ducati update

Seems the valve timing has never been looked at before :-/. The rear
exhaust valve was at 14 thou ffs, and the collets are disintegrating.
All put back together again, now moving on to head bearings and clutch
adjustment. I think my wallet has started to bleed.

 

:

This seems like as good a place as any to insert a newbie question that
has puzzled me for some time. I've notice when next to Ducatis that they
*always* sound as though something is disintegrating. Or that it already
has, and is rattling around inside the engine. Obviously lots of people
love them, and they can't all be continually on the point of catastrophic
mechanical failure (I'm sure there's a joke to be inserted here). But
what on earth makes that noise?

 

The (dry) clutch. Vincent managed to make a quiet dry clutch all those
decades ago, but Ducati never did. I think they do it on purpose now -
it's a bit of a trademark.

 

Thank you. Wikipedia is going to teach me about clutches now. I may be
some time.

 

In Dan's case it's the bag of spanners that sits inside the crank cases.

 

The clutch on my 900ss was monumentally loud. Having fitted a new
basket and plates it's now very quiet. I guess that'll change..

 

Unless it has a wet clutch, like mine does

 

It's a bit of friction material bonded to a disc, and 1 spring or
several.

HTH.

Paul.

 

But that's not important right now.

 

I think we've had it explained before, but anyway, here it is again:

 

It helps pedestrians to hear a Ducati approaching - loud clutches save
lives!

 

Indeed, as the ally baskets wear they get even louder.
Of course you can get nice replacements with titanium edges that don't wear.

 

As you've been told, it's the clutch. It stops if you pull the lever

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It's a grasping action, common to misers and fondlers.

 

You're right, they just eat through your plates at a much higher
rate instead...

For maximum wear you want same-hardness metal for both basket
and plates. The problem is that some Ducati baskets are ally
and some are steel. They would have been matched at the factory
with ally or steel plates, but the problem comes when people
just replace the plates with the wrong ones - a steel basket
and ally plates will wear the plates quicker, while steel plates
and an ally basket will wear the basket quicker.

You can dabble with 48 tooth baskets and plates, but that's
just more expense than replacing the clutch twice over anyway,
so not really worth it. I have a 48t STM slipper in the 748
and it seems to be fine. The Hyper has a standard steel basket
and steel plates (and will probably stay that way) while the
race bike was a 620SSie with a wet clutch ;-)

I have about 4 spare clutches of in the garage, mixed between
wet and dry, so if anyone need the odd spare part just give
me a shout.

 

Dan L wrote:

Bad form 'n all, but this is as it was...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dan_l/4649497274/

 

or you could just buy a proper bike instead.