Ducati Darmah

Things have moved along a little with the DucatiThe clutch cover is off ! I ended up removing the starter motor chain (quick link) to allow the starter gear to remain in the engine and the started motor to come away with the cover.

I have been racking my brains as to how I can test the position of the pickups which are fixed to the engine cover and yet are positioned relative to the rotor on the end of the crank, the best solution is to use the Ducati tool, but at $200 a throw, I am not going to buy one, Brancato does one in the UK for about the same price, and there are some diagrams on the web on how to make one although I think it is beyond my capacities, or at least it would probably take me a week to make the tool....

Anyway I wanted to test the resistance of the pickups and my voltmeter was reading all sorts so I stripped the wires back and discovered a couple of things :-
firstly two wires were switched positions! And secondly the wire insulation had got so hot/crispy that it had cracked in a couple of places.

Nothing for it but to cut off the (already replaced) wires and install some new stuff.

Interestingly, I think the swapped wire is going to solve the problem, the sympton of messing up the configuration of the wires is that the particluar cylinder you are working on will go onto full advance, and this fits with the description of the problem i.e. kicks back and stubborn to start when warm, at least that's what I am thinking for the moment. It's difficult to see from the photos but the green and blue wires were reveresed.

Ducati Darmah difficulty starting when hot!

I have a nice Ducati Darmah in the garage at the moment, with starting and kick back issues.

The agreed upon plan is to test the ignition advance, the pickups and basically all the ignition components, plus change the oil, filter and brake fluid!

Removing the left hand engine cover was complicated by haynes "just loosen all the hex bolts" and the real Ducati manual saying you have to remove the starter motor chain before pulling the cover off! Also the real manual says you are supposed to NOT remove one the hex bolts as it holds the pickups in place!

Oh well it can only go better from here.

Hornet 25k service

25k service on a Hornet, I was quite surprised to find that you are supposed to check the valve clearances, for shim under bucket, this doesn't seem to be much - the Triumph Daytona is 40k and mine have never moved in over 100k. Anyway, removed all the miriad of tubes and pipes on top of the cam cover, and loosened the radiator to be able to squeeze the feeler gauge in. What do you know, 2 inlet and one exhaust valve out of spec. (Too small), shit and of course I need to remove the cams to get at them. Oh well you win some and you lose some. The specs say inlet=0.2 +/- 0.03 and exhaust=0.28+/-0.03 where do they get these sizes from, who has a feeler gauge of 0.28 mms anyway? Perhaps they are given in inches originally?

The rest is pretty straight forward except the ABS gubbins goes right under the steering column so impossible to use my front end stand to lift the wheel off the ground, so it will have to be a block of wood jacked under the exhaust headers or maybe I can get to the sump which has to be stronger - right?

Atelier entre 2 temps

That's the proposed name for the company that I will be creating in Feb. Next year. I will be working from the garage. So it will all be legal in Feb. At the moment I have had 2 additional bikes in the garage.

A neighbours Honda XR400, which has been rebored, valves reground manually and then put back together.

The second is a 600 hornet, which is in for a 25k service. All fluids forks etc...

I will be getting a Ducati Darmah in tomorrow with pickup issues, and then maybe a Moto Guzzi with an oil leak..... We'll  see!