Lucky Phil

CWT's an commercial jets are a million miles away from a motorcycle fuel tank with a lot of various electrical components and wiring inside them and due to their vented to atmosphere nature in the past will possibly contain a flammable mixture. Now days CWT's often use purging systems to prevent the build up of flammable fumes during empty ops. I suspect the main reason the Guzzi fuel probe uses a plastic housing is to help mitigate any leak to earth/shorting to earth scenarios. Something I'm bearing in my mind when I make my own replacement. I've never heard of a car or motorcycle fuel tank exploding due to a sensor or in tank pump shorting issue and I've seen images of a few in tank pumps that were totally fried and melted and failed. Phil

You can largely disregard the lower number in so far as you should aim for the lowest possible for a Full Synthetic group 4 oil. The "it's too thin" thing is the opinion of people with no idea about oil. To get this point straight in you head and a perspective on it think of it this way. A 0W-40 oil is still a LOT more viscous at room temperature (so the 0 end of the scale) than it is at 100deg C ( the 40 end of the scale) or engine operating temp where the engine is designed to produce maximum rated load and power and the oil is designed to provide lubrication and cooling so how can a 0W oil be "too thin"? Answer, it isn't. It's true that the wider the spread of viscosity even in a Fully synthetic group 4 oil the greater the additives with regards to maintaining the VI but it's nothing compared to older mineral based oils which always started with a higher viscosity base oil to provide a safety floor viscosity wise for those that don't change their oil. I run my Daytona engine on 10W-60 for two reqasons, one because "some" of these engines have oil pressure issues at idle in traffic at high ambient temps. It's just a little headroom for these conditions here. The second is because it has higher zink levels for the flat tappet lifters. Should it be changed more regularly than a 10W-40 oil, probably. Like you I wanted to use a single oil in all my vehicles and I chose Mobil1 0W-40 and used it for years in everything including in my V11 Sport with the original 2 valve engine. Worked perfectly and didn't have any issues with oil in the airbox etc or OP light at idle. The SP rating is the latest spec but not relevant to our bikes because like the interim SN+ which was a fill in spec until the SP grading was released these latest 2 specs are primarily about protecting direct injection engines from LSPI nothing more. Grisos went to a 10W-60 oil ostensibly to help out with oil temp issues in the oil cooling galleries around the exhaust ports these engines use but I never saw the sense in this. I've never been able to find any data on the difference between a 60 weight oils ability to absorb and carry away heat over the capacity in the same circumstances as 40 weight but I can say for sure that a 60 weight would not flow as well as a 40 weight oil in those conditions and when you are trying to carry away heat from a hot source what you want is more flow not less from a heavier weight oil. I've spoken to powerplant engineers in aviation and at GM personally that had almost no detailed knowledge about engine oils believe it or not. I wouldn't be surprised if Guzzi wasn't pretty much the same. BTW I've never considered using Motul oils because they don't release a detailed enough TDS listing zink levels and anti wear, anti oxidation and detergent information. Phil

What fork seals are you using? I use these Ariete ARI.023 and the Y type dust seals with the spring on the outside. The dust seal will be something like 40x54.4x 4.6x14. It's written on the seal so you can X ref with Ariete p/n. I also use a very thin home made plastic sleeve for seal protection on the fork slider at the bush end to fit the new seal onto the slider. Make sure you tap the bush in before the seal and spacer. Don't fit them together. The seal should just push into the fork stanchion with a firm downward push on the seal driving tool. No need to hammer anything. Make sure your seal driver isn't a style that pushes down on the critical sealing lip area of the seal. I have a seal driver that I can't use on some seal s even though the driver is the correct size because it's OD isn't quite enough to not interfere with the sealing lip area. Phil

Yes we've had lane splitting for a while now legally. Maybe 7 or 8 years. Phil

No idea what you are doing here but if you have moved the selector "hoses" with the cover off then it's just a matter of moving them back with your fingers into a position equally between the fully selected positions on both gears. Then you have the selector in neutral and dry fit the cover to confirm the positioning then carefully remove the cover, apply sealant and fit. Phil

The 130 is probably the spring free length and one of the 50's may be the springs ID.. Phil

It's the rebound adjuster. The reason the pre load collar is wound down so far is probably because the shock was originally fitted with an hydraulic per load adjuster that was removed, or another spring was fitted for use with the hydraulic pre load adjuster which are shorter or the wrong spring is fitted from another manufacturer. The spring probably doesn't have as much preload as you think because the spring is short to make space for the hydraulic pre load adjuster. Phil

That is a Wilbers rear shock and appears to have a spring fitted to suit the optional hydraulic per load adjuster. Thats why it looks short. Phil

I've seen a few interviews with these people over the last few years but nobody's listening for the reasons mentioned. People would rather listen to irrational teenagers. Does anyone know a rational teenager. Phil

Read Dave Richardsons book "My Life in bikes" if you want an idea of the competency of Guzzi USA. Dave ran the Guzzi dealership Moto international for over 20 years and saw it all. Worth a read for sure if you're into Guzzis and the behind the scenes machinations of running a Guzzi dealership. Phil

Inlet manifold rubbers leaking/cracked. Worse when at operating temp because the engine is off the cold enrichment trim and onto the normal fuel mapping and so the air leak makes it lean. The cold enrichment trim helps cover the leanness caused by the manifold leak. I was the first to fit cam gears and it didn't cure my 2800-3200 hick up. A Daytona engine cured that. Phil

It think Mick if your mufflers are the std factory aluminium skinned units they started out black and then have faded through grey to violet. Phil

Thread drift usually means the root of the thread has died or been answered. Phil

I have. Pil

Plug caps for plug threaded collar on and plug threaded collar off are two different designs. Collar on plug lead cap has a formed sheet metal internal split sleeve that clips over the spark plug collar and the type that is designed to be used with the plug collar removed uses a machined plug cap internal metal fitting with a spring wire designed to provide the connection and holding friction for the cap. The OP may have 2 different styles of caps fitted. Time to just replace them with some new ones. I have the P/N's somewhere. Phil

So they kept the records of all the VIN's of bikes that had the update completed? Of course then there's the bike with the affected VIN thats had the update done but subsequently been fitted with another gearbox due to a housing crack etc. Or buying a second hand gearbox from the period. Phil

There is no way of telling if your gearbox has been updated by viewing the components. It was a heat treatment and material issue. There's also the gearbox housing cracking and the recall for conrods as well. Now you're fully informed. Feel better now? Phil

The "message" is changing all the time as far as I can see. Phil

I bought it from TLM about 5 or 6 years ago John when they were clearing out all their MGS parts. You can convert a standard one to the MGS ball bearing supported version as it's derived from that. You also need to provide a backstop to the ball bearing in the front bearing bore and seal off the old rear bearing oil feed as well. Phil

No, no pressure feed to the jackshaft rolling element bearings and yes no thermostat to the oil cooler because the MGS engine was never made for road use. Same as it also went back to the smaller and slower driven V11 oil pump. Last thing this engine needs is an oil pump that delivers less oil at low rpm around town. Phil

These arrived a few days ago from Joe. The latest timing gears and oil pump. The pump now uses a bronze bushing for the main drive gear to minimise oil loss through the needle bearing type. I had Joe make my Jackshaft gear 16mm wide as opposed to the alloy gears 18mm width. I don't see a reason for a wider gear if it's now steel instead of aluminium. Pumps L to R....Joes pump, a std Daytona pump and another brand aftermarket pump. The Jackshaft is an MGS-01 shaft. The MGS got rid of the long jackshaft with the additional plain bearing at the flywheel end of the crankcases. That was a carry over from the 2 valve engine which needed the rear bearing as in that engine it was a camshaft and needed the rear support. The MGS shaft is supported by a ball bearing instead of the plain bearing at the front of the crankcase for less friction but it means the oil supply to the heads and oil pressure switch is now blocked so those are fed from the oil cooler connection. I'm seriously toying with the idea of just chopping the rear bearing and shaft off the jackshaft and running just the front plain bearing. I can't see why this wouldn't work and so preserve the integral oil feed to the heads and oil pressure switch. A bit more friction is all I can see as the result. Details from Joe Oil Pump gears are Helical Case Hardened and polished and should give a Hardness around 55-60 R The Bronze bushes have a 1mm shoulder like a top hat to prevent the bush moving towards the crankcase. The large 56 teeth Steel belt pulley large gear is 16mm in gear width compared to the original of 18mm. All the gears are made from en36 or 655m13 which is an upgrade from before as I was trying out this new supplier and so these are shiny and not the usual black Tuftride finish. These are Case Hardened gears which are then polished and so have a harder surface wear finish . The black gears are classed as through hardened in the heat treatment and so not suitable for the polishing process. The case hardened gears have an increase of around 10 Rockwell over the Tuftride gears and so I think they might sound different too.

Not as mean as Phillip Island naming a corner after Jack Miller instead of Remy Gardner. I like Jack but he's never won a world title or anything super special except crash a lot. Remy on the other hand has been a Moto2 World Champion at least. Makes me wonder about those that make these PR decisions. Phil

I've heard many opinions on advertising over the years but "concise" has never been one of them. Phil

Well not quite. I dont believe their carts will fit the early silver 40mm forks. 99-2000. Phil