Serviced by professionals, your kidding !!

I purchased my GRiSO 1200 back in 2008 from a main dealer in the UK, and ridden it ever since. I’ve travelled all over on it, to the South of France, Italy, Germany, Holland, to the Czech Republic and right round Scotland, from day one its been troublesome, cams breaking, blowing fuses, warning lights come on overheating and still I love it. Its been serviced by the same dealer I brought it from and they have never been able to get to the bottom of any of its problem.

Recently I’ve had time on my hands, so I’ve been servicing the beast myself and oh my the things I’ve uncovered. Firstly while I was changing the oil i drop the bottom of the engine off to clean the two internal filters, here I found lot of metal fragments (clearly on replacing the failing cam problems the dealer did not as they assured me flush the engine, but thats nothing.

Today I took off the bodywork, what’s that I spy wedged between the tank and engine, looks like an old rag. Soon getting the tank off I do indeed find a large oily rag on top of the engine, along the pipes to the rear of the tank (breathers ?) which are both disconnected. Know wonder the poor things been overheating, luck it did not catch fire !!!

Clearly my baby will never be going back to this bunch of spanner monkeys again, I much happier to follow this forums and seek help from the like of Pete Roper

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The engine flush is a joke. How can it possibly be expected to get rid of all the crap from busted tappets? I would of thought this obvious to anyone with quarter of a brain but it seems that many people believe in magic rather than the laws of physics!

If they are that hopeless my guess would be there are going to be a whole host of things you're going to have to un-fuck to get it to run right.

Pete

Thanks Pete I'm now a man on an 'un fucking' mission. Side question its a 2008 model where can I download the correct map for it (my guess and which I will check tomorrow is that its the original factory mapping).

I'll send you a better map. You could use a break. PM me your email address.

Have you got the Guzzidiag suite of tools? If not, get the cables and download the programmes and Mark or I can send you a map BUT!

The set up and tune must be spot on before you try another map, any map, otherwise we're on a hiding to nothing.

Tappets, throttle body balance, TPS and self learning parameters, (After the remap.) must all be spot on otherwise the bike will run like a pile of shit. Also stock air filter and box and a *Known* pipe are vital.

Pete

Time to print-out all of Pete's posts, and drink the Kool-Aid !
- Maybe check the yellow paint on the Sacred Screw and the throttle body linkage ?
- air bleeds not both open ?
- grease on the swingarm and the steering bearings ?
Those seem to be the major factory problems, as amended by ham-handed mechanics.

I'm sure he'll chime in with more, but if a major component on my 1100 ever Shits the Bed, I'm packaging it up and sending it to Bungendore...... The dealers in Florida are used to working on Harleys "If you can't fix it with a hammer, it's an electrical problem".

Amazing story and fair play to you for sticking with the bike through all of that. I cannot open the Facebook link so don't know what it there but wondered if you are going to name the dealership or have you had any apologies from them for their complete incompetance?

Please keep us updated as to how you get on with getting things sorted with the bike. Some great technical help and totally honest advice on this forum.

Regards, Ian/Blue.

Pete Roper wrote:

Have you got the Guzzidiag suite of tools? If not, get the cables and download the programmes and Mark or I can send you a map BUT!

The set up and tune must be spot on before you try another map, any map, otherwise we're on a hiding to nothing.

Tappets, throttle body balance, TPS and self learning parameters, (After the remap.) must all be spot on otherwise the bike will run like a pile of shit. Also stock air filter and box and a *Known* pipe are vital.

Pete

Hi Pete, Everything on the bike is standard, except I have replaced the standard air filter with a PiperCross filter. It runs fine except it overheats when stop / starting in heavy traffic. It get to the state where it will not longer idle and cut out, then is difficult to restart. I've had to leave it to cool down before it will start again on a number of occasions, I'm guessing its running far too lean, hence my question on changing the map. I've seen post regarding fitting a booster plug to fool the system into running richer, but I'm really not sure. I have the Guzzidiag tools downloaded by the way.

As I say it runs fine, no major popping and pulls cleanly, so I'm looking at the overheating mainly (having that old rag left on the motor I'm sure was not helping the cooling problems).

The pipe is standard, I'm not going to change it until I can sort out these reliability issue, then maybe I'll go for an MIVV pipe ?

The booster plug won't work on a 5AM model Guzzi. Save your money. The rock strainer filter your using isn't doing you any favors either. Once you've sorted whatever the 'professionals' did to your GRiSO, install a standard filter (they're good for 140 horsies), balance your throttle bodies, set your valves at 6 & 8 thou, and we can send you a map that will transform the bike. Trust me, I'm the FIG.

Totally sucks to hear you've been treated like that. Good on you for sticking it out.

Listen to the FIG / Pete - they will not lead you astray!

I have just taken mine back to the dealer who did the work on the heads for its 6250 mile service. I never did ask why it needed new crankcases. They said that the crank and wear had and when checking the front main bearings said they were a press fit and could not get them as a seperate part from Guzzi, so got new cases instead! Now i know

Yup, on the 8V the front main is an integral part of the case, a pressed in component. Why I don't know? Seems stupid and unnecessary to me. This means that theoretically if the front main is damaged you need a new case. In practice I'm sure it would be fixable by pushing in some new material, machining it to size and pegging it. Thankfully I haven't had to do this yet!

Pete

beetle wrote:

The booster plug won't work on a 5AM model Guzzi. Save your money. The rock strainer filter your using isn't doing you any favors either. Once you've sorted whatever the 'professionals' did to your GRiSO, install a standard filter (they're good for 140 horsies), balance your throttle bodies, set your valves at 6 & 8 thou, and we can send you a map that will transform the bike. Trust me, I'm the FIG.

Job done, tappets adjusted and the throttle bodies balanced (using Carbtune, really nice tool), stock air filter refitted. I've reset the TPS using Guzzidiag, any chance of now getting hold of a suitable map ?

Right. PM me your email address and I'll flick you a map.

Job done, just return from first test ride on new map, so much more responsive and very clean between 3000 and 5000 rpm, also it appears to handle 1st gear so much better (always been a problem with the GRiSO, very much an on or off power engine when trying to filtering through traffic at slow speed, a right pain) thanks for all your help guys with the , cheers Russ