That you may learn from my mistakes

This might seem obvious, but are you turning the shafts when you attempt to shift it?

Do you have the shift detent screwed in, she won't shift without it. Don't ask me how I know...

I've done a few five speeds but never played with a four speed so I don't know how much help I'd be but I could jiggle the handle and see what happens.

OK, great story, but now you got me freaked out. :huh Why? Because I'm right in the middle of a tranny rebuild. I just did the input and output shaft bearings, the caged needle bearings, and the thrust bearing on the main shaft. You just talked me into the 6303 bearing that I thought I'd leave alone. I was just waiting for shims to do the selector drum before buttoning her back up. My nerves, they are on edge.:eek1:eek1:eek1

Oh well, nothing ventured, right?

Jason and Micha are good people, I feel bad because I don't give Moto Int. nearly enough money to compensate for what they give me.

Really great thread !!!
I wish I had your guzzi knowledge Chopperman
...question from a novice guzzi rider:
How many miles does a tranny usually lasts?

I rode a friends Ambo last weekend with a B10 cam and VHB30's. It was quite a bit snappier then my own Ambo. I wonder if the difference is his mods, or if its because his is a fresh rebuild, or if his is just tuned better. I do know neither one of us will be winning any drag races.

As for the tranny, the owner (my Dad) told me he was having trouble shifting into third and fourth, and that the tranny was making noise. I found a bent shift linkage, a grenaded u-joint, a decent leak from the output seal, an output bearing that was binding, a broken tranny drain bolt, and gear oil that was pretty well cooked. Bike has about 60,000 miles on it. It's been ridden hard, and maintained on occassion. They should last much longer than that.

Good luck with the tranny rebuild. I'm sure the experts at MI will put it together good as new. I got the 5-speed back together last night. If it explodes in a few hundred miles, this thread will come back to haunt me.

This particular bike was purchased new in 1995, ridden hard for five years, parked for nine or so years, and then ridden hard for about a year before the u-joint went. Some thoughtful maintenance after the nine year hiatus may have helped.

I think the real problem with this transmission was the output shaft nut. The tang broke when the UJ let go, which allowed it to spin loose, which gave the output shaft enough play to damage the seal and bearing. And lock up. It seems to shift nicely now though, at least on the bench, with new bearings, o-rings, seals, and a shim job. Probably famous last words. And in the spirit of the thread.... I managed to put the peg nut on upside down. Now I'm waiting for a replacement star washer instead of reassembling the motorcycle.

Thanks for the story. Makes me think of that worn out T500 in the corner of my basement, maybe I'll cover it so it's out of sight.

You sent the trans out then?

I just finished buttoning up my 4-speed with an all around refresher. New seals, gaskets, reshimmed, new bearings (all except the needle).

Found my 4th gear bush destroyed when I opened her up


and a nice dinger in my intermediate shaft


Replaced with good used - I think I plopped $150 into it total.

Anyway, wouldn't shift the first time I buttoned it up [would've been amazed if it did!], I installed it in neutral that time. Ok, apart again. This time in 3rd gear like your supposta. Still won't shift, OK apart again. This time we'll put those little selector flappers in the right way - Shifts!




Hope you get to ride your best bike ever soon.

Wow ...
very interesting...but not very reassuring..
sounds like it is almost impossible to put the thing together right...:huh
...just like I was reading about shimming the final transmission...or something..
sounds like these guzzis are reliable but not completely easy to take apart and put together ...especially the gearbox and final drive..right?!
...next question would then be how much does it cost to send it out or drop it off?
...just to have an idea
Thanx

It's probably a good thing I have no $ and no close help, otherwise I might not learn anything Must be nice though to have such a shop as moto int so close.

I contact Charley Cole from zydeco racing last fall to see what a pro tranny job runs - he said he rarely has them go above $500. I was going to send him mine because I had no clue what I was doing, and he did a great job on my rear drive. But then I discovered my oil pump to be terribly terrible, and that ran me over $350. So there went the trans budget.

Really though, the trans wasn't tough. It's difficult at first because it's not intuitively set up and you can't see things operate when it's together - makes it difficult to see what the problem is when you can't shift or whatever. But really there's not too many parts and they all only fit one way. Shimming the shift drum was a breeze, just trial and error until you get it right. Took me 2 afternoons and that was with me figuring out what I was supposed to be doing. I've had no experiences with anything like this before. Really the most difficult part is installing the shift drum and not losing the shims on the other end when you're trying to wiggle it in place - a bitch, but not even middle school science.

Rear drive - I had charley make me one up because my shattered. He built me one up from his "best used" parts. I hear the difficulty with shimming the rear drives comes from needing to measure float from 3 directions. Apparently Charley has the only factory tool used to set them up correctly.

The rest of my rebuild was incredibly straight forward. Should be dropping the motor in sooooooooonnnnnn.........

It took ~4 attempts on the five-speed before I was happy. There was a ton of play in the selector drum. I went from 0.6 mm rear and 1.2 mm front shims to 1.0 mm rear and 1.4 mm front. I also swapped detentes with an older box with a flatter tip profile. Much nicer.

I almost lost that damned speedo ball. That ball and the hardened washer under the speedo drive were my two least favorite bits.

I'm glad I didn't find any gears or bushings like that. The shaft dinger looks nasty! How many miles bloodweiser?

Edit: I don't have the guts to touch the rear drive.

Nice write up as always Chops. Thanks.

not bad at all
All in all I'd say these old guzzis sound simple to live with and pretty low maintenance.. even if you have to have the job done by a professional....every so many many many thousands of miles

My shifter drum was the same - added .6mm to it overall. Can't wait to try it out.

My speedo read something like 50kmi - But I know someone's been intimate with this old girl before, so the accuracy and/or validity of that mileage is out the window. Who knows what she's really been through.

The thing is, even with that huger bang dinger and the broken 4th gear bushing - the trans still ran like a friggin champ. Never complained, I had no idea anything was wrong with it - just had it off the bike anyway and had some time so I figured what the hell. Glad I figured.

Sounding like a pro, Blood!

You crack me up

Chop, while I can certainly identify with the feeling, I CAN NOT picture you 'giggling like a schoolgirl'.
:eek1

can we get some pictures now?

So, what was wrong with the trans?