Subject: Loopframe musings.
Author: Eric Lamberts
Date: Sep 2, 2002, 8:15 PM
Post ID: 1710931696
I've been spending quality time in my garage with my Guzzi. A LOT of
time.
Basic problems--an ooze from the main seal and a broken shifter detent
(centering) spring.
Nothing too major, until I deceided to swap out frames with one I'd bought
on Ebay with a nice paint job a couple of years ago.
The spring was indeed broken, and half of it was rattling around loose in
the bottom of the trans. I rode the bike about 60 mi after it broke. It
would have been a major deal had it got caught in the gears..
The main seal was not too much of a problem, although I did bend the
clutch plate. ;(. My dealer sold me a new one and loaned me his
installation tool.
I found that the U joint had one cross that had totally ripped out the
needle bearings. With luck and perseverance it was possible to make one
good U joint out of the one I had and another junk one from the dealer's
parts trash bin. Luckily the one he gave me had intact bearings, but the
carriers were loose so I could get the bearings out without having to
destroy them. A quite amazing amount of force to get them in with a large
vice and sockets. An amazing clunk when it finally let go.
The alternator bracket had broken off a bolt. The one I'd replaced last
year with a helicoil was fine, but the OTHER on had broken. Slotted the
head with a dremel teeny cutoff wheel and turned out the stub, and
replaced it with a new bolt. Both locktited ..
Interesting facts--Only one 11mm bolt--4 actually, the ones that hold the
handle bars on. SAE threads/ nuts on the Lucas reflectors, and of course,
whitworth threads on the sparkplugs.
Pulled the triple clamp--horrible dabs of dried up grease. Pretty amazing
bearings in there--Look like small trailer wheel bearings. Cleaned up
pretty well, and were repacked with a ton of grease. I'm not sure why,
but I don't much like pounding races/bearings in and out, although this
went pretty smoothly--the bottom tube needed to be chamfered with a
grinding stone to get the race started.
Up to three pretty full days.
Next the forks. The Guzziology guy has little good to say about this job.
any tips? By the way John, it seems to me that the tool you need could be
made out of one of those rubber expanding plugs from the hardware store.
Also need to get the frame/engine number plate off the steering tube. Any
good ideas? I tried prying under the hammer drive screws without much
luck..
What a nice bike to work on..
Eric Lamberts ew-@unr.edu Slowly learning Guzz mechanics in
Reno NV