gearbox V11 lemans

[Guest v11eric]

A while ago I humbbled home after my gearbox stopped changing gears. The repair of the bike whas done in an couple of hours. The gearbox is opend behind the starterengine so everything could be in place. The dealer who repeard the bike told me I was there second customer whit the sam problem a broken returnspring.

 

Has someone A drawing or a partsbrawing of the gearbox to see What is happening inside there.

 

Greetings

Eric V11 Lemans july 2001 8500km

[Guest Guest]

Had the exact same problem on my 02

[Guest Yu-Liang Lin]

The detent spring in the gearbox of my 2002 V11 Le Mans broke two months ago. It looks like this is not a defect spring but a design flaw. The sad thing is this detent spring no one carries it. My dealer had called all the major suppliers in the US and no one seems to have it. I have been waiting for two months now and there is still no sign of the spring. I had sent requests for special attention to this problem to the Moto Guzzi North America through their web site e-mail addresses, both customer service and warranty service. But, no reply ever shows up. No one answers the call either. I am so disappointed about the company though it is a great bike. If I have a chance to do it again, I would spend a little more for a BMW or less for a Japanese bike. The electrical problem in the engine start-up and and fog in the tachometer started my first disppointment prior to this. Now I realise how important it is to have dependable part supply and a responsible company. Two thumbs down for Moto Guzzi. Anyone out there who suffers from the same flustration, please speak up. We deserve to be riding again.

 

A very very unhappy V11 Le Mans owner

[al_roethlisberger]

Sorry to hear about your problems...

 

...so far(knock on wood) the only transmission problem I am having is related to shifting up from 2nd to 3rd. About half the time I have to give it 2 or 3 tries to get it to go, but it's only intermittent.

 

My dealer says this is not necessarily normal, but to just give it some break-in time as I've only got about 500 miles on the clock so far.

 

So, I'll wait and see I guess.

 

But in regard to waiting for parts, etc... Moto Guzzi definitely needs to get their house in order. I've had some warrantee parts and bags on order for 2 months with no way to get status. Thank goodness none of them are currently keeping me from riding, but it's frustrating.

 

I was, and am still, hoping that Aprilia's purchase will help get Guzzi in order, but we'll see.

 

al

[Guest lyl]

Hi Al:

Thanks for the input and sympathy. If your bike is a Le Mans and only has 500 miles, you might want to be aware of this return spring problem in the gearbox. It failed on me after about 3900 miles on the meter reading, and the same problem occured on two other people here in this forum. Who knows if there are other people out there facing the same frustration and did not get showed up here. This should be a recall from Moto Guzzi, or at least have the problem addressed by Moto Guzzi. I hope Eric and the other guest got their return spring problem resolved. And, let's hope that this will not be a chronic problem. Even the spring finally arrives after some months of waiting, I am starting to worry when it might be failed again and you are hundred of miles from home.

 

LYL

[Guest v11eric]

All spare parts are availeble, My spring was at stock. I bought and service my bike by tlm in the Netherlands, they clame they have the biggest stock of spareparts in Europa. Perhaps youre problem is more the importer of the bike. Will it be payeble to have A stock off spareparts and happy clients or wil he only sell?

 

I hope You soon ride againe

 

Check out www.tlm.nl

 

Eric

01 v11 Lemans

[Guest Hank Blackstock]

I notice that several of the above posters have had trouble getting springs for their transmissions. My 2002 Lemans

suffered a broken spring. I call it the shifting pawl spring. There are 3 springs in the transmission, my terms would be shifting pawl,

detent, and shift lever centering. Anyway since the dealer said the spring was on back order, I had a local spring manufacture make

a duplicate. Cost me 20 bucks and he also made me a spare. I would rather spend 20 bucks than wait who knows how long for a

warrenty part.

 

I feel that the reason my spring broke was a defective spring, due tho the place it broke, perhaps I now have a better sping than the

factory part. We shall see.

[Guest lyl]

Hi Hank:

Are you in the US? If you are, can you give me the info of that local spring manufacturer you've mentioned? How did you do it? Just bring in the broken one? I am not sure if the broken springs we have are indeed the same spring. You are right. There are three springs in the gearbox. But, the other two don't seem to be easily broken. It is that one looks most fragile broke. With so many people experience the same spring problem, I am more convinced that Guzzi has a design problem here. I hope your home-made spring last. And, Moto Guzzi notices this soon and modify their spring desing with improvement. With no way of getting in touch with any of their customer service rep, I guess many of the V11 Sport/Le Mans owners will continue to suffer from this. I only hope that it will not be too far from the dealer when it happens.

 

Thanks,

 

LYL

[Guest Hank Blackstock]

Yes, I am in the US. The spring company is:

 

Nyswonger Spring Co.

4601 N. Walnut

Oklahoma city, OK 73105

 

(405) 521-0636

 

Perhaps it might ge easier for you to find a company in your locality that would be more conveniant. I just looked in the yellow pages.

 

Of course I had to supply them with both pieces of the broken spring as a sample.

 

The spring was the one that was hairpin shaped (with one loop) with one end about 1.5 inches and a slight bend and the other end shorter with about a 1/4 inch 90 degree bend. Mine broke in the 90 degree bend. I believe that there was a problem in the manufacturiing process of the spring that weakened it when it was bent.

 

If you need help you can call me at (405) 640-5802

[Guest lyl]

Hi Hank:

Thanks for being so helpful. From your description of the spring, I believe it is the same spring failed on mine with only one loop and an odd twist. It must be that 90 degree bend causes stresses to concentrate there, and fails after months of use. I have ordered one from TLM in Holland but lost all the faith on how long it will last. Your help will be a nice back-up plan in case it fails again. Really appreciate.

 

LYL

[Guest Hank Blackstock]

I have seen many transmission springs that are similar in my 50 yrs of motorcyle experiance. Usually they have a similar bend that is needed to hold the spring in place. This is the first time I have seen one break in such a manner. This leads me to believe that the spring manufacture has done something wrong. Perhaps the temper is wrong or something. I will talk to my local spring company and see if they have any ideas what caused it to fail.

 

Hank

[Guest Gerry]

So I am not the only one with a fogged up tachometer! On my Honda the tach. has a number of control lamps which generate heat; this also causes a certain amount of fogging in the winter which I can understand, but the Guzzi fogs up in the summer! I am also unsatisfied with the general finish of my 2001 Rosso Mandello. Not only the fogged up tach., but lots of tiny blemishes as well (paint flaking off etc.). It is a great bike but there is too little attention to details. You have now got me worried about this spring. I hope they are available in the Netherlands.

 

Gerry.

[Guest Jaap]

Hi Gerry,

I can help you with one thing: the fogged up tacho. Drill a small (5 mm or so) hole in the black plastic housing around the tacho. If you do it on the lower side of the housing it's invisible. DO NOT drill in the tacho metal housing itself!!!

I picked this solution up in a german forum and it works just fine!

Good luck.

[al_roethlisberger]

...just as an FYI, my tach stopped fogging after about 200 miles new. I can only assume it picked up some moisture during shipping from one climate to another, but it cleared up in a few days. And mine did it "in the heat too", so it was odd.

 

But if it starts again, I'll do the "drill modification"... although, now that I think about it, I'm getting a new tach under warrantee anyway due to a blemish on the bezel... so we'll see how the new one behaves *sigh*

 

But on the Q/A front, I whole-heartedly agree that the bikes are great, except MG needs to really get a handle on the details and durability. It seems that issues with the engine and transmission would have been worked out years ago given the nature of the design. And issues with paint and finish should be no-brainers if you get the right folks to do the work.

 

The bikes are really great, and I am just hoping that Aprilia will inject some higher quality into the bikes, and that they'll get their act together regarding parts & accessories availability.

 

... hoping and waiting...

 

al

[Guest lyl]

Hi all:

This is getting better now with the sharing of more owners' experience. Thanks Jaap for providing such convenient and great site to bring people together. As my disappointment towards my gearbox spring continues, I finally receive an e-mail reply from Moto Guzzi North America. I was asked if my problem were solved, and he was also asking for my dealer's info. At least there is someone who still cares. Though I haven't received any temperary solution or suggestion from MGNA, I do feel a little bit better.

 

Gerry, don't worry. You've got TLM in Netherlands. Looks like they are pretty well stocked. One thing I don't understand about the fogged up tacho is how come the fog doesn't show up in the speedometer? The classy analogue meters are simple and beautiful but just a little annoying when it is cloudy. Oh, one more thing. The choke on my Le Mans didn't really help during the cold engine start. You have to keep revving till engine warms up a little. I had to have it modified a little in order to make it function as what it is supposed to be. Don't know if anyone having the same thing.

 

All these little things won't really stop a running engine but do sometimes cause some concerns on the quality of this beautiful machine. I hope everyone will get over their nuisance more quickly and easily by the helps they could extract from this forum. Happy and save ride.

 

LYL