Hi all, Any budding alloy experts out there? I'm sure there was a thread on ducatisti regarding this, but can't remember the detail. Anyway, I dropped my 848 on each side last year, once in my garage on the LHS and once in a garage forecourt on the RHS, resulting in a set of bent levers. I was thinking it would be useful to take a spare set touring this year in case the same thing happened again and wondered if anyone has successfully straightened a set out? Not sure about the metallurgy aspect, but I guess you could stress relieve it by annealing before and/or after the repair to reduce the chance of it snapping? Not too bothered about them snapping again as I'd only use the repaired levers until I could get replacements. Also, I hardly use the rear brake. I don't want to shell out for a new set now as (hopefully) I won't need them.
Hi Ian ive never had any luck straightening alloy !! avantiraceparts do some nice looking reasonable replacements. Cheers Paul.
I don't know if the later castings are more brittle but 748/996 straighten very well as long as you don't bend repeatedly.
Heat them up first (oven/blowtorch) - but be prepared for cracks and/or snapping.... if they do then have them welded.
Ghost (Phil) confirmed to me you don't actually anneal aluminium.........You heat it up until a pine stick will char when you touch it or ordinary hand soap which you wiped on it goes black......Don't allow it to become red, make sure the heat is in the spot that you want to straighten........and then let it air cool. I did two SS brake pedals using the above methods.......one didn't go much when I first put effort into it, so I ignored the stick and the soap, gave it some more heat (with it going red) and leaned on it again......Sho nuff, it bent.......too far in fact, so I quickly heated it again and pulled it back to where it should be. I also played around with some SS brake/clutch levers........One marked Ducati (or was it Cagiva?....I'll check) broke just like that, but two marked Brembo bent easily into proper shape......I didn't use heat on any of them. AL.
