal. I have a plate but hate to obstruct the view from below. JBBs ascent has me right envious, oh well I'll just have to be content with a month in NZ

I like Kostirika's installation, very neat and great detail. I did something like that on my old Eldorado except I added a banjo to the right hand head oil feed. The gauge I just clamped to the crash bar. My VII Sport has the gauge on the steering damper bracket with 1/8" copper to a tee fitting where the oil pressure switch fits As to why have a gauge, it shows the loss of pressure under acceleration which the switch never did. The normal pressure is about 60 psi so a gauge 0 - 100psi or metric equivalent is just right There is really not much to go wrong with a gauge, any old brand, some may be more accurate but you don't need it. If you can't find one with a light sometimes they can be fitted with a 12 Volt LED 1-1/2" is a good size but not so easy to find Kostirika's is filled with Glycerine or Silicone oil for damping but it's not really required One other thing, I believe the steering column is hollow, you could prize the little chrome cap out and run a tube up there to a gauge at the top. Electric gauges are nice but I do like old school Bourdon tube.

The tail light and park light are on the same circuit, fuse 6. If the fuse is ok might be a broken wire on the ignition switch.0 Sent from my shoe phone!

Welcome to the forum and the new bike. Look up the BCclassicmotorcycleclub dot com we meet every Sunday for coffee, Guzzis are well represented including a Stelvio a few Tontis and loops. I'll send you a PM later. Roy Sent from my shoe phone!

This almost sounds backwards to me? Sorry, I haven't inspected one of these, the last one I worked on was a simple brass strip.

Is the switch a real switch, does it make a snapping noise when you press on the tip? This type would be all metal from the tip to the thread, or Is it just a spring loaded contact that touches the bump on the selector cog? This type would have an insulator at the tip like a spark plug. Perhaps the gasket is too thick and it's not actuating far enough. Don't you have the old one you can diss-assemble?

Just a minor thing to be aware of with a four post battery, it's easy to hook it up backwards. The safety diode will protect the ECU from harm. Sent from my shoe phone!

It looks as though the Neutral switch is just a spring loaded contact that makes contact with a nipple on the gear selector, it's hard to see why that should stop working (it may be a micro-switch). Is it possible the circlip has come off the gear selector letting it move too far out on the shaft? Measure the Voltage on the terminal of the Neutral switch it should be 12 Volts in gear and 0 Volts in Neutral, this is the key to finding the fault.

BTW, I have no experience with LED headlights, they may compensate for low Voltage with an in-built regulator? JBBenson / anyone, do you know if that's the case?

As lucky Phil says the standard Ducati Energia regulator is set at 13.8 Volts but due to the Voltage drop it will charge the battery to around 14.4 Volts, I expect it was designed allowing for some Voltage drop. I think of it like a seesaw with the battery at one end, the headlight on the other with the regulator sitting in the middle. There are 2 different wirings for the V11s, the early ones like my 01 have two relays contacts in series, the normally closed start relay and the normally open headlight relay (twice the drop). Later versions only have the headlight relay contact, the start relay normally closed contact just switches the milliamp signal to the headlight relay coil. I have seen the Voltage drop as high as one Volt after sitting all winter drop to about 0.6 after wiggling the relays in their base. (measure from battery + to the female connector of the male/female regulator plug) You will lose some battery Voltage with LEDs because with less current there is less Voltage drop between the battery and the seesaw fulcrum. On the plus side it will be more consistent because relay contact resistance has less effect with the lower current. The Ducati Energia needs to be wired to a switched circuit because it draws about 15mA which would flatten the battery in no time if it were left permanently attached. The modern direct connected type draw much less current (about 0.3 mA) but over the winter they still seem to flatten the battery. You can do the math based on the battery Amp Hour rating but don't forget the battery may be only half charged to begin with. It's a smart move to add headlight relays bypassing the wimpy dimmer switch wiring it made a big difference to mine. I added a single relay to mine tapped in at the large connector on the left hand side where it splits to go to the dimmer switch.

Not the only guy, that's how I did it on my Eldorado. The nice part about putting it on the faring, you can use copper tube since it doesn't have to flex. Another good spot is the steering damper bracket or crash bar Sent from my shoe phone!

PC545 Normal I think PC545 AGM Extreme - probably similar PC545 MJ for Metal Jacket - overkill They are all AGM Absorbed Glass Mat

Yes, but the Odyssey PC545 is a AGM lead acid type not lithium. One thing they do mention for Odyssey is the plates are pure (99.99%) lead as opposed to the normal lead paste type. After reading the Technical Manual I must say I'm impressed.

The warm up discharge is surprising. Then again if you think of the plates as sort of sponge like perhaps the original discharge gets rid of the tired surface layer exposing the fresh material below. I'm sure there is a good explanation on here somewhere. Sent from my shoe phone!

Marty, Thanks but we have several good sources of brass here, it will be on the back burner for a while as we are getting ready for a trip over your way. If you see me motor past on an old K100 (the red brick) say Hi We land in Auckland on Feb 12th, probably take u a week to get down that way.

While you're about it consider tidying up the gauge cover, I used a strip of 3/4" masking tape as a cutting guide. For some reason I am unable to patch on a photobucket image http://s1304.photobucket.com/user/Kiwi_Roy/slideshow/Dash%20V11%20Sport?sort=3 I shortened the cover by 3/4" Cut off the square extension where the speedo drive came out and blocked the hole with bondo. Threw away the old idiot light holders and replaced the lamps with LEDs soldered in, I think I shortened the bulb shroud about 5/8" My V11 is pretty ratty but I am proud of the gauges, I have my oil pressure gauge (regular Bourdon tube) mounted on the damper bracket.

Getting the nickname "Flying Brick" didn't help haha. Sent from my shoe phone!

Docc, The VII charging system looks at the battery Voltage, if it's a bit low it connects the alternator to the battery and pumps in whatever the alternator will produce, once it starts it can't stop or limit the current until the end of the current cycle, think of it as as a large charger with a switch rapidly turning on and off. This all happens 14 times for each engine revolution. I suspect the current pulses are well over 30 Amps, this would explain why the 30 Amp fuses melt Heat is current squared x resistance. (I did measure the current once but have forgotten) To back off the regulator skips half cycles, The V11 regulator is a series type, it controls the average current. The shunt regulator most other bikes have can control the peak current by shorting out the alternator when the Voltage gets too high thus removing the power source to the rectifier. BTW as you know the alternator can put out a very high Voltage, well over 60, this is why you must never try to run without a battery to soak up the spikes. When I first got my V11 Sport the regulator quit, I was able to limp home using just a bridge rectifier (no regulator) but I had to keep the revs low or the ECU would shut down.