Breather box - how to get the washer out

Moto Guzzi V700, V7 Special, Ambassador, 850 GT, 850 GT California, Eldorado, and 850 California Police models

Updated: 2012 August 16

When disabling the stock breather valve (to use a different style check valve), in my opinion it is very important (read: vital) to remove the spring and washer inside.

Thanks to Kim Schick who posted this information on the old Yahoo! Loopframe_Guzzi news group (which has now moved to Groups.io). In Kim's own words:

I need to chime in on the breather box thread that was going on a while back...

A Dremel tool cuts an excellent piggy bank slot on the bottom of the box and lets you fish the washer out.

Brazing the slot allows for powder coating, but J-B WELD works just as well (so far at least) as long as you're doing the paint thing.

Thanks to Dan Klestorny of Hippo Hands for sending me this information in a private e-mail. In Dan's own words:

A few weeks ago I removed the flapper from inside the breather box you sold me earlier. Something I don't usually do is take pictures of the procedure, but I did this time, thinking that you might want to add them to your website, if you find them useful.

I used a hacksaw blade to insert into the slot, then flipped the box up and down a couple of times, no more, and the flapper was sitting on top of the blade, that easy. Mind you, I tried with a knife before that, and spent about ¹⁄₂ flipping back and forth without success. Once out, I used black epoxy to seal the opening. It's not a concours restoration, so looks don't matter much to me, and you can't see that anyhow when the box is installed.