I helped Eric look at the valve clearances on his 600 Ducati Desmo, it was an eye opener to what is involved in getting the clearances right - whoever came up with the idea of zero clearance - an interesting concept impossible to measure and even harder to adjust. First challenge was to get TDC on each cylinder on the right stroke for both valves to be closed. He had various marks on the belt pulleys and on the alternator, which more or less did the job, but at the end of the day, we measured when the valves were obviously closed and we could see the piston through the spark plug holes at TDC. Measuring the opening valve clearances gave that they were pretty much all to small, and then you are supposed to lean on the closing arm, and this should give you the combined clearance (opening and closing) which all seemed again far to small. The conclusion we came to was that it had been badly done previously, and he wasn't confident enough to start removing the shims so we left it there - we will see how much Ducati want for doing the valves properly and changing the belts. I must do Chris' Ducati soon, although I think you need to drain the oil, and as I have just completed the oil change, I will probably wait until, there is nothing else to do in the garage.
Took the Ducati out on Saturday, for it's first run after oil change, it was weaping oil from the oil filter cover, so need to look at that, but apart from that was going well. Started OK, and nearly ticks over.
The RG is now completey back together and fluids are all topped up, need to book some track time to test. I moved the carb needles down (leaner), as I really must concentrate on getting it running a little better below 8K.
I ordered another YSS fork valve for the street going FZR, as had complaints about the handling from Libby, and I agree the track bike handles really well, whereas the road bike has a hinge in the middle somewhere, the plan is to do the forks and then mess with the rear shock which has loads of adjustment, but if I can't get that to work properly, then buy a Shock Works replacement.
The forks are off the bike and cleaned and prepared waiting for the valves to arrive from the UK.
Thinking about doing another "stage de pilotage" but at Ledenon in July, so at least I can find my way around Ledenon..... we'll see.
Took the Ducati out on Saturday, for it's first run after oil change, it was weaping oil from the oil filter cover, so need to look at that, but apart from that was going well. Started OK, and nearly ticks over.
The RG is now completey back together and fluids are all topped up, need to book some track time to test. I moved the carb needles down (leaner), as I really must concentrate on getting it running a little better below 8K.
I ordered another YSS fork valve for the street going FZR, as had complaints about the handling from Libby, and I agree the track bike handles really well, whereas the road bike has a hinge in the middle somewhere, the plan is to do the forks and then mess with the rear shock which has loads of adjustment, but if I can't get that to work properly, then buy a Shock Works replacement.
The forks are off the bike and cleaned and prepared waiting for the valves to arrive from the UK.
Thinking about doing another "stage de pilotage" but at Ledenon in July, so at least I can find my way around Ledenon..... we'll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment