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Project 600ss

Discussion in 'Builds & Projects' started by sharksqb16, Aug 24, 2016.

  1. Hi all this is the start of my 600ss project, probably going to be a cafe racer in time.plenty of ideas floating around. Its just a box of bits from two different sources, just done a quick put together to get a feel of it. Having built Moto Martins, Harris, lots of Kawasaki's some Yamaha's and stink wheels in the past, being a Kawasaki man i have always a yearning to do a Ducati project.
    Having found this forum recently it is refreshing to find actual forum that is helpful, well done lads & lady's.
    I will be looking for some wire wheels probably and i am looking for a single seat unit, not modern not seen one yet that takes my fancy or rocks my boat,any one got something send pictures if interested in selling P8220014.JPG P8240023.JPG P8240024.JPG As you can see very early days, bit of work here. Hopefully Carolenash euro jumble will turn up some bits. Its on 2nd & 3rd Sept, Southampton off junction 2 M27 if interested, hopefully it will be better than some of auto jumbles i have been to. Let the fun begin:hourglasssand::wrench::confuse::eek:
     
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  2. look forward to seeing plenty more piccys :upyeah:
     
  3. Striped bike down again., drained oil never seen such thick black muck in life before, some small filings on drain plug. That had been mutilated by some hand fist-ted tosser in the past and all the bolts/nuts done up so tight, i feel like i have been arm wrestling with a gorilla. Engine been painted as a whole unit, must have been thrown at it as so bad. Took some photos but they dont show how bad it really is. Cam belts look in good nick but will be replaced, . I understand you can use other belts from different manufacture which are cheaper, any suggestions. Can you buy castle socket to undo cam belt wheels? and a decent head nut removal tool. Have a go with paint stripper tommrow, see what happens if it to much of a pain will take to local aqua blasting. P8270001.JPG P8270003.JPG P8270002.JPG
     
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  4. Cheaper :Wideyed: better value and better engineered perhaps :)
    15% discount if you subscribe to the forum too.
    Check the post in items for sale :)
     
  5. Hi there! The cam belts come off a whole lot easier if you take the pulley flanges off the cam pulleys. I mean only the top ones, keep the flanges on the bottom double pulley. They are only a press fit on, and it means that you can change the belts without having to go through the agro of pulley removal. Belt changes are then a 10 minute job. Exige has the square profile belts you need at much lower cost than from Ducati.

    The cam pulley castellated nuts are a pain. They are frequently very tight (understandably) To get them off I used to use an old VW Golf driveshaft nut that I had filed up to fit. I used this for years before buying a tool from Ebay, which is a much better solution. Always replace the nuts, as they are single use.

    I like your early tank very much. The small circular breather version is very early, and quite a rare item. Is it in good shape inside?
     
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  6. Chewy.......the 600 and 750 cambelts come off much easier than the 900, without removing the flanges......

    Slacken the adjuster off, pull the belt outwards and flip the adjuster to the other side of the belt...........belt falls off.

    I made my socket for the silly nuts.........simple...........

    A main dealer (well respected one) advised that the nuts can be re-used; but I would only do that in an emergency.
    Pulley nut sockets.jpg
     
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  7. This was ince an SS...

    [​IMG]
     
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  8. How many onces long is it?
     
  9. Probably 4 interations ago. First was a bikini fairing with underseat can (looks great on the SSframe) painted in senna colours, then recut same body with cans either side, the old fashioned trumpet ones, then an orange version of this and then this.
     

  10. That's strange. My dry clutch 750ss engine wouldn't have that. You had to remove a pulley to get the belts on and off, it was a proper palaver. Maybe the slightly later ones like yours were a bit easier? Even with the tensioners removed. Maybe the flanges were different?

    On a related cam pulley topic, I fitted adjustable pulleys to my 900, but it started tapping after they had been installed for about 5000 miles, and I just assumed that the shims want some attention, after all, I had been caning the thing a lot. It turned out that in order to fit some 4 valve adjustable pulleys, you need a shim under the cam pulley so that everything lines up properly. No problem, I have a lathe, so turned a couple up, and fitted them.

    The tapping noise was the pulley working back and forth on the shaft, fretting away at the keyway, which eventually let go, and let the valves tangle with the piston. The cam nut was torqued up to the correct figure, and was still tight, but the pulley must have been able to work ever so slightly on the shaft, because the spacer shim I made (from mild steel) was about half the thickness, and the key was in two bits. Fortunately the keyway in the cam was OK.

    So, because it was the vertical cylinder, that meant a strip down, and I removed both heads, and the vertical piston. The head was taken to The Cylinder Head Shop, who fitted new valve guides, cleaned up the damage, and recut the seats to match the new valves. New valves are £94 + VAT from Ducati. I found some for half that from somewhere in Europe.

    The whole plot was walloped back together again, with stock pulleys, and only now have I been able to get some mileage on the rebuilt engine, which seems in good order.

    The main issue is, that between the engine expiring, and running again took about a year.
     
  11. Chewy......any difference you can see here?

    AL 7) BACK AND FRONT.jpg
     
  12. Nope, no difference there. My thinking is that the pulley flanges on the early bikes were a touch taller, and that meant that the belt wasn't quite long enough. It's probably about 10 years since I changed belts on a 750, and longer than that when I modified my 750 pulleys. I only changed them once where I had to take the pulleys off before I vowed that it was stupid system and changed it.

    Maybe, just maybe back in the day, the Ducati OE belts were a tad shorter? This was the days when the tales of snapping belts were very common.
     
  13. Thank you helpful info, do you remember where you got said tool was it from an ebay shop or just an ebayer. thanks
     
  14. Did you machine the sockets, look well done.
     
  15. The more i see projects with std wheels the more i'm thinking of staying with mine instead of trying to find spoked wheels, nice bike.
     
  16. No, I took some old sockets of suitable size, grabbed a hacksaw and a file and stuck them in a vice.....
     
  17. Being an ex Desmo rider and race goer (until 2013) I have seen almost anything you can do to a 600 ss and monster lol
     
  18. And still pick them up and finish the race...................:wink:
     
  19. Going back to the tank that Chewy mention, that chap i got it from said he had not seen one like this before only the ones that had the rectangle lump on the tank, but it came off his 600ss. being new to Ducatis myself not knowing a lot about them, other than riding one in the very early 80's 900ss desmo. its a big learning curve. always been a Kawasaki man. back to tank again, there is some rust and derby in the bottom of tank, any recommendation of tank sealers etc. any advise help info on this project will be much appreciated.
     
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