Project 999

My attention turned to draining the coolant and removing the Radiator to give it a repaint.
It needs to come off anyway for me to replace the Cam cover gasket on the Horizontal cylinder.

With the radiator off I discovered why the Right Hand side Top mounting had sheared off - See Post 28 above.

The radiator doesn't appear to leak, but it's deformed which couldn't been seen when it was fitted.





It's not easy to see in the images, but it looks like the Left hand side has been held firm by the top mount and pipes whilst the Right Hand side has been pushed upwards shearing the top mounting bolt and deforming the Radiator into a Rhomboid shape.
The Horizontal tubes have a definite 'S' in them.

So rather than refurb it and risk it leaking I'll use it as an excuse to get a nice unpainted Aluminium one in there.
They don't appear to be expensive:
https://motorcyclepartswarehouse.co.uk/mpw-aluminium-radiator-for-ducati-749-999.html

 

Matt, you've got my attention.

Because the painted steel fan mounts are so rusty I was thinking of making some in Aluminium or Stainless Steel rather than refurbish the old ones.

Let me know how much you want for them by PM as I'm sure I can make them work if they are not too Deep to fit in the space.

 

Thanks Matt.

I bet they shift more air, so as long as your frames aren't all rusty like mine I'm happy to take a chance on them.

 

Thanks Matt

 

The replacement Radiator turned up yesterday, less than 24hrs since I ordered it, and I have to say that for the price I'm impressed.



I've been all over it with a measuring stick, and everything appears to be in the right place.
I'm going to give it a quick pressure test over the weekend.
So at the moment MPW are looking to have supplied a good product at a good price.

I also stopped in to my local Hyphose who are always helpful, and picked up some of my favourite Stainless Steel Hose clamps by Mikalor, which I've used on projects in the past.
They have the same rolled edges that Samco claim for their own hose clips but are far better than any worn drive clip.



I fitted them to the hoses and thought how good they looked:


Then of course I realised they are completely useless in this situation as they are too wide and would be clamping the hoses over the top of the bulge in the fixed stubs rather than behind it.
I've never had this issue using them before, but have mainly used them on outboard engines.

So I'll have to investigate some similar Stainless clamps which are narrower.

 

Thanks Seven4nineR, I didn't know about them.
Unfortunately they won't fit in the Showa Yokes as they are 53/53mm.

There must of course be other bikes out there that I could use the forks from.
I'm going to start investigating Aprilia parts for example.

 

I changed the Cam cover seal on the vertical cylinder today.

It's not easy to see in the images, but every one of the big flanged nuts had Oil between it and the top of the seal which had then made it to freedom on the outside of the engine:


And then the seal under the Cam cover was wet literally all the way around, there wasn't a dry spot anywhere that Oil hadn't escaped:


Looking at it in more detail it appears the seals around the nuts have compressed with age and the Collars under the Flange nuts are bottoming out before any of the seals are compressed.

The nut seals are @£6ea, and 12 are required to do both Cam covers, so I'd only purchased new cover seals.
I used a thin smear of Threebond on either side of the Cover seal, and a bit more than a smear on the metal top of the Nut seals.
Hopefully that will do the job, but if not it will be a far easier job to change just the Nut Seals in situ one at a time.

In preparation to do the Horizontal Cam Cover I stripped the Thermostat housing from the Horizontal Cylinder and spent a fair bit of time trying to clean the outside of the cylinder down behind it.
There was a whole load of road grit compacted into the space held together with thick congealed Oil from the Cam cover leakage, and even an M6 nut that had obviously been lost down there at some stage.
This is after I'd soaked it with brake cleaner and wiped it down, but obviously it needs a lot more effort put in.


I might as well change the 'O' ring for the Thermostat housing that's visible in the above image, so will get one on order.

The oil cooler appears to be in really good condition now some of the muck has been cleaned off it, so I'm wondering if it's been replaced at some point.

 

Very little progress was made on the bike today. It's been such a nice day weather wise that Lady Nasher and I spent most of it working in the Garden.

Actually, it feels like I went a bit backwards with the bike today.
I picked up the thermostat housing to remove the old hoses and give it a clean, then thought I'd just swap out the two rusty Screws for some Stainless ones.


Which is when I found that both were just spinning around as the moulded in threaded inserts in the main body had come loose.
Obviously it's not uncommon for this to happen when a fastener corrodes in place and the force of undoing it breaks the bond between the insert and the surrounding plastic before the screw breaks it's bond with the insert.

I tried the usual tricks of pulling the screwhead upwards whilst undoing it, and trying to shock it loose with hammer blows to the Allen key, but neither worked and I eventually drilled the heads off whilst holding them with vice grips.

When I finally got the cap off, one remaining screw came out with pliers, but the other remained stuck in it's spinning insert.
Interestingly though, the Thermostat itself probably wasn't doing much jammed in at an angle having been put in badly.


I was going to drill a small hole down the side of each insert and tap a stainless pin in to jam them in place.
But having looked on EBAY all the ones for sale are Aluminium not plastic, so for a very reasonable £15 I've brought one hoping the screws aren't corroded in place. At least if they are I can drill them out and Helicoil them.

What's the story with the change from Aluminium to Plastic, I assume that way around, is it another MkI/MkII difference? Or just a cost saving exercise mid production?

 

Thanks Guys.
The replacement Ali housing should arrive today, so just for you Seven4nineR I'll weigh them for comparison.

I might see if I can remove the revolving inserts from the plastic one and epoxy in some studs or something.

 

Thermostat Housings:
Aluminium - 874g
Plastic - 476g

 

That's without hoses, but with the Thermostat and cap fitted.

I'm going to fit the Aluminium Housing to my bike as it's in better condition than the Plastic original which has had the battery box sawing away at it and I'd imagine is quite thin in one spot now.

Out of interest (you've got me at it now) I might compare the weight of the original and Samco hose kits, as the Samco bag feels quite heavy to me, but I've obviously not bundled all the OEM Hoses together into a bag.