Le Mans gear box rattle

[TeamFab]

Hi folks, i recently bought a 2004 Le Mans with 4500 miles on the big girl. This is my first wander into the land of Guzzi's so was not sure what to expect but always knew i wanted a Guzzi of some sorts.

What i have noticed about my Guzzi is at tick over when warm the gear box makes abit of a racket, clunking and clattering and gettin on!!  I have watched a few youtube clips of V11's and some appear to make the same rattle!!

I was wondering if this is par for the course or can it be fixed??

Regardless of the rattle i love the big girl, i put a pair of Mistral cans and a K+N filter and she sounds fantastic. I have a garage full of bikes, SP1 Honda, ZX10 Kawasaki and a raft of other Jap gear but they just don't have the character of the big Italian.

Anyway, any advice would be appreciated.

Martin..  

[Admin Jaap]

The rattle you hear is almost surely the dry clutch. So no problem.

[-Martin.Glaeser-]

Hi Martin

Guzzi = dry clutch. Means: no noise absorbance by an oil bath.

 

The noise you hear is part of Guzzi's genetic fingerprint.

In that sense Guzzi has some common genes with the other Italian lady: Ducati. Also dry clutch.

 

-M-

 

...TAPAtalk via Samsung Galaxy Nexus...

 

 

[TeamFab]

Sorry chaps but that was the first thing i thought of but it aint the clutch, when the bike is cold the rattle isn't there plus when you pull the clutch in the rattle clears as the gear box stops turning but you can hear the clutch jingling, the rattle is defiantly coming from the gear box, i have put a stethoscope to it and its in the bag, the gear box is silky smooth mind..

Martin. 

[fotoguzzi]

mine does that too and it IS the clutch.

[GuzziMoto]

Mine does that, actually several of mine do that and not all of them have a dry clutch. It is mostly the transmission shafts spinning and the gears and dogs spinning with the shafts but knocking back and forth on their splines and into one another. Because of the Guzzi's 90 degree v twin nature it does not spin in a smooth constant speed but rather a series of faster and slower speeds. This causes the clutch and transmission to do the same. The clutch can rock on its splines and contribute to the noise, but hopefully your clutch splines do not have that much play that they make a serious contribution to the overall noise. The transmission gears on the other hand do have room to move.

The classic Dry clutch rattle to me is the noise the plates make when tension on them is removed by squeezing the clutch lever. Ducati's make a louder noise there because they have more plates and they often have a vented cover. But if the clutch is applying pressure to the plates to squeeze them together them there should be no looseness, no movement of the plates except as a whole. And if it was a dry clutch thing then non dry clutch bikes would not make the same noise. And finally, I found that, at least on mine, sometimes when I pull the clutch in and release it again the noise changes. Sometimes it even goes away until the next pull. Not sure why. I assume it because you are changing the way the gears and shafts line up and mesh together but I am not sure on the actual mechanics of that.

[pete roper]

What he said.

 

Get the TB's balanced correctly and keep the idle speed at 1100 or above.

 

Pete

[TeamFab]

mine does that too and it IS the clutch.

The noise comes from the gearbox and not the clutch...

[GuzziMoto]

mine does that too and it IS the clutch.

The noise comes from the gearbox and not the clutch...

Relax. Some are convinced it is the clutch. I have not been able to change their minds. But the important thing is the noise is NORMAL.

Use a quality gear oil, I use Redline shockproof but there are many options, and the noise will be less. As Pete said, make sure the throttle bodies are sync'd, that will also reduce the noise. And keep the idle above 1100. With mine a small increase in rpm has a large effect on reducing the noise.

[TeamFab]

mine does that too and it IS the clutch.

The noise comes from the gearbox and not the clutch...

Relax. Some are convinced it is the clutch. I have not been able to change their minds. But the important thing is the noise is NORMAL.

Use a quality gear oil, I use Redline shockproof but there are many options, and the noise will be less. As Pete said, make sure the throttle bodies are sync'd, that will also reduce the noise. And keep the idle above 1100. With mine a small increase in rpm has a large effect on reducing the noise.

Hi, i have ballanced the throttle bodys and use the recommend gearbox oil but might try the redline shock proof. A crackin bike all the same..

Martin.

[mznyc]

We're all assuming it's the clutch(my first guess) without seeing or hearing it.Could you post a video of it? May help.Any members nearby that could take a look?