Get into the Cush drives too; sure after just 3k miles the hub is fine but if the rubber has degraded you may as well replace them. I bought a 996 which was left for 10 years then ridden again for 2, the Cush drive rubber had degraded and they had move out the housing and started to grind the hub away.
@Pete433 on my list sir, I rebuilt a BMW R80 ex police bike a couple of years back from the crank up and learnt some really valuable (and sometimes expensive) lessons. My method is pretty simple here; 1. Clean it 2. Inspect it 3. Work front to back, top to bottom 3. If it's exposed to air, friction, dirt and is a perishable or a consumable it gets replaced 4. Become intimately acquainted with the parts fiche 5. Time is not an enemy 6. Cosmetics are the cherry on top Here's a before, during and after of the BM for those interested; I'm a sucker for road dirt it seems, this one had 40 years' worth from 1980. I outsourced gearbox, bevel drive refurb, wheel re-spoking/truing to offset and the paint. The rest was a steep learning curve!
Saturday was spent stripping both sets of fairing, several rounds of degreasing and removing old fairing furniture. The torx bolts joining upper and lower halves together were an absolute PITA to remove most had corroded into their brass inserts and the heads were full of 20 year old wax. The vibration pads had completely disintegrated held only by the fasteners, the foam inside had turned to dust so they'll be replaced with a fresh set. The panels themselves are in good shape, no cracks but ready for a freshen up in places. I've used Steve at http://www.smartabc-cambridgeshire.co.uk whose spectrometer approach I'm hoping will achieve the desired result with some professional touch ups I'm trying to retain as much of the original patina as possible and not go down the respray route. Will get that set up this week so I can focus on other matters.
Phase 1 Degrease last night, took advantage of a lovely evening and the cocktail of cleaning agents mixed at the weekend. I wasn't expecting much but was pleasantly surprised at how the gunk fell off at 1st pass. Luke was super helpful at Moto Rapido, first box of goodies on the way from him and from carbon-trader. The dilemma has resolved on the to paint or not to paint issue, I'm not - leaving completely as is and letting the bike tell it's own 18 year story, I may buckle over the winter but for now they've polished up a treat.
why did I think that all 748 S models had oil coolers as standard, am I wrong? did it get ditched in later years? I thought it was another cost saving thing for the 748E (mine was 2002) that they took the oil cooler off. looks like this uses it as a return from I guess a cylinder head which is also weird. Progress looks good though
Phil, don't think any of the S models (the few genuine MY97s or MY00-02) had oil coolers from the factory, it was always a basic 748 engine with some tweeks to the rolling chassis. If it ain't used on the track it does not need one.
So, Datatool S4 removed and I have some loose ends (pardon the pun) to tidy up, any insight gratefully received; I have the following as remnants from the Datatool S4 - 2 black wires off right terminal ECU (on the right as you look towards the front wheel) - 2 Brown and White wires heading into main loom not traced yet - 2 Black wires to the rear indicators - assume this is correct - 2 Black wires to the front indicators - assume this is correct and the indicators get rejoined to above rear - 1 black wire spliced into #11 on the fuse box - assumed ground for S4 and can be removed? - 1 in-line fuse spliced into #1 on the fuse box - assumed power for S4 and can be removed? So if the above is correct I'm left with what to do with; - 2 black wires off right terminal ECU (on the right as you look towards the front wheel) - 2 Brown and White wires heading into main loom not traced yet It would be too easy (and I'm never that lucky) to assume brown and white head into the ECU and I'm done!!! Thanks for any help, Regards, Dimitri
Do you have any pics? Are they spliced into the loom or plugged into connectors? My 99 748 has them plugged into super seal connectors whereas my 2002 998 has them spliced into the loom . I suppose it depends on the fitter on the day. Anyway, IME the alarm sits in series in the circuits for the fuel pump and starter solenoid, so when you remove the alarm you’ll need to bridge the connections it was making in order to complete the circuit. On my 748, as I got so pee’d off with the constant beep in maintenance mode whilst I was stripping the bike and refurbishing it, I disconnected the power supply from the bike’s battery and walked away. The alarm went ballistic but eventually it’s internal battery died too. I then opened up the alarm removed the rechargeable battery from inside and permanently disconnected the power supply to the alarm. I disconnected the connections at the indicators and the LED but left the alarm fully connected to the bike’s loom thus maintaining the integrity of the starter & fuel pump circuits. The bike starts & runs perfectly and no more annoying bleeps from the alarm when working on the bike. Plus the alarm can be easily reconnected for a future owner should they so desire.
@West Cork Paul Hi Paul, these are the main culprits, I'll trace them over the weekend. I didn't want to leave the redundant alarm in there plus some of the spliced connections given their age were an electrical problem waiting to happen so figured as I'm in this deep that should get ticked off the list.
Do the 2 black wires that have been cut trace back to the ECU RHS, with the blue terminator ? That connection on the ECU is an earth for something - possibly the alarm. I've just been to look at mine, the 2 brown/white wires come from the Ducati loom and are connected to 2 black wires (possibly the 2 black wires in your photo). On mine there's a superseal connector that does the job. The 2 black wires on mine then disappear back into the wiring loom for the alarm. I found that when the connector with the 2 brown/white wires was disconnected then the bike wouldn't start (hence my comments above) but when connected as per the photo all was good. I've a second connector down by the battery box as well where another couple of black wires from the alarm loom are connected into the Ducati loom (all the alarm wires are black ). Likewise, if that's disconnected no start. I did remove the alarm and it's loom completely when I was refurbishing the bike but then couldn't get the bike to start so ended up replacing it all from whence it had come in order to trace the fault. If I do remove it completely I need to bridge the respective connections to compete the circuits. I am guessing, but I stress it is only a guess, in your case the 2 brown/white wires need to be connected to the 2 black wires to complete the circuit.
Dimitri, most of the alarm wiring is done with black wiring and each wire was numbered prior to installation then the numbers are removed after each circuit is spliced in. As you will have realised the OEM earth wiring is also black. You usually get a permanent live (probably from or close to 1 or 9 in the fuse box) and a switched live (probably 11 or 3 in the fuse box) which will go direct to the alarm. However some circuits like the safety relay, fuel pump, starter solenoid are often routed through the alarm, on some alarms there is a possible microswitch circuit which can be located under the seat, if its a mercury/tilt switch it could be anywhere. To make matters worse the alarm sometimes sits on the earth side of the circuits that are routed through it. You are just going to have to start with the easy ones and systematically test the circuits. Hopefully the alarm black wiring will be easy to spot compared to the bike's OEM earth circuits so you can reattach things like the indicator earths with no issues. Also the alarm will not earth back to the fuse box. Its probably too late but it needs to be removed systematically to make sure you don't miss the circuits that route through the alarm. Look for any bits of electrical tape on the circuits I listed which may speed up finding any splices into the existing circuits. Good luck as removal of old alarms like the Meta and Datatool ones form a few years ago is pretty much essential, especially as some of them you can't service the internal battery.
@Denzil the Ducati thanks, really helpful. I think I’m there after some head scratching last night. It’s actually pretty easy to spot alarm install wiring vs factory which made the job easier. The 2 brown and white wires I had left over appear to be actually the same wire cut in half, they are for the fuel pump and fuel warning light on the dash. Why they’re so far towards the back of the bike is a bit of a mystery but all else is accounted for. Will test fire at the weekend after I’ve done the belts, oil and coolant. Thanks for your helpful comments
Productive day on Saturday, here's a before and after on the 'zorst, 1st pass with elbow grease. Fitted a new set of belts and spark plugs, noticeable difference on the 5 year old belts, they felt significantly more brittle by comparison to the new belts.
I hate to say it but that looks like you may have tensioned the belts the wrong way, they should be tensioned anti clockwise. Its difficult to see properly with the spanner on there. Steve
Not tensioned yet! Besides how do you tension the wrong way? You're either applying tension or not to achieve the desired outcome?
There's only one way and that's anti clockwise, adjusting clockwise moves the belts to close with possible catastrophic results. Correct way.
