So after I hear cycled the bike to set the exhaust sealant, it was time to drain the oil in preparation for what is to come. I still need to clean the under side of the sump but much like other models, the paint has not lasted very well. It's dirty, flaked and needs a clean. Usual oil drain procedure. Heat up engine, leave to cool down for a bit then pop the plug. The plug had some metal particles which I think may be from the gearbox but the oil appeared like new. No major chunks, more fine particles with some small-medium flakes thrown in. I've got no concerns. In order to fully see the particles I had to clean the residual oil off the plug first as they were not readily visible otherwise. The magnet moves up and down so metal can gather between the threaded part of the plug and the magnet itself.
In preparation for the work to come I bought a "warrior" stand. The stand is a rip off of the Bursig stand but I picked it up for £102 after a cheeky eBay discount. The stand so far has been brilliant, good quality, done everything I needed it to do and relatively straight forward install with instructions. The top engine bolt needs to be removed and installed the opposite way round. The thread screws into the sleeve that the pin of the stand inserts Into. After this, the plate of the stand takes a bit of adjusting until everything lines up and Bobs yer uncle.
Time for front end tear down. I put the bike on the stand as this will be it's mounting place for quite some time (since September to be exact). First off was the triple clamp which has 1 x screw on each side. Then the clip-ons which also have 1 screw each. At this point, I then removed the front wheel. Loosen the axle nut. Undo the fork bottom clamp bolts. Undo the brake caliper bolts and hang the calipers to each side using S hooks making sure not to damage them or the bike. Remove the axle and front wheel. Once this is done, loosen the 4 x bolts clamping the bottom yoke to the forks. As I'd already removed the front wheel, this gave me sufficient room to slide the forks out. Next, undo the Steering stem nut which requires a special tool or pin spanner and remove the yoke. Only once you've done all this, you can take a nap.
Now that the front end was cleared out I could work on the head stock. Removal of the head bearings is super easy. The dust seal, ball bearings and inner race all lift out. The outer race in the top and bottom of the headstock seat against a lip. You can tap the races out without touching the lip but again, alternate between each side of the race so it comes out evenly. Once you've tapped the races out you will want to keep them so you can use them as a drift to reinstall the new ones.
The next bit was something of a wasted exercise but I'll post it anyway. Like a lot of dropped Ducatis, mines was no exception. The steering stop arm on the headstock was slightly bent to the right which makes sense as it fell on the left hand side and would've pushed the bars to the right. I had reservations about snapping the thing but the arm is actually pretty malleable. I used a pair of vice grips wrapped in masking tape and wrapped the arm in cloth to minimise damage. I then placed the grips on the contact end of the arm in parallel and then rotated the grips back to the centre. Not much effort needed and it's bang on now. The camera hasn't really picked them up but there was abrasions and chips out the headstock at the edges as well as some work needed to clean up the steering stop so I decided it needed refinishing. I masked the area with metal tape thinking it would prevent any sort of accidental damage, however, this was completely shit and actually created more work to clean up and remove. Just stick with masking tape as even hand held wire brushes cut through it. I removed the paint using cheap shitty diall stuff from B&Q which has always worked for me. You need to be generous with it, apply multiple coats and afford a good period of time between each coat. The stuff paint will then scrape off with no issues. I then used etch primer which is a thicker primer used in applications where normal primer or paint would struggle for adhesion, i.e direct to metal. I applied several coats to build it up uniformly. Halfords or Upol is good. Once the primer was built up I went round the edges with a 600 grit sanding sponge and levelled out the transitions so now you can't tell by touch that the area has been repainted. The funny thing is that after doing this I managed to pick up some carbon bits and have now decided to change the intended colour scheme and paint the frame a different colour lol sometimes I really hate myself ha ha
@final_edition luckily I didn't have to do this. I have IMA triples I'm putting on so I managed to sell the bottom yoke. The race was actually in good condition and wouldn't have needed replacing, however, I have removed the race you're referring to on my RS125 which was the same and pretty horrible. Ended up using a Dremel to create a groove to chisel and then heated it within and inch of its life and it came off no bother. The hard part is trying not to damage the yokes while doing so.
Now that I decided the frame was getting painted it was time to finalise the strip down. Started with the exhausts and tank which are both straight forward. When removing the fuel lines residual fuel will come out but if it's the first time you've removed the tank like me, don't worry it will stop lol. Before you can remove the airbox you need to remove the fuel injector connectors and cables. One on the top and one at the front. The front one was tricky to remove as there is a little metal clasp which you need to get from both sides of the connector and room is tight. After these are removed you undo the clamp of the engine breather which is on top of the right side case above the neutral sensor. The Stepper motor and TPS connector need to be removed. The stepper motor connector is tucked under the air box on the left side of the Throttle bodies and the TPS is the right side. Lastly you undo the clamps holding the box to the ports and then wiggle it loose. I put gloves over the ports to make sure nothing gets inside the engine. Next I started to removed the loom. The loom is predominantly on the left side of the bike. It goes up from the ECU before branching out in 3 x directions. It goes right to the rear of the bike, through the middle to the right side of the bike and left to the front of the bike. The key antenna connector which passed through the ignition barrel mount which can't be removed without the ignition also being removed but that was no issues as the barrel was coming off anyway. I'd read horror stories about the screws holding the ignition barrel in were tamper proof/required heating/would snap/could not be removed but I gave it a bash anyway with absolutely no issues. No heat or anything. Clamped some vice grips to the bolts and they came off freely. I have self diagnosed OCD and to see there was specific tabs to hold the superseal connectors at the front of the frame pleased the organisational side of me. The loom was then removed as was the battery box. The coolant was then fully drained as I'm installing a lightened Ducati Corse flywheel. The bike has to be tipped over which initially seemed like it would be a pain in the arse but it was fine. I leaned the bike over while on the stand, bearing it's weight which was nothing and I was able to drain the most you could probably drain. There are 2 x screws holding the coolant overflow bottle and central cable tidy to the ports so pretty straight forward to remove that. I have now sent both my torque wrenches off for calibration before I snap my crankshaft with the 330Nm retaining lol. Once they come back I'll set about that with the engine still in the frame for a bit of support. Extensive loom work to come also. While you're doing any sort of In-depth loom work, label everything you can as you go as this will make your life Infinely easier on reinstallation. Excuse the manky carpet. I sometime forget how dirty bike work can be.
Planning on doing videos for updates now on, instead of a write up so I've been expirementing a wee bit. Might be helpful for some people on here. Built a fork vise to help strip the forks and put my dad's forks back together as well. Let me know if you would rather a write up or videos.
First meaningful update in a while. Bought a set of desmo forks which were completely wrecked with a view to salvaging the internals and top caps. I bought them from America for about £185 including postage and import fees so I feel I got a bit of deal regardless. They're currently with BG Motorsport who are doing a couple of other things for me as well. They've been away for a couple of months but they require a lot of parts that will no doubt take time to hit the UK from the factory. I made a video detailing the teardown but it's a long one so you might want to mute it if you can stand my voice lol
@Kieran Walker the desmo forks were sold to a forum member. The bike was then partially parted out but eventually went to a friend who rebuilt it. It's going strong and is back on the road. The proceeds of my involvement has helped acquire Corse parts to rebuild Niccolo Canepa's 2012 1198RS WSBK. I need to get the frame re-painted after it was bodged by someone but once that's done and I move house I'll be getting that project started. It'll be mad, none of the parts are the same as the road bike.
