• Ciao Guest - You’ve landed at the ultimate Guzzi site. NEW FORUM REGISTRATIONS REQUIRE EMAIL ACTIVATION - CHECK YOUR SPAM FOLDER - Use the CONTACT above if you need help. New to the forum? For all new members, we require ONE post in the Introductions section at the bottom, in order to post in most of the other sections. ALWAYS TRY A SEARCH BEFORE STARTING A NEW TOPIC - Most questions you may have, have likely been already answered. DON'T BE A DRIVE-BY POSTER: As a common courtesy, check back in and reply within 24 hours, or your post will be deleted. Note there's decades of heavily experienced Guzzi professionals on this site, all whom happily give endless amounts of their VALUABLE time for free; BE COURTEOUS AND RESPECTFUL!
  • There is ZERO tolerance on personal attacks and ANY HYPERLINKS to PRODUCT(S) or other competing website(s), including personal pages, social media or other Forums. This ALSO INCLUDES ECU DIAGnostic software, questions and mapping. We work very hard to offer commercially supported products and to keep info relevant here. First offense is a note, second is a warning, third time will get you banned from the site. We don't have the time to chase repeat (and ignorant) offenders. This is NOT a social media platform; It's an ad-free, privately funded website, in small help with user donations. Be sure to see the GTM STORE link above; ALL product purchases help support the site, or you can upgrade your Forum profile or DONATE via the link above.
  • Be sure to see the GTM STORE link also above for our 700+ product inventory, including OEM parts and many of our 100% Made-in-SoCal-USA GTM products and engine kits. In SoCal? Click the SERVICE tab above for the best in service, tires, tuning and installation of our products or custom work, and don't miss our GT MotoCycles® (not) art on the BUILDS tab above. WE'RE HERE ONLINE ONLY - NO PHONE CALLS MADE OR RECEIVED - DO NOT EMAIL AND ASK QUESTIONS OR ASK TO CALL YOU.
  • Like the new V100, GuzziTech is full throttle into the future! We're now running on an all-new server and we've updated our Forum software. The visual differences are obvious, but hopefully you'll notice the super-fast speed. If you notice any glitches or have any issues, please post on the Site Support section at the bottom. If you haven't yet, please upgrade your account which is covered in the Site Support section or via the DONATE tab above, which gives you full site access including the DOWNLOADS section. We really appreciate every $ and your support to keep this site ad-free. Create an account, sign in, upgrade your account, and enjoy. See you on the road in 2024.

Cold start V7C fix

Moz

Moz

Cruisin' Guzzisti
Joined
Oct 28, 2008
Messages
175
Location
Land of Oz
I've read a few posts about problems with cold starting V7Classics.

A mate has one and had that problem and was told by the local dealer it was the battery - battery was fine.

Anyhow he was over at Mandello and got a tip from Luigi himself (I kid you not :p ) - the bike doesn't have advanced fuel injection and hence the 'choke' is needed but the return spring is so heavy it does not give and the cable stretches... so you think the choke is on but it is not :eek:hmy:

Replace the spring and problem solved.. :laugh:
 
What spring would you replace it with? I will ne taking mine in for its first service and would have that taken care of.
 
The part in question is # 12 in the picture


Spring.jpg
 
If it is anything like the breva the "choke" is just a throttle advance connected to that lever on the handlebars. The cable attaches just under the right throttle body. I'd stick my head under there and pull the lever just to check what effect the spring is having. You should see the linkage rod move a bit when you pull the lever. I doubt the little spring, again if like the breva, would provide enough resistance to stretch the cable or be able to keep the lever under the throttle body from moving.
 
But I don't understand. If the "choke" is merely a throttle advance why would the bike have difficulties starting by simple giving it some throttle manually? Why don't we have this problem on the Breva 750? Do these bikes share the same ECU?
 
You can give it some manual throttle - but if you don't it dies until warmed & that, as I understand it, is the problem...
 
Yes, it's the "dying" part as the engine is cold. As far as I can tell, it's chopping the throttle that causes it to die, especially after it is under load. The "choke" is there to bump the idle up a little bit to keep it off the "floor" of the fuel injection mapping. My guess is that an enrichened cold start mapping would probably solve this, but my bet is that it would be very dirty and if the bike isn't run with gusto, overly carboned up combustion chambers, O2 sensors and valve seals would result -- probably kill the catalysts as well.

My 2c.
 
The thread topic is Cold Start V7C "FIX", I don't see that it is a problem looking for a solution, OK, some times when my V7C has been sitting awhile like a day or two it might take 2-3 times to get a fire going and it may take a minute or two to warm up with out any stumbling. It what happens after that, just sheer flawless throttle responce, uh uh don't touch the map in my bike, I like it just the way it is thank you !
 
Moz wrote:
the 'choke' is needed but the return spring is so heavy it does not give and the cable stretches... so you think the choke is on but it is not :eek:hmy:

Replace the spring and problem solved.. :laugh:
Click to expand...

I examined the choke (throttle stop) on my newish V7C, and Moz is right; the majority of the throttle movement is in the last few millimeters of the lever movement, where the lever is reluctant to budge. It doesn't feel like a spring issue, but that the lever is binding at the end of the movement. Either clearing the jam or shortening the cable would give the choke much more effect.

Try it out. Start the bike and move the lever while looking at the tach. Most of the tach increase is at the very end of the lever's travel.

Joe
 
I've applied this fix to my Breva. Now the cold weather is here it was taking a little throttle to start, and some jiggling to keep it running at junctions.

The spring is ridiculously strong, I practically needed both hands to get the choke on, then if I took my hand away it springs straight back off.

Also the lever doesn't move far enough to fully apply the choke. I dismantled the lever end, in the hope that I could file something, but the stop is a thin web on the switchgear, I thought that cutting it would show, and let water in, so I "adjusted" the throttle body end to remove some of the lost movement, and fitted a light spring that I found in my "man drawer*"

Result, I can now start it much easier by pushing the choke lever rather than rolling the throttle, and tweak a fast idle to prevent stalling.

Only trouble is on a cold morning the gear lever appears to be seized, takes about 5 miles to free up.



*man drawer= the drawer that is full of dead rechargeable batteries, discarded remotes, odd keys and all the screws, washers springs etc. that have come out of things that have been thrown away.
 
When I brought my V7C in for its first service I mentioned the overly strong spring, but the problem with mine was that the nut on the end of the cable and the spring were missing. New ones installed and choke works fine and bike starts right up. (no charge for spring and nut lol)
 
I cut a few loops off the spring, and adjusted the cable. The choke (throttle stop) works much better now, but in truth I think the hard starting is a different issue. Perhaps ECU mapping isn't enriching it enough during a cold start?

The cold start isn't that hard, four to eight seconds, just not as instant quick as one expects for well tuned machine. Hey, my 1958 BMW will start in one or two kicks (of course this took months of tuning). My modern Guzzi should fire up just as well.

Joe
 
Has anyone here set the choke cable when the bike is hot, the older FI big blocks were set to a specific rpm after bike was hot, set by tightening the cable. I'll try this method tomorrow.
 
Had trouble starting my V7 the first day or so I had it, but then I re-read the owners manual and that solved all the problems for me - quote

Cold Startup
In the case of very low temperatures (near or below 32F - 0C) you may have difficulty at first start up.
In this case:
Turn the start lever towards the ground
Keep the start button pressed for at least 10 seconds and at the same time turn the throttle grip moderately
If the engine starts up
Release the throttle grip
Turn the start lever upwards

If the idle speed is irregular, work on the throttle grip using small, frequent rotaions
End Quote

Since reading this all I ever have to do is press the starter and roll on throttle until it fires (only ever a couple of seconds) then hold the idle on the throttle till ite warms up a bit (or simply start riding). Never need to touch the cold start lever.

John B
 
skorpion said:
Had trouble starting my V7 the first day or so I had it, but then I re-read the owners manual and that solved all the problems for me - quote

Cold Startup
In the case of very low temperatures (near or below 32F - 0C) you may have difficulty at first start up.
In this case:
Turn the start lever towards the ground
Keep the start button pressed for at least 10 seconds and at the same time turn the throttle grip moderately
If the engine starts up
Release the throttle grip
Turn the start lever upwards

If the idle speed is irregular, work on the throttle grip using small, frequent rotaions
End Quote

Since reading this all I ever have to do is press the starter and roll on throttle until it fires (only ever a couple of seconds) then hold the idle on the throttle till ite warms up a bit (or simply start riding). Never need to touch the cold start lever.

John B
Click to expand...

That is the same as my Little Breva manual. It has never failed to start on me. Never even had to worry about idle, though when cold it will take a minute or two settle. Then just ride.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top