Saturday 29 December 2007

Ducati 916 Biposto with 50 mm termis

Just uploaded my first video of starting the bike. Loads of videos out there but this is just on the starting.
No strange noises, ( as previous post, it would have been nice to show how the sprag clutch sounded when faulty ) just 50 mm end pipe termis fitted.
On pressing the kill switch the fuel pump primes. Then on pressing the starter. It turns over and within a few turns, It fires.
No fast tickover enabled. Lots of web articles how oil takes a long time to reach the top of the engine.
It ticks over at a steady rpm. Only the clutch lever when pulled in, can you hear the noise from the dry clutch.

Otherwise the sound of the termis hide any mechanical noise.

Vinny


Thursday 20 December 2007

Ducati 916 stator rumble or bearing



I looked out and the weather looked good.

Time to sort out the fueling chip. Went out for a ride on the Ducati. As i drove 15 miles there was a rumbling noise from below. I thought the blogg would be full of miles spent driving. Not more issues. The sound seemed to sound from the cam belt. i took the cover off, felt the top bearing and it rattled. Thought i found the issue.


Put the bits back together and started the bike. Noise still there. When I reved the bike above 3k the rumble sounded terrible. I looked in the window where the timing marks line up. It seemed to wobble. Not wanting to strip the engine, i posted on Ducatisti asking for help. Some suggestions pointed to main bearings, stator nut loosening .

I stripped the alternator cover thinking the stator nut had loosened. This can be a common issue.


On removal of the alternator cover, pulled the cover i could see what has happened. the bearing has collapsed. Lucky for me i counted all the bearings, none missing.
Pat from Viking motor cycles helped me put the new bearing back in the cover. He had some special tools to take out the bearing and replace. I am used to putting the bike back together, so now in reverse the parts back on, the new oil and water.


The bike now starts. the engine as quiet as a Ducati can be. Have a look at the pictures. inside the cover you can just see the bearing apart.


Vinny


Here's to more miles with no more fixes....

Wednesday 12 December 2007

its not a Ducati but the smile is there


What to do? The car has been on the drive looking lost. The weather raining, cold but today the sun appeared. Popped out and had to lower the roof as inside dripping with condensation. The previous days raining not helping with roof of the car.

Its a Mx5 euno roadster 1.6. I can see how its one of the best selling sports cars. With the top down, driving in sunshine its the best feeling. Its not powerful, 120ps although will easily top the speed limit. Also it only weighs 950kg. This helps it to drive reasonably quickly. It handles brilliantly. My first time approaching a quick corner, i realised. In all my other cars i have slowed down and felt the car roll. In the Mazda the confidence is there to keep at the same speed or faster. It puts a smile on your face.

It had a few problems but they are all sorted. The windows not dropping fully was the straps had broke allowing the wire to trap. The water pump leaking but now replaced. Lots of info on the net with how to fix. So many good sites. Now though, after a summer of driving, I am now thinking about selling.

Sunday 9 December 2007

check your wires Ducati 916

As you can see from the pictures. This is the lead from the rectifier which is located behind the battery. I had tested the voltage and condition of the battery. Just in case it affected the running of the bike. The readings for charging was ok. The battery slightly low. Only 12volts. As i had problems with starting I bought a New battery from Pad at Greyhounds. When i removed the battery holder. Behind i noticed this plug. As you can see the wires had started to overheat. At some point the plastic started to burn.
This now has been replaced and renewed by Pat at Viking Motorcycles.
If you have a Ducati. Spend some time to check the condition of your leads. Could save you being stranded one day.
Vinny

Check your wires from the rectifer on Ducati 916



The long road to Ducati smiles

The splutter / cough / misfire is fixed now.


It drives like it was meant to. At low revs with little throttle it will pick up cleanly. At medium to high throttle input it will respond with out hesitation. At full throttle there is no misfire / hesitation.

The reason Pete ( twobar.boost@btinternet.com ) has altered the fuel chip. He has helped me to tune the fuel chip until the running is spot on.

On my bike it is fitted with the IM16u ECU. It is located under the seat, under the rubber bung. The difficult part is in tuning the bike. Ideally time and someone who knows how to tune the fueling is needed. Or Pete in one word.

I hope the advice hear is taken as that. I hope to help but assume that you know what you are doing. If not like me ask for help of others that do. Or that have the equipment sometimes needed to locate or special tool to complete.


The journey to hear was a long one back in June 2007 I bought the bike. Below is the start of my journey. I use the bike to commute to work. Each week I use the bike I cover approximately 400 miles. Today the bike has covered over 20000 miles.

One of the first sites i looked at, to investigate buying the bike.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducati_916


After my initial service in June 2007. I still had a splutter at low revs. I posted some help on

www.ducatisti.co.uk

I thought the issue was related to the fuel. I looked inside the tank with a torch. I could see rust and water mixed together. Bingo I thought. The tank is easily removed with a single allen screw under the front of the seat. Once removed and with the tank slightly raised. The fuel pipes are disconnected. By releasing the clips. I drained the fuel. Under the tank are three allen screws. When the large aluminium plate is removed. Use three longer allen screws which are needed to raise / remove slowly the plate. After disconnecting the pipes inside the tank, I could see the tank fuel pump. Where the fuel pump sits, it was full of crud.

The probable reason is by the fuel cap. Sitting on the bike to the left of the fuel cap there is a tiny drain hole. When washing the bike or when driving in rain. If any water enters this area if it can not drain away it will slowly seep into the tank. Or when opening the fuel cap any water will drop in the tank. Water will not help in any way to the running of the bike. I used a copper wire to clean the pipe. I checked water would flow through ok.

While it was apart I found that the bike has two filters in the tank. One fuel filter I had cleaned underneath. This is accessible by a circlip under the tank. The other filter is in the tank. Its a inline metal filter connected by two pipes. When I removed this filter. I cut it in half. The filter contained a lot of rust. Another issue cured.

When I put the bike back together. I went for a drive. The misfire was still there. Now also I noticed a high revs misfire. After a post on the forum. I asked for help from others and also if there was any friendly Ducati dealers. I went to David Robinson in Wandsworth. He was really helpful in suggesting possible issues.

http://www.ducatibikes.co.uk/

With his advice. I now had to check the tps setting, if there was water in the injectors.

I found a brilliant site that mentioned how to adjust the tps. If the dealer was in the Uk I would have liked to pop in. He is based in Australia but the site has so much information. His knowledge shines through. http://www.fuelinmoto.com.au/fimfaq.html#q11

I found the tps was slightly out. 10mv too high. I adjusted this went out for a ride but the stutter was still there. Back in October the misfire developed to the point where I could not drive the bike. It kept stalling.

I was finding that as the bike kept stalling or cutting out I was trying to start the bike 10 or 20 times in a hours journey. Also when turning over a occasional mechanical knock sound occurred. It sounded as though the teeth were missing one.

The bike had developed another fault.

If I held the throttle slightly open with the bike stationary. The bike would rev, misfire then die. I connected a meter to the leads from the tps unit. Using a couple of wires cut to push inside the connector loom. With the bike ignition on but the bike not running. I could see that as I opened the throttle slowly through the range. The meter range fluctuated. This indicated the tps unit was faulty.

I also managed to drive the bike to Pats at Viking Motor Cycles where he specializes in Motorcycle Repairs And Servicing in London South East. Tel: 020 86719915 - Bath Factory Estate Norwood Rd, London, SE24 9AJ

On connecting the mac tool. The fault code showed faulty temp sensor and tps.

I phoned Ducati dealers and found no one had a Weber PF 09 in stock. I did a search via google

where I found www.webcon.co.uk

They were very helpful and the price was cheaper than the dealer. I replaced the unit. Tested the bike and found that although the bike did not stall anymore or did the bike misfire at a low throttle opening. The low end stutter and the high end misfire was still there.

The next day the bike would not start. With a post on Ducatisti forum. It was suggested it could be the sprag clutch. See this link.

http://www.mad-ducati.com/Technical/StarterSpragClutch/SpragClutch.html

The difficulty was to remove the stator. As this is tightened to around 150 pounds torque. It is very hard to loosen unless you have a clutch tool or a good mechanic such as Pat. On removing the sprag bearing. The sprag spring had lengthened to the point where it could not hold the inner bearings tight. As the picture Pat cut the spring, rejoined and put back together the bearing. I put the bike back together. Went to start and the engine and it locked. It would not turn over.

On removing the stator engine cover. I had placed the outer stator the wrong way. Once this was corrected the bike back together. It started.

I let my bike tick over for at least a minute before taking off. I normally start the bike, then

Put my helmet and gloves on. Push the bike out on to the road. By this time hopefully the oil has worked its way to the top. Although another aid is to use fully synthetic. This will hopefully coat the internals. So with cold starts there is some oil there.


On every press so far, within a couple of turns the bike will start. Helped by a brand new GS battery from Pad at
Greyhound Motors Ltd. 020 8680 5656. 258-264 London Road, Croydon, CR0 2TH.

Now with the mileage at 19700. I decided the oil and oil filter needed replacing. This was done as to remove the stator cover. Needs draining of the oil. I also took out the oil guaze filter at the same time. This had some metal particles. Once cleaned with new washers all was put back together. Parts bought from Pad at Greyhound motor cycles.

Now I can enjoy riding the bike. I hope that if you decide on a Ducati. You do not have as much to do as me but if you have any problems you will find this helpful to fix.

Vinny

Wednesday 5 December 2007

I had a budget to keep to and with that looked around at Japanese bikes although in the back of my mind I wanted to buy a Ducati. I started off working as a motorcycle mechanic for Japanese motor bikes. I appreciated the quality of Japanese bikes through working on them. In Particular Yamaha's, their build quality and finish in my mind slightly better than the others.



I bought my Ducati http://www.ducati.com/ searching through the local ads. http://www.motorcyclenews.com/ The owner not using the bike as it covered only 14000 miles. Registered new in 1998.

I carried out a quick search on the net and most people recommend the bike with nothing major to worry about. After a road test the bike coughed occasionally at low revs which did not put me off. The bike was fitted with Termi exhausts made in carbon fibre. http://www.termignoni.it/ I knew these needed to be set up correctly. Most likely a fueling issue. I also was confident that my servicing skills would help me sort it out.

I paid the money and was a new owner. My first experience driving the bike. The noise from the twin singing in my ears. The handling, the feel of such a slim light bike on the corners. Then the power of the bike accelerating was awesome.

Home and after cleaning the bike I set out to service. First I checked the bike over. Found the air filters were falling apart. The sponge perished over time. The plugs worn. Thought I found the reason for the occasional cough.
I bought service parts from local Ducati dealer www.protwins.co.uk/ I needed plugs, oil filter, oil and air filters. The spares were reasonably priced except for the plugs. Even though they are standard NGK. I saved money by buying from another bike dealer for a quarter of the price. Also some of the car dealers will supply the same plugs even cheaper but at that time none in stock. http://www.eurocarparts.com/

Intro


I bought a ducati 916 biposta. I want to share my experience and thoughts with you.


I have owned the bike since July of 2007. Hope fully you will find this blogg helpfull. Maybe it will help you to buy one.



Vinny