748s are great fun to ride on the road but I got really frustrated on the track with mine, not enough power for my liking.
Horses for courses I guess, I love the 748 and missed having one after I foolishly sold my 2001 S. I'm in the process of putting an 851 back on the road, so I guess we'll see. I love the look of the 851/888, it's a sort of halfway house between a belt-drive SS and the 748. I'm expecting good things from it, and your enthusiasm stokes this nicely.
Nothing much to report, still enjoying the bike, finally got a paddock stand, just awaiting the better weather now!
Basically you need to take off the nose fairing and headlights to see how the clocks are mounted. They sit on three of the rubber mounts shown in the link. These screw into the back of the instrument cluster and the lower threaded section can be poked through the mounting holes in the headlight housing. These can then be secured with a nut. Bit of a fiddly job but it’s easy enough if you just crack on with it. If you’d need any more help let me know.
Well, still loving the bike, needed ninja reflexes tonight though. Battering on home at somewhere just north of the NSL (honest!) and the left hand mirror decided it had had enough! No idea how I caught it but I did and managed to stuff it down my jacket and pull over. Strangely the bolt hadn’t snapped but had just worked it’s way loose. New bolts and a wee dab of loctite required methinks.
I once rode my 888 from London to Inverness in one hit up the A1. I spent the next day loctiting all the nuts and bolts that come loose. All good on the ride home.
Joking and isolated occasional horror stories aside the 748 in any of it's variants is a great bike, it was the first Duc I bought and will probably be the last one that goes if/when I hang up my lid for the last time. That won't be in the near future.
Been going over the bike tonight taking care of a few jobs, namely refitting the mirrors, changing the headlight relays and fitting a set of Dzus fasteners to the fairings. Also gave it a bit of a polish up and it is looking lovely, photos will follow when I get it out into good light. Going over the bike I noticed a couple of things; 1. Oily film over the front underside of the engine around the starter motor area, couldn’t see any signs of an obvious leak. Does this look relatively normal? 2. High beam isn’t working. I’ve changed the relay, it’s definitely working and I’m getting 12.5v at the lamp. The lamp itself seems to be ok and has continuity across the pins. Bit stumped with this one. 3. Oil level on the low end of the range on the sight glass. Topped it up to the upper level. Ran the bike for a minute or so, stopped it, left it half and hour and rechecked the level, it’s on the low end again. Is this just likely to be oil taking time to drain back to the sump? If so how long should you leave the bike sitting to get the correct level? Don’t want to risk over filling it. As always any pointers greatly appreciated.
Oh yeah and forgot to mention, another bolt bites the dust, one from the clutch cover is missing. Will have to add bolt checks to my routine list!
1. If it were me I’d clean off the oil using paraffin or a proprietary degreasant and then keep an eye on it to see if it returns. It may be residue from an earlier leak with a previous owner which has been fixed but the residue wasn’t cleaned off. 2. Try a new bulb. Just a few days ago I had a faulty bulb (on a car), removed it, it all looked good, no breakages in the filament. Bought a new one, plugged it in and it worked. Just coz it looks ok doesn’t mean it is. 3. Is the bike level ie on an axle stand when you’re checking or on it’s side stand. Apologies if this is an obvious question.
No apologies needed, sometimes the simplest options are the best. 1. Have cleaned, will monitor. Couldn’t spot any obvious source of leakage so hope it’s nothing. 2. Fair point will give that a bash. 3. On a paddock stand at the moment so dead level if a little forward bias.
I remember the last time so filled up the oil in my 748 when I recommissioned her last August/Sept. I put in the amount it stated in the manual, 4.5ltrs iirc, it didn’t even appear in the sight glass. I ran it for a few miles and checked again. Still nothing. Added some more, then more, then more. I think I must have put an extra 1/2ltr in before it appeared. I was worried I’d been losing it but there were no oil leaks and I wasn’t burning it. It seems, to me anyway, the manual is perhaps a little inaccurate in this regard.
I had that oil misting on my bike recently. Turned out to be a pin hole in the oil cooler! Could be something as easy as one of the unions on the oil cooler hoses being a touch loose?
An oil cooler was not fitted on the bike from new so the oil mess is most likely the horizontal cylinder exhaust valve cover weeping a little, may be worth checking all the screws are in there. Oil should be checked with the bike upright on both wheels, it does not take that long to settle when hot
