Gregory Bender

Tool to spot face oil line connections at the cylinder head

Moto Guzzi V7 Sport, 750 S, 750 S3, 850 T, 850 T3, 850 T3 California, V1000 I-Convert, V1000 G5, 1000 SP, Le Mans, Le Mans II, Le Mans CX 100, Le Mans III, Le Mans 1000, 1000 SP III, 1000 S, California II, California III, California 1100, California Jackal, California EV, California EV Touring, California Aluminium, California Titanium, California Special, California Special Sport, California Stone-Metal, California Stone-Touring, California Classic, California Touring, and California Vintage models

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Thanks to Paul Greenberg for sending me information about his tool/technique for cleaning up the mating surface on the cylinder head where the oil line banjo fittings connect. In Paul's own words and photos:

I was having trouble getting the banjo fittings on the cylinder head supply lines to seal properly. It's amazing how much oil can weep out of the tiniest leak at 75 PSI (which of course did a nice job of wetting down my left boot).

I inspected the sealing surfaces on the heads, and found they looked pretty awful. This would have been easy to fix while the heads were apart, but of course I didn't think of it at the time. So, maybe the most salient lesson is to make sure to remember and check details like this.

Anyway, I made a little spot facing tool. It has a piece of emery paper affixed to the face with double sticky tape. You wind down the spring preload, then rotate the tool back and forth (like lapping a valve). It cleaned up the surfaces nicely and only took a couple of minutes.

If anyone wants to borrow it, just let me know (although it only took about 45 minutes to make).

Tool to spot face the banjo fitting mating surface on the cylinder heads of Moto Guzzi motorcycles.
Tool to spot face the banjo fitting mating surface on the cylinder heads of Moto Guzzi motorcycles.

Photo courtesy of Paul Greenberg.