Chuck

Rosie has had a little seep on the left jug since I got her. Thought, oh.. valve cover gasket. Replaced that. Still leaking. Put one of the nice thick green ones on there and filed the bottom of the valve cover flat. Fixing the wrong thing. Decided it must be the blanking plug o ring. Put a new one on there. No cigar. Cleaned it up and dusted baby powder all around, and it looked like it was coming from a valve cover screw. The Distinguished Previous Owner had dropped her on the left side, so I cleaned that up, put aviation Permatex on the screw, and called it fixed. Ran 700 miles to NW Arkansas on back roads in 40s weather, and saw just a little oil again. Thought, WTF? Ran twistys at 6000 + rpm for about 70 miles, and had oil clear back to the pork chop. Not a lot, mind you.. but certainly aggravating. This time, I cleaned it up really well and sprayed this aviation leak detector on it. Let her idle a bit.. didn't see a thing. The light comes on.. "Must need to be really hot to leak" so took her for a blast of hard running. Well well. I've never seen this one.. Yep, it's a pin hole in the valve cover flange all right. A pin will go right into it. Cleaned it up with thinner, etc. made up some JB Weld, and tried to squeegee it in. Time will tell...

I think that's a different problem, supposedly there's some bullet connectors under the tank. Mine was acting similar, would only crank at full lock but before I investigated it fixed itself, a picture showing location of these mythical bullet connectors would be nice, my bike's half a world away at the moment. Sorry, no pix. The bullet connectors are up by the steering neck on the left side.

Ok, I got it. Ground up a punch to fit and put it in the drill press to use as an arbor press. Pushed down one tab, and levered the top back. Wrapped some safety wire on it to keep that tab from reengaging, turned to the next one, and cave manned that one, too. After that, it decided to give up. Yeah, there's a broken solder joint. Kind of cheesy.. no strain relief or anything. Probably why the FAA doesn't allow soldered connections. Back together tomorrow, and it'll be good for another 14 years.

Hi, folks.. I'm trying to help out a friend with a 00 greenie. No power to F5&F6, so traced it to the 4 pin connector that comes from the ignition switch. Took off the electrical part of the switch to see if it has a broken wire/solder joint, etc. and don't want to break it. Do you just push down on the three places here with all three hands to pull off the back? TIA

I used this method without issue on Rosie, the 03 Rosso, and the Mighty Scura. My kid had a 00 greenie, and said he couldn't do it. "They said it couldn't be done, so I tackled it with a grin. I couldn't do it, either." Had to pull the rear drive on it for whatever reason..

How could I possibly refuse such an offer? Absolutely we'll setup a "date" and get together. Can't be this weekend, some Indiana guys are headed to Arkansas for some hooliganism.

Here's the on line shop manual.. http://thisoldtractor.com/mg_manuals/workshop_manual_v11_en.pdf

Joe, if you have any problems.. bring it over. I can walk you through this stuff, and I have Guzzidiag for seting the TPS, along with carb sticks for setting the TBs.

Just checking in. Welcome to being as LeMans keeper. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that one. I was the same way. Once I "got it" I've never looked back. I'm near Elwood, btw.. we need to get together and swap lies.. Oh, not to worry about the clutch noise. Guzzis make all kinds of noises, none of them fatal except Roper's "Dogga Dogga" noise..

You say it's done it since new. Hmmm. My first thought was the start relay.. the most forward one in the stack.. or the terminals it fits into. My Scura does this occasionally, and all I have to do is pull the relay, spritz the legs (with Caig DeOxit Gold) of it and the relay base, wiggle it around a bit, you get the picture. But you say putting a new relay in it fixes it for a while sometimes? Hmmm again. Maybe it's a combination of corrosion on the relay base, a connector, and ignition switch finally making a click? I'd take everything in the circuit apart and spritz DeOxit in every connector. Now, it could be that it is the solenoid is hanging up. I've seen that one, too, but again, you said it's done it since new, so I wonder about that. At any rate, I'd replace (or clean) it if the above doesn't do it.

Yeah. If you don't get an easy solution, give me a ping on WG, I'll most likely see it there..

I'd do it for you for nothin.. if you're in no hurry.

I think part of the problem is that the bikes are different from year to year. I had no problem getting a (modded) grease gun on the nipple of my 02 and 03, but it was impossible to use on Brad's greenie. ( LowRiders bike now)

Yeah, you can (sort of) see where the cable wears on this out of focus picture..

FWIW, I was having trouble getting it to connect reliably. I plugged the USB cable into the computer before boot. *Then* it recognised it. Go to device manager and find which port it is using. I understand it can change, depending on the computer. It's always com 3 on the little netbook though. Since then, I've had no problems.

While I had Rosie's tank off, I was doing the usual cleaning, inspecting, etc.and found one complete strand broken on the throttle cable. She only has around 20K miles, so I'd suspect that it may be a common failure. The inner cable exits the housing at a fairly sharp angle ... Probably wouldn't hurt to check.

I repaired Darth Quota's "unrepairable" tank with this stuff. I'm a believer..

I did this over on Wild Guzzi, basically because I hang out there, but my guess is a lot of us are going to be doing this as the tanks age.. At any rate, here's the thread. http://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=62087.0

I suspected the TPS as soon as I saw your video. The Guzzi diag software is a wonderful tool for setting the TPS and checking all sensors. http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17865

I've never seen anything like that on a Tonti..

Maybe working on your core and thigh strength will, too. Just sayin. Not trying to be a smartass here, read on. . As I aged, I had to go from sport bikes that hurt my neck to more upright positions. that hurt my back. A personal trainer worked with me and said, "I can get you back on sport bikes." Worked for me.

Fry's carry it if you have one near. It's magic in a can..

My first thought is clutch switch, but it's late...

My story. I'd bought a Strada that hadn't run in years. A previous owner had decided that di-electric grease was a good idea, and filled every nook and cranny of every electrical connector on that bike with it. Naturally, it never ran again. Another guy bought it, and never got it running. I bought it from him, saw the di-electric grease in *everything*, and cleaned it out. The previous owner had even bought a new Digiplex unit.. $$ to no avail. It started right up, and I was patting myself on the back. Took it for a ride, thinking, "cool scooter" when it quit. That was the first of about 5 times I was standing beside the road. Apparently, when it go hot enough, the grease would migrate down the wires and cause an open connection somewhere. It's apparently ok, now, but I don't want it anywhere (except on the spark plug boot) on my bike. YMMV, of course..

I'm sure that Wayne wouldn't mind me spreading the word. ' Using Dielectric Grease on connectors. A lot of people use dielectric grease on connectors. Some people mistakenly believe that dielectric grease is a conductor. In fact, it is just the opposite. It is an insulator, and a good one. That is the basic definition of dielectric, an insulator. Dielectric grease is typically made of silicone grease. As an insulator, dielectric grease is good for use on spark plug boots. This was one of the original applications on vehicles when the high energy ignition systems came out. It can help insulate the connector, and in particular on a motorcycle where it can get wet, it waterproofs the spark plug boot. And because it is silicone, it is fairly stable at high temperatures and won’t affect the rubber and plastics. So why would you put an insulator on a connector? The idea is that you use a thin layer. When you push the connector together, the grease is pushed out of the way enough to get a connection, and the surrounding grease then keeps out water and oxygen. The connector will be protected from the environment, and less likely to corrode. Plus the silicone is safe for the plastics and PVC insulation. That sounds good, so far. So why not smear it on everything? Well, there are a number of reasons. 1) Silicone grease outgases constantly. If the silicone gas gets near a connector or a contact such as a relay, and there is any arcing, the spark at the contact can create silicon dioxide. Some companies even suggest that the silicone gas from dielectric grease can travel many feet through the insulation on a wire and damage a contact on the other end. Omron states that even their sealed switches can be damaged by nearby silicone grease out gassing. Reference below for more info. 2) It is an insulator. It can prevent contacts from touching. If you must use it, use a very thin layer. 3) If you have a corroded connection, silicone grease will not help. In fact, it can only make a connection worse. It can never improve anything. Dielectric grease will never make a poor connection better. 4) It attracts dust and dirt and it due to the out gassing, it hardens over time. This means that if you smear a lot of silicone grease on connectors, you may see nearby relays, switches or points fail later on. And since the silicone grease does nothing at all to improve the connection, and in fact may insulate the contacts in the connector increasing the resistance, the connector may still fail. So what do you do? Look for a contact enhancer/lube. While most contact cleaners are simple solvents that just wash the connector off. There are contact enhancers that deoxidize the contact surface and actually work to lower the contact resistance (make a better connection). Most contact enhancers leave a lubricant behind that protects the metal and continue to deoxidize the metal and improve the connection. They can work to lower the resistance and actually make a BETTER contact as time goes by. The best you can hope for from dielectric grease is that it seals it enough to not get much worse. I have used Caig Deoxit on my bikes for a few years now. I first found out about this on my job when I had to correct an issue in a scale load cell connector system that could not tolerate even 5 thousandths of an ohm of resistance drift. We had a connector in the field that had been improperly plated and was starting to drift, mostly in warm humid areas like Florida. Our testing showed that the Caig Deoxit could be a good long term fix. We ended up using the Deoxit to stabilize the bad units until we could get corrected wiring harnesses built with the correct connectors. We also put a layer of Deoxit on the new parts to protect and keep them clean over their lifetime. This totally solved the resistance drift issue that we had. Our information on this product showed that the contact would actually get better for a period of over 1 year. The resistance would then begin to deteriorate, but at a much slower rate that a connector without the Deoxit. I still use a small amount of silicone grease on my spark plug caps. It helps to waterproof them and makes it easier to pull the cap off. (have you pulled a plug cap on a Stelvio yet?) But I use it in very small amounts and never near a relay or switch. Useful links: 1) http://www.ia.omron.com/product/cautions/30/precautions_for_correct_use.html 2) http://machinedesign.com/article/lubricating-electrical-switches-1025 3) http://www.echeloninc.com/contactlubrication.htm Wayne Orwig