Kiwi_Roy

I'm thinking about parting with my greenie, high mileage, warts, nicks and all I only rode it once in the last 12 months, much as I lover her it's time to move on.

Has anyone mentioned these http://www.mgcycle.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37_157&products_id=1590

Check the resistance of all the switches etc, they should read low and be consistent every time they are operated, a variation in resistance points to dirty contacts (hard grease holding them apart or melted plastic letting the contact move back out of reach) I doubt it's a broken wire at the switch but give those a wriggle just in case. Test Point Layout.pdf Pull all the relays and fuses out first. (I'm fairly certain all the spine frames are similar) I have found the wiring around the ECU is very robust, it's usually something before there. The petcock fuse (TP-d) is like a bottleneck, it will drop off if any of the switches are bad bumping the ECU and make the little light flicker. I know it's high tech but it's not bad to have a permanent light under the seat at that point, always available if needed. Don't try to look under the seat while riding though, it'll give you a crick in the neck

How would you like to cut the potential problems in half? I keep telling guys (few listen) to wire a small 12 Volt lamp to the petcock fuse (even if you have a mechanical one). This will tell you instantly if the problem is before the ECU or part of the ECU wiring. If the light so much as flickers its the ignition switch, stand relay, kill switch battery connection or something before the fuel petcock If the light does not flicker but the bike starts to miss, backfire or misbehave in some other way it's something after the petcock fuse, ECU, fuel pump, Ignition, ignition sensors etc. (already your little light has eliminated half the potential causes) A 12 Volt LED strapped to the bars would be best, that way you can glance at it with any sign of a miss. I will send you a PM

I knew you could do it You have overcome a lot of problems so far Bad ECU, Starter with the magnets falling off, TPS and other things, soon you will be an expert Guzzi mechanic. Say hello to the girls at the beach, take some pictures

It's not that easy from Venezuela. The bike has been running good previous to this so the injectors are fine.

The only explanation I can see is it's so far out of balance first one cylinder then the other is running by itself. Just try again, sooner or later you will realize what you have done wrong Perhaps get one of your friends to try, a fresh pair of eyes. As I explained before what you are trying to do is get both throttles to open equally, perhaps take off the two intake rubbers and watch the throttles move together, you should be able to get it very close that way. If they don't look right you may be able to see what is wrong. I sent you something yesterday, did you get it? Cicciolina is upset, sooner or later she will tell you what you did wrong Haha Good Luck Roy

Didn't someone take over from Joe Kenney, his were the bees knees IMHO Update I fired off an e-mail to his old address, it bounced back so I assume he is out of the business, too bad

I wonder if the pump was air-locked somehow, unable to suck the oil from sump? Update - the voice of experience I haven't had to do that yet but I've often seen pumps that won't prime in an industrial situation. They always try to design pump systems with a "Positive Suction" meaning the pump is below the liquid level and will fill with fluid under gravity. Where pumps are above the level they make special arrangements such as self priming pumps or a check valve to retain the fluid when the pump shuts down. I believe the guzzi pump gears are above the oil level and gear pumps won't pump air for sure, having said that I'm surprised there was not enough oil remaining in the pump to give a good seal. Whatever it was you did the right thing, stripping it down to double check your work.

Craig The 194 I use for the dash is the single LED 5 Lumen 90° one, $0.79 - $1.39, they are visible in bright sunlight. I have heard from some "they are too bright". If you find them so you could always add a series resistor. Part No WLED-x-90 for colour substitute R, A, G, B or W for x There's also a socket available T3.25S-SP but this is a complete waste of beer money IMHO it just takes up valuable space. So far I haven't felt the need to change the running lamps. Roy

The second sketch in this topic shows how to easily connect to the sensors from the ECU plug, http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17469&hl=%2Becu+%2Btest+%2Bpoints Just a note about testing the TPS with a multimeter on Ohms, It's not quite as simple as I show. The reading should be smooth but not quite linear there are some other resistors in parallel, I think it's designed to give you a fixed mV if the variable resistance fails. The TPS test is best done with the ECU powered up measuring the millivolts as you slowly open the throttle. A tap into the wire going from TPS to pin 11 of the ECU plug with a short wire terminated in a blue crimp splice, this makes a good permanent meter jack for use when setting the TPS or troubleshooting in this case. TPS Slider | |-----new wire------------------Blue crimp splice Multimeter ------> Chassis | ECU pin 11????? There's some confusion does the slider connect to pin 1 or pin 11, I will check this evening It would be interesting to see if anything happens to the TPS Voltage as the idle drops.

I use photobucket, upload them as a jpeg It gives you several options for sharing the file, use the bottom IMG one I took the picture off, this post is not about me

If you flick the throttle with your finger you should be able to hear the butterfly making contact with the throttle body. I found setting my high mileage bike with the butterfly closed the mV would change slightly each time I blipped the throttle, so I modified the procedure a little. I use a strip of paper as a feeler to find the point where the zero screw makes contact. wind it in from there one flat then with the throttle just resting on the stop I adjust for 150 mV. Dropping the TPS from 631 to 150mV the bike will run leaner but not as much as you might expect. I had a fuel mixture meter on mine for a while with a pot that would allow me to offset the mV on the fly, I had to add a lot of millivolts to change the mixture by 1%

Reed switches have such a small mass, there is no weight to make it bounce, the magnetic attraction keeps the contacts together, besides, does it matter? Here are the specs http://www.meder.com/fileadmin/meder/pdf/en/Products/OKI_Switches-En/OKI_Switch_ORD325.pdf I have one triggering my Speedhut spedometer.

That Digikey part may be the same thermistor but it would be risky to use without the metal case, it prevents the gas fumes exploding if it burns out. The Honda part sounds interesting, can you post a link. My friends Tiger uses a similar one also. I'm sure it's used on lots of cars. Make sure you never cross the cables over and your sensor will last forever, my V11 Sport one is keyed to prevent a screw up but I have 2 EV ones burnt out, their plugs were colour coded but interchangable. BTW I do have some Digikey thermistors to replace the Oil and Air temperature sensors if anyone needs one. part No BC2730-ND Scud, I sent you a PM

No, not all switches work like that but the ones where a magnetic float slide up a stainless or brass tube often do, the contacts are generally low Voltage, low current. Most reed switch contacts are N.O. but there are others that are N.C. and a few form C (N.O. Common N.C. type). The two contacts are a tiny way apart, the magnetic field sucks them together. Although the switch itself is Normally Open the magnet can be arranged to hold the contacts closed then open on High or Low level They are used a lot in security systems as door and window switches also Heres the one I used/ http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?x=17&y=18&lang=en&site=us&keywords=374-1202-ND Note the switching Voltage is quite high for such a tiny device, they rate most in Billions of operations before failure

Those of you who have burnt out fuel level sensors might be interested. The sensor is actually a thermistor in series with the idiot light.When the sensor is covered in fuel it's kept cool and the resistance is quite high (about 1,000 Ohms). The current through the lamp is not enough to make it glow. When the level drops the thermistor is no longer cooled by fuel so it warms up and it's resistance drops, the current goes up so it heats even faster until it's drawing all the current the idiot light can provide. It's a very fine balance between thermistor resistance and lamp resistance. If the petcock plug is accidentally swapped with the sensor plug there is nothing to stop the current increasinfg so in a matter of seconds it can get red hot and burn out. The sensor is boult in a metal case so it won't ignite the fuel as it burns out. These sensors are over $190 to replace. Being cheap I sought an alternate. I found a fuel level sensor by Panasonic but I cannot find a source The Panasonic part No is ERTLG12N7 This was listed on a Chinese site N Gate for $15, I ordered a pair but they never arrived so I suspect they are a bit dodgy. What to do? Reed switches are tiny magnetically operated switches in a glass capsule, they are very rugged and just need a tiny magnet to operate. The small ones are rated at 100 mA which is just perfect for the application. I whipped up a prototype from a few inches of 1/4" copper tube, a cork and tiny magnet, total cost The reed switch is hermetically sealed from the fuel tank contents by the copper tubing so there is zero chance of an explosion. I don't intend to install this prototype, it's a bit crude looking, I will make a better unit out of small brass tubing. Any Non ferrous tubing will do but Brass and Copper are easy to solder, Steel is no good because it will prevent the magnet from operating the switch. You can see the prototype at the top. This one is intended for a metal tank so I simply grounded the switch, For a plastic tank you would need two wires. The burnt out OEM unit is below. The 1/4" tube is really too large, it takes a lot of room that would be better for flotation, 3/16 tubing would be much better. The cork has to be small enough to enter the hole in the tank, this rough one floats about half submerged. The cork is lined with aluminum foil to make it slide easier. In theory you could let the float slide all the way down the tube that way you could add the correct amount of fuel then slide the switch up inside until it activates but as the level drops even further the light would go out again, so it's best to have a mechanical stop at the low level point. The operating point of the OEM sensor is about 120mm from the flange. Corks are not so common these days, I got mine from a Craft store, Michael's BTW there are lots of industrial level switches that operate like this, some have multiple switches to give several alarm points.

It looks like it might be a straight swap but you will need a LED rated flasher. I assume you are going to change the front also, you may have a slight problem with the cross feed from the idiot light, nothing you can't fix though.

Re the ground strap. Perhaps instead of bolting a copper wire to the regulator then again copper to the engine. Why not use a strip of aluminum sheet metal, that way it would be aluminum to aluminum all the way. Add some grease where it makes contact. A 1/2 strip of 18 gauge would be plenty. Yes the idea of the grease is to exclude air and moisture, if it's between the contact points there's no room left. We used to use a special grease on Aluminum cables but I haven't seen that for a while, I just use Vaseline.

Just be aware if you connect a GPS power supply to the battery and then unplug the GPS the power supply will still draw current, enough to completely flatten the battery in a few weeks. For this reason I have mine hooked into the headlight circuit. As Gavo says, the plug has a power supply card inside that drops the Voltage from 12 to 5 Volts, if you cut the plug off and wire it direct say goodbye to the GPS. Another option I have used is one of those dual output USB adapters that plug into the cig lighter, you can power the GPS from that with a second outlet for your phone. Again I smashed the case off and wired it into the headlight circuit I tried to find a neat way of making it waterproof like a screw on cover.

For anyone over the pond considering the same www.superbrightleds.com they have a motorcycle section. The type 194 is my favorite for the dash, throw away the old holders and glue them in place.

Whatever happened to Cicciolina? It appears she's alive and well in sunny Caracas http://www.ibtimes.com/star-porn-whatever-became-italys-cicciolina-1104912 Keep up the reports Roberto, you will get all the help you need to keep her happy right here.

The OEM chain tensioner was a piece of junk, the little coil spring had no hope of keeping the chain in tension. I changed it along with the chain hoping to cure the sneeze, didn't do a thing, it still spits back and stalls if idling too slow, very annoying. My Eldorado project has steel gears, I guess it was standard in 72

And if you stick around the shop long enough you are bound to run into some of the Stradavarious crowd www.stradavarious.ca BTW as Guzzijek points out the shop is now known as Valley Moto

I don't see how it could improve anything, chains are so reliable.