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While its in bits.....

I'm with Pete on this, the more I look at this the more I am happy with what I have bought.

A pain in the arse that it was necessary to have the cam work done but this thing like my prior bike is built like a brick shithouse and ultimately will cause me no fear if I ever have to undertake any major work myself.

Anyone who wants to experience the mind numbing trauma of non-sensical installation of mechanical components should go and work on a British car built in the period running from the 40's to the 70's. That will give you a new insght into how to turn a good idea into moronic engineering designed and assembled with no thought to the poor bastards that had to repair them.
 
Mark111 said:
A pain in the arse that it was necessary to have the cam work done but this thing like my prior bike is built like a brick shithouse and ultimately will cause me no fear if I ever have to undertake any major work myself.
Click to expand...

Well, if the bike had been fixed BEFORE it had been sold to you like it should of been you wouldn't of had to drive it up to be broken by an idiot would you :mrgreen: !

Bits didn't arrive today, which is odd, they have left Sydney so presumably they have been dragged off the Hume Highway into Bellanglo State Forest and murdered! As it is I spent the morning buying a new engine crane for our workshop as Graham's old one he built in his apprenticeship is, errrr? A bit 'Long in the tooth!' :lol: . If I'm going to be working on this new fangled stuff where you have to lift the frame off the motive unit a purpose built, 'Modern' crane is the way to go and it'll save a lot of the gut-bustin' we went through getting the engine out without scratching the paintwork or dropping the frame off the bench!!!! :lol:

Really, its all good. I'm just horribly embarassed that I managed to turn what should of been a simple 3 hour recall job into the mechanical eqivalent of a 19th century Russian novel! :oops: .

I'll complete the engine work as soon as the parts arrive and while I'm waiting I'll go through the cycleparts and make sure Guiseppe hasn't dropped a bollock anywhere, (Apart from the un-greasiness!) then hopefully I'll be able to run it back up to you by mid next week.

Pete
 
Really appreciate the pics.
A really good reference on how the assembly should look like.
Thanks :cheer:
 
Mark111 said:
I'm with Pete on this, the more I look at this the more I am happy with what I have bought.

Anyone who wants to experience the mind numbing trauma of non-sensical installation of mechanical components should go and work on a British car built in the period running from the 40's to the 70's. That will give you a new insght into how to turn a good idea into moronic engineering designed and assembled with no thought to the poor bastards that had to repair them.
Click to expand...


+1! Add to that french cars of the 80's!!
 
Pete,

Thanks for the picture of the clutch splines. One thing that once separated Guzzi from BMW was the replaceable hub gear of the two plate clutch. I noticed what looked like rust on the transmission splines you had out. These should have been greased at the factory. If for no other reason than to prevent rust. On BMW's I use a sparing amount of AmSoil synthetic grease on the input splines. The stuff adheres well, doesn't sling, and will last darn near forever (it is better than the expensive crap that BMW specifies). Once I use it on a BMW, I tell the owner the 40K interval for lubing that spline is gone. It will hold until the clutch is toast. I did notice the flange on the clutch plate doesn't appear to be as wide as on the BMW. The wide flange on the BMW plate helps to hold the grease in place, and prevent clutch dust from settling on the shaft, combining with the grease and acting like an abrasive. For that reason, I'd only use very little grease on the Guzzi spline. I'm not looking forward to this becoming a routine maintenance task.
 
Interested about the comment re poor quality of Nippon bikes today. I remember when buying my MG the dealer went on about the quality being better than Japan inc, however I just ignored it as sales talk. Jap bikes of the 80s I worked on were pretty good, has quality gone down hill since then? I would be interested in any examples you have.
 
Where would you like me ro start? Porous castings. Flakey welding! Poor hardening of parts like cams! Bad assembley! Incorrect machining of vital parts like cam sprockets! Leaky wheels! poorly cut threads! Crappy fasteners!

I'm not saying Guzzi/Aprilia/Piaggio are infalible, (And God forbid someone bring up Teutonic excellence!) simply that they are probaly no better or worse than any other manufacturer in the world. The VAST majority of the 'Problems' I come across in Guzzis are of a 'Home Made' nature, either by poor preparation or service, rather than being endemic problems to the brand. Yes, when they drop a bollock they tend to do it spectacularly 'A-La' tappet fiasco wthe the early 8V's, the CARC recall on early Brevas and Grisos or the crappy oil pump business and 'Un-Bent' lockwashers on early Norges but overall most of the Guzzi problems are of a minor nature and should be easily fixed in a couple of hours by a competent tradesman.

The Japanese make superb motorbikes. But they also know that their 'Bread and Butter' is going to cme from the cheap and uninspiring, so they build those like they used to. The 'Flagship' models are nowadays designed for a short life and built indifferently. YOMV......

Pete
 
OK, 'nuther interesting thing. To the best of my knowledge this thing had never been apart, but one of the pushrods on the right hand side was in upside down! As I said before, this machine is a contemporary ofmine, it's a very early '08. Methinks that maybe some of the early bikes were assembled without complete dilligence. Probably simply because the blokes who were building them were unfamiliar with what they were doing. Anyway, all fixed now.

I went and bought a new 2 tonne engine crane last weekend and that made getting the donk back in the frame without damage a lot easier. It's now bolted back in and tomorrow I'll finish off the reassembley. Had to stop early this afternoon to go to the funeral of one of the town's family's 20 year old daughter. Killed in a crash last weekend. What a waste..........

Pete
 
Pete, great post, thanks! Condolences on the tragedy.
 
My condolences.

I’ve checked those push rods during my first valve clearance adjustment. All four are right side up… pheew. Mine is a 2009 G8V, the factory probably ironed out this assembly line glitch by then.

Phang
 
question for pete roper. pete, was the cam follower on the left in your picture, with the taper on the backface, the latest/improved follower?
 
On Jappers, mechanic told me the average life of an R1 is 10,000km. Crashed and written-off I assume.
When their "big bang" engine came out an exited owner reported to me the salesman told him they needed new big end bearings every 20,000k. I rejected that statement as total crap.

However, there are reports of R1's being replaced (complete bike) under warranty due to engine "nock". So superlight parts at high revs for racing may not last long for street use.

Another example, CBR1000's had (for the last 2 years) a Yuasa YTZ7S battery, rated at 6Amp/hour. This was chosen in their quest for smaller smaller, lighter lighter phil-Ossa-fee. Consequences are obvious, 3 stabs of the starter and its all over redrover. Also, their tiny stator reg/rec etc couldn't cope with the loads and would fail within 10,000km.

Goldwings are built to last, but ........................ they don't inspire me.
 
The resurrection of this thread has prompted me to give an update on the bike in question.

10,000 km further on in its life I can report that it is still trouble free. The valve train rattles like a cat in a tin half full of marbles but this is standard for the early 8v engines and certainly nowhere near as noisy as a dry clutch Ducati.
After a 1000 km weekend just gone that included all sorts of variable weather and road conditions I can report it ran like a diesel locomotive i.e. like it was on rails without missing a beat, what a great piece of Italian engineering.

The only glitches that ever occur are down to the rider who is still trying to explore its limits, which are far greater than my level of ability. It has saved my bacon on a number of occasions.
With the suspension adjusted to my liking i can honestly say I have never experienced a motorcycle that inspires a greater level of confidence and satisfaction, I love this bike.

Mark
 

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Oh dear!!!! You mean the sky ISN'T falling Mark!!!! Woe on us!!!! I wonder what possible reason there can be for our bikes being reliable? Perhaps we never ride them? Perhaps we ride them like pussies? Perhaps we're 'just lucky'?

OR, JUST PERHAPS ITS BECAUSE WE USE THE CORRECT SPECIFIED LUBRICANTS AND SERVICE OUR BIKES AS IT SAYS THEY SHOULD BE IN THE BOOK!!!!!!!! :roll:

Pete
 
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