At the end of Update 8 I said I was going to pull the heads and cylinders off. After consultation with a friend I decided I would just pull of the side that was leaking. Why mess with something that’s okay?
So on Friday I took the left side apart. I took a bunch of pictures because who doesn’t want to see engine parts?
Continue reading →The last update stopped on Saturday. Sunday I did a couple more things.
I replaced the clutch cable. It might not have been completely necessary, but there was a spot where it was rubbed down to the spiral metal core and I was concerned that water would get in and rust it up. So I replaced it. I kept the old one as a spare though.
I also filled the transmission with gear oil.
I realized that as long as I’m changing all the other fluids I should probably do the fork oil, so I ordered a bottle of 10 weight fork oil.
The oil arrived yesterday, so I decided that I’d drain and refill the forks today. I had to move the straps to the rear of the bike and put the jack under the oil pan to lift the front wheel up.
Then it was a pretty simple matter to remove the front wheel and pull each fork leg, drain the oil and then refill it.
Here is the front wheel off.
And here is the first fork leg off – you can see it draining in the background.
Not very exciting pictures I’m afraid.
I’ve decided that I’m tired of waiting for the piston rings to arrive. I think on Friday I’m going to pull down one of the cylinders and see what the state is inside. If the rings look okay I’m going to just reuse them and install the new gaskets. There will be more interesting pictures when I do that.
Managed to spend some time in the garage today and ticked off a couple more items on the Guzzi list.
Continue reading →It’s been a little while since the last update and that’s because I’ve been waiting for parts. I think they are manufacturing them to order in Italy and shipping them via slow-boat.
I couldn’t put the rear end the rest of the way back together because I was waiting for one little spring to arrive. It’s the clutch arm return spring, and I didn’t think I could get the clutch arm back on if I put the swing arm back on, so I had to stop.
Continue reading →I’ve only had one “major” motorcycle crash, and I wasn’t really injured much, but it’s an interesting story.
In the summer of 1989 I was riding my 1984 Kawasaki 750 Turbo though Beartooth Pass in MT/WY when the oil cooler line became detached and covered the rear wheel in oil. This wouldn’t have been quite so bad, but I was leaned over in a curve at the time.
These titles are getting a little boring, but now I feel like I’m stuck with them. Oh well.
The first batch of parts arrived, and included in that batch were the new clutch parts and some of the gaskets. So that meant I could assemble the clutch and bolt up the transmission to the motor again.
Continue reading →First off, parts have been ordered and the first batch shipped today.
Next is cleaning. Lots of cleaning. Not too many pictures though. Yesterday I cleaned up a whole bunch of the parts that had been removed. I mainly used the Northern Tool Tub O’ Towels Heavy-Duty Cleaning Wipes and I have to say that I’m impressed. These things cleaned the hell out of the greasy dirty parts.
Today I spent some time with some Simple Green cleaner and the rear fender, transmission and rear wheel. Simple Green also works a treat on dirty greasy parts and cleaned up these parts pretty well. The rear wheel still needs some attention, but the transmission turned out great!
Continue reading →Today started out with building the cradle to support the lower frame rails after I removed the rear wheel.
This post is mostly pictures of the status of the bike after Update 1 and closeups of the oily reasons I’m tearing it apart.
At the end of Update 1 the bike looked like this.
Time to dust this thing off again. Anybody still listening? Anyway…
The Moto-Guzzi V11EV sidecar tug has been leaking oil for a while now. So I decided it’s time to address the issue.
I got the okay from the CFO to buy the motorcycle lift I wanted (a Kendon Stand-Up lift that is compact and stands up on end when not in use.)
Last weekend I had a friend come over and help me detach the sidecar from the bike. That wasn’t too difficult, but it was definitely a two-person job.
