Clonking noise from down under (not Australia)

[Guzzi2Go]

Hello,

 

I am fairly fresh to the V11 riding community, although I owned a MotoGuzzi (Mille GT) before. So far I managed to make 600-700 km on my new, used, 2002 V11 LeMans, and on two of my last rides I noticed a clonking sound coming from the whereabouts of rear wheel/swingarm/shaft (somewhere down, under my ), so I came here to seek for some advice.

 

The sound is noticeable at low, practically walking speed with clutch pulled in, or throthle released. I don't say that it is not there at higher speeds, but then it is most likely obscured by other noise and if something is loose, it probably occurs on higher frequencies. Anyway, I can't detect it during a faster ride. I also have an impression that I can "feel" the sound, but that might be psychosomatic. It is not constant, it is more like "clonk, clonk, clonk", and then it goes away.

 

At first I thought it is petrol splashing around in the tank, but now I am worried it might be something else.

 

Would broken rear wheel/swingarm bearings produce such noise?

 

What is the life expectancy of the uni-joint(s) on V11? On my previous Guzzi it would tend to part at 40,000km mark. The mileage on this one is 23,000 km.

 

Any comments, speculations, and horror stories are welcome.

[mike wilson]

Ujoint life is very variable - mainly because of this:

http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9989

[Tom M]

I sometimes had a slight clunk that I could feel when chopping the throttle off when my bike was new (to me). It felt like loose swingarm bearings to me so I tightened the mounting pins up a bit and the clunk/rear end wag went away.

[Ouiji Veck]

Wheel bearings are very suspect on these things.

Have a buddy haul it over on it's kick stand, get the back wheel off the ground

and grab the back tire with both hands firmly and give it a good side to side shake.

Don't wait till your 200mi from home like me when I noticed mine "clonking".

 

If thats the case you'll want to chase down the "short spacer" thread.

Seems there's a short spacer in the rear hub that likes bearings for lunch

on some V11s.

Good luck

[Guzzi2Go]

Ok, after some rainy week(end)s that the Guzzi has spent in my garage I pulled it out today again. The "clonking noise" is still there, and an apparent reason for it might be radial play of the drive shaft.

 

Now I am wondering...

 

a) Is it normal to be able to wiggle the shaft in its bearing? If I grab it I can noticeably move it side to side (along its radius/section).

 

\ Has something gone wrong with a potential of going even more wrong?

 

How are things on your Guzzis? The way I understand this there should be no play whatsoever, however the dealer that sold me the bike believes (not knows, as he claims he did not see too many of V11s) this should be ok. Reason might be that I still have some sort of warranty on it, although it is a used bike.