Guzzi V11 Le Mans 2000...Starting issues

[p6x]

12 hours ago, audiomick said:

are generally more interested in selling new vehicles than keeping old ones running. Jus' sayin'...

Hence, programmed obsolescence... fortunately, there is a law in France to attemtp to prevent it. Especially with household appliances which are conceived in a way they can't be repaired as it used to be possible before.

[gstallons]

@David Sandbrook

David S , did you get your bike repaired / running correctly ?

[David Sandbrook]

HI gstallons...No, not yet. I am having a talk to a service shop tomorrow and have translated many of these posts to Japanese to give the shop a little info in the hope they too can help. 

Cheers,

David 

[gstallons]

Good , these require steps in diagnosing/repairing and if the tech speaks the English language they can join the forum and get involved with asking questions . 

[p6x]

10 hours ago, David Sandbrook said:

HI gstallons...No, not yet. I am having a talk to a service shop tomorrow and have translated many of these posts to Japanese to give the shop a little info in the hope they too can help. 

Cheers,

David 

I don't know which part of Japan you are living, you should maybe put the name of the city in your profile card, but I don't know if you ever saw 46works YouTube videos, this guy is some kind of wizard for preparing Guzzis and BMWs.

I don't think he would be interested in working on your bike, he is more like a custom prep, but giving him a call may be worth your while.

https://46works.net/

[stewgnu]

could the solder be failing at the alternator wires?  Happened to me recently and left me stranded.

Then one of the little tab/posts snapped off of course when i looked at it.  Always get more jobs than expected when i fix my guzzi- it’s great value

[Gmc28]

Lots of good info offered.  surely seems like the early input from audiomick on your charging system would be a smoking gun.  but exactly what/where in the system you have failure would be the question.  assuming you love your V11 and plan to keep it, and/or just want to cover your bases as you tick off possible causes for this current problem, just going through the charging system from end to end isn’t that painful of a process, and I’d say advisable for about any older italian.  As stewgnu noted, solder/connections on the front end, the wire and connectors back to the VR, the VR itself, and then the grounding connections, are all things that can cause headaches.  I’d say inlikely that the VR itself is failed, but could be, and even if not, on my “keepers” i just replace it anyway with a MOSFET unit, including of course the connectors with upgraded pieces (probably more important), check and/or replace original connectors in that run from the alternator, and really clean up and/or upgrade the main ground to frame.  Whack all those moles at once, and just remove all or most the hassles that can come from that bundle of electrics, and probably solve your actual problem as well. 

As chuck noted, a battery going to zero volts would normally be unlikely to want to come back to life, but hard to imagine that it actually went all the way to zero (though anywhere close to zero is usually pretty lethal to a batt).  if you’ve got it back to normal or near-normal voltage, then roll with it, but keep your eyes on it.   i’ve had lead-acids come back to life quite nicely, semi surprisingly, but my last Li-Ion to go down to under 2V was “killed deader than hell”.  damn shame, as that was a spendy one, on a Duc that had a mis-behaving relay and sat for a few months without “adult supervision” (Duc service bulletin came out for that known issue, but i hadn’t seen that till it was too late… sigh).  but you can check that battery health within reason.

[gstallons]

Do start your repairs after verifying a GOOD battery. 

[David Sandbrook]

On 11/6/2024 at 12:36 AM, Gmc28 said:

Lots of good info offered.  surely seems like the early input from audiomick on your charging system would be a smoking gun.  but exactly what/where in the system you have failure would be the question.  assuming you love your V11 and plan to keep it, and/or just want to cover your bases as you tick off possible causes for this current problem, just going through the charging system from end to end isn’t that painful of a process, and I’d say advisable for about any older italian.  As stewgnu noted, solder/connections on the front end, the wire and connectors back to the VR, the VR itself, and then the grounding connections, are all things that can cause headaches.  I’d say inlikely that the VR itself is failed, but could be, and even if not, on my “keepers” i just replace it anyway with a MOSFET unit, including of course the connectors with upgraded pieces (probably more important), check and/or replace original connectors in that run from the alternator, and really clean up and/or upgrade the main ground to frame.  Whack all those moles at once, and just remove all or most the hassles that can come from that bundle of electrics, and probably solve your actual problem as well. 

As chuck noted, a battery going to zero volts would normally be unlikely to want to come back to life, but hard to imagine that it actually went all the way to zero (though anywhere close to zero is usually pretty lethal to a batt).  if you’ve got it back to normal or near-normal voltage, then roll with it, but keep your eyes on it.   i’ve had lead-acids come back to life quite nicely, semi surprisingly, but my last Li-Ion to go down to under 2V was “killed deader than hell”.  damn shame, as that was a spendy one, on a Duc that had a mis-behaving relay and sat for a few months without “adult supervision” (Duc service bulletin came out for that known issue, but i hadn’t seen that till it was too late… sigh).  but you can check that battery health within reason.

Hi Gmc28, replacing the battery on 11/24 then into the shop for hopefully much of what has already been mentioned and alluded to in your post.  The tricky part is lost in translation moments with the shop. They seem to only do what's on the order form and not kind of follow through with a noticed problem seeking a solution. My problem. The V11 was in the shop for 8 months, just released in July this year and now she is going back in (sigh). Will keep the forum updated! 

[David Sandbrook]

On 11/6/2024 at 10:26 AM, gstallons said:

Do start your repairs after verifying a GOOD battery. 

 

Just now, David Sandbrook said:

Hi Gmc28, replacing the battery on 11/24 then into the shop for hopefully much of what has already been mentioned and alluded to in your post.  The tricky part is lost in translation moments with the shop. They seem to only do what's on the order form and not kind of follow through with a noticed problem seeking a solution. My problem. The V11 was in the shop for 8 months, just released in July this year and now she is going back in (sigh). Will keep the forum updated! 

 

Just now, David Sandbrook said:

Hi Gmc28, replacing the battery on 11/24 then into the shop for hopefully much of what has already been mentioned and alluded to in your post.  The tricky part is lost in translation moments with the shop. They seem to only do what's on the order form and not kind of follow through with a noticed problem seeking a solution. My problem. The V11 was in the shop for 8 months, just released in July this year and now she is going back in (sigh). Will keep the forum updated! 

 

On 10/31/2024 at 8:17 AM, gstallons said:

@David Sandbrook

David S , did you get your bike repaired / running correctly ?

Hi gstallons...in progress...into the shop on 11/24....

[gstallons]

These ( I  talian ) bikes hahve a personality all their own . If you don't know the orfer of procedure , you a screwed .