Never could get the primary drive gear off the crankshaft with the tool I got, I changed the 2 timing shaft bearings, some seals etc, and put the cases together loosely with a few screws. To-day, went over to see Ducati John at Rothwell Leeds with the engine, never met him before, what a knowlegable gentleman, he pulled the primary drive gear off in less than 5 minutes, one just needs the correct tools and technique, no heat used Got home and split the cases again, sure enough, right hand side main bearing has had it! A few spare parts, and the new mains from France (123bearings.co.uk) arrived to-day, need to spend a lot of time cleaning everything up now, before getting into shimming the crank.
Bit of a poo one but its done now!At least you know its gonna be a good un when youve finished.Good luck with the rebuild.Keep the pics coming.
Yeah, they werent the right ones... You need to match the Ducati ones. I couldnt find the exact Ducati ones for sale independently.
You mustve gone back some time. I cant remember clearly now!!! I know they were slightly different in part numbers to what was on the Ducati bearings. Contact angles were different. Try and find the right Ducati numbers. @nellly should be able to help
The correct OEM bearings from Ducati are £68 & £73 plus the VAT. FE is correct in the matching of the bearing numbers. It's very important that the correct ones are used else they'll fall apart in a few thousand miles. From memory, they're are 3 bearings and there's like one suffix/prefix letter change. It's to do with the contact angle/speed rating of the bearing iirc. Many moons ago I looked at sourcing the bearings from my local supplier. They finally matched them but wanted double the money.
Ok Ok here's my problem now, much doubt creeping in after reading more posts following actually buying the bearings mentioned above in the invoice pic, 7207X2ETN and 7307X2ETN made by RHP. Later, when splitting the cases these came out 7207X2ETN and 7302X2TB, I understood from an old post that the 7302X2TB was perhaps superceded by 7307X2ETN? Any further thoughts anyone?
I honestly can't recall the exact info. I have one of the bearings in stock, 751913380 and that is marked up 7207X2ETN. There is additional suffix on the labelling that states "7207X2ETN15" but the "15" isn't marked on the bearing itself. That bearing hasn't been superceded at any point I can see since 916, and is the LH, alternator side bearing. The RH bearing has been superceded since, but I don't have one to check the numbers. From my experience years back, I don't even bother and just order direct from Ducati now when I do them.
I have enjoyed reading this thread, and admire your tenacity, skills, and determination Geoff. I would appreciate someone explaining to me what the 'Contact angle ' of the bearing is. Is it that one of the main bearings is a tapered thrust bearing, so the angle of the rollers needs to match the taper on the crankshaft?
In my experience, the best known supplier is Ducati. From the invoice above, the price is better to. Both bearings are "angular contact, thrust bearings. The contact angle is the angle at which the inner and outer races "face" each other. Different facing angles give differing abilities for load, speed etc. The crank/bearing fitment is a simple parallel shaft arrangement.