Project 999

Some better news today as well though.

I had a huge box turn up containing a set of exhaust headers from a Breaker on EBAY.


Note the lack of a CAT in the middle of the Horizontal Cylinder header.




I've been keeping an eye on 999 and 749 Exhausts on EBAY in the hope I'll find a Termi or similar Silencer at a bargain price.
These have been up for at least a couple of months, with not very good images, and simply described as coming from a 2006 999.
They were priced at the top end of what other sets of standard headers are up for and I've just scrolled over them lots of times.

For some reason I opened the auction and realised that there was no CAT in the middle of the Horizontal Cylinder header.
Realising the non-CAT pipe is difficult to find pricey thing, and that I'd need one when I do find an end can, but also realising the Breaker probably didn't realise it was anything other than a standard pipe, I popped in a cheeky really low offer and was rewarded with them.

Luckily, having now offered it up to the bike I can also confirm it's for a deep sump engine like mine.

Plus, both the sensor blanking plugs came out in one piece with very little effort, unlike the ones on the bike which have both rounded out and I'm going to have to drill out and retap with the correct 1/8 BSP thread.

I can't find any stamped part numbers on the non-CAT pipe, and I'm not even sure if it's a back street modified one or something more official, but the welding is excellent at both ends of the let in bit.
What was the origin of the non-CAT pipes?
Was there ever an official Ducati one?

So despite the Oil leak I'm happy tonight.

I might even try to set up an electrolysis tank to de-rust them, rather than use the phosphoric acid based solution I usually use.

 

Quick question - Does anyone know the sizes of the top and bottom headrace bearings for the 999?

 

Thanks RickyX.
Unfortunately even "a reasonable price" is a bit on the expensive side when I'm able to get a sample free of charge for a lot of sizes if I have the spec.

 

In case anyone else needs to know I managed to find out the size of Taper Roller bearings to replace the standard balls on the 749/999 range of bikes.
35, 55, 15mm
Which I believe is the size used on a whole host of Ducatis.
You'll also need a couple of dust seals to go top and bottom.

As mentioned by @Android853sp in another thread I picked up the set of forks etc he had for sale today, so that's another piece of the jigsaw ready to go in.

Before they can go in however I need to change the bottom yoke, as the one in the bike has both lockstop lugs broken off, hence the reason for asking about the bearings. you see, there is a mild plan in place

 

Can I assume these are Bog standard Ducati replacement Air Filters?


Both sides actually have dried up mould in them.

I'm thinking of going Pipercross, any reason not to?
Oh, and am happy to wash out some lightly used ones, or DP ones if anyone has any for sale.

Drilled a hole in my 'new to me' bottom yoke yesterday evening so I can use my under-headstock front stand once it's fitted, and have received today the Taper Roller headstock bearings I requested.
So it looks like I'm all set to get some progress underway on Friday.



Annoyingly the stem wouldn't fit down the hole in my Pillar Drill table, so I had to get creative.


But this will enable far better support for the front end once the yoke is in.


I used this yoke that came with the forks I picked up from Android853sp instead of the one from earlier in this thread because it's simply in better cosmetic condition.

Did I mention the 1098 Forks?

 

Having seen this product on another Forum, I didn't really believe it, but thought I didn't have much to lose.

Turned these:


Into these:


With no more than 15mins work, not actually an awful lot of Elbow grease, and these:


Now obviously they are not perfect, but they are in a far better state to spend some time on with a polishing mop if I feel like it.

 

Thanks Sev

The green pad shown is 1/4 of a sheet of Toolstations cheap brand equivalent to Scotchbrite pads.
https://www.toolstation.com/contour-sanding-pads/p10736

I find them just as good as the pukka ones for far less outlay, and they appear to last as long.
They do however have their colours about face, probably to do with copyright, so the Green ones are the coarse ones.

 

Yep, I believe they came out of the factory with Balls not Rollers.

I'll see what's in mine when I take it all apart.
There is no way I'm going to take it apart and not change them whilst the bottom yoke is out, but having not ridden the bike I don't know if they are shot or not.

I'm changing the bottom yoke as both lockstop lugs are broken off:

 

I've really not had much time on the bike recently.
Been away with Lady Nasher and the dog walking in North Cornwall, been doing stuff around the house, and have actually had to spend some time working for a living!

I've done a few bits and pieces, taken bits off, cleaned and/or painted them, and made a new generator cover puller as I can't remember who borrowed the last one I made:



I needed to take the cover off to try and sort out the Oil leak, which was caused by oil coming up the Generator wires between the Copper conductor and the plastic insulation and filling the connector block up before dripping out.

First off I tried all the Allen head screws holding the cover on and found that not only were two loose, but one was glued in with sealant and there is no thread in the hole at all.
That is no more than a small annoyance, as I have plenty of M6 Helicoils and the correct tools to fit them.

What I found under the cover is a little more disturbing.
.
.
.
.
.

 

It started when there was little or no resistance to removing the cover, and the flywheel assembly was in the cover stuck to the generator windings rather than on the end of the crank:



Note the loose Circlip that was floating around rather than holding in the starter clutch.

The nut and washer that are supposed to Hold the flywheel assembly on the crank were floating about inside the generator windings:



And have done some damage:



The circlip is Fubar, and the bearing is full of swarf where the casing has been damaged.
Luckily the case is salvageable with a little work.

The biggest worry is this, which fell on the bench as I took the cover off:

 

I obviously need a new Bearing, circlip and Nut.
The thread in the old nut is damaged at the inner end even if I was to risk reusing it, although thankfully the thread on the crank is completely undamaged.

It looks like the flywheel etc has been removed and reassembled incorrectly by some idiot at some stage.

The parts book and workshop manual have these diagrams:





Note which way round part 19 fits on the crank, and the presence of a washer, part 18.

In my engine the washer is missing and part 19 is the other way round:





I'm assuming my mangled piece of metal is part of the remains of the washer, which has been put back in the wrong place.

The nut coming off could be because it wasn't tightened properly, because it was reused, or because the washer got mangled, came out and left a gap meaning the nut was no longer tight.

However it happened I only have a small number of parts to buy, and the expensive parts are either undamaged or recoverable.

I do however need to do some more disassembly to see if I can find the rest of the washer

 

Feeling a bit better about this tonight, partly because I've sourced some new parts, but mainly because most of the mangled washer/shim is now accounted for.
It was worrying me that I'd have to split the crankcases to find all the bits.

I found another lump behind the starter idler gear, but was still missing over 1/2 of it.

I realised that because of the layout of the deep sump engine any bits that had gone through the drain holes into the main crankcase void should be sat around the mesh filter.
I removed the small bottom cover and pulled the filter out, it was in this instance disappointingly clean of any debris.

But I stuck my finger up the hole, rooted around a bit on the slope of the cases and managed to pull out several more bits of mangled shim.
I expect you can imagine my relief at this point.
They were so bent and mangled that I'm surprised they found their way through the reasonably small drain holes into the main void.

I flattened all the recovered bits out with a hammer, drew around the new part on piece of paper and then arranged the recovered bits of the old one on the outline to see how much I was still missing.

As you can see from the below I've got nearly all of it:



The very small sliver that's missing certainly isn't worth splitting the cases for, and I think all I'll do now is pour in a load of thin flushing oil to see if it comes out the bottom with that.

Judging by the thick sludge my finger came out the bottom of the sump covered in, a flush through with thin oil will clean the bottom of the sump out nicely.