sp838

Hello all. So, the latest discovery while going over my bike, cleaning, fixing, upgrading stuff, is that the acorn nuts are welded onto the exhaust studs with rust. They turn in the threads when I try to remove the nuts. Provided I can get them all out without breaking them off, I'd like to replace them, preferably with stainless steel. And instead of acorn nuts (which can trap moisture) I was thinking of using aircraft open nuts with built in teflon washers. Does anyone have experience with this? Thanks!

That's what I'm replacing. All the bolts that hold various covers on, the sump plate under the bike, the acorn nuts on the exhaust, etc.

guzzisti - that looks nice!

mznyc - my v11 has a fender eliminator" on it that the PO installed. Not sure what the brand is but I can find out. it has a clear lens, integrated LED turnsignals and brake/running lights with the illuminated plate bracket underneath.

Thanks helicopterjim, I'll bear that in mind, although I've never had any issues with ss fasteners breaking before. I've been very happy with them on my other bikes. I don't know where you live, but where I am, humidity and corrosion are a major issue. It's not just for the good looks. My bike wasn't very well cared for by the previous owner(s) and will most definitely benefit from having all the old fasteners, some of which are badly rusted or otherwise corroded, replaced and fresh un-rustable bolts installed.

Excellent, thank you! This looks like what I'm after. You rock.

I was wondering if anyone knew of a prepackaged kit for the v11 to replace all the bolts on the bike with stainless steel allen heads. My bike has a lot of crusty old bolts on it, I'd like to replace them all. It seems like might mostly be M6x1 bolts of various lengths... If not a prepackaged kit, which would be supremely convenient, what would be the proper assortment to get? Is there a parts catalog that would detail all the different lengths, widths and thread pitches of fasteners used on the bike, and quantities of each? Thanks!

(now I just have to hope that the permatex liquid gasket sealed properly... oy vey :-P )

W00T!!! Success! Shifts like butter. Way better than before. Only got up into fourth going around the block, but seems like it's fixed. Finds neutral really easily, shifts fown from neutral into 1st with one easy tap, then up into the higher gears effortlessly. Thank you all so much, especially for your patience.

Good news from MGNA, the bike had its recall service in March '04. So that's one less thing to worry about.

Just called MGNA Customer Care, left my VIN with them and they will attempt to look it up. The original dealership closed. Haven't ridden it yet, I am hoping to have the opportunity tonight to put it all back together and test it out. I'm hoping they will call me back to tell me that the work was done. The gear numbers are written on the inside walls of the gearbox, which leads me to believe that at some point someone opened it up and did some work in there... What that was is a mystery at this point. Fingers crossed. I'll report my findings as they come in. But tonight I should at least get it reassembled.

my VIN is ZGUKRAKR21M113455, so if I read this correctly it is outside the range of affected bikes... I sent an email to the PO to ask if he knew anything about performing this recall service. I am extremely leery of having to remove the gearbox (i.e. pretty much disassembling the entire bike) to rebuild it, but if there's a reason to think it should be done, I'd rather do that than have it blow up on me on the road. Worse comes to worse, it would be a good reason to repaint the frame parts and swingarm I suppose :-/

is it the recall described here: http://www.webbikeworld.com/Moto-Guzzi-motorcycles/recalls/moto-guzzi-v11-sport-recall.htm

docc, no, I'm certain of nothing with this bike... The previous owner didn't really know much about its history either. I can say though that when I opened the gearbox, there was evidence that some work had been done as the numbers of the gear positions were written on the sidewalls of the box in what appears to be Sharpie. What is the 6 speed recall about?

*facepalms* Thanks for explaining that to me GuzziMoto. That makes sense. I jumped the gun and assumed something was wrong. I'll get it all sealed up again and test it out. And sorry Tom M and Solar for being snarky with you guys. I'll let you know how it goes.

"My bike sometimes won't go into 1st if I'm in neutral with the clutch lever pulled in for some amount of time. I let the clutch out to get the tranny gears spinning then pull it in and it snicks into 1st no problem" Tom, like I said above, the transmission won't go into 1st, whether I pull the clutch or not. It only shifts if the wheel is spun. This is not the way the shifting behaved before I rebuilt the selector (or on any of my other bikes for that matter). Something is wrong.

Maybe for the higher gears (not acceptable as far as I'm concerned), but shifting out of neutral into 1st gear shouldn't require the wheel to be spinning. I doubt you walk your bike forward at a red light or a gas station when you want to shift out of neutral into 1st.

Hello all. I'm writing this post because I'm stumped with a frustrating shifting problem. I have a 2001 v11 Sport. The bike runs well but I was experiencing some poor shifting performance: difficulty shifting out of neutral into 1st gear (had to really stomp on the lever), missed shifts going up from 2nd into 3rd, false neutrals between 3rd and 4th. The neutral light also sometimes would stop coming on after riding and the bike was warmed up. After reading the forums here and on guzzitech, I became acquainted with the fact that the shift pre-selector mechanism sometimes came with a flawed pawl arm which would wear out its spring, and that sometimes the spring would fail while riding and leave the bike unable to shift. Sounded scary. Other users seemed to be of the opinion that this was also the cause for missed shifts and false neutrals. So I ordered a new pawl arm and all new springs, some redline oil and moly additive from harper's, and replaced all the suspect parts. No damage to any of the old springs was evident. The gear oil had no shavings in it, and the inside of the gearbox looked in order as far as I can tell. I moved the forks around and they all slide well and I was able to find the correct neutral position. The old pawl arm in the selector had the wrong diameter boss (16mm) the new one is the correct 15mm diameter, so at least that was worthwhile to swap out. After reassembling the selector, the mechanism seemed to be working fine. It clicks smoothly through all its positions. The neutral switch finds its hole in the back of the cog. When I reattach it to the gearbox, the shifting is not smooth. I can't get it to shift down into first at all. Well, I can, but only if I turn the wheel while I shift. Same goes for the upper gears: it stops between gears and won't budge unless I turn the rear wheel while actuating the shift lever. This is whether I hold in the clutch or not. So, if anything, it seems to be worse now: at least before I could get it down into first at a standstill. Now, it only shifts properly through all the gears when the back wheel is being spun while it's being shifted. (wheel lifted up off the ground with a paddock stand.) The shift lever is clearing the porkchop on the downstroke and the swingarm on the upstroke, so it's not like it doesn't have proper clearance... I haven't messed with the acorn nut and nut sandwich which from what I've read is supposed to be some sort of adjuster... Not sure exactly what that does yet. I'm kind of at a loss , the only thing I can think of is to maybe take apart the pre-selector and put it back together again, but like I said above, when I actuate by hand separately it doesn't stop between positions, it seems to work pretty smoothly. If anyone has experienced this and figured out the solution, or has any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it. I want to ride my baby again soon! Thank you for your help, -Simon

Well then. Don't you all answer at once! I got all my parts, the exploded diagrams, and the new fluids, and tonight's the night. If anyone has any more links, tips or things to look out for, specifically with regard to rebuilding the mechanism itself, now would be the time... And Fotoguzzi, I'll try to take pictures along the way. Thanks again, -S

Sorry for the delayed reply, was away for the weekend, just now back in front of my glowing screen. Thank you for the replies. It seems like there is much more information with regard to getting the gearbox cover off, than there is about actually replacing the springs. I looked though this thread: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16872 which goes over the process, but again, there isn't much detail about the actual shifter mechanism repair/service. Other than that crazy picture with the multicolored arrows all over it. Any more insight on that part of the job would be greatly appreciated. I'm hoping it will be mostly self explanatory once the cover is off. The gearbox is in the correct neutral postion right now, so that's a good starting point...

Hello All, So, after reading through this site and others, and riding my bike and experiencing some weird shifting behavior such as missed up-shifts, difficulty shifting down into 1st gear out of neutral, neutral light not coming on when in neutral, and false neutrals (which may explain the light not coming on when I think it should) I've decided to open up the gear box to look around, and to preemptively replace the pawl arm ratchet (04235101), the selector spring (04238300), as well as the lever spring (04239200) and the push spring (04238200). I've got some Red Line gear oil, as well as moly additive, with which to replace the gearbox oil after I'm done. I have the official service manual, which I find very unhelpful... The images are small and dark, and the accompanying instructions are an exercise in minimalism. I was hoping you guys could point me towards more explicit step by step instructions, which I'm sure exist somewhere on this site, but I'm having a hard time sorting through it all. What are specific things to look out for, are there any little tricks or tips I should keep in mind? Also, will I be needing and specific proprietary Moto Guzzi service tools, or can this job be done entirely with standard tools? Thank you very much for your help, and sorry if this is a redundant post. If it is, I'd be happy to be redirected to the appropriate articles. Thanks again, -Simon

Sorry, should've been more specific. It's from an 09 GSXR 750. The legs are 12mm shorter than the v11's Marzocchis. From what I've read so far there are some out there. Haven't actually tracked down a pair yet. I have handle bars on my bike, so I got an upper triple with handle bar risers. I don't use the steering lock either, so doesn't matter to me if that functionality is lost, but it would be nice to reuse the same ignition switch.

@GuzziMoto - I procured a complete front end from a 2009 GSXR. I figure that since I am not planning on doing the swap until the winter, I have all summer to sort out all the parts I will be needing, and to get the forks resprung and revalved. In my internet travels, I found these guys who seem very legit: http://www.racetech.com/ They seem pretty reasonable and knowledgeable for doing rebuilds. I also have a vintage 70's 35mm Ceriani front end on my Honda cb350 that I bought from an old Triumph dirt track racer which needs to be rebuilt (fork seals are held in with silicone caulking, no idea what condition the internals are in) so I figured I could send them in too. I was wondering if you were familiar with them and what your thoughts were on this. As far as the front end swap you did, how did you deal with the ignition switch? Did you relocate it to another area on the bike? Make some kind of adapter? Did you just keep the original Guzzi switch or did you use a Suzuki one?

So, another question came to mind. What did you end up doing about the speedo? Is the Guzzi speedo drive compatible with the GSXR wheel/axle? Or did you have to use the GSXR speedo drive? Were you able to keep the Guzzi instruments? EDIT: never mind. Looking at the service manual I now see that the speedo is driven off the gearbox. Pretty cool! I'm used to my old Hondas and Yamaha which have the speedo drive off the front wheel... One less thing to worry about. As far as the brake lines go, do the radial calipers require special lines, or will the existing lines work?

You rock.