The Elephant that was a Duck

[redsox]

wow!! the world works in strange ways. I was driving yesterday and a very sharp ducati passed me and was working its way through traffic. for whatever reason, this thread popped into my mind. the elephant that was a duck. hadn't thought about it since i first read it. i hadn't even really remembered that i remembered it, but it just popped into my noggin. now, ultra-randomly, here it is. back to the top of the heap. freaky. Looks nice man!!! can't wait to see it done..

[El Camexican]

Moving along at a snails pace...

Swing-arm and other bits have been chromed. Some of the hardware has been cad plated yellow, but plenty left to go, I just hate trying to figure out where things came from. Started getting some of the engine parts prepped and ready to go together. Turns out I'll need to replace at least one transmission gear and a few more bearings than expected.

I'll be pickling up a spare trans as well as the gasket kit I had mailed to the wrong address a month ago

Safe to say that nothing on this engine is so complicated that it can't be done in a home garage with a hand full of specialized tools, but I'm really apprehensive about assembling it. So many shims, clips and doodads, scary to think what parts might still be laying on the bench when its all together I don't think I've ever had a disassembled;led engine take up this much space before.

[DohcBikes]

[tripledog]

Nice to see that your Duck has a healthy portion of carbon fiber in its diet. Looking great so far!

[El Camexican]

Nice to see that your Duck has a healthy portion of carbon fiber in its diet. Looking great so far!

All it's missing is a carbon fiber front fender which I don't like the look of, so that's not happening and a carbon fiber gas tank which I'm kind of glad I can't find as they were ungodly expensive back in the day, but they do shave a huge amount to weight off the bike. That said so would me skipping a few meals and that would save money!

[tripledog]

All it's missing is a carbon fiber front fender which I don't like the look of, so that's not happening and a carbon fiber gas tank which I'm kind of glad I can't find as they were ungodly expensive back in the day, but they do shave a huge amount to weight off the bike. That said so would me skipping a few meals and that would save money!

Power to weight ratio, or wallet to weight ratio. Pick your poison. You said you were progressing at a snail's pace. Must be that snails are turbocharged in Mexico, because this bike seems to be coming together quickly.

[El Camexican]

Power to weight ratio, or wallet to weight ratio. Pick your poison. You said you were progressing at a snail's pace. Must be that snails are turbocharged in Mexico, because this bike seems to be coming together quickly.

Let me put it this way: If I did this for a living I'd have starved before I got the cases split.

[El Camexican]

Still waiting on parts and finding new and wonderful things that need replacing each time a stare at it for more than 2 minutes, but I am getting more things ready to bolt on when the day comes with the down time.

Cleaned the pistons up and got them back into the barrels yesterday. Once they are in the stiction is unbelievable! The rings must have a lot of tension on them. I didn’t remove them to clean the piston crowns (which resulted in about 2 hours of work to clean behind the rings afterwards) as I’ve read they are super brittle. It takes a lot of force to move them in the 94mm bore even though the piston can be rotated freely. No wonder the battery gets drained so quickly on this thing.

Getting the wrist pins installed will be another challenge. The pin bore is so close to the oil ring that there is no piston material between the ring and the pin, just a few thousands of an inch of space, so in order to get the pin in and through the rod you have to drop the oil ring down to the chamfer of the cylinder. Again the Internet is full of horror stories about this process and the broken rings it’s produced. Speaking of the oil ring it’s not like any I’ve ever seen. It’s got slit hinges all the way around it, I assume it’s to reduce tension and conform to whatever the cylinder does.

I deburred and polished the intake spigots and assembled the kick stand. It’s a jewel. The bolts and springs are yellow anodized, the mount plate is silver anodized to match the cases and the stand is chromed. I’m really digging on the yellow anodized parts.

Reorganized all the hardware as well. The daughter calls it “Dad’s OCD display”. Good thing I did. I realized the dealer sent me two incorrect engine parts, so another month just got added to the project.

Started dicking with the crankshaft preload as well, OMG, what a PITA. There are guys on the Internet talking about how as little as +/- .002” in axial play can mean the difference between cracked cases, flat spotted bearings and cracked alternator covers (which I already have). Then there are a bunch of different opinions on what temperature it needs to be checked at and how the way you want to ride will make a difference to what you should pre-load it to. Even Ducati seems to have issued varying specs over the years. I wouldn’t be so paranoid had the last set of mains not been cooked. Good news is that the early 900 cases are considered to be amongst the best they ever made, so distortion under load is said to be less of an issue than on newer years.

Based on my preliminary numbers (I plan to check this multiple ways) and assuming that the replacement bearings and the old bearings started life out at the same width I would guess the last guys didn’t preload it enough. I say this because their shims add up to .032” and I get exactly that much play without a gasket (which it had). I’ll never know for sure, but something went wrong. If there’s anything positive to keep in mind it’s a comment I read on the Internet about the preloading where a guy said: “How much time do you think a Ducati tech puts into this process? Surely we as owners are going to spend a lot more time making sure it’s right than they do”.

Considering that I’ve found a poorly made woodruff key in the engine (halfway to shearing), the rear cylinder was missing a dowel pin and there are a few missing washers and at least 3 non-spec bearing in the engine I’d tend to agree with his comment LOL! Guess it doesn’t really matter how much you pay the dealer, there’s always going to be a chance that someone that doesn't give a sh*t about your engine can end up working on it.

[tripledog]

Looking good! As in Bat Shart crazy good.

[knappyfeet]

Holy guacamole..............how come I didn't see this thread before?

This things awsome!............your almost as good as me

No....seriously tho........very nice. I've never owned a Duc before and with my bad back never will so I will live out Ducati ownership through you.

[El Camexican]

Still coming along. Spent one weekend changing some transmission gears, and a shaft and shimming the crankcase and transmission and the following weekend polishing things. Shimming is one of those tasks that takes 20 hours the first time you do it and 20 minutes the second time. I should know, I’ve done it four times now I've had the cases together an apart so many times that I ruined the no longer available from the dealer gasket.

It gets weird because of the preload on the crankshaft. The preload adds end play to the transmission shafts and shift drum, which is fine, but the expectation is that the crankshaft bearings will eventually wear in and you don’t want the transmission shafts preloaded when they do. There is also the issue of centering the shafts in the cases. It’s a big barrel of monkeys especially when your shim stocks are limited and you have to adjust them by the .001” with your finger tips on a spinning grinder disk.



Fortunately the suspension parts never got sent to Arizona. I find that they work so much better when you actually have them bolted to your frame

[El Camexican]

Things are starting to come together. Most of the chrome, plating and polishing is done, the engine is together and the pipes are at Jet Hot to be refinished.

I figured out what messed up the bearings while I was setting up, or “shimming” the engine and measuring all the old bearings and shims. It appears that all the shims were calculated without the case gasket in place, or considered in the calculations and then a gasket was added and everything got .013” looser than it should have been. No big deal for the transmission, but it meant that the crankshaft had .007” of end play rather than the recommended .006” of preload. I didn’t feel the end play when I was pulling the engine down because the weight of the horizontally positioned crankshaft on the angular bearings took up the free play. As much of a PITA and nervous second guessing as this all added up to at least now I don’t have to go to sleep thinking that in 6,000 miles I need to do another rebuild.

Nothing I’m finding in this engine surprises me anymore. The wrong shims, mixed up and missing washers and bolts, missing dowel pins, non-spec bearings, bearings and seals that were not seated perpendicular to the housings, shaft keys that were damaged and then turned around and reused! Many that control cam timing and all of which Ducati states should not be reused. Makes me wonder how much of Ducati’s reputation for being high maintenance is caused by improperly trained techs? Keep in mind all this half assed stuff was done by a Ducati shop that had one of the best race prep reputations back in the 90’s.

I’ve been dealing with the clutch this week and as expected the dry feature makes things a little different than what I’m used to. The outer clutch hub is a two piece unit that has 8 bolts, two seals, two O-rings, two bearings, a locating pin, a spring clip and two washers, but no dampening springs like most Japanese wet clutches. The result of the solid design is that the hardened steel basket has tabs that look more beat up that any aluminum ones I’ve ever seen. Not a good design for hard launches, and aggressive downshifts, but it adds yet more sensation to the instant feedback to the rider that these bikes exude.

The only non-solid connection between the rider and the road on the entire bike is a super stiff cushioning system on the rear sprocket, but even that is almost solid compared to the rubber blocks on Japanese bikes. There is no handle bar dampening, no balance, or counter shafts in the engine which is part of the trellis frame and the swing-arm bolts directly to the engine.

To exaggerate just a bit, if you ride over an ant you feel it in every part of your body that’s in contact with the bike. It’s a bit of a sensory overload at first, but if you like to ride with your weight on the front wheel and know exactly what your bike is doing I can’t think of a better design. Unfortunately it sucks on rough roads, low speeds, heavy traffic and needs three lanes to make a U-turn, but other than that it’s fun to ride LOL!

[knappyfeet]

That motor is giving me a boner.

All those fasteners and hardware zinc/cad plated with the yellow chromates is the tits.

A buddy used a Caswell plating kit and did up all his fasteners with the yellow chromate and it looked awsome.

Your doing a great job.

[El Camexican]

That motor is giving me a boner.

All those fasteners and hardware zinc/cad plated with the yellow chromates is the tits.

A buddy used a Caswell plating kit and did up all his fasteners with the yellow chromate and it looked awsome.

Your doing a great job.

Yep it gives me one too, but along with the sex appeal comes the temperament of a bipolar stripper

I ordered another pile of yellow and red aluminum bolts from Pro Bolt last night, so all the cover bolts are getting switched out and no non-critical hardware on the bike will be steel.

I can't wait to get it on a scale. I'm guessing 380 to 390# wet (stock is 425#). There's an easy 10# on the stock flywheel and kick stand and CF wheels would shave another 15... time for a cold shower.

[knappyfeet]

the sex appeal comes the temperament of a bipolar stripper

I'm o.k. with that.

380 to 390 seems doable........maybe even more.