• 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.

About to throw my bike off a cliff

Spaceclam

Spaceclam

Cruisin' Guzzisti
Joined
Nov 8, 2008
Messages
472
Location
Chatsworth, CA
Hello everyone, haven't been round much lately.

the bike has 12.7k miles on it now, which means it must be time for another big problem. This time, im really at a loss and dont know what to do.

This time it's my valves.

Two weeks ago or so, i got a drip coming from the left rocker box. No biggie, turns out a couple of screws were loose. Tightened it up, but the leak persisted. IT was quickly apparent that my gasket had been damaged when thigns were loose, so i went to replace it.

While i had the cap off, i decided to check my valves. why not, right? I rotated the crank to the compression stroke with the S visible in the window, and watched my tappets move.

Well, there was no valve lash at all. However, all the adjusters were tight, and they had been checked 4k miles ago.

Odd, i thought. I'll just loosen it all up and re-do it. NO joy. Backed the adjuster all the way out and both valves were STILL in compression. Very much so. That's after backing them out two full turns, which is all the adjustment there has ever been on my machine.

Realizing that something had to be repaired, which required the rocker pins to be removed, i had a friend compress the valve springs as much as possible with a piece of brass (soft) while i took a pin punch and with a swift hit, knocked the pins out.

But why this drastic (about .060+) change in valve lash? At first i thought my head bolts had come loose since i had done some squish modifications about a year ago. But then i realized that if they were loose, my valve lash would increase.

I cant think of what would cause this. The only thing that kind of makes sense is for my valves to sink into my head, but they couldn't sink any farther once there was no valve lash. this is valve lash + .060 or so.

What do i fix? Huh I have no idea what to do about this. Can't shorten the rods, the tappets are hardened as are the adjuster screws.

I might be able to micky mouse it by grinding away at the tapped adjuster screw hole in the rocker, allowing me to back the screw out farther, but i feel like something is seriously wrong and dont want to band-aid things.

The odd thing is, it seems to run ok. But i can't run it anymore knowing this problem exists.

Please help. Huh Huh Huh Huh Huh
-Clam
 
Andrew? are you SURE you're turning the crank CLOCKWISE when viewed from the front and the inlet valves are openenig and then closing as you come up to compression. This sounds SO like trying to check the valve lash on overlap it isn't funny and if the valves WERE riding the cams so radically the fucker WOULDN'T RUN!!!

Go to bed. Get up and try again in the morning. Really!

Pete
 
I posted this on the WG forum as well, and amongst a barrage of people saying "let somebody who knows how to fix a 4 stroke help you out" i got one relevant answer. This person said turn the crank a few times and just try it again.

Well lo and behold i turned the crank over once, which CLEARLY put me into overlalp (i watched the rods move). Once more should have been back where i was, was pretty clearly TDC compression. I rotated the crank 6 more times (which should have put be right back at TDC compression), and everything suddenly fit. i have NO idea what happened, but something got SERIOUSLY stuck. And stayed that way for a while.

Got it all adjusted, runs fine now. :blink:

I knew something was up because it seemed to run like a clock just that morning, but it really seemed like something was wrong because that thing wouldnt budge.

I have no idea what got so stuck or why, but as long as it doesn't grenade in a mile or two, im going to assume it's fine.

If it does, i'll call mgna cause there's out of the two dealers around here, One of them is dave, and i wouldn't trust the other guys' tech with a lawnmower.
 
Hey Space Clam, you wodn't have to be living in N. Central AZ would you?
The dealer in the valley is very good. The other in the N. C. AZ matches the same description with the lawn mower.
Hope all is well!!!
 
Nope!

I live in socal. There's MG classics about 50 miles from my house, but they are not a dealer, so no warranty. :-(
 
On my 2007 G11 the S marking wasn't perfect with the valve and compression stroke. I had to check it the old fashioned way-with a straw down the spark plug hole.
Somebody once told me not to work off of the factory markings, especially the S marking which stands for "sinistro" and means left hand or left side in Italian and is derived from sinister which is what left handed people were thought of years ago.

I've also noticed that when I adjust my valves and then rotate the engine a full turn or two and double check, the gap will be slightly off. Could this be from oil coating the parts after rotation?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top