You want shoddy workmanship?

[pete roper]

Last weekend Jude and I drove up to Cobar to collect Matt's lovely white Griso. It was known that it needed rollerising but it was also only running on one cylinder. Matt had changed the plug caps to no avail but it wasn't chucking up a code so I guessed it would be something simple-ish.

Anyway this morning we rolled it onto the bench and set about examining it.

Leads and injectors were all working as they should. Hmmm! Time to run a compression test.

RH side? 165 PSI. That's OK, I'd like it a bit higher but it was a cold engine. LH side? Holy snappin' duckshit! 70 PSI! Something is seriously 'Not Right'!

Rocker cover off and the story begins to unravel. Inlet valves have no clearance. Exhausts have too much, but not a *lot* too much. But look at the adjusters on the rockers.



And you can see the tops of the flat tappets are no longer sitting proud of the cambox casting. A sure-fire sign that they are worn.



While I was discovering this Michael drained the gearbox oil.



We're hoping its gear oil with a moly additive but that isn't specified and I can't think of any reason to use it! It's a straight cut box filled mainly with 2RS bearings!

Well, the head's gunna have to come off so we set about pulling the cambox. Huh! WTF!!!!! The cam chain is so worn we can't get a screwdriver between it and the tensioner it's extended so far! At 20,000km? Getouttahere!

So we remove the breather plate and have another huge WTF moment! The flinger plate is BROKEN!!!!!!!!





How do you even DO that???

Anyway we left the tensioner extended, we reckoned, rightly, that we were going to have to have the barrel off anyway. So we pulled the cambox and this is where the fun really started! Check out the weir/bearing retainer bolts as it came off!



The camshaft was also seized in the cambox! Well that explains the buggered chain!

Opening up the cambox was like something from a horror film! Yes, that's a bit of melted cambox that stuck to the heavily blued cam bearing!



Below are a series of pics of the carnage inside the cambox itself. The exhaust tappet is about the worst, no, it is the worst we have ever seen!











And you know what both amazes me and saddens me? The fact that the shop that serviced it KNEW that it was lunching it's tappets. They took it apart and checked it and then reassembled it incredibly badly and sloppily. Didn't tell the customer but just closed the valve lash right up so it would run and charged him, no doubt handsomely and pushed it out the door!

Why? One can only assume because it was just too much bloody bother to actually do the right thing! I'm particularly pissed off because I'd always thought that shop was one of the better ones. Not any more!

So what's the endgame? Well because it's obviously run for a while with the cams and tappets completely rooted on the left side at least it's been overfuelling to buggery and the exhaust valve gudes are shot!



Valve stems themselves are fine but they flop about in the guides like a cock in a sock! I was so despondent after that I haven't even bothered checking the inlets yet.

What as sad, shitty, state of affairs. Repairing it is going to be a very big and expensive job. We haven't even looked at the RH side yet! And somewhere in the engine there's that chunk of flinger plate floating about as well! That can't be good............

[ITSec]

The really amazing thing is that it ran at all!

"Hanging's too good for 'em! Burning's too good for 'em! They should be torn into little bitsy pieces and buried alive!" - Hanover Fiste, Heavy Metal (1981)

[Hymes Inc.]

Sounds like a candidate for a 1400 

[oldbike54]

 Glad I wasn't anywhere near when this went down 

 Dusty

[pete roper]

It's the first time Michael's actually investigated a full on, 24 carat cluster ****! He was just shaking his head and going "But they're so simple? How can that happen??"

Pete

[Roebling3]

Don't like to sound accusatory, but was the rider also the owner? Where was his mind when all that damage was occurring. We'll all learn from this recent encounter; sad as it is.  Good fortune,  R3~

[fotoguzzi]

Pete, your photographic skills have improved greatly.. got a new camera? taking the time to record the pics while entering this Twilight zone is appreciated.

[balvenie]

Dereliction of duty and sabotage arising out of wilful neglect.

[Guzzi Gal]

Uuugly!   
It scares me how little I know about these wondrous machines.  Sadly, I don't even want to open 'er up to have a peek, for fear of unknowingly effing something up. 

[ohiorider]

I believe it is what happens when a company builds and sells a rather sophisticated machine through a dealer organization that in a few cases doesn't know what the hell it is doing.  And this organization is expected to perform more than oil changes and valve adjustments.  Unfortunately, it's what you get.  Repeat .... unfortunate.

[Guzzistajohn]

They’ve managed to transform a nice machine into a big POS, that’s too bad.

[fotoguzzi]

I believe it is what happens when a company builds and sells a rather sophisticated machine through a dealer organization that in a few cases doesn't know what the hell it is doing.  And this organization is expected to perform more than oil changes and valve adjustments.  Unfortunately, it's what you get.  Repeat .... unfortunate.

well said, MG .. still trying to go out of business since 1921..

[Moto]

It looks like it was cursed. But is there a single cause here? Some account that begins with a tappet delaminating and then everything else you found following logically from that cause? If so, how would it go?

[MotoBug]

Reminds me of an 82 Bonnie I acquired in pieces and had gear damage. I got the opinion of the local Triumph expert. His words were if it was a horse he'd report whoever did it to the RSPCA.

[pete roper]

Don't like to sound accusatory, but was the rider also the owner? Where was his mind when all that damage was occurring. We'll all learn from this recent encounter; sad as it is.  Good fortune,  R3~

I fired it up to roll it into the van. Apart from running on one it wasn't making any unusual noises. Why? Because it had been deliberately quietened down by closing the valve lash up!

[pete roper]

It looks like it was cursed. But is there a single cause here? Some account that begins with a tappet delaminating and then everything else you found following logically from that cause? If so, how would it go?

It began with the tappet face losing its DLC. Everything else is down to shonky practice at the shop that was supposed to be servicing it. They found the problem and deliberately hid it, I can see no other ecplanation for the damage. It makes my blood boil.

Pete

[AH Fan]

Well Pete............. appears that naming names isn't on the agenda but I remember hearing of this  saying which should be considered in cases of such.
  All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good honest people to do nothing.

So true is that one.

Ciao

[pete roper]

Why would I want to open myself up to a slander prosecution just before I retire? The evidence is there but *Outing* someone would achieve nothing apart from hassle.

I'll write a full report for the owner if he wants to pursue recourse through the courts, I'm doing that for someone else right now, but I'll simply be 'Expert Witness' I'm too old to get tied up with liars and thieves. Anyone local can just call me and ask who I recommend for work. The list is bloody short! Why do you think people from as far away as bloody Townsville bring their bikes to us for service? It's not the bloody climate I assure you!

Pete

[Huzo]

That free Stelvio donk sounds like it would have been handy to have under the bench, or would it not have fitted anyway?
Even factoring in shipping charge, would have been a nice acquisition.

Also you make an oblique reference to the unnecessary use of a moly additive in the gearbox oil Pete.
Mine has been running it since Christ died and shifts like butter, I can't see a reason to change, but should I review my choice or leave seemingly well enough alone ?

[MotoBug]

It isn't slander if it's true.... But when crossing the lawn I like to side step the dog shite.

[balvenie]

It isn't slander if it's true....

Even if it isn't, I imagine it's an awful lot of trouble for someone contemplating retirement.  Besides, we need Pete's full attention right here on our forum

[Phang]

Pete, what's wrong with the weir/bearing retainer bolts?

[pete roper]

They aren't made of unicorn Ivory!

I'm assuming you are joking? That is the cambox as I lifted it off.....

[Phang]

Wow, I am speechless now 

I was counting the threads and wondering what's wrong with the bolt that is sticking out

[pete roper]

Sorry my friend, it really is *that* bad!

[Phang]

it is more like sweeping it under the carpet attitude rather than workmanship problem 

[pebra]

I believe it is what happens when a company builds and sells a rather sophisticated machine through a dealer organization that in a few cases doesn't know what the hell it is doing.  And this organization is expected to perform more than oil changes and valve adjustments.  Unfortunately, it's what you get.  Repeat .... unfortunate.

Well put.

Anyone local can just call me and ask who I recommend for work. The list is bloody short! Why do you think people from as far away as bloody Townsville bring their bikes to us for service? It's not the bloody climate I assure you!

Pete

This seems to be the case, more or less, in all markets.

It's a small brand so it generally doesn't attract the best people to run the shops, causing frequent turn-over, leaving dedicated customers to seek good shops by word-of-mouth, and naïve customers to despair.....

[lucian]

What a shame. I'm assuming being a white model it must be around an 09. Surprisingly low km's on it but we have all seen how early the tappet issue can raise it's ugly head on some bikes, mine showed early wear at only 3,000 miles.  Thank's for going out of your way to share all the pic's. I took a surprising amount of grief from some back when I decided to rollerize mine pre emptivelly before It was to the point of being able to put in for a free kit.  This is exactly the reason I thought the c kit was a bargain at the time considering this could be the alternative. If it hadn't been for your informative post on the dlc issue I would not have even been aware of it, much less the fantastic tutorial which allowed many of us to perform the conversion ourselves. Hopefully this post will be enough to convince the non believers out there still running flaties and cranking down the gaps as their motor slowly eats itself. Good luck with that rebuild,  I can't believe the dishing out of that follower face. I hope the owner is not on laxatives when he gets the news.
Your a good man Pete, good luck with that rebuild, and thank's for all you do.

[Markcarovilli]

 :1: to what lucian said...

Mark

[Chuck in Indiana]

Yes, I have seen poor workmanship from a supposed "Guzzi Guru" more than once. But.. nothing like that. (!)