Finally the weather and road conditions allowed me to get the 749s out of storage Did about 150km today. 6c temp and snow off the side of the road. When I go for a ride I usually keep count of how many people ask : What's wrong with your bike.... that sound is awful So, first went to a petrol station and guy nr1 asked: What's wrong with your bike.... that sound is awful Me: It's a dry cluthch etc etc... 2nd guy was at a coffeshop... 3rd guy was one of my neighbors when I got home. Well, what I wanted to convey with this post is I love my old ducati How are you guys getting on with spring and the "situation" we all are stuck in now?
If you like the chatter from the clutch and the consequent maintenance bills, fine but it doesn't have to be like that.
Yeah a simple mistake to make when you’re not paying attention! The good lads at Ducati Mcr soon got it back up running.
Lockdown is getting tedious and the weather has been wonderful, good to see you’re stretching your legs and venturing out, just take it easy. Oh and as to your neighbours diesel remarks get yourself a louder exhaust!
That does work and I did do it but it only makes the clutch smoother, not quieter. To make it quiet and last much longer, because the noise equates to wear, you need to do the quiet clutch mod. It's super simple to do
So what is this quiet clutch mod, I've had 3 Ducati in total my Paso clutch was noisy, sounded like a cement mixer with spanners thrown in. My 851 clutch wasn't, from memory I was told it's the way the clutch is built at the factory and the tolerances between the plates. My M900 is quiet also but some of the Dukes you hear sound truly awful.
Yes do share, I’d be interested in hearing it. Heard the clutch noise on a 1098 described once as “a skeleton having a wank in a biscuit tin”
The clutch basket is machined in such a way that the slots have a rounded bottom/end to them. The hub has a square end to the slots. The loud clutch Ducatis have a driven or plain plate at the bottom of the stack and this sits down into the square bottomed slots in the clutch hub, preventing the first friction plate to go in from sliding down into the rounded section at the bottom of the basket slots. This means that all the plates in the stack are located within the parallel sided section of the basket slots. Because the plates have to slide up and down within the slots as you pull and release the clutch lever, there needs to be enough clearance between the tabs and the slots they run in for the plates to slide smoothly in and out as the clutch is engaged and disengaged. This clearance between the tabs on the plates and the slots in the basket then leads to chatter as the tabs bounce backwards and forwards as the plates oscillate. With new plates and basket, the oscillation is fairly controlled and the noise is not too bad. However, the oscillation leads to wear of both tabs and basket slots and as the wear increases, so does the noise. As the wear increases, the wear also accelerates. Eventually, the chatter doesn’t just happen at idle in neutral but also happens as you ride along on a neutral throttle. Remember the rounded ends at the bottom of the basket slots? Well, if you stick a friction plate in first at the bottom of the stack, the tabs of the friction plate then drop down into those rounded ends of the slots and jam into place at the bottom. This jamming inhibits the movement of the whole stack, cutting both the noise and the wear at a stroke. Some people say you need to use an extra friction plate at the bottom of the stack but my experience is that simply re-ordering the existing plates works perfectly. The order of the plates is not as critical as some would have you believe, the main principle is to alternate friction and plain plates and make sure a plain plate is at the top of the stack beneath the pressure plate. Two friction plates or two plain plates adjacent to each other will do no harm at all though.
Ummm OK thanks but I’m guessing your “it’s super simple to do” is a little remote from mine. Thanks anyway
Wow just done this, well I took a metal plate out from the back and its soooo quiet and theres no slipping gotta wonder why they dont come like that? Nice one oldrider
The other good news is that the lack of noise translates into reduced wear, so win/win. There is a reason for Ducati not doing this as standard though and that is litigation. Allegedly, there was a case in the US where a rider had an accident because the tabs of the friction plate had cut into the bottom of the slots and created a step that made precise clutch control difficult. This is unlikely with alloy friction plates though and I filed the sharp edges off that first plate to be absolutely sure
That's a wise move, as the rounded end to the basket slots will be there for stress-concentration reasons. What you don't want is the sharp edges of the friction plate tabs cutting into the basket and creating a stress raiser...
