Chuck

"The shifting just seems more crisp and neutral is very easy to find." Yay.

You can bleme me for going away from the extension spring. The original idea was to build a "kit" that could be installed by the average home mechanic. That would have included a custom made pedestal, the spring, a drill, tap, counterbore, o ring, a very accurate template to drill the preselector, and hardware to put it all together. By this time, it is getting expensive.. and.. not all home mechanics have a drill press, much less a milling machine which would have been preferable. When it became obvious that the original spring was poorly designed, a proper spring design is the simple and viable IMHO solution. Of course, you can do your own extension spring mod.. Footgoose has done one, and there are pictures of his in this thread.

Nice job on the stand,Marty. HNY to all!

May very well need rollerized.

No need to send me any money, Scud. I was just doing this as a partial payback for all I've learned here. Some of it useful.. :) Actually, its been fun..the sort of thing I used to do back in another lifetime as an engineering modelmaker.

I "liked" the way the preselector worked with the new spring, but didn't want to say anything.

"I didn't miss any shifts... " Alrighty, now..

Docc.. pinch bolts are very lightly loaded.. unless you are one Pete's "shaved apes." To prove it to yourself, put in an axle bolt and just snug up the pinch bolts. Now try to turn the axle bolt.

Great news, Scud! Ilove it when a plan comes together. More field testing needs to be done, but I'm cautiously optimistic, too. Here are the reasons for the design of the new spring. (!) The reason for the breakage on the end. The Guzzi spring radius was stock thickness. Standard minimum bend radius is 1 1/2 times stock thickness. If you scroll back to the picture of the test fixture where I tested the new spring, I shimmed it out so only the end of the hook was on the pawl.. putting more torque on that hook. A more than worst case scenario. I also lengthened the short arm .1" to get it away from the radius where Scud shows the wear. I'm pretty sure that is the reason for the occasional shift lever sticking down on a down shift. (2) Breaking at the coil is a no brainer. Guzzi is driving the spring 39 degrees. The spring calculator says safe travel is 30.48 degrees from memory. The new spring is well within safe travel. You can see the effect of over driving the spring in the picture Scud posted. By this time, there is *no* spring pressure on the upshift, and the eccentric adjustment controls how well it shifts. Off to breakfast. Carry on, Mr. Scudder.

I'd put my wager on Mr. Roper. We have proof positive that they don't know how to design a spring..

That bike was from the Larry Klein (RIP) auction a month or so ago. Somebody's just flipping it to try to make a few bucks for whatever reason..

They are the standard thing for leaking Lycoming and Continental cheesy stamped valve covers. They are just snugged up with a screwdriver, no torque wrench needed or wanted.

My guess is when they ran out of them..

When I was trying to find out what had been done to the Mighty Scura, I just called him. He keeps records and remembered the bike. Gave me the number when he flowed the heads, but it's lost in my failing memory.He did say it was one of the best he had done on a Guzzi. Told me to set the titanium pushrod valve gaps at .002" and .003". Said he didn't put the engine together, but set it up for the Mega Cycle cam. Which one? Sorry, don't remember. I was only concerned about getting the valve gap right at the time.

"Cant see any reason for such a weighty rear wheel, its almost as if they went out of their way to make it extra heavy." You never know. .someone might want to put a hack on one.

Have you cleaned the contacts on the horn itself?

I think it's just paint. Testors (the model company) makes that color.

Every thing firewall forward is formed aluminum. It only took me 12 years to build. 044 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr

"'m reminded of something guitar virtuoso Eric Johnson said about getting "good" (paraphrasing) "it's not how many years you play, It's how many hours" I put in the hours on guitar.. even won a regional contest in Ohio.. then finally realized I am a mechanic. Don't have any talent. The same goes with panel beating. It's a learned skill, but still requires talent.

Google the program download "Convert." I've been using it for probably 20 years. Converts about anything to anything else except that lead to gold thing isn't there.

Thanks for that.

They have been out of grease since the 80s..no doubt an economy move by DeTomaso.

Sounds like a good find all right, Ian. Mike Haven MPH cycles may still have one.

I feel your pain. One time, I sat in the very back row of a Fokker RJ out of Burlington Vt. The bulkhead slants fwd so you can't lean back at all, and the guy next to me took up his seat and mine. Maybe they won't sweat too bad..

Cheaper than chrome? You sure it's not zinc cad plated?