So bought this, cheap(ish) punt on ebay. MY2000 996. Felt sorry for her as clearly been abused and used as a circus animal, dressed up in the most odd looking kit I’ve ever seen (someone clearly wanted a Fila 999 based on how they’ve painted the wheels..). Ironically pictured next to the bins which is where I suspect the majority of the outfit will end up! And yup, there are holes in the fairings for crash bungs.. Anyways she started up fine at least (after I charged the battery overnight), ran relatively smoothly so I’m hoping that engine wise it’s not too bad. My main concern (besides the enormous amount of cleaning) is that I found fluid inside the airbox, looking inside the oil cooler breather pipe I can see a mayonnaise like substance in there, same as through the oil viewing glass which makes me think it’s pissing oil back out through the breather. Once I drop the engine out over the coming weeks I plan on taking it to Luigi Moto to give it the once over, but I’m wondering what could be causing it, piston rings? This is how she is at the moment so this weekend it’s wiring loom out, brakes off and engine out (provided swing arm bolt isn’t too stuck!) Shock has seen better days, luckily I have a spare which needs refurbing so that will be going on instead of this one. Couple of pics showing the amount of crud when a bike is left to rot outside of a garage (no surprise obvs)…
And to put in perspective the lack of giving a shit from previous owner(s), the rear wheel nut was FINGER tight, no spanner needed at all, the front fairing was bolted on only by the wing mirror bolts and of all things, they had plugged a USB charger into the battery, obviously thinking of going on tour…
Your mayo is probably nothing more than oil condensing due to short journeys and cold starts. Possibly (probably) exacerbated by the wrong grade oil judging by the “care” she has been shown.
Its possible the fluid in the air box could be coolant from a split in the coolant tank, which is then leaking through the hole for the front petrol tank rubber mount. The colour of the fluid looks like coolant?
i was thinking the same re the coolant, there is a definate blue tint to it. but when i saw the crud down the oil breather maybe i put one and one together and got two and they are separate issues. the expansion tanks look ok, there was only maybe 3 pints of coolant which drained out so maybe a loose pipe somewhere
Sorry Nothing to do with the restoration but can you show some details of how you fastened the abba stand to the footpeg mounts thanks
ABBA do a swing arm removal adapter, https://abbastands.co.uk/product-detail.asp?item=swing-arm-removal-kit&pid=21
Yup, I’m the same way the missus donates £2 a month to the donkey sanctuary, I got the same feeling when I saw this thing wish me luck
Great seeing you take this on, I can’t believe how anyone can treat such a wonderful bike in this way... should be a law against it.. RSPCD Royal Society of the Protection of Cruelty to Ducati’s ... There’s a 998 R on e bay at mo, what the owner was thinking of god only knows, completely messed with it but still expects top Dollar for it.. X
RSPCD, love it. I’m sure there’s a sanctuary somewhere. Is that the one with the crash bungs? There’s no way I could bring myself to put a whole in those fairings, I’ve managed to get hold of some “new” originals and those bastards are not cheap!
