Timing Gear set

[gstallons]

Righteous

[po18guy]

About like the XJ650/750/900 Yamahas with the straight cut primary gears.

[Pressureangle]

So I went around the block yesterday. Felt good, road damp. Blew the front seal out of the case. WTF... I only replaced it because the old one appeared to be original but it wasn't leaking... I'll toss this in the bin of 'Chinese Crap'. Anyway, I'd ordered a replacement seal for shelf that came today so we'll give it another shot. I haven't put the stix on it to balance the intakes yet, but I did start an experiment in tuning- since I had to reduce idle speed, I adjusted air screws, idle fuel and spark timing to minimize exhaust temps at ~1100rpm. Original values were 6.25* timing, 2860 injector. Timing proved perfect, I ended up leaning the injectors to 2760. Not big changes. I closed the air screws about 3/4 turn each, they are within a quarter turn of each other off their seats between 1/4-1/2 turns out. Exhaust pipe temp is 742* + or - 10* on the top of the pipe- interestingly, the top is +200* from the bottom at the head. I'll get the carb stix out soon and see where it landed. 
In other news, I was able to get the thing tuned to take big handfuls of throttle smoothly from idle, something I was never able to do before. It's so much crisper than before I wish I'd degreed the cam with the old chain and after the gears to see if it's advanced. The chain had about 35k miles on it. 
Here's your clip of the day.

Idle blips

[Pressureangle]

Ok, probably the last post here unless questions.

I went for a short, 11 mile sub-50mph shakedown, all low throttle sub-4000rpms. 
First, I cannot overstate how much more cleanly this thing drives at low rpm and low throttle. The 'city manners' are incredibly improved. The idle is steady, stable, and never missed a single beat, even though it's 100rpm lower than I had it set previously. The 'driveline snatch' at slow speed/low throttle have *disappeared*. I have to attribute this to idle/low rpm spark timing being precise, which leads to the conclusion that the stock chain tensioner is not tight enough to control the cam/crank relationship at low rpms. Significantly, the whole reason I put these gears in was because I 'thought' I heard the cam chain slapping around, and didn't know whether the bike had a spring tensioner or manual and figured if I'm in there I may as well go all the way. Supporting that suspicion is that during today's ride I had the fairing on and everything final assembled, and the reflected engine noise from the front is *immensely* lower. There was enough noise with the chain to be a constant source of discontent; not only are the gears quiet, they are comparatively silent. I've leaned my idle mixture and yesterday's ride told me the plugs are way rich at the throttle settings I rode today, though I've yet to read the plugs with my changes it felt fine which means still plenty rich. I'll have to re-tune everything, certainly everything in the low RPM columns and the low throttle settings. We'll see. At the end of the day, Joe's gears are what should be in them from the factory...but Guzzi already knew that a long time ago, didn't they?

Edit; I'll add here that I've always used the 'book value' valve lash settings; This time I've used the Guzziology values, Euro +.002" I think, .006" for intakes and .008" for exhaust. It's probably a contributor, but I would not expect that to make the huge difference I feel. 

[hammershaug]

Thanks for sharing. Very interesting topic. No one has mentioned the cost, so I guess I have to ask Mr. Caruso...

[Pressureangle]

1 hour ago, hammershaug said:

Thanks for sharing. Very interesting topic. No one has mentioned the cost, so I guess I have to ask Mr. Caruso...

Mine were 670 UK pounds in February, shipping in. I'd expect that with materials skyrocketing, they'll be more today.
E.

[hammershaug]

Thanks!

 

[Scud]

I just put my name a list with Joe for a set of gears. 

Anything for my Dark Lady (Scura).

[docc]

Are we trying to "get an order up" for Joe to do a run?

[Scud]

Not really, it seems he makes a few sets at time for various models - and just keeps names of who's interested. He said anyone can "reserve" a set, but there is no deposit required, and you can back out without penalty.

I'm in no rush to pop that front case off anyway. Just thought it would be cool to have a set on hand for a "rainy day project."

[Lucky Phil]

34 minutes ago, docc said:

Are we trying to "get an order up" for Joe to do a run?

I'm in discussions with Joe now on the design of a new oil pump along with Dynotec and I'd suggest anyone interested in new gears in the future get a group together now and get him do a run. His Gear maker isn't getting any younger and it's a bit of a labour of love as well so the availability of these things won't necessarily stretch into the long term horizon. I've got another set of Daytona gears coming at the end of the year for a 95mm bore engine I want to build as well as the new design oil pump.

Don't want to sound too pessimistic but recent circumstances have focused me on the utility of acting sooner on things rather than later.   

Ciao

  

[Scud]

^Act Now.

Here is Joe's website:

https://woodburymotomedia.com/moto-guzzi-timing-gears-by-joe-caruso/

All the contact details are there.

 

[Chuck]

Quote

Don't want to sound too pessimistic but recent circumstances have focused me on the utility of acting sooner on things rather than later.   

I've learned this over many years of playing with classic and antique airplanes. If you see something you think you need, you had better get it because it might very well be the last you'll ever see.

[andy york]

So ....what does one need to do for a set of gears?

Do I need to contact Joe personally or is someone here keeping a tally?

I take one of those new plexiglass front covers so I can show them off also

andy

 

[Scud]

Contact Joe directly. His email is on the website I posted above. I actually just got a message from him today saying he now has enough orders to do a run of V11 gears. But he has to wait for a backlog to clear with the machine shop he uses. He also did not estimate a date.

Nobody here is organizing a "group buy" - but I did tell Joe to expect a few more orders from V11LeMans members.