Yet another day
Okay so I got up today and ran my errands. First stop was the guzzi shop to get the 4 ittybitty goddam o-rings I forgot I needed for the head gasket replacement task. While I was at it I got new jets and needles for the carbs. One less thing to clean.
Next Max had earned enough dough to go get a particular just released lego set and of course demanded going to get it RIGHT NOW. I looked at my wife for help.. "Well it will keep him occupied while you are in the garage and I am at work." feh. I'm henpecked. In my youth dad would have simply threatened me with an early grave if I disturbed him.
So finally I get to work on these bits. I have described Guzzi motors as cathedrals. Boy howdy are they ever. mmmm....jugs.
valve train....sweet.
See that big chunk in the middle? Yeah that big chunk of shot peened steel. That is what the rockers are mouted to. Here take a closer look. This, my friends is why it is rare to have catastrophic mechanical failures in classic guzzis. Over built and understressed.
I tore it down to the head gaskets. I got lucky and didnt disturb the base gaskets, so I am leaving those in place.
Just as I get the heads and valves back together, the boy comes into the shop and starts poking around as kids will do on the rare occasions they get to enter the hallowed halls of Dad's Inner Sanctum.
"Hey Dad! What's that!?"
Well that is an old mini brake that I found in a drawer when we moved in. Wanna see how it works?
In the next few minutes we comited a brace of felonies by folding, cutting, punching and otherwise mutilating pocket change
Okay enough tomfoolery. Back to work.
After buttoning up the heads (but no valve cver gasket yet. I still have to adjust the valve lash. Oil valves and timing are hte last things I do. ) I the mounted the new headers. Oooh. Pretty. One side was a bastard because one pipe had a slight interference with the exhaust nut, making it a bitch to get the nut in place without cross threading. The nuts tend to loosen on thier own. Annoying. There are a number of ways to deal with it from safety wire to special locking nuts (80 bucks *each*) but what works for me is a small 2 peice clamp that holds the header to the frame down by the footboards. No exhaust flext ot loosen the nuts. You still have to give them an extra tweak when the bike is hot for a few days though. AFter that they stay solid.
I also mounted the new alternator (finally). I had to wait until this point because as you can see in the picture there is a hard oil line that is the return from the head to the crank case. That sort of snakes around the alternator mount and has to be in place. Those lines are *spendy* so I didnt want to risk having it hanging out there when I was fooling with the heads. So I waited.
Thats it for tonight.
Tomorrow I will either tackle the front crank seal (PITA) that involves a rattle gun to take the big crank nut off. But inside are the very pretty timing gears. ooh.
Or I will get cracking on the carbs...bleah.
Next Max had earned enough dough to go get a particular just released lego set and of course demanded going to get it RIGHT NOW. I looked at my wife for help.. "Well it will keep him occupied while you are in the garage and I am at work." feh. I'm henpecked. In my youth dad would have simply threatened me with an early grave if I disturbed him.
So finally I get to work on these bits. I have described Guzzi motors as cathedrals. Boy howdy are they ever. mmmm....jugs.
valve train....sweet.
See that big chunk in the middle? Yeah that big chunk of shot peened steel. That is what the rockers are mouted to. Here take a closer look. This, my friends is why it is rare to have catastrophic mechanical failures in classic guzzis. Over built and understressed.
I tore it down to the head gaskets. I got lucky and didnt disturb the base gaskets, so I am leaving those in place.
Just as I get the heads and valves back together, the boy comes into the shop and starts poking around as kids will do on the rare occasions they get to enter the hallowed halls of Dad's Inner Sanctum.
"Hey Dad! What's that!?"
Well that is an old mini brake that I found in a drawer when we moved in. Wanna see how it works?
In the next few minutes we comited a brace of felonies by folding, cutting, punching and otherwise mutilating pocket change
Okay enough tomfoolery. Back to work.
After buttoning up the heads (but no valve cver gasket yet. I still have to adjust the valve lash. Oil valves and timing are hte last things I do. ) I the mounted the new headers. Oooh. Pretty. One side was a bastard because one pipe had a slight interference with the exhaust nut, making it a bitch to get the nut in place without cross threading. The nuts tend to loosen on thier own. Annoying. There are a number of ways to deal with it from safety wire to special locking nuts (80 bucks *each*) but what works for me is a small 2 peice clamp that holds the header to the frame down by the footboards. No exhaust flext ot loosen the nuts. You still have to give them an extra tweak when the bike is hot for a few days though. AFter that they stay solid.
I also mounted the new alternator (finally). I had to wait until this point because as you can see in the picture there is a hard oil line that is the return from the head to the crank case. That sort of snakes around the alternator mount and has to be in place. Those lines are *spendy* so I didnt want to risk having it hanging out there when I was fooling with the heads. So I waited.Thats it for tonight.
Tomorrow I will either tackle the front crank seal (PITA) that involves a rattle gun to take the big crank nut off. But inside are the very pretty timing gears. ooh.
Or I will get cracking on the carbs...bleah.
posted by Z at
7:45 AM
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