It's Aliiive!

Guzzi V11.

I suspect the battery's probably tired because it churned very slowly
despite a recent spell on the Accumate, but after only three or so
seconds the bike coughed. On the second press of the starter it
rumbled into life almost immediately. The joys of FI bikes.

Here's hoping I've actually fixed the original fault: there was never
a real "Aha!" moment, but I'm fairly sure it was a combination of
buggered oil filter, ancient oil and a badly fitted & warped oil
filter screen that between them damaged the oil pump.

 

Great news. If you don't mind saying, what was the total parts list/bill?

I hate it when there is no obvious fault found during a repair/rebuild.
Good to hear it's alive again though.
JB

 

I'd put it at around 700 quid, though that doesn't include oil and the
oil filter, which I was just about to replace anyway because a service
was due.

Parts:

1 oil pump
1 camshaft
4 tappets
4 big-end half-shells
4 big-end bolts
6 flywheel mounting bolts
2 piston circlips
1 oil pickup mesh screen
2 crank seals
Assorted gaskets

That did include a couple of things I replaced 'because the engine was
in bits', like crank seals, though I didn't replace absolutely
everthing that I could have. I bought new big-end bolts and flywheel
bolts when in poorer circumstances I might have reused them, but given
that the previous year's model had a recall due to big-end failures
then I wasn't about to take chances.

 

Not bad, IMHO.

 

All 4 followers knackered then? How bad was the old cam? Was it worth
getting resurfaced/reground with a more 'interesting' profile?

I hadn't heard about the recall issues. Anything terminal to do with big-end
or main bearings on a Guzzi gets _really_expensive very quickly as you know.

As TOG said, that's not a bad price. And you know it's been done properly.
God knows how much adealer would have charged.

JB

 

Well, all four valve clearances went out in only a few dozen miles.
The noise was pretty raucous and the faces of three of the tappets had
circular scuff marks. The fourth, the RH inlet one, had a clearance of
a couple of mm by the time I got home. The hardeded tappet face had
been worn away right through to the soft metal beneath, resulting in a
dished surface with burrs round the edge.

The camshaft was relatively unscathed but wear marks were visible on
all lobes. It can almost certainly be reground.

As the bike has been generally neglected and is hardly concours, it
really wasn't worth wasting effort on adding tuning goodies, though I
did consider buying a slightly lumpier cam. Really, if I hadn't spent
so much effort on it already just to get it to a reasonably rideable
state, I'd have seriously considered breaking it for spares.

Besides, I always have the Tuono if I want
arm-stretching-front-wheel-skipping fun.

I think it may only have affected certain batches (there was also a
gearbox recall for, I think, 2000 models). There was always the worry
that an older engine from leftover stock had made it onto a later
bike. However, it *looks* like the earlier 2000 engines at least
didn't have the cast-in lugs for attaching the lower frame bracing
bars, which mine has.

Well, I'd guess that a big bearing failure on any engine would be
expensive!

I *hope* properly. I did reuse the original main bearings as they
seemed to be dimensionally OK, though the surface appearance wasn't
perfect. I had to measure the clutch end main journal with a vernier
caliper because my bigger micrometer doesn't go that wide, so only got
a rough idea of its fit, but it seemed OK.

Oh, there were a few additional costs I'd forgotten to add: I had to
make up a clutch centering tool, plus I got through most of a small
tube of Loctite and I had to carry out surgery on the collector box on
that last ride: an internal plate decided to break loose, too. Not my
best bit of welding.