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California 1400 hanging throttle

Can I assume that pulling the head & lapping the valves would fix? My bike has the exact same symptoms, go up in the mountains get the engine very warm , the idle wants to hang @ 3000 rpm.With the older bikes they opened the valve lash (world specs) I'm curious to see where this goes.
 
Loosy gussi, opening the valve lash might help cover up the problem for a while but you start to introduce some pounding in the valve train and you will start changing the valve timing events which will take you down a whole other slippery slope. Then what are you going to do with the right hand cylinder?
Lapping or grinding the valves might help if yours has the same problem. But remember, they replaced the entire head on mine. If your head has a different problem, a valve job might not fix it. A non concentric valve guide MIGHT NOT get corrected this way whereas a seat that was pressed in slightly off might grind true, but what if your head has a tiny crack or a mis-cast or mis-drilled guide alignment, or a stem that is just a few thousandths too long? While my money would still be on the valve/seat interface, all I can tell you for sure is that EVERYTHING between the head gasket and the rocker arms was replace on mine and the problem vanished. With that said, if yours is out of warranty, why not try lapping? If you already have a stick and compound it will be practically free. Just a couple of gaskets. Being the cautious type, I personally would still take the head to a machinist and tell him your suspicions and have some very precise measuring done in all planes. It will cost a little but if lapping doesn't fix it you'll end up back there anyway. And you've still saved all the R&R labor. Lastly, I suppose you could instead replace the entire head but, out of warranty, I'd hate to pay what a head assembly would cost. I'm pretty sure mine was north of $1,100.00 just for the head, guides, valves, keepers and springs. The whole job was well over $2,000.00 of warranty billing.
 
Thanks for the quick reply. I am out of warranty and I understand what you mean, if the head is already removed, might as well have it checked out. For now I will wait until I have some other pressing issue. Because the bike runs so well currently. Don't they magniflux to check for unseen cracks?
 
By "they" you mean whom?
This was under warranty and Moto Guzzi was calling the shots. So, no they don't do that when it is cheaper (for them) to just send another head. In your case however, I think that is a great idea. So now you know you are dealing with a good part structurally and then go on to dimensional issues. Since they would have to tear down the head to do particle inspection, that's your time to do a valve job and measure everything prior to reassembly. My "guess" is the left cylinder only because that's what it was on mine. But if you don't have anything to indicate that it is the culprit, it becomes a 50/50 chance that you may have to work both heads. I suppose you could do them one at a time.
You mentioned the way yours runs. Mine ran great and felt smooth. Fuel mileage was good. Then at a stoplight it would sometimes hang @ 3,000 rpm or come down to idle VERY slowly. The biggest problem for me was the total lack of engine braking when it needed to decelerate below 3,000. It was very annoying in traffic or formations but in the mountains, leaned over in and out of curves or hairpins, it was really scary to feel the computer decide that not only were you not going to have any more engine braking but to then have it try to add enough fuel to hold that particular RPM.
 
By "they" I meant "the machinist that can do the headwork"... your description is apsolutly correct, I've tried to describe it before, going down a mountain rd., in a turn, the RPM drops below 3000 and the engine looses all braking then kicks in some fuel (power) kind of off & on type surge, upsetting for sure. I'd like to see other 1400 owners feedback & will follow this tread.
 
I wonder just how many folks fell in love with this machine and then found this problem, gave up and sold? In my research i found four or five problem reports just on this website. Moto Guzzi doesn't appear to have a very good communication network between dealers or between dealers and customers or between dealers and the factory. That's my opinion and it's a shame because a tight knit group goes a long way in establishing customer loyalty as well as satisfaction. The dealer doesn't know what another dealer has run across. The factory won't own and solve the problem. Even if it isn't under warranty, you can take an HD problem to any of the seven dealers in your town and they can all check each others stock and get answers from the factory. I feel MG has overlooked a serious sales tool. More feedback on an excellent site like this is an alternative for an owner; not for a "customer".
Anybody else currently battling this issue?
 
my bike has the hanging throttle most noticeable after refilling with fuel, this gives the engine time to heatsoak when the engine is started the RPMs will stick at 2600 to 3000 for a about 20 seconds then start coming down slowly otherwise riding the bike gets the cylinder cooled off to restore non hanging operation
 
I'm only going by what I see on mine but it doesn't sound like the same problem. Mine would only latch onto the 3,000 on the way down from higher RPM. It never climbed up there from a lower number.
What happens if you don't fuel? Just get it good and hot, shut it off for a minute then restart? Do you still get the over-rev? Sounds more like you might have something as simple as an intake vacuum leak.
 
I've started getting more and more bothered by this on my 2016 Eldo --- approaching 6K miles and I'm seeing seemingly related issues almost daily as the Summer temps creep into Arizona. I will be bringing her in for service soon and wanted to understand the best way for a dealer to pin-point the problem. My nearest dealer is HUGE (Ride Now) so I'm afraid of getting the brush-off.

Here are my symptoms:
1. Throttle sticks at about 3K rpm when engine warm and coasting (such as down mountain grade) in gear. A throttle blip will remedy it.
2. Throttle hangs at about same RPM when engine warm and shifting (up or down) or engaging clutch.
3. Idle jumpy when re-starting after sitting warm
4. Idles high (about 2K) when warm and stopping to traffic light. She will settle down to 1200 rpm after 10 seconds or so.

Any advice is welcome. She's a great bike otherwise.
 
The Ride Now in my part of the world is......well lets just say m-m-m-m- OK no bashing here.
 
Moto Punch said:
I've started getting more and more bothered by this on my 2016 Eldo --- approaching 6K miles and I'm seeing seemingly related issues almost daily as the Summer temps creep into Arizona. I will be bringing her in for service soon and wanted to understand the best way for a dealer to pin-point the problem. My nearest dealer is HUGE (Ride Now) so I'm afraid of getting the brush-off.

Here are my symptoms:
1. Throttle sticks at about 3K rpm when engine warm and coasting (such as down mountain grade) in gear. A throttle blip will remedy it.
2. Throttle hangs at about same RPM when engine warm and shifting (up or down) or engaging clutch.
3. Idle jumpy when re-starting after sitting warm
4. Idles high (about 2K) when warm and stopping to traffic light. She will settle down to 1200 rpm after 10 seconds or so.

Any advice is welcome. She's a great bike otherwise.
Click to expand...
That's worrying. I had hoped it was only earlier models 2014 etc that were affected, based on what i had read here, but it seems that anyones cali could fall victim to this. Fortunately up here it never gets that hot, but on a road trip who knows?
 
Moto Punch said:
I've started getting more and more bothered by this on my 2016 Eldo --- approaching 6K miles and I'm seeing seemingly related issues almost daily as the Summer temps creep into Arizona. I will be bringing her in for service soon and wanted to understand the best way for a dealer to pin-point the problem. My nearest dealer is HUGE (Ride Now) so I'm afraid of getting the brush-off.

Here are my symptoms:
1. Throttle sticks at about 3K rpm when engine warm and coasting (such as down mountain grade) in gear. A throttle blip will remedy it.
2. Throttle hangs at about same RPM when engine warm and shifting (up or down) or engaging clutch.
3. Idle jumpy when re-starting after sitting warm
4. Idles high (about 2K) when warm and stopping to traffic light. She will settle down to 1200 rpm after 10 seconds or so.

Any advice is welcome. She's a great bike otherwise.
Click to expand...

Check the clutch switch. It is well documented to cause the symptoms you note if defective.
 
The clutch switch is a single pole 2-way, i.e. there is a normal off and a normal on connection. I was getting the dashboard with "SERVICE" loudly displayed, but the clutch appeared to be working normally. However, one of the connections was duff, as a replacement switch cured the issue, and my warning went away.
 
I rode my bike for a couple of months with a bad clutch switch ... never noticed any effect on the hanging throttle after I replaced it.
 
From reading previous posts, I'm hopeful the valve adjustment will remedy the issue. Has there been any correlation between compression tests and this issue yet?
 
Moto Punch said:
I've started getting more and more bothered by this on my 2016 Eldo --- approaching 6K miles and I'm seeing seemingly related issues almost daily as the Summer temps creep into Arizona. I will be bringing her in for service soon and wanted to understand the best way for a dealer to pin-point the problem. My nearest dealer is HUGE (Ride Now) so I'm afraid of getting the brush-off.

Here are my symptoms:
1. Throttle sticks at about 3K rpm when engine warm and coasting (such as down mountain grade) in gear. A throttle blip will remedy it.
2. Throttle hangs at about same RPM when engine warm and shifting (up or down) or engaging clutch.
3. Idle jumpy when re-starting after sitting warm
4. Idles high (about 2K) when warm and stopping to traffic light. She will settle down to 1200 rpm after 10 seconds or so.

Any advice is welcome. She's a great bike otherwise.
Click to expand...

I've got a 2015 Eldo, ridden it a few times at over 40c, once for about 300kms and it's never been a problem.
 
I just started experiencing the problem this weekend with a 2016 Eldorado with 1900 miles. Throttle sticks at around 3000 rpm but can be caused to go back to idle by blipping the throttle. No dealer in New Mexico to help with the problem either.
 
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