The Complex Bits

Last night I pulled off the final drive to inspect the pinion and ring gears. They look perfect to me. But I'm gonna take them to an expert to make certain. Then I cleared awayall the stuff to prepare for a transmissionectomy. Good thing. Because I pulled the cardan joint and I think it is a goner. one end is locked solid. ech.that's expensive to replace. But I think I have a spare. If I dont and getting a new one is problematic, that could spell the end of the idea of taking the green goose. Having the cardan shit the bed in Iowa is not how I want my trip to end. But I should be able to source a good one somewhere.

BTW - I love guzzi transmissions. Having gone through the hurculean physical effort it takes to pull apart a BMW airhead transmission, these things are pure joy in comparison. oh sure return springs bust. and seals hae to be replaced now and again. But it is easy to accomplish without much in the way of special tools. The back cover is like 10 6mm bolts. The output shaft retainer is a slotted nut with a lock tab washer. For those who havent tried a beemer tranny....the output shaft is retained by a typical german overkill method. The "cross" that bolts to the u-joint end of the drive shaft is threaded onto the output shaft. Torque for putting it on is like 60ftlb. Then the thread is in a direction such that the act of accelerating the bike will tighten it further. So when it comes time to pull it off...you have to mount the tranny in a very sturdy jig, blister the hell out of the case and output shaft with a torch and then bolt up a special wrench to the "cross" and find a long cheater bar and a rugby team to operate it. The le beemer shop (sadly long gone) that I would go to had it down to a science. But a home wrench would just wreck himself, the tranny or both.

But the guzzi item....nice and easy. The hard part is knowing how it all goes back together.