Dear All,
I have a 2001 V11 sport here in the UK which has covered about 25K and is in generally good shape. However, recent difficulties with changing gear and the lever not returning has caused further investigation. Naturally return spring was the first port of call but all intact and fine as were the other springs and playing around with the detent setting made no difference. This only happened when the bike had done about 60km and up to tempreature. From cold there were no issues and a nice positive change in both directions.
So an experienced Guzzi mechanic and I ripped the whole thing apart to see what was going on. On first inspection the gears in mine seemed far better than most and no discernable play in the bearings. However, on closer inspection some of the inner tracks of the bearings have some rust and the edge of the hard chrome has pitted in a couple of places all of which have to be replaced. For some unknown reason that no one can explain these gearboxes boxes suffer from rust and iit s unusual to find one that doesn't have some no matter how often the oil changes or types of oil used.
We think the tolerances have changed enough when the bike is fully up to tempreature to cause enough movement and the problems associated with it. The setting of the detent position is very delicate at the best of times.
The box was never designed for 90hp either it being for a 750 which never went in production and the then the factory in their wisdom decided to lump it on the V11 rather than designing something specific for the bike. The straight cut gears are on only about 10mm wide.
So even a low mileage bike can suffer such difficulties. i would be interested to hear whether others have had their gearboxes apart and inspected them carefully for similar problems?
Cheers,
Martin