It’s Always The Little Things…

…that throw a spanner in the works.  This time in the form of leaky carburettors.  They were a little gummed up and have been given a bit of a clean out but there’s still something sticking that is making fuel torrent out of the overflows.  So, some work there needed, with maybe some more adjustment on the float height and cleaning.

Seen in the daylight proper for the first time in a while, resplendent with a super new loom…back of a trailer doesn’t really count.

Just add fuel…

  

  The nearside carb was whipped off and given a cursory clean whilst a puddle of petrol can be seen under the offside carb in the close up.

 

…and then back on and and off with the offside carb.  Cleaning and what I think will be the start of a process of elimination with float height ended with both carbs pouring fuel out.  So the carbs are the ‘little things’ that have chucked a minor spanner in the works along with the starter motor solenoid which was previously suspected as being a little sticky and requires a gentle bash from time to time to waken.  This will require a strip, clean and re-grease in the none too distant future.

So that was Saturday morning…Friday night was more productive with the correct braided brake line fitted at the front and partially bled.  Not having done this before on a bike, I was surprised how long and delicate a task it is…probably half way with the fronts being bled and just the rear brake to do.  The banjos on the front calipers are orientated so that there is ease of access to the pads…which was a great idea…not thought up by me I hasten to add!

And just to prove that Friday nights are better than Saturday mornings, a quick video of the bike alive and breathing with lights and sound.

(Dash) Lights…(My) Camera…(In)Action….

…for now at least.  The wiring is moving at a pace thanks to my brother-in-law Leon…a completely new loom is taking shape with wires that match the colours on a great A3 sized Guzzi wiring diagram I have compared with the random colours used in the botched loom. 

 

This is where the main loom joints together front to rear…

  

…some tidying required around the back of the headlight bowl as this is temporary to check that everything works…

…which it does!  This is an Osram Nightbreaker bulb and is brilliantly bright.

 

The dash is coming on also…the clocks are back lit but are quite dim so will look at changing them to LED’s if possible.

The dash LED’s are are super bright, particularly the High Beam.  Both the indicator dash lights are working and the Neutral light leaving only the Ignition/Charge light to wire in.  The front indicators, with their LED’s are working just fine…

  

…leaving the rear Stop/Tail light and the rear indicators to wire in and that should just be about it for the wiring loom.  It will then be wrapped in fabric wiring tape to keep it all neat and tidy as well as protected from moisture and grime.

One of the jobs left to do is to de-link the brakes as I mentioned in a previous blog.  So the nice people at HEL made me a brake line up that would do the job…except for the fact I forgot to specify a 90° bend in one of the unions…doh!  So I have now ordered another brake line but this time from Venhill (remembering the 90° bend!) whose unions are screwed onto the braided line rather than swaged on like the HEL ones meaning they cannot be removed successfully by someone at home.

Jobs to do…

• Fit the brake line when it arrives and put fluid into the braking system and bleed.
• Balance the carburettors.
• Check the nearside fork seal, as it wept when tied down on the trailer…too much compression!
• Commission a new seat for the old seat pan…below is my preferred option seeing as I cannot go Street Tracker with it due to the tyre cut out in the seat pan…safety over aesthetics.  I have ordered a 20cm square of race seat foam that I will stick to the bare seat pan to get it to the MOT (Ministry of Transport) safety testing station.

• Check all nuts and bolts…add medium strength thread-lock, then torque tight.
• Bin the current fuel pipes with their crossover and run a single fuel hose from each carburettor to each fuel tank tap.
• Take it for its MOT test…job done.

The Devil’s in the Detail…

…as objectively it looks like little has changed in the past 6 weeks.  To be fair I have had a few weeks where the bike had to take a back seat due to some remedial work on the house…apparently that was a priority.

So what have I done since last time?  Well…I have become more confident with a soldering iron and have been tackling various bits of wiring.  The new clock surround came with LED’s however they needed the wires soldering to them as the LED’s had solder tags on them rather than spade terminals, although I did initially try mini spade connectors but they were not stable enough.  The heat from soldering and possibly the odd unsteady hand loosened the plastic that the LED is attached to inside the bulb housing in all of them.  I have used glue almost successfully to keep them in but will no doubt have to think of a more permanent solution to stop them dropping out.  Suggestions welcomed.

I have changed a number of loose connector blocks on the bike with either soldering the connections or using new connectors with some success.  Quite a few spade connectors were quite baggy on their respective terminals for some reason, such as the brake light switch connections.  Out came the soldering iron again along with heat shrink and have come out nicely.  I am praising myself there a little as I am not the most practical of folk and generally not good with my hands so little wins boost my confidence no end.

Along with soldering the LED’s, I have also soldered the ignition wires to the four terminals on the back of the ignition barrel as again the spade connectors were baggy.  A lovely A3 colour wiring diagram from a member on the Moto Guzzi Club UK forum has been brilliant in helping me knit this particular fog!  Speedo and tacho cables have been connected to the clocks along with their respective bulbs and the idiot light wires/LED’s which remain connected to their original connector blocks.  Other than the indicators, much of the front end appears to be nearing completion.

The keen eyed amongst you will have noticed a Dymo in the first photo.  As oily hands and hand written bits of masking tape do not mix I decided that a more permanent and less likely defaced solution would be Dymo labels.  I started with the paper ones (seen in the 1st photo) that came with the machine but then bought a yellow plastic cartridge and am really pleased with them.  However, one or two had come apart (they are self adhesive) maybe through damp or me not pressing them together properly.  Needless to say I have gone a little Dymo crazzzeeeee!

More wiring beckons for the next instalments and hopefully we will be nearing the point of combustion!

The old girl has a new home for the winter…a cold cramped garage has been replaced for a warm, cramped conservatory at my dad’s house!  She looks at home I reckon…

 

‘Till next time…