Lucky Phil

I'm calling the airbox done.The modified area could be better aesthetically but this plastic is almost impossible to finish nicely. I might make some little 1/4 moon 1mm thick ally plates to cover the modified area painted black and attached by some small PK screws to make it look nicer but once the side covers go on I doubt you'll notice the area. Ciao

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Moto-Guzzi-V11-Seat-Cowl-With-Cushion/174118602385?hash=item288a470691:g:HfYAAOSw8hpd65Ow&frcectupt=true Ciao

Gee they sound like professionals that know their stuff..........Not You could always ask Pete Roper if he can source you a T5 bevel box and maybe check it over for you and ship it. I reccon shipping would be about $100us Ciao

Ok Chuck interesting. No fibres here though. The airbox material is quite strange in that it doesnt actually melt so you cant melt the base material and combine it with a filler rod like welding you need to abandon trying to melt the base material and use the filler rod like bronze welding or brazing or soldering. If you put a hot iron against it it will eventually produce a black liquid which at first I thought was melted material but when it dried it was rock hard brittle. I think it was just oils being excreted under high heat. If you hit it with a heat gun on full temp it just goes all rubbery but wont actually melt, but it does float in water. I'm still thinking its a cross linked Polyethylene but for anyone wanting to join it the method I have used seems really sound. BTW docc I think the inlet trumpets will be the same material, I have an old butchered one I'll material test when I get a chance. I've done hours of reading on plastic in the last week and its a very complex and involved topic. Pretty soon most of an internal combustion engine will be made from it with lots of serious research being done on using it for crankshafts,engine blocks,rods and even exhaust systems. Weight reduction being the primary aim. presently intake manifolds,rocker covers,cooling system fittings and oil pans are the major components usually made from a nylon base material but within 10 years it seems most of the engine will be plastic. My wife now understands why I'm lying awake at 3am most nights Ciao

Acerbis got back to me and said to contact Guzzi as it was made to their specs. Should have realised that would;d be the case. Anyway its sorted now with a strong and decent result by lets call it airless plastic brazing. Polyethylene rods used as a hot glue. Not welded but closer to brazed. Ciao

No fibres present in the plastic and JB steel weld can be picked off with your fingernail even with a well prepared surface. It would be interesting to know what it is exactly but the Polyethylene welding rod seems to work which is a recognised process for cross linked poly, although as I said its not really welding more hot gluing. Been reading up on high surface energy plastics, interesting stuff. I tried several adhesives I know work well and all of them were a failure. Fortunately the fill piece doesn't have a big job to do just support about 1/3 of the seal and keep the dust out. Ciao

No identification of any sort. I have now found it can be well bonded by using a Polyethylene welding rod as a hot melt glue. Gives a strong bond. The airbox material itself doesnt melt but the rod bonds it well. Ciao

So here's the airbox task. Hole needs to be raised 16mm or there abouts and the bottom filled in. The airbox looks like its made of cross linked Polyethylene which isnt weldable....naturally:)Typically I just looked at it and thought it was. I've learned quite a bit about plastic in the last week and I now have a plan. Ciao

You need to read this sort of article with a large dose of Lambrusco. The MGS-01 for instance doesn't use any helical gears in the std gearbox anywhere, just like the V11 gearbox its derived from. A chain has less losses than a shaft and bevel gear assembly no matter what Gianfranco says. Its a bit like the Britten story, somewhat larger than the actuality. I love the Britten and its genius creator but the reality is in the cold hard light of day it was slower in lap times than a 600 Supersport of its day. Ciao

Or one of these and you get a folding tip as well. Just position it fwd instead of dropped like I have it. Ciao

I must update that profile,I sold the ST 3 years ago. I think you'll find the electrics to be fine on the ST although they may have gone to a 3 phase alternator at some point, not sure. The only negative with the ST2 was getting the fairings on and off,a total PITA and the battery resided under them.The ST2 is a better bet than the ST4 for most people though as the maintenance is far easier. The Ducati dry clutch I've been working on for 35 years. The good thing about them is they are simple and easy to access, parts are relatively cheap and the tooling pretty basic ( there is a nylon clutch holding tool you can buy on ebay cheap from memory. I have one and it holds the basket and the hub). You will need a new basket (get an aftermarket alloy one) and the outer part of the hub where the steel plates ride on the splines and a set of steel and friction plates. The hub nut is fairly tight so you need 1/2 inch drive and a rattle gun comes in handy for the basket bolts. Look at the main seal for leakage ( they are pretty good) and you need to use thread sealer on the basket bolts so they dont leak oil. Look at the bearing in the pressure plate as well Ciao

At that mileage the whole clutch will almost certainly need to be replaced, basket, hub and plates. Pretty easy job Ciao

Interesting video's. I'm always amazed that people will go to the trouble and expense of investing in something like a K-line kit and then not spend the $25 on a cheap air driven impact gun to drive the liners and the sizing arbours. Hammering them in and the arbours through with a lump hammer is silly. All that stuff bouncing around on the bench etc and the fact that one of the reasons you use a 4000 bpm driver is so the sizing process is fast and fluid and produces a uniform ID not a stop start irregular interior. Its way easier with the impact driver believe me. Also why dont people spend a little time making a simple jig or cradle from wood to hold the component, head in this case to the bench so when you're doing this sort of work you're not chasing it all over the place and watching it wobble around while finish reaming. I made up my own simple cutter to trim the liner which worked fine. I'm not actually convinced that the K-line reamer is compatible with the guide material Guzzi use as I see he has the same trouble with the process as I did. Surprisingly hard to ream the guides. I have since found out that Kibblewhite have 2 types of reams for the different types of guide material they sell and the reamers shouldnt be used on the wrong type. Ciao

I was thinking of this system for the swingarm bearings. As I said slide hammer pullers aren't usually much good unless the item has a lot of mass. Of course the disassemble the bearing and use the stick welder on the outer race always works just takes a while to do. Ciao

Ok thanks Scud. Looks like a decent investment then. I have a theory on getting out the s/arm bearings. Use an internal puller but instead of using a slide hammer directly on the puller use a metal tube and bolt arrangement to apply constant pulling force on the bearing then impact the arm around the bearing with a copper hammer and or use the slide hammer in conjunction with the static pulling force. The piece you are using the slide hammer on has to be very heavy or very well anchored for them to be effective. Pit bull make a harley wheel bearing puller with the thinking I'm thinking somewhat Ciao

I'm with you docc,I thought the tight clearances were .004/.006 and the loose were .006/.008. Oh well, I do know that it makes a difference to the starting and idle running though, which surprised me.Such sensitivity to valve clearances. Dont know about running them wider than that though,you would get to the point where the opening/closing ramps became ineffective and valve seat wear became an issue. It would be interesting to see what effect valve clearance had on actual dyno numbers though so we could see the differences between starting,idling,valve noise and outright running performance then choose the compromise we wanted to make. I'd chip in for the extra hour of dyno time after someone does a dyno tune to find that out. Ciao

I watched a youtube video and it looked to good to be true. Reminded me of those manufacturers instructional videos where the component literally just about falls apart in your hand but the reality is a whole lot different. Any more details on this tool scud. I mean did you give it a real testing bearing to pull? say like on the difficulty scale of a Guzzi v11 swingarm pivot bearing. Ciao

Sometimes a large flat blade driver with the shaft through the handle can work as you lever the spacer aside as much as possible and drift it. Heat doesnt hurt but its not super effective as the heat transfers just as fast to the outer bearing race and it expands as well and the heat you're putting into the hub with a heat gun and not burning the wheel paint etc is not so large to make the differential expansion that big. A 15mm steel drift with a sharp end edge and levered hard across usually works but its no walk in the park sometimes. Of course when you get it out the other end is easy and then you grind/file a notch in one end of the spacer for next time. Even if you can get the bearing to move 1mm it opens up the ease of removal. The next step is to break apart the bearing cage and load all the balls to one side and see if the inner will come out and then pull the spacer and drift out the other side. Then you run a single bead of stick weld around the inner dia of the outer race and when it cools the outer race will fall out. The other method is to spot weld a bolt to the inner race with a stick welder then drift it out from the other side using the bolt to hit against Ciao

Drift them out. One end of the bearing spacer usually has a relief/notch in it so you can get the edge of a drift onto the inner race edge on one side. Once you get the bearing to move a little then the spacer loosens up a little and you can get more purchase on the inner race with the drift and keep it going. Support the wheel on the hub not the rim or tyre to get maximum impact force into the bearing. Sometimes the spacer is a little short and you can lever it sideways to gain purchase on the inner race. These are generally the wheels that have short bearing life. Ciao

Glad you chimed in Pete, I was out of my depth here. Ciao