Mine did this today, luckily in my drive so I didn't have to push her too far! Trouble is that I can't order the part till next year Gives me a chance to work on the bit of bolt left in the side plate tho'
Guest Guest
Subject: Re: Broken shifter lever's shaft Wed Dec 25, 2019 6:18 am
Hello I hope you'll be successful pulling out the remaining of the pivot from the pigplate and will have the replacement parts soon! As you read I couldn't pull it out, was a minor issue as everything was cover under warranty! took almost 3 week to a month to have the replacement parts, but all in all everything was ok at the end! Last summer, mid-July with my wife as a passenger we did a group ride (wrong group! ) and fell on the road. All our protective gear did a great job, us and the GRiSO had minor damage! again it was a bit long to have all the parts, had to replace the head valve cover, brake lever and passenger peg (minor scratches on other parts )but my dealer handled the issue very well. For us, well it took some time to heal but now we're good! Have a great holidays and be safe on the road!
RedMogAndy Carlotto
Posts : 45 Join date : 2019-09-12 Age : 64
Subject: Re: Broken shifter lever's shaft Thu Dec 26, 2019 3:55 am
Crikey! Good to hear you are both all healed now
Bill Hagan GRiSO Capo
Posts : 1722 Join date : 2014-07-03
Subject: Re: Broken shifter lever's shaft Thu Dec 26, 2019 5:08 am
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OK, I have removed the pork chop & the bolt has sheared well below the surface (well, it would, wouldn't it?) so we are soaking it in WD40 tonight while I work out how I can drill it for my stud extractor without ruining the expensive alloy part . . .
WD-40 is fine for removing stickers and chewing gum, but terrible as a lubricant. Use any of the old time penetrating oils. Then find a set of left hand, or reverse twist, drill bits. Often you can get lucky and not even need the extractors.
50% Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF) and 50% Acetone, make the best penetrating fluid. It's what most of them are made from anyway. Make some yourself, and satisfy the inner chemist in you.
RedMogAndy Carlotto
Posts : 45 Join date : 2019-09-12 Age : 64
Subject: Re: Broken shifter lever's shaft Fri Dec 27, 2019 10:43 am
Acetone - is that Hammerite thinner? If so I can try that
Update on mine, I did the TQF/thinners trick and drilled through the bit of stuck bolt with my small left handed drill, drove in the stud extractor and reamed out the hole. Repeated the exercise with bigger drill after heating it all up a couple of times & still no joy. Ordered a new porkchop plate. All fitted now with anti seize on every bolt and a dollop of grease between the O rings (I know grease is not standard fitment on a Guzzi, but what the heck!) - also took the opportunity to fit greased & sealed ball ends to the shift rod. I am expecting even slicker shifts after all that . . .
If you have a broken bolt stuck in aluminum, and a hole through the broken bit, warm the area gently, just so it's uncomfortable to hold your hand on it. Then blow compressed air through the hole for a bit, chilling the steel while the surrounding aluminum is warm. Back out the offending piece.
RedMogAndy Carlotto
Posts : 45 Join date : 2019-09-12 Age : 64
Subject: Re: Broken shifter lever's shaft Sat Jan 18, 2020 2:03 am
Thanks for the tip, I will tuck that one away for next time
This bolt fail just happened to me too. Stupido!! Thankfully AF1Racing.com carries them in stock. The OEM bolt is a POS from the part supplier and/or Guzzi. I always judge my rides by where they break down -/- how close to home they shit. In this case it was only 5 miles from home, so GRiSO gets a pat on the back.. ShiteHappens!
Pete Roper GRiSO Capo
Posts : 10452 Join date : 2013-05-29 Age : 67
Subject: Re: Broken shifter lever's shaft Sun Apr 03, 2022 12:16 am
They only break of they have been subjected to undue stress, like if the bike has been dropped, even at a standstill. I'd agree that the design isn't stellar but you can't design everything to put up with unusual abuse.
evansnows Grignapoco
Posts : 189 Join date : 2019-06-05
Subject: Re: Broken shifter lever's shaft Sun Apr 03, 2022 12:58 am
Is it because the shifter peg is fixed that in a fall the lever and bolt suffer ?
After my fall on the right side the extended peg folding over meant limping home with no back brake, hole in my knee, scuffed tappet and carbon carc covers and the paint job on my tail tidy.
When I tried to straighten the peg it it broke which is when I decided to modify to folding pegs. It seems mad to me to have folding footpegs and ridgid pegs on the footbrake and shifter since all the weight is going to come down on them.
The modification was easy and didn't involve any mods to the original parts.
Subject: Re: Broken shifter lever's shaft Sun Apr 03, 2022 3:30 am
Hi Evansnows who suppled the gear lever with the folding tip - i cant find "savage" on line?
Jon
evansnows Grignapoco
Posts : 189 Join date : 2019-06-05
Subject: Re: Broken shifter lever's shaft Sun Apr 03, 2022 11:33 am
From ebay - Universal Aluminum Folding Gear Shift Shifter Lever for Motorcycles Gray eBay item number:393459634385 [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Hi Evansnows who suppled the gear lever with the folding tip - i cant find "savage" on line?
Jon
i've had these folding pegs installed on my GRiSO for a while. - still the pivot bolt at the back of the pedal snapped W/O any bike drop or other abuse - leaving me to hand shift my way home.
~ ironic how the piece we install attempting to forstall the fail ain't the part that boinks..
Has any of us ever mentioned this not uncommon bolt fail to MG? Seems it's such a critical / binary fail at either the shifter or the rear brake, that they'd be interested to hear - and correct.
Look, they only fail if they have been abused in some way. Even on a 'New' bike there is no telling if the lever has taken a bump while it was being crated up or uncrated. As I said before it may not be the best bit of design ever but these pivots are for brake and gear levers, they aren't expected to take high stress loadings in normal everyday usage.
When things are stressed in ways they are never meant to be stressed? Surprise surprise! They break! Hold the front page!
As for the factory being 'Made Aware' and 'Rectifying' it? The same part is used on multiple Piaggio machines and pearls don't get clutched over it. Why should Guzzi be seen as 'Special'? And of course the CARC series bikes have been OUT OF PRODUCTION for five or six years! Of course they aren't going to go back and retro-engineer a 'Solution' to this storm in a teacup problem! Good grief!
There are heaps of choices under folding pegs on ebay. I chose the ones that looked best engineered. They work and seem robust. I'm happy to have built in a solution that gives me peace of mind. As with the composite tappet covers I hope I never have to find out how well they work. At 71 I'm a bit past getting stitched together again.
Has any of us ever mentioned this not uncommon bolt fail to MG? Seems it's such a critical / binary fail at either the shifter or the rear brake, that they'd be interested to hear - and correct.
Look, they only fail if they have been abused in some way. Even on a 'New' bike there is no telling if the lever has taken a bump while it was being crated up or uncrated. As I said before it may not be the best bit of design ever but these pivots are for brake and gear levers, they aren't expected to take high stress loadings in normal everyday usage.
When things are stressed in ways they are never meant to be stressed? Surprise surprise! They break! Hold the front page!
As for the factory being 'Made Aware' and 'Rectifying' it? The same part is used on multiple Piaggio machines and pearls don't get clutched over it. Why should Guzzi be seen as 'Special'? And of course the CARC series bikes have been OUT OF PRODUCTION for five or six years! Of course they aren't going to go back and retro-engineer a 'Solution' to this storm in a teacup problem! Good grief!
My dear Sir Teacup, The pedal broke off while I was downshifting, for crimminy jickets, and as I said, there'd been no previous abuse, I don't punch or bang on it. It's obviously an unnecessarily weak bolt - at a critical fulcrum point - that gets stressed CONSTANTLY under normal riding conditions - unless you're wearing flip-flops or in your Capesio's. The bolt shaft didn't warp, it just snapped in half - seeYa!
As the bolt fails at the shift lever the bike becomes inoperable. If it fails on the brake side, you're dang right MG needs to hear about it; "Dear MG, how come my rear brake pedal snapped off while I did a hard stop?"
My GRiSO is a '17 with 15k mi. Am I committing a GrisoGhetto forum crime if I ask MG to put the bolts in a vise and stress test them? The very least they could do is let us know that the bolt should be replaced every 12k miles. That would cost them - nada... I'm an aircraft pilot and those manufacturers publish Service Advisories on all their equipment - old or new - as they discover flaws. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
I'll reach out to MG myself, and you're probably right - they won't give a hoot.
Thank you for looking in. You can climb off my tits now.
@BruPo, i have to say thst the diameter of the narrowest point of these pivot bolts for the gear lever and brake pedal is the same or larger than on any other similar remote lever system i have ever seen.
Also as you always want the cheapest/simplest part to fail it is better for the pivot bolt to be weaker than either the lever or the thread in the pork chop.
From what you say it seems likely it was trashed in carriage or maybe overtightened on assembly if the factory air wrench failed.
Subject: Re: Broken shifter lever's shaft 
Sat May 11, 2019 1:29 pm
Gives me a chance to work on the bit of bolt left in the side plate tho'
) and fell on the road. All our protective gear did a great job, us and the GRiSO had minor damage! again it was a bit long to have all the parts, had to replace the head valve cover, brake lever and passenger peg (minor scratches on other parts 
