Bernie's Budget Beast (SP1000)

[twowings]

Are the horns on a custom bracket?

Can't wait to see the console nighttime shot! 

[berniebee]

Funny you should ask, because I'm not happy with the mounting situation. The Two Fiam horns each came with a flat steel mounting strip, holes drilled at each end.



 

The idea being the stud on the back of the horn goes through one hole of the strip, secured by the supplied nut and you mount the other end of the strip to your car or bike. I have both strips mounted to a single tab on the frame with a single bolt through both strips. Not the best, because there is nothing to keep the strips from swinging around the mounting bolt except the friction of the tightened bolt. The two strips are horizontal, so the mass of the horns bouncing up and down will almost certainly work the strips loose. I may fab or modify something to make the horn mounts a bit more secure. Maybe swing the strips down a little to form an upside down "vee" and then bolt a fabbed third strip to the two horn studs to make a steel strip triangle.

Or maybe chuck the original mounting strips and use clamps like this one, around the frame's cross tube.

[Canuck750]

Real nice workmanship! looking forward to seeing the bike back together.

[Michael Moore]

FYI, if you ever need to look for those kinds of clamps, they are called Adel (aka ms21919) clamps.  Aircraft Spruce is a good source for them.

[berniebee]

FYI, if you ever need to look for those kinds of clamps, they are called Adel (aka ms21919) clamps.  Aircraft Spruce is a good source for them.

Thanks, I'll check them out.

[berniebee]

The wiring is done and tested. I found only a couple of goofs: I couldn't get the starter solenoid to clunk because I had installed the solenoid upside down! Took a bit of head scratching before I realized what the problem was. And because of a wiring change I mistakenly wired a ground to the horn relay coil instead of power.  Easy to spot and correct - and once done, the pair of horns startled me, they are SO loud. (A good thing.)

The bottom of the finished instrument panel: Though I use brown for all grounds, the sharp eyed will spot the black wire sneaking into the panel- it provides ground for four of the indicator lights.  The nine pin Molex connector fits into the original console hole after a little file work on the hole edges. The arcing black cable is part of odometer reset knob assembly. I drilled one exactly cable sized hole for the cable to enter and mate with the speedo reset mechanism and a second hole to match the location of the left hole in the mounting bracket. Though you can't tell in this pic the knob looks like it belongs there!



I used a non Guzzi fuse holder with modern blade style fuses.  The main relay supplies voltage to a single pole which feeds the six fuses. Fuse #6 isn't used right now, it's reserved for auxiliary stuff like a powering a cell phone. At the top right you can see the square black electronic load independent flasher relay. This type flasher will blink any type or number of bulbs at the same rate, so I need only the single unit to power my left /right turn signals or all four signals with the hazard switch. 



A slightly blurry photo with most of the instrument panel LEDs on: The camera doesn't quite capture the saturation of the colours, especially the red , which looks washed out in this pic.  The LED's colours are actually very intense and attractive.

[berniebee]

Bernie's budget beast boasts brakes! (Couldn't help myself.)

Man, I hate bleeding brakes. I always make a mess.
The front master cylinder and caliper was pretty straightforward- once I realized that the throttle assembly was preventing full swing of the brake lever:



Once the throttle was removed (Thankfully, the carburettors aren't installed yet.) it was easy peasy. Using the apply brake, loosen bleeder, tighten bleeder, release brake for a second and repeat method, I spilled only a few drops on the wheel rim and the floor when removing the bleed line at the caliper.

The integrated brake system was another story.
Using the same method, I bled the brake pressure regulator, the front caliper and then the rear caliper. Hung the front caliper way up so that it's brake line was sloped upwards to the caliper and had the bleed bottle on a ladder:



Detached the rear caliper and again oriented it to have the bubbles rise up to the bleed screw.



Got plenty of fluid through.
But the brake lever was spongy and worse, once I had it pumped up it would slowly sink under constant pressure.
Then I noticed a drip from the brake regulator. Removing the top rubber cover:



How did the circlip come loose?
I removed the regulator to find out what had happened. More drips from the disconnected brake lines.
I couldn't see anything wrong, so I decided to replace both internal o-rings. I carefully measured the groove diameters, ODs and the thickness of the o-rings, made a sketch of the dimensions, and then cleaned and bagged the relevant parts to bring to the parts counter of my friendly neighborhood bearing seller. They are always helpful, but it might be tough finding the correct size. Five minutes after entering the place, I had the 0-rings in my hands.  General Bearing Service in Ottawa is the best.

Reinstalled the regulator bled everything again and crap. The brake lever still fell with constant pressure. I've seen this before and it's always a bad master cylinder. Was the rebuild kit I used bad? Did I miss seeing a scratch in the master cylinder bore? It had been a long day, I was fed up, so I went on to the MG Cycle site and went to order a new master cylinder. Double crap. "This part is out of stock. We'll let you know when...".

The next day, I decided to bench test the master cylinder with an old brake line connected to it, pinched shut by locking pliers.



And it was fine!  WTF?

I researched a bit more- it looks like reverse bleeding could be the solution. Connect a syringe of brake fluid to each caliper in turn and bleed fluid out of the regulator bleed screw. But what a mess. Brake fluid dribbling out around the caliper bleeders, brake fluid sprayed because I forgot to release the syringe pressure before disconnecting it and holy cow, brake fluid overflowing out of the rear master cylinder!

Anyway, it worked. Let's just say my experience would have made a great advertisement for paper towels. And kitty litter.  The Guzzi can now stop. Hopefully soon, it will be able to go.




Thanks Charlie, (Antietam Classic Cycle) for the caliper pin!
 

[berniebee]

Sometimes the simplest things end up taking the longest time.
The tach cable that came with the bike was too long- I tried routing it in different ways but to no avail.
I ordered a cable specified for the 850 T3 from MG cycle. The new cable was the same length as the one I had!

Online are a couple of videos showing how to shorten a tach/speedo cable and then stamping the end square using a press and a custom die, but I don't have a milling machine, so that was out.  Putting out a call to fellow WildGuzziers,  Ron (n3303j)  suggested to cut, silver solder the fresh end and file it square.

So I bought a couple of sticks of flux coated silver solder for $10 (A lifetime supply probably.)  and cut 2" off the inner and outer cable:



Set up the inner cable for soldering: (Cleaned it beforehand.)



And then managed to get an oversized blob of solder on the end. Thankfully it files fairly easily:




The "new" cable fits just right.

[berniebee]

 She lives! After a long delay due to U.S/ Canada border closures and other distractions, I've moved forward with the project.

I pried open my wallet and ordered a mid frame side stand kit. Even though the seller warns about possibly needed mods and bolts, it was an easy install on this bike.




 It doesn’t bang on the bottom of the exhaust when retracted because of a stop at the pivot and it is nicely tucked underneath.



The 8mm thick stand plate mounts with two bolts.




 It's possible to reuse the original very long transmission bolt by replacing the the two flat washers and one lock washers (About 7mm thickness total.) with two thin spring type washers.

Locktited the nut. Believe or not there is an (extremely thin) washer under there. Scrapes on the frame paint are nothing that a fine paint brush and some Tremclad won't cure.





The center stand swivel bolt had to be replaced with (a golden) one 10mm longer.



instagram image video download


I was thinking about chroming the black headlight rim, but the local cost...$300?!?!  Fuhgettaboutit. There are some chrome paints out there that do a reasonably nice job, but they require a spray gun set up, which I don’t have.  I was about to respray it black, when I came upon a car modeller’s video about Rustoleum’s line of metallic paints. This one is called carbon mist and I like it.




instagram video stealer





instagram albüm indirme


A cable clamp makes for a neat way to rout and secure the clutch cable.



Treated the blue beast to a new steering head badge:





The last major project was dealing with left side cover. With the Delrin intake manifolds, the Dellortos are not angled inwards nearly as much as stock. Not a problem with the slightly more forward right cylinder, but the left carb and air filter prevent the left side cover from fitting. I  didn’t want to cut a visible part of the just painted cover to fit. Instead I decided to shift the side cover mounting points about 20mm rearward.

But moving the side cover rearward creates another problem. The high tension wires exit the coils towards the outside, that is towards the inside of the left side cover.



The wires just clear the inside of the cover in it’s original position.  But with the cover  moved rearward, the left coil's  high tension wire press very hard against the inside of the side cover which is indented behind the faux intake grill. Not acceptable. So the coils had to be remounted.


The two side cover upper mounts are part of a bracket.
That bracket now looks like Swiss cheese after two different coil mounting attempts, er, I mean I'm lightening it for performance, right?




The left side of the bracket would normally bolt to this frame tab.
 


Because I'm moving the bracket rearwards (to the right in this photo.) , the bracket will now butt up against the tab which has been slightly modified:




From aluminum angle I cut four mounting brackets for the coils. And fabbed two steel brackets from some steel sheet I had in the garage. (painted black) The rectangular one is for mounting the side cover upper mount bracket.
 

The triangular one is for shifting the side cover's lower mounting pin rearwards. Here it is installed. The pin was originally mounted where the allen head screw is. You see where I ground a semicircular section out of the frame tab for clearance at the pin's new location.






The finished product:




Here you can see the fabbed rectangular painted bracket bridging the upper mount bracket and the frame tab. (Behind the left coil's upper aluminum bracket.)






I offset the right coil outwards so that the crossed high tension wires don’t touch.  Yes, it would have been a lot easier to just cut away the side cover!

I snapped three of these throttle tubes while installing and removing the tank several times. I finally realized that the throttle cables need to be routed under the frame tubes. (Hey, the bike had been apart for a long time.)




There was one more minor issue. The choke lever wouldn’t stay up. I’m not sure if this particular choke lever was intended to be this way, but out came a file and I profiled the bottom curve of the lever so that it would stay “choked”





Also ordered a small fairing more as a sun shade for the near horizontal instruments than anything else.




Finally! Yesterday I took it out for short test ride, up and down my block.  It started promptly, courtesy of a new battery and settled down to a steady idle in short order. I gingerly let out the clutch, aware of the all the “on-off” issues that people have brought up with “Sureflex” brand clutch plates. But it was a smooth engagement. The bike shifted nicely up and down to third gear. And the engine sounds great- a nice V- twin rumble with a hint of the Moto Guzzi top end clatter.



indian flag gif images
 




After a safety check and license plate and insurance it will be ready for it’s shake down cruise!

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

 

[Canuck750]

Very nice job, it looks fantastic 

[berniebee]

Very nice job, it looks fantastic 

Thanks! Though I've been playing with bikes and cars most of my life, this is my first Moto Guzzi. I've spent many enjoyable hours learning about Guzzis from reading posts in this forum.

[centauro]

Thanks! Though I've been playing with bikes and cars most of my life, this is my first Moto Guzzi. I've spent many enjoyable hours learning about Guzzis from reading posts in this forum.

Outstanding job, Bernie!
What you did with that SP closely resembles what I did with mine over the 20 years I have owned it. I wanted to upgrade the fuse box and wiring like you did, but never got around to it before I sold it.
I did install the mid mount stand and rearranged the gages with the same pod you used though. I relocated the left side cover 1" back to allow more clearance for the K&N pod.

[berniebee]

Though the tires on the bike are far from worn out, looking at the date codes gave me pause:

Back tire 13 years old:




Front tire 15 years old!:



(The last pair of numbers in the string of characters after DOT is the year of manufacture.)

Several WildGuzzi members are happy with Shinko tires. So I put on a pair of Shinko 712.

Using my custom made wheel balancer:




Here is how it is used:





The wheel is on it's own axle. The orbital sander is applied to the end of the axle to induce vibration, which breaks the static friction and allows for very accurate balancing.  I played with 1/4 Oz (7 gram) weights and had very repeatable results.  Of course your wheel bearings need to be in reasonably good condition, with no brinneling.

Now to put a hundred easy miles and parking lot figure eights on these tires to wear off the slick coating!