Guest slowpoke Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 Well about 5-6 months ago I had an oil pressure failure and drove the bike home from work without any oil pressure for about 11 miles. Because I also have a Triumph Thruxton I parked the Moto Guzzi and rode the Triumph until I had time to fix it. As anyone knows on this website that servicing a Moto Guzzi with so few dealers/service centers is pretty much a shot in the dark. I did the figuring as I always do because I can't afford to pay someone else to mess it up! Well here's what I came up with. I pulled the front cam/gear cover and checked to see if the nut and key was tight on the oil pump as per Mike Haven's suggestion. That turned out to be allright after disassembly and reassembly. (Just a note...if you need to get the gears off you definitely need the flywheel lock) The next step was to take the oil pan off and inspect the oil pressure valve. That was fine after disassembly. Now here's the curious aspect. There was a buildup of water in the oil on the previous oil change that had never occured before and now there was a strange gel-like consistency that filled the oil pan in one corner. So, I pulled off the oil thermostat and noticed that it had kind of corroded the plunger so that it would not move. I cleaned that and reassembled it, checked all the oil passageways and they checked out OK and filled the crankcase with oil and viola' I had oil pressure! So, here's my guess on what happened. Before this period I used to ride the bike about 375-400 miles a week. When I got involved in the restoration of my sailboat I stopped riding except for the daily commute to work-11 miles one way. Because the Moto Guzzi's run cool, the thermostat failed and the oil was being pumped through the oil cooler on a continous basis before it had reached the temperature for actual routing through the oil cooler. It picked up a lot of condensation on the way and plugged the passageways with a gel-like oil/water mixture thereby indicating that I had no oil pressure. So, in conclusion, I just need to ride more...yippee! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Nigelstephens Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 I have never had the oil cooler on mine. I brought my Sport 1100 i without it fitted. It came in a bag as it had been taken off by the previous owner as it was damaged. The bike tends to run at 65C and gets up to 105C max in long traffic queues. Not sure if this is detrimental or not, however oil temp is stable enough for my liking for the UK weather. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex-Corsa Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 I have never had the oil cooler on mine. I brought my Sport 1100 i without it fitted. It came in a bag as it had been taken off by the previous owner as it was damaged. The bike tends to run at 65C and gets up to 105C max in long traffic queues. Not sure if this is detrimental or not, however oil temp is stable enough for my liking for the UK weather. Yep that's right, in cooler enviroments the cooler isn't that much of necessity.Down here is though needed in summeritme.. btw nice avatar !!!, check your PM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luhbo Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 Well about 5-6 months ago I had an oil pressure failure and drove the bike home from work without any oil pressure for about 11 miles. ..... I find this worth to be pointed out by more but only a few reasons! It seems that if you really trust in your Guzzi she pays back any bit of confidence you give her... Hubert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest slowpoke Posted December 7, 2006 Share Posted December 7, 2006 One of the secrets that I have is that I use Amsoil synthetic 20/50 oil. They were the first to introduce synthetic oil. So, when I pulled the oil pan and looked up inside it was "clean as a whistle". I knew then that I had not ruined anything. Thinking that it was just the oil pressure switch I replaced it and that was not the problem. So, I'm glad that I've found the problem. Now, the next step is to balance the throttle bodies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlaing Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 Welcome back, SlowPoke! I hope you can make the Toy drive ride this weekend. If interested, check out the events section of the forum for details. If not this weekend, you should try to make a first Sunday of the month ride....two hundred miles in one day will do your bike good . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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