Fredly
Just got it firing!
I'm new to the site but not to Guzzis,
I have an SE that I bought new in December 2009, it hasn't missed a beat and has never given me a moments grief.
Last Wednesday I rode in to Brisbane with a mate to have dinner at the Morrison Hotel and meet up with a group we're in, Brisbane Cafe Racers, on the way in I heard a clunking noise that seemed to be coming from both the heads, it was loud and heavy enough to make me think that something was about to fail so I nursed it the rest of the way. The noise was only there at walking pace and disappeared once the pace increased, it was also there while stationary in neutral with the clutch out and when blipping the throttle the noise followed the crank speed, the noise was also intermittent and not present at some of the traffic light stops.
The next day I scoured the Internet for clues but couldn't find reference to a similar problem so I pulled the rocker covers off and checked everything in there but found no cause for the noise, even the valve clearances were perfect, so I started the bike and soon found the noise was coming from the clutch / gearbox area so I drained the engine and gearbox oil, there was no metal fouling in either and both were quite clean.
With the option to leave it till something went bang, pulled the engine out and separated the gearbox from it then removed all the clutch parts down to the crank, removed the sump and felt for any play in the big ends and checked for anything loose, not finding anything I opened the gearbox and removed all the gears and shafts for inspection and found nothing amiss, no loose, collapsed or damaged bearings no evidence of any gear or shaft damage, so I reassembled the gearbox.
So now I'm pretty much resolved to putting it all back together and waiting for something to go bang, but I'll have a look inside the timing chest before I do.
After all this I can say that the workshop manual I bought off the Internet a few years ago is the same as the one in the downloads section of this site and is severely lacking in detail so that someone who was solely relying on it as a guide would wind up damaging their bike as a result of the lack of detailed info.
I would also like to ask a question regarding the clutch centralizing tool as shown and described in the manual, does anyone here have one or has seen one being used, I would like to know exactly what its function is, it seems from the proven to be unreliable manual that it is to centralize the "pressure plate" , the steel stamping that sits on the diaphragm springs fingers, I can't see the sense in this as the plate is held loosely by the big circlip and on mine it was clear that this was slightly off center all of its life so the tool was either usless at the factory or not used at all, it makes more sense to me to have a tool that screws into the end of the crank to mate flush with the crank end and have a shaft size that neatly fits the clutch plate drive spline to centralize the clutch plate so I made one just like that in preparation to refitting the gearbox.
If anyone has any advice on the subject I'm keen to hear it.
I have an SE that I bought new in December 2009, it hasn't missed a beat and has never given me a moments grief.
Last Wednesday I rode in to Brisbane with a mate to have dinner at the Morrison Hotel and meet up with a group we're in, Brisbane Cafe Racers, on the way in I heard a clunking noise that seemed to be coming from both the heads, it was loud and heavy enough to make me think that something was about to fail so I nursed it the rest of the way. The noise was only there at walking pace and disappeared once the pace increased, it was also there while stationary in neutral with the clutch out and when blipping the throttle the noise followed the crank speed, the noise was also intermittent and not present at some of the traffic light stops.
The next day I scoured the Internet for clues but couldn't find reference to a similar problem so I pulled the rocker covers off and checked everything in there but found no cause for the noise, even the valve clearances were perfect, so I started the bike and soon found the noise was coming from the clutch / gearbox area so I drained the engine and gearbox oil, there was no metal fouling in either and both were quite clean.
With the option to leave it till something went bang, pulled the engine out and separated the gearbox from it then removed all the clutch parts down to the crank, removed the sump and felt for any play in the big ends and checked for anything loose, not finding anything I opened the gearbox and removed all the gears and shafts for inspection and found nothing amiss, no loose, collapsed or damaged bearings no evidence of any gear or shaft damage, so I reassembled the gearbox.
So now I'm pretty much resolved to putting it all back together and waiting for something to go bang, but I'll have a look inside the timing chest before I do.
After all this I can say that the workshop manual I bought off the Internet a few years ago is the same as the one in the downloads section of this site and is severely lacking in detail so that someone who was solely relying on it as a guide would wind up damaging their bike as a result of the lack of detailed info.
I would also like to ask a question regarding the clutch centralizing tool as shown and described in the manual, does anyone here have one or has seen one being used, I would like to know exactly what its function is, it seems from the proven to be unreliable manual that it is to centralize the "pressure plate" , the steel stamping that sits on the diaphragm springs fingers, I can't see the sense in this as the plate is held loosely by the big circlip and on mine it was clear that this was slightly off center all of its life so the tool was either usless at the factory or not used at all, it makes more sense to me to have a tool that screws into the end of the crank to mate flush with the crank end and have a shaft size that neatly fits the clutch plate drive spline to centralize the clutch plate so I made one just like that in preparation to refitting the gearbox.
If anyone has any advice on the subject I'm keen to hear it.