belfastguzzi

Then you will really enjoy a long ride in May. Book your ferry ticket.

You may have seen a tale of woe in the CARC gang hut, about the 8V recall. In more than a month I have not been able to get any response from my dealer regarding the recall. I haven't had much joy from the MG Customer Service web page either. The Contact form doesn't even work and it still doesn't acknowledge existence of the 8V models in its bike list. It suddenly became clear that the motor parts have failed, so I can't ride the bike anymore. All the more need for an urgent response from the dealer. "Oh the owner will get back to you next week" I was told. Of course they still didn't. I phoned MG Customer Services, who would not give me a UK contact number. So, thanks to info from Guzzirider, I phoned MG's PR company this morning. At last a response. She came back with the UK Piaggio guy's email address. He's now replied to me. Apparently the dealership in question is 'currently in the transition of new business ownership, and is at the final stages of completions.' Well it would have been good if the dealer had the courtesy to tell me that before, when I was urgently enquiring about the recall: and then I could have looked for another way to sort it... before the top end went up in smoke (or least in a puff of metallic dust). My point here is that in the 5 or so years since I bought the V.11, there have been 4 local dealerships who have had Guzzi – and all dropped it. 4 in 5 years! How can any knowledge, interest, experience be built up? Well obviously it can't.

Look in the CARC Forum under 8V Cam Recall! Parts failure – yes! Dealer failure – most definitely!

Dumb bowls!

Picture from mag article. Thanks to Paul M.

Millepercento's Big Bore Griso. Video here

Um, yes. Thanks Jihem and Leafman

Ah ha found these That clarifies things, such as 'what the tappet bowl is' and the foot that Pete mentioned. So then it looks like the bowl bottom wears away and gets replaced in the recall, but the rod is protected by the foot, or bottom, and so it isn't replaced. But what if the foot, or bowl bottom, is worn through? Is the tappet rod hard enough to withstand damage? Well, the answer could be that as I conjectured above, the tappet rod is supplied along with the bowl. Now that I know what I'm looking at, I want to open the thing up and peer inside again.

um, thanks Jihem!

Breva Breva 1100 opinions Dimitris' 2006 with ABS Mirror extenders Griso see recall items under 1200 8V Motor Press reviews More power from 1200? Griso mods: low bars, EZ and Zero examples Exhaust options: GT Rx video Big pod air filter Griso Logo Griso fuel tank fittings Repairing broken fuel connector: tank red plastic elbow – quick disconnect Norge Dipstick mod for that fairing problem Sport 1200 Sport 4V initial reaction Paul's pimping and wheel options Suspension setting 1200 Sport v V11 comparison Stelvio see recall items under 1200 8V Motor Initial Stelvio reaction Stelvio v Griso 1200 comparison The 1200 8V Motor Press reviews The original 8V recall - timing nut 8V Cam recall Tech sheet – The first MG cam/tappets recall pdf, Feb 2009 Tech sheet – Second MG cam/tappets tech notice pdf, April 2009 Top end disassembly – cam replacement Pete's post at Wildgoose Chase More power from 1200? Exhausts and Other Generic Parts Boss 2-1-2 GT Rx 2-1 Mirrors Does the ECU learn and adapt over time? Drawings, concepts and fantasy bikes Stelvio Griso Norge 4V head ________

GRISO 1100 Tools

Parts Files, Service Tool Documents Link to posts: GRISO 1100 service tools * Can anyone post the illustrations from other models' Parts files, showing the special tools needed to work on the different motors?

Special service tools for the new models A pain of maintenance can be the need for special service tools. Official ones can be hugely expensive and may only be needed once. Where can we get cheaper alternatives, or how have tools been home designed and made? Post your findings and inventions here. To make this thread work better, I'm going to group posts together by subject, as best I can. So that's why some stuff is copied and appears twice. If one of your posts is copied whole and put together with another entry, you could delete your original post to keep this thread as compact as possible.

Yes Paul, I was sorely tempted. I actually had the spanner on the first nut, but in the end I couldn't turn it as I was afraid that it would be used as a reason to invalidate the warranty. I really want to see what is in there, though. The engine only has 2,600 miles on it. It's been noted elsewhere that most failures happen in 2,000 – 5,000km.

If you get the job, I'll come and be your butler. Really. I'll learn Italian and do your translation. I can cook and sew.

It's only really special guys that have both! boo hoo oh yeah, and the single plate Scura clutch too. Expect to hear more from me in the future. Bang Bang

Back to the bits: so what I called the 'sleeves' are what Guzzi calls the 'bowls'. Then they are replaced in the recall. Part no 13 in the diagram? EDIT Parts no 12 and 13? Is the 1200 parts doc available on the web? I have the 1100 Griso parts file. I have edited my main post (the one with the pics) now that it seems the sleeves are the bowls. My next question about that is: are 'the tappet bowls' actually the combination of the sleeve and the pushrod together as a set? I hope so, as the replacement part is the tappet bowl and there is no separate rod replacement. It's a pity that MG don't include a photo of these parts in their service document. OK ANOTHER EDIT I see now. I have always thought of tappets as the part of the rocker arm that does the bashing. So that's where the confusion has come from. Here (and in normal 21st Century tech-life) the tappets being talked about are the little push rods or perhaps the combination of the rod and the sleeve that they are in. I know Pete already said it, but I didn't grasp it until I had read the posts a number of times and looked more at the diagram and the photos. Sorry Once all this becomes clear, I think I'll do a sticky to post up. BTW, do you like my telephone directory feeler gauge in the photo! Is that the amount of powdered steel that is now washing around in the motor's system? Maybe the whole issue is just some weird optical illusion.

I was saying that other dealers wouldn't want to do it, because of my experience of trying to get warranty parts through dealers in England, when at the time there wasn't anyone dealing/servicing locally. Because I bought the Scura in England, I had parts ordered by that dealer: he posted them to me, I did the work, he claimed the warranty time allowance, everybody happy. But then when I tried to get the rear axle spacer and some bits and bobs (remember the episode of wrongly sized axle spacers being fitted by MG) I had this same experience of not being able to get help or a response (from my original English supplier). The order was lost, records were lost, parts were lost in transit from Italy etc etc allegedly. So that's when I contacted some other well-known English workshops to ask if they could supply. They wouldn't touch it – for the reason that you have given above. In the end I got the parts (just a simple little steel tube of course ): more than a year after I placed the order. Well yes, I just made up my own fix for the short spacer – but it's the principle of the thing. I think Anyone should be able to get such a simple part immediately, not after a year. Dealership here has been tossed around like a hot potato in the past few years. Practically speaking, there really hasn't been a dealer, certainly not with history - knowledge - experience. The current dealer, where I bought the Griso, only took the marque on relatively recently. Since I bought the Scura, about 5 years ago, this is the 4th! dealership here that MG has moved to. The others dropped it. In fact your example of the dealer-service agent position on warranty work is the type of thing that I had in mind and why I thought they wouldn't want to look at this. But you say any dealer is obliged to do the work, so maybe this would indeed be regarded in a different light. And Guzzirider indicates that should be the case too. Practically speaking, it's a bit mad to consider transporting an immobile bike across the water to get a small piece of work done. Hopefully it will not come to that. I'm sure the end result will be that at some indeterminable date, the local dealer will have to do the work. I'm sure you understand though, when I add that my problem with that – is that I just don't trust them now. :!: "Lor' luv a duck!"

Well, hey, thanks for the solidarity and support. It's a heck of a lot better than the...... *silence* ...... from the local guy! Cheers. On dealers: someone ventured the question before, are Aprilia dealers made to take Guzzi, even if they don't want them? I wonder. This place where my bike came from does Aprilia and has only recently had MG. Maybe Piaggio forces Guzzi onto dealers? And this lack of involvement, care, knowledge is the result. My only other option would be to go England. That's not a satisfactory solution and another dealer wouldn't want to deal with this anyway.

CRAP and double crap. When you say updated spring, you mean the one with a wider circumference coil? So the bigger coil broke, even on a 15mm boss? CRAP and double crap.

Pete thanks for the link to the tool. Is that similar to the special MG tool? Do you have an idea about that black pushrod sleeve? do you think it's normal for it to be loose and to move up and down with the rod, or could it be part of the problem? EDIT see below Paul I contacted my dealer straight away: that was more that a month ago. He has given me no response, no reply of any sort. I phoned again today. The person who answered said that they don't know anything and that the owner isn't there. He said that the owner will contact me next week. I have been waiting for more than a month, so clearly the dealer has no interest or concern at all. That means that I can have no faith or trust that the dealer will do anything to sort this out properly. For sure the fulll PDI was not done. For sure everything that is meant to be done at the first service was not done. I have tried to contact MG Customer services through their website contact form. It won't send. It doesn't work. I have tried to contact Customer Services by email. It doesn't work either. I got an error message. Does anyone know what it says? >> Il recapito non è riuscito per i seguenti destinatari o liste di distribuzione: CustomerService@piaggiogroup.com L'indirizzo di posta elettronica del destinatario non è stato trovato nel sistema di posta elettronica del destinatario. Non verranno effettuati ulteriori tentativi di recapito del messaggio. Controllare l'indirizzo di posta elettronica e provare a inviare di nuovo il messaggio oppure fornire il testo di diagnostica seguente all'amministratore di sistema. Well, I guess that Piaggio has changed or blocked their email system. So I am in the dark, with no one to contact and no one prepared to take responsibility. Edit Pete, you answered while I was typing. The sleeves are in the picture here: The two black tubes / sleeves that the rod runs through, from the cam below. It doesn't seem right that they should be loose. Surely that is going to generate a huge amount of friction? If that is still not clear, I'll put arrows on the photo. D

Ha! To cap it all, Guzzi's Customer Service website isn't working either. And not only that. In their model drop-down menu that the customer has to select from, the 8V models aren't even acknowledged as existing. The 8V Griso and Stelvio still do not appear there.

As I said previously, the top end suddenly seemed very noisy – too noisy. Now I've looked and: it's wrecked. I didn't have to look too hard: as soon as the cover was off and with the engine just in whatever position it happened to be sitting, I could see that the gap is sizable. In fact. a whole set of feeler leaves fit in with room to spare! So I'm pretty fed-up, with three Guzzis off the road because they need work: and this is a new and expensive one. Pete, a couple of questions, if I may. This time I just could not get the right side plug cap off. How do you do it? This is a terrible design with, as I've said before, little hope of getting them off at the roadside (without damage) if you ever need to. The rubber is split now on mine. Reading the service info in the Guzzi tech sheet, I get the impression that MG expect plug caps now to be 'use once' items! They should be replaced every time that they are removed. I say that because the service doc says to take off the plug caps using a special tool and then immediately fit new caps! It reads like an admission that this 'system' precludes re-use because of likely damage to the plug cap on removal. How daft. As I couldn't get the right side plug cap off, I didn't bother going through the whole procedure of turning the motor to find tdc and measure all the gaps in the correct position. It is enough to see that the left side is clearly knackered. What do you make of this? (Third pic down.) The black guide that the rod moves in is loose and moves up and down with the rod. Do you think that is normal, or should it remain tightly fixed in place? It's not on the recall replacement parts list. The rods aren't on the list either, so MG expect all the problem to be with the camshafts only? ** EDIT It seems that the black sleeve is what MG calls the 'bowl' – so it is on the replacement list. The rods aren't to be replaced though. *Unless they come as a set and the BOWL is the combination of sleeve and rod? The guide sleeves (Edit: BOWLS) that move up and down. You can see that one (on left) slightly protrudes more than the other here. The terrible plug cap system. The long black plug cap lodges tightly in the tube down to the plug. There is nothing solid to grasp to break the seal and pull the cap out, so the rubber gets torn. This then can lead to electricity taking a short-cut where the insulation is torn. People have previously reported that problem. This one won't budge, without the rubber tearing to bits.

If you can stand a bit of a read here is the financial crisis observed and explained.