'84 Cali 2 For Sale

[grebmrof]

Found this on CL in Cleveland, no connection to seller, here it is FWIW:

https://cleveland.craigslist.org/mcy/d/cleveland-1984-moto-guzzi-california-2/7123425672.html

If this has been posted before, please delete this...

[Lannis]

That's a beautiful bike.   Price seems a little steep for a 26 year old motorcycle of that type ... '98 and up EVs are going for much less than that.

I'm a bit gun-shy because a few years ago, I paid $4000 for what I THOUGHT was a '90 Cal III in that condition and with that mileage.   I knew it was a high price, but it was from a known Guzzi guy and looked good in the pics.   So I did a Dog-and-Ride and rode it home, and knew I'd made a mistake by the time I pulled into the garage after a 450 mile ride.   It had been bodged and messed with and screwed up so bad it would barely run.   Maybe I should have gone back to the seller, but by the time I realized how bad it all was, I said "Screw it, I'll get through this myself".   

I didn't, took a serious financial bath, and it took two owners after me to get it right, and now it's doing well, I hear.

ANYHOW, IF this bike here is un-messed-with, and IF someone has always wanted a Cal II, and IF you want something that will probably go 100,000 miles before having to do anything serious to it, this could be a good one.

Lannis

[Dave Swanson]

Appearances look great!  From the looks of the brake rotors it hasn't been ridden in awhile. 

[bigbikerrick]

My Cal II is an 84, looked just like that one originally. I think that bike may have the wrong seat/ rear rack. The 83s had a shorter seat, and rack for mounting the trunk, and that seems to be what is on the bike for sale.
Rick.

[Daniel Kalal]

From the looks of the brake rotors it hasn't been ridden in awhile.

The iron rotors will look like that twenty minutes after a ride in wet weather.  It's that quick.  Then it goes away immediately.

Some 1984 Cal2s had the short seat and some the long seat.  Somebody really hated the skunk look, by the looks of this one.  Unfortunately, this year had perhaps the most serious issues with the inner clutch hub wearing out and consequently, the disks would not separate when you pull the clutch lever in.  If anybody does check this one out, make sure the plates release cleanly, with no dragging at all.  Even so, you might be looking at a total clutch replacement (check for wear on the flywheel, too).

[Ncdan]

The iron rotors will look like that twenty minutes after a ride in wet weather.  It's that quick.  Then it goes away immediately.

Some 1984 Cal2s had the short seat and some the long seat.  Somebody really hated the skunk look, by the looks of this one.  Unfortunately, this year had perhaps the most serious issues with the inner clutch hub wearing out and consequently, the disks would not separate when you pull the clutch lever in.  If anybody does check this one out, make sure the plates release cleanly, with no dragging at all.  Even so, you might be looking at a total clutch replacement (check for wear on the flywheel, too).

Would this still be an issue at that low if a mileage, 17k?

[larrys]

  Unfortunately, this year had perhaps the most serious issues with the inner clutch hub wearing out and consequently, the disks would not separate when you pull the clutch lever in.  If anybody does check this one out, make sure the plates release cleanly, with no dragging at all.  Even so, you might be looking at a total clutch replacement (check for wear on the flywheel, too).

My '83 SP (bought new) had the same clutch hub issue. Started acting up around 25K miles and got progressively worse. Changed it out around 28K.
Larry

[Daniel Kalal]

Would this still be an issue at that low if a mileage, 17k?

Yes.  And, at that mileage, it would not surprise me to know that it was parked exactly for this reason.

The problem was fairly widespread and was much talked about at the time.  The newsletter was full of possible theories and solutions.

1) A theory that makes some sense is that during the De Tomaso era, tooling maintenance was extended (or just not done) allowing such things as the critical alignment (both angle and lateral displacement) of the transmission-to-block surface and alignment holes to drift out of tolerance.  There were a handful of people who went to the trouble of having a machine shop redo that face and re-drill the alignment holes.  I guess that worked, but that's not a solution that's available.
2) another theory is that the clutch material had been changed and was grinding the inner hub. (remember, the hub is not lubricated--or, not for long in any case)
3) theory three is that the heat-treat of the steel was improperly done, allowing abnormal wear to occur.

The mineral-spirit wash (block the drain and pour some spirits in the timing hole and run the engine for a bit while moving the clutch) came about during this time.  That does work as a temporary fix to clean out any debris in the splines an give you more miles.  But, you cannot replace worn steel with mineral spirits.

Guzzi tried to fix things by changing to the deep-spline hub.  But, my experience is that this only extended the time until you had the same problem.  But, I'll note that this 1984 model will still have the original shallow splines.  Everything a few years after this has the deep-spline hub (which means you need the proper clutch compression tool).

The Cal2 is a remarkable bike; one of the best.  I took mine to over 300,000 miles without an engine or transmission rebuild.  BUT, I did get good at replacing clutches (one day in the garage), and it's not a cheap thing even if you do your own labor.

[larrys]

My clutch hub issue was theory number 3. Splines were notched badly. Soft steel for sure, in my case anyway.
Larry