Thanks Steve.........At least I was thinking along the same lines as you with regard to the sprag, even though I have never been 'inside' a Ducati engine before. I think the stuff I'm cleaning off is Three Bond owing to the colour, but it is at least six years, maybe seven years old.......where it has squeezed out of the joint, it is semi-hard, while the stuff left on the case faces is soft-ish, but a pig to get off.
Agreed, if you've gone to the trouble of removing the sprag you may as well fit a new one. It'd be a shitter to do all that and then have to do it all again a month later...
These bikes seem to need not only a battery in first rate condition but a starting circuit that is too. If there's lots of resistance in the starting circuit, the battery hasn't enough juice to overcome that, operate the sprag, turn the starter motor and power the ignition system all at the same time. It's one thing if the bike won't start easily but a serious pain in the ass if it knackers the sprag as a result.
I'm checking over the starter circuit again, just to make sure all connections are good, while I wait for a new battery to be delivered. I'm hoping I got the pick-ups back in their correct position, which I should have as I marked around the washers on the plate with a sharp screwdriver before I undid them. I checked the air gaps and found that in the original position that I marked, one gap was a bit wide (0.9mm) so I played around with them for a while and made sure that they are both a tight 0.73 (about 29thou). Now it's time to clean up the engine casing of oil creep and Three Bond ooze along the casing joint. Note to myself: Must remember to refill with new oil........
Have you done the upgraded wire from solenoid to starter motor Al? I have, and it make things spin up much quicker
I think the upgraded wire trick is a bit of a con. I fully understand why it works, I'm an electronic engineer, but if you remove the standard 3 wires, clean up all the terminals with a fiber glass pen or fine sand paper, 800 or 1200 grit then put them back on and I guarantee it'll start better. Finish off with some copper grease or vaseline to prevent future corrosion. My 996, has been bored out, has 60mm throttle bodies and running around 14.5:1 compression ratio. It starts with a standard battery and standard wiring.
As I understand it, the theory is that the starting circuit cables are barely adequate from new and only ever get worse. Because they are not terribly big in cross-section, they get hot in use and that causes increased resistance, so they get even hotter. All this heating and cooling leads to increased resistance and corrosion in all the joints and connections. You can clean up the terminals but you can't clean up the crimped joints. Again, as I understand it, not only do the joints suffer increased resistance but all the heating and cooling hardens the copper, so the wires themselves can develop increased resistance. Taking the cables out and cleaning up the terminals is just as much work as replacing them. If you can replace them for a reasonable cost with something with more capacity, why not? I admit I paid a lot to import HiCap cables but I now have a bike that I know will start easily every time. I've never, ever had that before.
My bike always started with a failing battery and OEM cabling..........all the connections were clean and proper........ It only failed to start as per this thread mentions........Now that I have the old battery on the bench and in decent sunlight, I reckon one cell has died and another appears to be half dead.......both blackened, whereas the others look the same light grey as the new batttery. Bike started fine having reassembled it......maybe I should have changed the pick-ups at the same time, but hell, if it doesn't run properly the cover will have to come off again anyway...........stoopid way of doing the ignition timing........ .........much prefer a distributor and points....
Once I got my Guzzi LeMans running right, I didn't have to touch the points for about 10,000 miles and then it was only a 15 minute job.........tank off=two minutes; distributer cap off=one minute; etc.........no draining/wasting oil; no mucky hands..... ........Just think what you have to remove and how long it takes to get at the pick-ups on the SS engine.
Absolutely but in normal circumstances, you should never have to touch those pick-ups. I'm amazed your Guzzi points needed no attention for 10,000 miles. Couldn't wait to get rid of points myself, I saw them as crude and a pain. The points themselves would pit etc as the metal migrated from one side to the other and the heel running on the cam would wear. Also, mechanical advance systems with bob-weights and springs left a lot to be desired. Personally, I love electronic ignition. You don't need to drain the oil, btw, leaning the bike over to the right does work...
I'm afraid this will end up like Marmite.......... Personally I'm all for simplicity and the easiest way possible....... For example what could be easier than flipping off two clips or undoing two screws from the distributor cap....... ...............certainly not undoing 16 bolts and a number of cable ties, plus cleaning up two gasket faces, adjusting the pick up positions; putting it all back on and getting the strobe into play only to find it all has to come off again. That's oil excepted as well.....
If you need to adjust your ignition timing, of course a distributor and points are easier but the idea is that you will never need to unless something catastrophic happens. One is a regular maintenance/service item, the other is something set by the factory that you should never have to worry about. With points etc I always had that nagging doubt as to whether it was perfectly set up and then if it was still perfectly set up. What with condensers, dwell angles, light bulbs and circular cards with degrees marked on them... :/ Never have that with electronic ignition Is your ignition timing out then??
When I went to Mandello del Lario, the Guzzi personnel congratulated me on making my bike run as well, if not better than they could.......Never used a degree card on any of my engines (bikes or cars)...........but I could set the ignition timing by ear, by turning the distributor while the engine was running, then checking it after. Not sure about my SS ignition timing..........I got the bike all back together, having refitted the pick-up plate which I had marked around the washers to make sure it was in the exact location. I had to adjust the air gaps slightly from the original settings as one was tight and the other was wide...........neither by much. So little in fact that my marks around the washers were virtually as they should be. I then checked the flywheel marks against the pick up postions and they appear to be spot on.......I did note that the flywheel marks do actually vary in size, though. When I restarted the bike it was immediate and I noticed that the chuffing it used to do in the airbox when cold had eased quite a bit, but as it warmed up I noticed that it was doing an intermittent backfire in the zorsts at about 3000rpm. I also found my strobe light is missing, so some bugger has borrowed it and not brought it back. I haven't had a chance to road test it yet because I have done hurt my back again somehow.........(possibly due to the GP changing the statins I am on). Might be some crap in the pilot circuit because it had been sitting for a few weeks........hopefuly it will clear.
Having been so meticulous and precise, I'm sure your ignition timing will be perfect, unless it was wrong in the first place that is... Setting up the carbs is quite a game and probably needs an exhaust analyser to get it spot on. I used a Morgan Carbtune to balance the carbs. I tried using dial gauges but didn't get on with them. The solid column needles in the carbtune are right next to each other, so differences are really obvious. The workshop manual is quite interesting on this subject. They give you some set criteria to use but then go on to say that if you are looking for maximum performance, not on public roads (wink, wink), you need rather different settings and that getting the carburation perfect is a matter of balancing out the different factors, that all interfere with each other, and you need to experiment until you get it right. Basically they are saying it's more of an art than a science... It doesn't help that the manual has been badly translated. I found it helps a lot to look at the other languages as well to get a better idea of what they are saying. My Italian is almost non-existent but German and French are much better and looking at the same passage in all four really helped.
The performance was perfectly OK before the failing battery meant I had to get at the starter sprag and check everything else in the way of connections from battery to starter / engine etc. Quite happy with the balance of the carbs and I can't see that altering the airgap from 0.9mm down to 0.73mm or increasing the other from 0.55mm to 0.73mm would make much difference.............the differences are tiny (0.17 - 0.18).... ....besides, it wouldn't be an intermittent backfire........it was say, 3 at a time and then it stopped for a while. I tend to switch my pump off when the engine is running for a minute or so when I know I'm not using the bike for a week, so I think it might be a little bit of petrol 'dust' in the float bowls. Perhaps I should have taken the time to change the pick-ups as well, but as the resistance on them is OK, I didn't bother.
Did you beef up your starting circuit cables, btw? That has to be a good idea if you never want to worry about a sprag clutch again...
Next thing to consider............Easy enough to do with the right connectors and some solder..... .........(although some would say don't solder..........the main thing to do with solder is keep it in the connector and not 25mm along the wire core.....that's asking for a break)
