ABSOLUTELY DEAD

[Guest Rocker]

Re. V11 le Mans Rosso Corsa.

 

I've owned this bike from new in 2004, and done three continental trips to date.

 

Very occasionally it would be completely dead "on the button", especially after a thorough clean.

 

I recently fitted a Power Commander.

 

Earlier this month (June 2006) I was travelling up from Marbella via Ronda to the Villa for a weeks R&R when the weather closed in completely - dark - freezing cold - sleet - fog/mist - just like February in the UK! 90 minutes of pure hell behind crawling trucks, coaches and cars.

 

Next day, bike as dead as a Dodo.

 

Checked all cut-outs, relays etc., and all appeared fine.

 

After two days of push starts this was getting tedious (especially for "TBPPITW") and potentially dangerous.

 

A can of WD40 was purchased and amongst other things the ignition barrel was well dowsed. Tomorrow was a trip to the Jerez circuit.....

 

Tomorrow dawned.

 

It started immediately.

 

Moral: Guzzis hate water in their electrics.

Stick to basics and don't invent solutions (e.g. blame the Power

Commander).

Go to Jerez more often!

 

 

Rockerob.

[Martin Barrett]

Mine developed two electrical faults after swimming back from Scotland last month.

 

1- having been stood for best part of a week marinating refused to start blew the fuse on press of the button. I diagnosed stuck starter motor and a tap with a hammer and block of wood seemed to have fixed it. ( I think she'd done this before in similar circumstances but a fuse change and a bounce up on to the shop stand must have repositioned it enough to then start and no further repeats till this event)

 

2- The instrument lights flickered occasionaly and it became more and more consistant and finaly would only work on full right lock. When it exhibited this final sympton also realised that I'd lost my indicators. I was on the ride out from the Erin so Gary (Grossohc) who was following was also able to state my tail light was also flickering then gone.

 

I was convinced it was a corroded ground somewhere in the instrument binicle.

 

Fault traced to wire come adrift in the ignition switch.

 

I also had the corroded/burnt out connector on the main charge circuit - no doubt to water and salt ingress

 

 

I am convinced that she doesn't like to get wet and be left. Will cope if ridden daily in the wet but don't let her stand.

[Guest ratchethack]

Very occasionally it would be completely dead "on the button", especially after a thorough clean.

. . . . . Guzzis hate water in their electrics.

          Stick to basics and don't invent solutions (e.g. blame the Power Commander.)

Roger that last, RockerRob!

 

With y'er "horrid, simply horrid" weather, I don't know how any o' you Brits get any miles on y'er Guzzis a-tall without immediate and periodic attention to the grounds (earths) and "bullet connectors".

 

Both myself ('00 Sport) and one o' my riding Pals ('04 LM) had similar symptoms here in SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA until we followed the frequent wisdom offered on this site to pre-emptively go after it. Since we had our little "Guzzi clinic" wherein we removed our tanks and attacked every ground connection we could find with sandpaper and dielectric grease - and cycled every bullet connector, filled with dielectric grease and lightly re-crimped -- well, neither of us has had any of the prior symptoms - and I think it's been well over a year. . . .No, come to think of it, it's been two - how time flies. . . . .

 

NOTE: One of the most notorious bullet connectors for the symptoms you describe is the pair that feed the clutch switch. They're located under the left front of the tank.

 

BTW - I also added a heavy ground (earth) to the frame to supplement all the cheesy-looking grounds that I found in the headlight binnacle.