Guzzi 1100 custom build

[buzzer]

One thing I always like on a build is a light throttle… in these days of EFI its easy to forget just how heavy some carb throttles were, always a balance of lightness Vs a throttle spring strong enough to prevent sticking, As I am using flat slides on this build I really wanted to use a pull / pull throttle set up, which would either mean a pair of splitters, or a dual throttle. that way I can retain the light springs. Try as I might I couldn’t find a dual pull / pull one so I have ended up making one! If anyone knows of a company that makes them… DONT TELL ME! here is the story in pictures…

[buzzer]

the wheels are back from the vapour blasters… they have come out FAR better than I expected, and I quite like the finish, so I will be leaving them as they are. just a coat of ACF – 50 should keep them looking good. the spokes are stainless and have also come up well. First time in MANY years I have put my own tyres on! they are tubeless so went on very easily. just got to get them balanced.

[buzzer]

seat next… I needed to bend the front to clear the tank bolt… So I made a former to press it into shape. I also made a tool so I could press some dimples where the rivinuts go, to raise the seat a little so the seat doesn’t sit directly on the frame rails…

Things don’t always go to plan… I decided to mount the rear light on the frame, and cover with a piece of alloy… which I did, but then realised that on full bump the tyre would hit the plate! I had designed the rear to cater for full bump, but promptly forgot! I realised I needed to mount the light on the seat base, but I hate wires showing… so I decided to make a conduit out of copper tube so the wires can be hidden under the seat cushion.

The seat is off to the trimmers today. I have not used this guy before… The girl I used for years to trim my seats left the company she worked for… the last guy I used was OK, but no where near her standard. So lets see what this new guy is like… Oh, and here she is in the daylight for the first time in a while…

[Huzo]

the wheels are back from the vapour blasters… they have come out FAR better than I expected, and I quite like the finish, so I will be leaving them as they are. just a coat of ACF – 50 should keep them looking good. the spokes are stainless and have also come up well. First time in MANY years I have put my own tyres on! they are tubeless so went on very easily. just got to get them balanced.

Are they nice and true ?
Also, why not balance them yourself ? https://youtu.be/MbezuZa_hNY
It’s fun...!
BTW..
I did get the front better than that, but took the video to demonstrate the accuracy that can be achieved.

[buzzer]

Are they nice and true ?
Also, why not balance them yourself ? https://youtu.be/MbezuZa_hNY
It’s fun...!
BTW..
I did get the front better than that, but took the video to demonstrate the accuracy that can be achieved.

yes, they were almost perfect!  that's a great idea!   my mate has a wheel building jig I can use...  I will do that thanks! 

[Fodermonk]

Are they nice and true ?
Also, why not balance them yourself ? https://youtu.be/MbezuZa_hNY
It’s fun...!
BTW..
I did get the front better than that, but took the video to demonstrate the accuracy that can be achieved.

AME's balanced King Air aircraft wheels that way where I used to work, and they went over 100mph. I made my own compact version by bolting a couple of bearings to a small piece of angle iron (x2) and just clamp them to a couple of jack-stands. I've been doing this for years!

[buzzer]

no matter how I tried I couldn’t get the number plate to look right on the rear of the bike… so on this build its going on the side, which kind of fits with the look I want to achieve…

[EV Cali]

Brilliant work you're doing here Buzzer, wish I had your engineering skills to transform my EV into something better. Following with interest and based quite close to you in South Derbyshire.
 

[lucky phil]

Nice, looks like you won't be needing a side stand then.

Ciao

[buzzer]

Its been a while...  I tend to have the summer off from garage projects, holidays, days out, bike rides take over!  However I had a few spare days and thought I would make use of the warm days and paint the tank. It was badly damaged when I bought it, so I cut some holes in the underside and knocked the dents out. it takes an age to get it to shape, in fact as the metal had stretched, so I cut a 1mm slot in it, planished it, which closed the gap, and then welded the slot up! its nicely to shape, just the decals to put on now

Another little job was to redo the speedo… I want to keep this build as clean as I can and wanted a smaller speedo. I decided to use one of the cheap GPS modules which is just 55mm diameter. I made a new housing for it, and will finish the bracket off when I start the assembly. it been in the car for a week on test!

[buzzer]

All finished...  I always have my heart in my mouth on that last coat of lacquer over the decals!

I know a lot of people struggle with paintwork, its not that hard if you follow a process, so I have written a guide on my blog if anyone is interested...

https://jtccc.wordpress.com/projects-2/paint-spraying-at-home/

[Huzo]

Why is there a decal on the back of the tank where you can’t see it ?
Won’t the seat rub it off ?

[Rick4003]

Hi Buzzer,

Very nice build and thanks for the write up regarding paint. Always good with some extra tips and tricks.

[Canuck750]

You have a lot of excellent machine tool skills, very impressive!

Bike is looking great.

[buzzer]

thanks for the comments guys 

Out in the sunshine for the first time in a while… I am now happy with the look, and it now all needs to come apart for the frame to be tided up and painted silver (matches my other bikes!) I will be doing a mechanical rebuild at the same time.

[Calijackalbob]

In your obvious over inflated opinion...

Ciao

Great work. Wish I had your skills and tools in my garage! I tend to agree. If you are going to all the trouble to make new inlet manifolds, you might as well make them looked finished. You won't regret the extra half hour of or so work. But if you don't..... It will just look unfinished.

[Calijackalbob]

One thing I hated about the bike was the side stand… Just how agricultural is that bracket! I know its a great functional design, but its SO ugly!  so out come the angle grinder and it is no more!  In the loft (or as my wife calls it the spares department!!) i had a side stand off a 1994 Honda CBR 600…  it bolted straight on!  Just need to adjust the angle a little when the ride height has been set.  a job for much later on...

Looks great. If you go the route of clip ons, Check this out.





I used chrome "Washers," actually off the end of bar end mirrors, to hide the holes in the triple clamp on my Bellagio cafe racer. Only took about 20 minutes to strip and polish. Looks a million bucks.





Can't wait to see more of yours.

[buzzer]

Here is the speedo and warning lights finished, I am pleased with how this has come out, i wanted this to be as clean as I could… as with all electronic components I like to rubber mount them… so I have used some small grommets and spacers. The GPS speedo has a nice little feature which tells you which direction you are traveling in!

[buzzer]

Autumn arrives… Bike rides become less frequent, and the holiday and days out season slows down, so its back in the garage! the bike is now in the stage where all the fabrication is done and it all needs taking apart and cleaning and painting. Engine removal was quite easy with the removable frame rails and it was all soon apart and the engine and gearbox on the bench. I finished off all the welding on the frame and removed all the unused lugs to get that clean look, and sent it off to the powder coaters.




I will be doing a full engine gearbox and drive unit rebuild, mainly to vapour blast the cases. This of course means making a few special tools! First off was an extra long 32mm socket. I cut down a standard one and extended it with some thick wall tube.



next was a tool to undo the 27mm nut on the gearbox output shaft. you need to hold the shaft as well as turn the but so it needs to accommodate this. I used one of the spare Ducati wheel nut spanners I had laser cut years ago and bored it to shape on my new milling machine. Picture of that to follow!



next up took some thought… I needed to hold the shaft while I undid the nut. It would have been Ideal to use an old UJ but I didn’t have one… But what I did have was an old drive shaft. Out of this I made a stepped broach in the the lathe and then hardened it. With this I was able to broach a set of splines in a block of 10mm alloy, cut to fit a large spanner. It worked a treat!



finally, I made a tool to remove the castellated nut on the input shaft from an old socket, and a tool to hold the clutch hub from an old clutch plate. I think that may be it as far as special tools go!



I have been debating replacing my milling machine for a long time… but I have had it for almost 45 years and its like an old friend! over the years it done a lot of work, but its a 1929 machine and has its limitations! When my wife asked me what I wanted for my Birthday it was an easy answer! The old machine has gone to a good home where I know it will be looked after and used…

[buzzer]

I much prefer the look of the older round barrel engines...  so out came the angle grinder!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FLqOUEy0VA

[buzzer]

Time to overhall the hydraulics… just waiting for some new bolts to assemble the callipers. everything was in surprisingly good condition, just a strip and rebuild needed. Then onto the job I hate most… Polishing! I have a 2 HP 3000 RPM motor I use for this. Its a long, filthy and somewhat dangerous job. I try to do it all in one day as you get filthy, and its the sort of dirt that won’t wash off with hand soap, so I have to use washing up liquid!

I have also rebuilt the forks and put in new seals and dust covers, and some fresh oil. they are very simple forks, no where near the sophistication of the Ducati ones I normally do!

[Canuck750]

Excellent progress, again I admire your machine skills, I am slowly getting better at mine but no where at your level. 

[buzzer]

Excellent progress, again I admire your machine skills, I am slowly getting better at mine but no where at your level. 

you never stop learning...its kind of why I document my builds...  I have all this knowledge in my head and no one to pass it on to, our kids are just not interested in this sort of thing...  I lost my best mate of 55 years recently and he passed on so much of his welding knowledge to me, and I have no way of passing it on, its a shame, but hey ho...  If people read my posts and take one thing away then that's good.


I have read on a few forums that over the miles the preload on the pinion bearings gets loose, and sure enough it spun Just a little too free. So I removed a thin shim and re-torqued it up after inspecting the bearings which were like new. I couldn’t use a torque wrench so I used a balance on a long spanner and calculated the pull needed for the correct torque.

[buzzer]

I am amazed at how little wear there is on the engine and gearbox components. there is no disenable wear on the crank or bores, pretty good for 30k miles! I cleaned out the sludge trap in the crank but it was clean, glad I did it though as the bung was far too lose for comfort! it has a dab of retaining compound on it now. the only wear I have found so far is a roller bearing in the rear drive, and as you can see there is pitting on the inner race. this will be replaced.

[buzzer]

well the frame is back from the powder coaters, along with the plating of all the smaller parts. Its always a dilemma what colour to go on the plated parts… I can have them silver, but the corrosion protection long term is much less than the yellow passivate, so yellow it is!



the frame has come out superb as usual, but the swinging arm is terrible. I knew it was pitted, but he said when he blasted it, big flakes of rust came off, and although he coated it, he knew it would not be acceptable to me. He did say he could improve it, but I decided to try and find one that’s less corroded. We will see.

[buzzer]

While everything is on hold while I wait for the cases to come back ( blaster has - and is really poorly...) I agreed to help a friend of a friend who was struggling with two broken studs in a cylinder head, so I though I would share my knowledge on removing them...



removing broken studs is always a problem, especially where someone has had a go first! in this case they had drilled off centre and then broken an easy out in the bottom! in 50 years of doing this stuff I have NEVER seen an easy out remove a broken stud in alloy… My technique for broken stud removal is to first clean the head of the stud with a burr in a Dremel to get it nice and clean. Then use a half nut the same size of the stud, but drill the threads out so again its nice and clean.



Place the nut central on the stud and start off with the TIG on low amps and just puddle the weld on top of the stud.. This permeates the heat down the stud… Build up the weld inside the nut until its flush. I have the electrode sticking out a bit more than normal to get close to the stud top. You can use MIG, but TIG is FAR better... Once its cooled a little, give it a tap with a small hammer for a bit of shock. then try working it back and forth… its its too tight, or squeals as you try to turn… it stop. Then if its possible drill a hole into the alloy from the side and JUST into the stud. over a couple of hours feed some Plus Gas (wonderful stuff!) in the hole and work the nut back and forth… I have had great success removing studs this way in alloy.

[buzzer]

Looks like the guy that does my blasting is still poorly, so  I have turned to working on the next project until I get all the Guzzi cases back...  something I don't normally do as I like to do one project a time... 

There are a few things I can get on without getting seriously into it, one of which was to make some tapered inlet manifolds.  This is another 1000DS Ducati build and I am exploring the Idea of using a small supercharger off a VW 1.4 TSFI...  we will see once I get properly into it, but for now here is how I made the manifolds.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAaLRtB32lg

[buzzer]

All the parts are back from the blasters, so its cleaning time… nothing scraps an engine like leaving glass media in there so its important to get it all out. I have a process I use for this. First I wash it all off in petrol… paying attention to all nooks and crannies, holes and oilways with a long thin bottle brush. then I jet wash it off, and blow it all off, including all holes. (you need goggles for this!) then its into a stainless steel tray and another wash off with petrol, and then I use carb cleaner with a long spout into all the holes and oil ways… if there is ANY single bit of media in the tray, its back to jet washing and blowing off again. Its easy to see any media in the stainless tray. Here is the gearbox in the stages of being built up.

[SemperVee]

  Very Impressed with work thus far.  Looks great!

[buzzer]

Onto building the engine… of note is the tool to compress the clutch, which is actually the centre splines off the gearbox, and a threaded bar into the crankshaft. this makes the plates perfectly aligned and makes fitting the gearbox easy.

next the cylinder heads… it took three attempts on these to get the bead out of one oilway! note the new tin of grinding paste, the old one has run out of the fine end, but it was 50 years old, I can remember my Dad buying it me as a teenager! Good to see the company is still going and using the same tin! Just to be sure I checked the bores for wear… there is none at all! Got to love Nikasil bores!

here is the engine and gearbox all back together… I decided to add some accurate timing marks on the flywheel for each cylinder so I can use a strobe and see what’s happening in reality. used my new digital DTI gauge… not sure I like it… watching that needle go round is far more satisfying!

and finally its all back together and ready to go into the frame