Lario rehab project begins. What we've learned..

[Chuck in Indiana]

While you're at it, check if there's a fuse between the battery and the red+ wire to the switch. If there isn't I recommend that you put one. I managed to toast my loom when the red wire connector touched the fork clamps when I was working on the clockboard.

I always unhook the negative when doing anything with the electrical system, or doing anything that might ground a hot wire. It only takes a minute.. I appreciate what you are saying, though.

[Chuck in Indiana]

It's been a year to the day since I picked up the Beater Lario at the Virginia Nationals. I looked at Melissa's Lario then, and only hoped this one would turn out as well. This is the last installment.. ;D
When I was putting it together, I noticed one strand of the clutch cable was broken, but my usual supplier was back ordered. I finally gave up and got one from Harper's, who had it in stock, of course.  ;D Only problem is that the sheath isn't nearly as heavy duty as the OEM, no doubt to cut costs.. and it was this much too long.

I pondered my options.
(1) Send it back. Non productive. No doubt all of this part number are the same any more, and I'd get another just like it.
(2) Shorten the cable by cutting it off, making a new end and a swaging tool to install it.
(3) Make a spacer.
Number 3 looked like the path of least resistance, so I scrounged around in my good junk box and found a piece of steel about the right size. Chucked it up in my toy lathe, and had at it.

Let's see if we can throw it out of the vise with this slitting saw and home made arbor..

Even a blind hawg finds an acorn now and then.. ;D

Nothing left to do except paint it and slide it in there. Whiled away a couple of hours, I suppose.. didn't keep track, but a pleasant couple of hours if you like doing this kind of stuff. ;)

Time for the first service. It has 750 miles on it, so I roared around on it the day before to heat it up well, put a piece of aluminum foil on the back of the chin fairing, and drained the oil. Forgot to take a picture.
The next day, after it had cooled off  ~; I dropped the exhaust, removed the chin fairing, drained the front plug, and changed the filter.

If I was a *real* Guzzi mechanic in a *real* Guzzi shop, this would be my least favorite job. I just couldn't say to someone that I'd have to charge 2 hours labor to change their oil, and I'd probably eat 1 1/2 hours of it. ;D :BEER: Put a new filter on it, and 2 liters of Motrex 10-60.
So, this is the end. It didn't burn any oil, so Millenium's weird break in instructions worked. It doesn't leak or seep anywhere. The brakes and electrical system work like new. I'd been doing some plug chops and had an occasional miss on one cylinder. Putting a set of NKG LB05F caps on it cured that. I checked valve lash, and 3 intakes were .001" loose. I'd say that's a good thing... I may put new coils on it because I haven't read anything good about the OEM Densos. It probably should have a rev limiter.. it'll run past redline in a heart beat.
Here's the jetting that works on this bike with K&N pods and *really* unrestrictive  pea shooters. Carburates beautifully...
K22 needles with the clip in the middle groove
45 pilot jet
125 main jet
It's as close to a new motorcycle as a guy could have (minus a few cosmetic issues) and I'm having a really good time with it. ;D ;-T

[Unkept]

Looking great Chuck!

BTW, I rode my first smallblock today. My wife's new Breva 750!  ;D

They are a LOT of fun! I see that I was missing out.

The V11 is a much better highway machine though, IMO. I'd ride either and fully enjoy myself, however.  ;-T

[wrbix]

Spacer require an STC?  :+=copcar FAA
 ::)

[balvenie]

         Thankyou Chuck. Enjoyed every word ;D ;-T

[Chuck in Indiana]

Looking great Chuck!

BTW, I rode my first smallblock today. My wife's new Breva 750!  ;D

They are a LOT of fun! I see that I was missing out.

The V11 is a much better highway machine though, IMO. I'd ride either and fully enjoy myself, however.  ;-T

You guys need to bring it to Guzzi lunch. We could swap and see the differences between them. Want to race?  ~; ;D :BEER:

[Chuck in Indiana]

Spacer require an STC?  :+=copcar FAA
 ::)

Sometimes, don't ask don't tell works best with the Faa.. ;)

[Chuck in Indiana]

         Thankyou Chuck. Enjoyed every word ;D ;-T

Thanks for following along. "What a long strange trip it's been.."  ;D

[kevdog3019]

That's good to know about doing to the clutch cable. Mine must be the same as your new one. PO put it on and it's way long. I have my lever maxed out. A wee bit far for my liking. My buddy could whip that up. Thanks for sharing everything we'd all need to know about this great bike. I hope you keep it awhile now!  Sounds like you're enjoying it for certain. I've been running mine a bit since picking it up last week and I just can't get over its fun factor in all regards. Enjoy it now and report back to is from time to time about your experiences.
Thanks again for all this.
Kevin

[kevdog3019]

One thing Chuck. Do you remember the smaller diameter measurement section of your clutch spacer?
Thanks
Kevin

[canuck750]

Thanks for the great post!

Cheers
JIm

[Chuck in Indiana]

That's good to know about doing to the clutch cable. Mine must be the same as your new one. PO put it on and it's way long. I have my lever maxed out. A wee bit far for my liking. My buddy could whip that up. Thanks for sharing everything we'd all need to know about this great bike. I hope you keep it awhile now!  Sounds like you're enjoying it for certain. I've been running mine a bit since picking it up last week and I just can't get over its fun factor in all regards. Enjoy it now and report back to is from time to time about your experiences.
Thanks again for all this.
Kevin

Mine must have been even longer. It wasn't even threaded in the clutch perch to make it work without the spacer. Why? <shrug> Dunno.
Oh, yeah.. it's a keeper.

[Chuck in Indiana]

One thing Chuck. Do you remember the smaller diameter measurement section of your clutch spacer?
Thanks
Kevin

Same dimension as the end of the clutch cable. .310" or so IIRC. It's not rocket science. ;)

[IceBlue]

Yeah thanks Chuck, I'd go bananas taking pictures of almost every move I make - but this was sure a great thread. ;-T 
Now Kevin is up  ;D  More on the Lario Maximus  :+=copcar is now needed to keep the  :pop  mashine running  :BEER:

ciao

[kevdog3019]

Same dimension as the end of the clutch cable. .310" or so IIRC. It's not rocket science. ;)

Duh... now why didn't I think of that??
Thanks!

[kevdog3019]

Yeah thanks Chuck, I'd go bananas taking pictures of almost every move I make - but this was sure a great thread. ;-T 
Now Kevin is up  ;D  More on the Lario Maximus  :+=copcar is now needed to keep the  :pop  mashine running  :BEER:

ciao

Maximus info. will get posted as soon as it comes in. Your patience will be tested!  :P
Really not much left except some trial and error stuff with exhaust. Unfortunately this is all new to Ed and its going to take some time to find the dimension that works for outflow. If not for that...

Kevin

[Offcamber1]

I don't want to hijack Chuck's  great thread, but a few Lario related items:

1. I apologize to Scott Gile for not posting a picture of the great seat he made up, virtually from scratch, for my sorry sore a$$.  The bike has been squirrelled away in the garage since I recieved the seat as I have been too busy to break it out for a ride.  I will try and get a picture up sometime this week, but suffice to say I am very pleased with the seat, the little time I've spent on it thus far.  There has been mention here of the piping on the seat and it indeed comes close to matching the paint on the bike.  I would also like to point out that the placement of the piping not only complements the lines of the bike very well, but also is such that it does not put a stretch of it in a spot to grind into your thigh.  Seargent and Corbin (I've owed both) typically are not designed like that.  Great job, Scott!  Thanks so much!

2. Clutch cable length?  Hmmmmm, I thought I was the only one!  I put the one I ordered on a few years back and had it fully adjusted out to the last thread on the hand grip and barely had the ability to disengage the clutch.  I live with it like that for a year until the cable stretched a bit while I was on a ride for my guitar lesson over in Terre Haute; once it warmed up I couldn't get the bike to go into gear at a stop.  So I timed the lights and shifted without a clutch until I got to my lesson.  After terrorizing Popejoy (my teacher) with my lack of guitar prowess, I went to the parking lot to analyze the situation.  I had been smart enough to measure the old and new cables when I installed it several years back and did not mess with the lever on the back of the trans.  After a few minutes of contemplation I went  back in Popejoy's and bought a guitar pick and borrowed a tiny hand crank drill with a very small bit in it.  Drilled a hole in the middle of the pick, and then used some wire cutters to cut a slot from one outside edge to the hole in the center of the pick.  Slipped the pick over the cable, adjusted the adjuster at the hand grip, and headed on my way. It has been like that for over a year, though Chuck's solution is quite a bit more elegant.

3. I finally had time to go for a ride yesterday and had to head back after a few miles as the bike started intermittently running on one cylinder.  I had a few minutes today to look for obvious problems but to no avail so I've got to find some garage time to dig a bit deeper.  Might need to open a new thread on that rather than hijack this one if I don't have any luck.

Ciao,

Kip

[Chuck in Indiana]

Still have the OEM plug caps, Kip? LB05F is your friend.. ;D

[Offcamber1]

Still have the OEM plug caps, Kip? LB05F is your friend.. ;D

Oh no, I ditched those 3 or 4 years ago when I bought it.  Damned thing has always been a bit slow to fire on the right cylinder, just like my last Lario was.

Anyway, when I replaced the plug caps I put new plugs in but did not replace the relatively new looking plug wires.  I just ordered some 8mm Taylor non resistor wire, some new non-resistor caps like I used to run on my Formula Ford, some heat resitant sheathing, and will get a new set of plugs too.  When I pop the tank off I will look carefully at the connections to the dyna coils just to be sure.  I pulled the front cover today and checked all the connections at the Dyna Ignition but no help.  I'm hoping the plug wire insulation melted somewhere causing a ground on one side.  We'll see.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Plenty of slack in your choke cables?

[kevdog3019]

Funny how one cylinder can behave so differently from the other. On mine, the right has always been exceptional. The left is fine, but for some reason I don't have to choke the right, only the left. Once it's running, the right is ready to rumble. The left needs choke for the first five minutes or so (very normal of course) then is good to go. No issues like stumble though, just peculiar difference I've observed. Plugs look the same. Same needle settings.
Kevin

[arsprod]

You guys need to bring it to Guzzi lunch. We could swap and see the differences between them. Want to race?  ~; ;D :BEER:

I want in on that!

[Chuck in Indiana]

I want in on that!

The beater Lario will smoke ya, Aaron.. ~; ;D

[guzzi4cats]

I would just like to say thanks to Chuck for taking the time and trouble to share all that stuff with us, it's very much appreciated.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Well, I only *thought* I was done with this project.  ;D I'm pretty sure the only thing I haven't had my hands on are the throttle cables. I have now.. I was out roaring around grinning like an idiot (if the shoe fits, etc ;) ) When the throttle stuck open on one side. The good thing is that it didn't happen next month, when we will be in Maine. Another good thing is that it's not the unobtainiium throttle assembly. A quick call to MG will have a pair of throttle cables on the way. What happened? Dunno. It's frozen up. I'm thinking the Teflon liner did something weird.
At any rate, I get to document this fix. ;D It'll be the blind leading the blind again since I've never done this job, either.  ;D :BEER:

[kevdog3019]

Oh goody... more pics and info!  :pop
Your woes are our shows Chuck.  :P
Kevin

[Chuck in Indiana]

So, the new cables came in from MG yesterday afternoon, time to get her going.. as you can see from the above picture, one of the cables was frozen,and it would have been a pita to disassemble, so I just dyked it.  ~;

This should only take a few minutes, right? ;D

To install the new cables, you have to remove the grip and the housing/brake perch from the bar. This is the screw that lets the grip come off. Sorry, I did a really poor job of documenting this, but once the barrel is pulled out of the housing the new cables are fed up from the bottom, and the throttle reassembled. Then, the black piece in my hand a couple of pix back is slid in and the spring clip snapped over it. That keeps the throttle ends from coming loose in the housing.

Then, it's just a simple matter of hooking up the slide... uh oh. The cable isn't nearly long enough. WTF again. ;D

Called Gordon, an explained my quandary. "Stock throttle assembly?" Yep. "Stock carbs?" Yep. By this time, I'd taken everything apart again to measure. It looked like the outer sheath was about 1 1/2" too long. Rick came on the phone and said he had a cheat sheet that he'd made up years ago. Then he asked if it had elbows on the carbs. Yep. "That's it. Someone has put them on.. a good idea, but the stock cables won't work. Lemme see if there's another cable that will." After spending about 15 minutes (!) with me, he said that what I had was definitely not a Guzzi cable. I'd either need to get custom cables made up or take the elbow off. That would probably work.
There's a reason that I try to buy from MG. Nice guys, and they know their stuff.  ;D

By this time, I'd been fooling with this all afternoon, and the spring got away from me and sent things flying ::) when I started to assembled the slides for the last time. Generally, this is a sign from above that I need to walk away from it  ;) but I was determined to get it running. Found me a mandrel about the right size..

And safety wired that sucker..

That makes assembly easy peasey. All you have to do is cut the wires, and it's done.

Well.. its done after you have to completely re route the throttle cables because they interfere with the tank, now.. ;D

Just need to tune em up. Another trip stopping problem taken care of. I think I *will* order new coils.  ;)

[Chuck in Indiana]

Here's the reason for the elbows on the carbs. I may order some custom cables, sooner or later.

Buttoned everything back up, checked for lights since I'd had the fairing off, and no tail light. <sigh> What's up with that? Shirley  ;D both bulbs didn't go out at the same time. Checked for power going to them, and sure enough.."They're dead, Jim."

Some projects never end... ;D

[kevdog3019]

That deserves an attaboy Chuck!  Yeah... no elbow here on the carb slide.  I think you're ready to roll now.  Thanks again for the info. 
-Kevin

[Penderic]

Nice work you do!

Here is a link to a place where I got a cheap universal throttle cable kit for a rebuild I am working on. I went from a unit that had a splitter and 2 elbows to a single pull but I reused the elbows. Worked first time! http://www.venhill.co.uk/Cables_-_Components_&_Kits/Universal_Cable_Kits