Kiwi_Roy

They are 6mm, get a pair of straight grease nipples and grind the tip off the threaded end, this will let the spring and ball pop out making a nice nipple for the balance hose. Put the screws back when finished.

You need to balance at open throttle as well, the white knob does that. One or two inches out is ok. Just blip the throttle and adjust the knob so it doesn't drift. The air bleeds balance at idle. Sent from my shoe phone!

You won't be able to wire thru the neutral switch, it's only 1 terminal to ground. If you are thinking about having a start button close to the starter it would probably be ok. Some ignition switches have a spring loaded contact that may be man enough. Think about using one of the older cube relays mounted right beside the solenoid that would keep the heavier wires really short. The relay coil wires only pass about 100 mA so they can be tiny. Think about the safety aspect, the starter should be disabled by removing the key, kids love to push buttons. Sent from my shoe phone!

If you get the magnets out by 90° the motor will run backwards. Good luck getting it to start that way Flipping the brush leads will reverse it back again. The magnets go N S N S around the clock, don't ask me what's at 12 O'clock I have no clue.

I'll ask him BTW he lives in Caracas Venezuela where it's always hot, gas is 5c per liter and there's no speed limit. I reckon we need to hold a rally down there

If the magnets are moving the motor may get weaker. If they break off they could jamb the armature. While it's cranking Measure the battery Voltage, that's the real test of condition. Measure also at the starter solenoid to chassis. And measure from negative to chassis, that will tell you how good the ground is.

At 180 Amps the motor should be spinning over fine, perhaps the magnets have let go their hold on the housing, time to pull it apart I think, they are quite easy, just lay the parts out as you take them off. Magnets falling off is quite common, I think you can buy a replacement housing. Middle Age Warrior glued his back on.

Yes, I simulated the contact not closing by removing the fat wire on LH side of the contacts, the fuse blew in about 1/2 second. As I said before as soon as the contact closes the current drops to 10 Amps Some owners have found the 15 Amp fuse pops so increase it to a 20, more so on other Guzzis I think where they have too much resistance and the solenoid sits and thinks about pulling in. I don't know what the cut-off is between pulling in or sitting there, I suspect 25 - 30 Amps but it's just a guess. BTW if you look at the sketch you posted you will see when you take the finger off current can flow backwards from the armature side of the contact thru both coils in series to chassis, In this case the strength of one solenoid is supposed to work against the other to cancel out the field. I have seen one Bosch where it wouldn't let go until the battery lead was broken

That's correct. I took a careful reading of coil Ohms doing a drop test (Valeo starter) 1.05 Ohms for the holding coil - the upper one in the sketch 0.25 Ohms for the heavy coil - the lower one going to the armature By Ohms law at 12 Volts it works out at 50 Amps In reality when I measured mine with a scope it was 37 then 10 Amps. I attributed the lower current to the wiring resistance and the armature resistance The Bosch starter has a much heavier winding on the armature but the solenoid coils draw a similar high current. BTW the Valeo starter on my bike draws 170 Amps, the Bosch ones seem to draw a bit less, around 150 Where did you find that sketch? I'll send you a PM

About 50 Amps but just for a split second, as soon as the contacts close it drops down to 10 Amps There are 2 coils in the solenoid the heavy current one (~40 Amps) that's in series with the armature, this does the lion's share of the work then when the contacts are closed it has the same Voltage on both ends so current drops to zero. The lighter one (~10 Amps) helps to pull the solenoid in but then it holds it in place as long as the button (relay) is closed. BTW this is the main reason other model Guzzis suffer from "Startus Interuptus" they have the current run through the ignition switch and miles of spaghetti, too much resistance for the current required. See if you can find a Guzzi schematic that shows 2 coils, I wonder if they are aware of it? If you were to measure the current with a meter you would only see 10 Amps because the heavy current only lasts about 1/4 second, if it goes much longer the 15 Amp fuse will pop. The relays are rated for an inrush of 60 Amps. If you are thinking about doing away with the relay keep in mind Voltage drop due to the high current, keep the wires short, a 20 Amp fuse is appropriate.

Stunning scenery in the first few pictures, where abouts? The Guzzis look nice too. Sent from my shoe phone!

There's no such thing as a guzzi too far away, think about the fun you will have bringing it home. Kiwi_Roy - Have tent, will travel. Sent from my shoe phone!

The filler drain plugging is a common problem on the Guzzis with steel tank and sunken filler (EV, Jackal etc). Water from rain or washing collects under the cap and drops in un-noticed next time its filled. The water causes the tank to rust, the rust plugs the filter, the bike starts to bog down on the hills. Heres what came out of my filter after back flushing, it completely plugged off the shop cloth. And this is after I did it on the side of the road To unplug the tank drain is a two beer job.

I think most of the oil squirts back into the sump from the pressure relief valve without going to the bearings. Adding a larger pump just squirts more back surely.

I don't see the point of the security bolt when you can drop the contact block off with a Philips scewdriver Sent from my shoe phone!

Well I guess since you put it that way

I like the repairs Marty made, the linkage on my V11 at 80,000km is very sloppy, to get a consistent idle I use both idle screws, over the winter I will try to find a suitable bush Links and levers are interesting, there's 3 different adjustments possible, zero (throttle stop), span (length of the lever) and linearity (length of the rod) In instrumentation 101 we were taught to adjust zero and span then check the mid point for linearity, adjust the linearity until it's 5 x worse then re-do zero and span, not that this really applies to the V11. Any other Instrument techs out there?

I used to fix a lot of old radios for friends and workmates, I didn't really know what I was doing but usually got lucky. Electric phonographs were a novelty, I would snip the wire going to the volume control and wire in a phone jack so they could plug the phonograph in. Valves are fascinating, I was lucky enough to do my apprenticeship before they were phased out. Sent from my shoe phone!

Don't feel bad, just be a good caretaker for the next owner. Oh, and post a picture so we can be envious. Sent from my shoe phone!

I had a near new Yuasa fail, it would charge on trickle to a ridiculous Voltage like 16 then have no grunt for starting, I think it had gone open circuit as you describe, the bike would push start and run fine. I took it back to the dealer and they replaced it with another the same, this has been an awesome battery for the last 4 years I would buy another but make sure it comes with a good warrantee. As Skeeve pointed out don't try to run without a battery, the alternator can spike the Voltage to 20 Volts or more without the battery to clamp it down.

Now you've taken all the fun out of it

Back when I was growing up we had lots of 6 Volt radios, previously much of the area didn't have power so you took your 6 Volt battery up to the local garage every few days for re-charging. They had a vibrator to generate the high Voltage and tubes (we called them Valves) had a directly heated filament, they would start from cold almost as quick as a transistor radio and had great tone.

The first time I sought out wheel bearings for my Guzzi I went to an all-bike shop. The owner was shocked that Guzzi relied on just the bearing's own seal, he claimed that all bikes should have a lip seal, it seems to me it would be quite easy to add an extra one outside thus allowing for additional grease to be added to a 1RS. As to the tapered rollers. they should last the life of the bike if they had a proper seal as above, they did it 40 years ago on the Ambo/Eldos

I wonder if anybody has tried to modify the bearings to include a proper lip seal or even tapered rollers like the old Eldorado has, I'm sure the bearings on mine are original at 130,000 miles Could be as good project for someone handy. Sent from my shoe phone!

You have one in Sitka, a Convert built into a trike, I'm sure there are others. Sent from my shoe phone!