What did you do IN your Garage today?

It must be catching!
I'm working on the swing arm and finial drive in my 96 Sport. Getting ready for the spring riding season. the rear drive is off to be rebuilt with a lower gear. The swing arm bearings were bad and are being replaced. But the U joints were perfect! I guess all that greasing paid off.

Nice looking bike. I've never owned a Goose, but have always had an attraction to them..... even with their "warts." Perhaps one day....

The G5 I am working on belongs to a customer up in NoVA. He told me a requisite purchase when working on these things was to pick up a bottle of red Italian vino.... and that he'd reimburse me for it. Haven't done that yet. Perhaps in celebration once I get it running again for him. In the interim, I'll stick with my Yuenglings.

He also mentioned that he thought the best place for Guzzi parts was Harpers. Any other place you might recommend??

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These guys for parts: http://www.mgcycle.com/ and http://www.cyclegarden.com/ rear drive/trans guy http://www.zydecoracing.com/home.html
Best tech around, Guzzi dealer too: http://mphauto.com/

The 96 model Sport is my second Guzzi. The first I bought back in 1975 or so and sold it back to the original owner about 4 yrars ago. 88K miles ( that was the total of the three speedos I had on the bike.
Here's my V7 Sport. I think I was the first Sport bike rider in Houston back in the day.


Same frame as what you are working on. Same engine but 750CC, different cam with gear drive, and straight cut gear trans. As I recall, to set the timming you need a high RPM timming light, run the engine up to 4K RPM and set at the first mark. I still have my timming light. It's a Sears 120V.

Shoot me any questions you have and I'll try to help.

Appreciate the input.

I do have a decent timing light, but no longer a tach/dwell meter. I do have a digital photo tach I can use since this bike has no tach of its own. I made an adapter so I could easily spin the engine over, so it will be no problem to add a piece that I can stick a piece of reflective tape on to monitor engine speed.

Someone has previously marked the flywheel with white paint, but from what I am seeing (assuming they are correct) is about a 3-5 degree advance via the centrifugal advance in the "distributor." The marks are somewhat convoluted, but we'll see just what I have once I get this thing running.

Again, thank you. We'll let you know how things progress.

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Installed a new Deka Battery in my '06 1/2 1200 GSA,after getting 18 months out of a Batteries Plus battery.

There is, as I remember, a steel stamp at TDC for each cylinder on the flywheel OD and an arrow stamping for setting the points ( both points open ). Before the TDC mark for each cylinder there are two timming marks eched on the flywheel. One, closest to TDC, is for the start of advance at 2500 RPM and the other is for end of advance at 4000 RPM. The service manual shows this in a wierd Itialian graph. I always had best luck setting timming at the high mark. So I would have an assistant hold the engine above 4 grand and I would ajust the distb. to aline the high mark with the case mark. That is how it worked on my 73 model. The engine you are working on is most likely set up for unleaded fuel, my 73 was not and required some retard of timming to only ping a little.

Hey if you need a dewel meter I'll dig around in the back of my cave around the old bones and I have one I'll sell ya, cheap.

Over Xmas break, I've been tinkering in the garage with our new acquisition, in order to get quadtarded:

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=848760&page=2

I tried to start my XR400 today for 30+ min and no luck.

Conclusion: my bike is an offspring of satan himself and wish I had bought a bike w/electric start. I also concluded my bike bike is smarter then me. =)

The problem probably doesn't lie with the kickstart. An electric start bike probably wouldn't have started either.

Cold weather starting of my XR500 is very difficult (if not almost impossible) as well. I suspect the "cold start enrichment device" (choke) is ineffective (not rich enough). You can run full "choke" for a long time even in warm weather (once it starts).

Oh yeah, I also got my chainsaw running again!

Been refurbishing my R1150GS:
rims powdercoated, frame painted, tank and plastics painted, new timing chain, etc.

A little filming:



To fix these:









Fun times!

Jim

Looks like chemical attack. ABS or polypropolyne?

All I did in the garage today was look around on my laptop. And got another day older.

Glad you got the chainsaw running.....

My little XT 250 started

I just think my XR hates me

Fisrt on the list was to get this guy working

Combo solid/oil furnace set up for wood only. HEAT!
More pics

From the other side

I'm not sure what kind of plastic, but the gas might have an effect on it, combined with the pressure of the female QD.

Jim

fabricated a crude yet (hopefully) effective bead breaker from scrap and attached it to a bicycle work stand I made from other scrap years ago....ugly but $0.00. 2x boards will go across the legs to support the wheel and tire...

Still working on freeing up my engine.

Carried in a free floor jack my wife got from a relative.