Advice please 750ss

schrimy said:
Anyway, where does your earth cable ground on your 900?
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I assume the one that has fallen off is the short one - maybe 4" long? - that goes to the neg on the battery.

If so it connects to the frame on the nearside using the bolt that holds the airbox at that side (2 at top, 2 underneath, as well as the jubilees that hold it to the carb mouths).

The earthing is poor on these - just that and another from frame to engine.

Your jets still sound bunged up. Maybe need an ultrasonic clean?

Cheers

Kenny
 
Throttle cables, Ducati dealer or Venhill:

http://www.venhill.co.uk/Hoses_&_Cables_-_Motorcycle/DUCATI

Re the fairing, looks like the two small plates for holding the fairing together have gone walkies.

Its just a small plate with two holes that hold two well-nuts captive (two off needed) - I dare say a nice stainless plate could be made to allow a bolt and nyloc nut to be used, it can be done but it is a bit fiddly holding the nuts inside the fairing for the final bolts to be done up.
 
iconic944ss said:
Throttle cables, Ducati dealer or Venhill:

http://www.venhill.co.uk/Hoses_&_Cables_-_Motorcycle/DUCATI

Re the fairing, looks like the two small plates for holding the fairing together have gone walkies.

Its just a small plate with two holes that hold two well-nuts captive (two off needed) - I dare say a nice stainless plate could be made to allow a bolt and nyloc nut to be used, it can be done but it is a bit fiddly holding the nuts inside the fairing for the final bolts to be done up.
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I think I "might" have a pair of these plates floating around.Will have a look tomorrow, but as Frank states...There' only a couple of bit's of tin with a holes drilled in.

You can have them if I find them...

Ranald
 
The revs hanging and then slowly dropping after blipping the throttle indicates that the idle mixture is still a bit lean. Open the idle screws 1/8 turn at a time until it drops back to idle speeds as soon as the throttle is released. On the 900SS I got best results with the idle screws about 3.5 turns out. You will probably have adjust the throttle stop too.
As Kenny says the battery earth goes to the airbox fixing bolt but there is a redundant boss on the frame, already threaded M6, just below it that makes a much better earth point and the cable should be long enough to reach, at least mine was. There is also an earth strap from the frame to the engine, just behind the RH footrest hanger to the back of the crankcase. You should check that for good connections as well.
 
Schrimy, all that sounds like good advice and sound exactly where mine are.

Just make sure the leads have good connections to their respective ends and emery the paint of the frame attachments, then smother them in grease etc.

On another note we managed to get the barrel/head studs out of my second 900ss today, first time of asking after all this waiting. Went to MMS's workshop, ready for the ensuing carnage but it was all no big drama after all. Three studs were snapped, the shortest only had about6-8 mm sticking out. We mig welded a nut onto each stud and undid them, one was a little chewy so we had to back and forth it to make it play ball. Threads in the case were a little bit loose after but all it needed was a helicoil, sorted now. Took less than an hour. Just need to get to Ducati John now to get the bits ordered.

p.s. sold the other one just before Xmas.
 
Neepdocker said:
I think I "might" have a pair of these plates floating around.Will have a look tomorrow, but as Frank states...There' only a couple of bit's of tin with a holes drilled in.

You can have them if I find them...

Ranald
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That would be smashing. I thought they looked the same sort of thing as I have on my ST. and in that case I have a selection of the well nuts that may fit ( I think they are bigger than the ones on the top section of the bodywork). So if you do come across then I would welcome them. There is some damage to the bottom of the fairing, obviously someone has taken it off without undoing the bottom well nuts and the hole has split and part of the fibre glass has come off, but I can easily repair this.
Thanks again.
Chris.
 
I have had a good day today. As the sun was up I got out into the garage to see if there was any more I could do with this carb issue. Having got the bike warmed up it was till farting back through the carbs occasionally, so I stood watching the carbs as I have the airboxlid off. I noticed that at idle the horizontal cylinder carb had a very, very small amount of fuel coming out of the needle valve whilst the other one didn’t. Increasing the throttle ever so slightly perhaps only 10 or 15rpm made the other carb do the same thing. So with this in mind I got out my carbtune and started to sync the carbs. Now I have to ask, what clothhead put the sync screw just where you can neither see it or adjust it without dislocating both your neck and arm!!! Anyway once I had located it I stared to adjust, the cylinders were reading a whopping 6 cm Hg out so adjustment necessary perhaps??. As soon as I started to turn the screw things got so much better, the revs dropped and the engine ran better. I kept the idle speed about 1500rpm adjusting this on the throttle stop screw each time I needed to. After ten minutes I had the gauges measuring only 0.5cm Hg difference and a very nice tickover and I can now adjust the idle speed without the engine going off and doing one!
There is still a bit of hesitation when you open the throttle but only slightly and I suspect that this I can overcome by fiddling with the idle mixture screws as now the carbs are in sync I can play about till I find it all works properly.
 
I have the bike up on the work stand and am working through stuff. New belts, valve clearances, oil and filter change, and the like.
Having checked the clearances I find that a couple of the closing shims are out of limit. One is 0.06mm and the other 0.07mm. The recommendation is 0.03 to 0.05mm.
Now my brain started to work. The temp in the workshop was only three degrees.(er! and before you ask no they weren’t singing baby love!). So I thought to myself if I had done this in the summer when say the temp was 18degrees the clearances would measure less, am I not right?
So then given that there is only 0.01 and 0.02mm out of spec on these two, do I need to change them???
Ta!
Chris.
 
schrimy said:
I have the bike up on the work stand and am working through stuff. New belts, valve clearances, oil and filter change, and the like.
Having checked the clearances I find that a couple of the closing shims are out of limit. One is 0.06mm and the other 0.07mm. The recommendation is 0.03 to 0.05mm.
Now my brain started to work. The temp in the workshop was only three degrees.(er! and before you ask no they weren’t singing baby love!). So I thought to myself if I had done this in the summer when say the temp was 18degrees the clearances would measure less, am I not right?
So then given that there is only 0.01 and 0.02mm out of spec on these two, do I need to change them???
Ta!
Chris.
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For the closers, the manual states "A clearance of up to 0.20mm is permitted; above this value the clearance must be reset."
0.20mm is a huge amount (0.010"). The shims come in 0.05mm increments. The next sizes up would bring your clearances down to 0.01mm and 0.02mm which might just work (the spec used to be 0.00mm - 0.02mm) but they could be a little tight for comfort.
The clearances you have measured are well within spec, I'd leave them for now.
 
Thanks Derek.
I don’t have a manual, so am using a 'Haynes' instead.
For closers it says clearance should be between 0.03 to 0.05 mm
with a 'service limit' of 0.2mm like you said.
So from what you are saying unless they get to 0.2 mm I can forget about it?
and I take your point about available shim sizes.
Thanks.
 
I wouldn't "forget about it" altogether. When the clearances get too big the half rings get a hammering then when you come to change the closer you find that the half rings have broken and the valve has "mushroomed" at the groove making it difficult to remove the closing shim. So it's best to keep them as near to the setting values as possible.
Check them again next winter after it has done a few thousand more miles, if any of the closers have opened up so that you can fit the next shim up and be within that 0.3-0.5mm window then is the time to change them. Unless they are too tight I wouldn't worry about 0.01mm.
 
Thanks Derek.
I intend to check them yearly anyway, now I know what I am doing. Chance would be a fine thing.:lol2:
 
Shiney Bits.

Now having finally got a couple of hours to mess about I decide to get out my polishing kit and have a go at some of the bits I had taken of the bike. This is my first real attempt and its not to bad. Hope they come across ok in the pictures. I realised I had used to course a scotch bright pad to strip of the corroded paint from the belt covers and it took some time to polish out the finer marks, well that’s all part of the learning curve. I hope soon to be putting bits back on the bike instead of taking them off. Even more so as its going to get warmer in the next few days…..that’ll be summer then!

View attachment 8978

View attachment 8979

View attachment 8980
 
Derek said:
Very nice. You have now given yourself the eternal task of keeping them that way :D ;)
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Oh! so True Derek. But then I will be able to stroll around the house muttering that mantra 'Have autosol will polish....have autosol will polish.....have autosol.......'
Itll give me sumat to do wont it :)
 
Changed the front brake pads and fluids today. Had a look at the twin headlights on the bike at the mo. I have an origional square headlght ready to fit, but I find that the origional headlight loom is missing. Thats the bit that has the (Rubber?) cover for the bulb on it along with the sidelight holder. Anyone got one lurking in there trouser pocket that they dont need.
Ta!
 
schrimy said:
but I find that the origional headlight loom is missing. Thats the bit that has the (Rubber?) cover for the bulb on it along with the sidelight holder. Anyone got one lurking in there trouser pocket that they dont need.
Ta!
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Think you might struggle a little there Mr. Schrimy, the rubber cover 'should' be available from Ducati.. hard to tell on this one but looks like part number 0000.34656, side light might be part of the wiring loom but a separate 'connector' and side light holder are shown in the parts manual.

Good luck.
 
This is in fact the case as I dont really know what I have and what I need. I have looked at the parts lists and manuals, but none are clear enough to see where the bits go. I have a three pin connector on the loom that looks like it may just fit on to the lamp. The twin headlight just plugs into it, so that could be the case. However I dont seem to have the sidelight wire or holder, nor the rubber shroud. if I could get an old loom for the light, then I could work out what I need to take off it.
I live in hope.......

Nice biking weather..............!!!!!
 
OK, I have spent a bit of time farting about with headlights and the like. I seem to have got it sorted. However I have discovered a strange cable type thing that is dangling down from a knurled knob that sits next to the fuse box mounting on the nearside of the front of the bike. Its about 8 inches ling and terminates in a small brass fitting. My initial thoughts were headlight adjuster??
But if so where on earth does it go on the headlight?
Ta!
 
Only thing I can think of like that is the remote trip mileage reset cable???

Black cable here:

20a.gif
 
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iconic944ss said:
Only thing I can think of like that is the remote trip mileage reset cable???

Black cable here:

[qimg]http://www.ne.jp/asahi/ducati/toolbox/D-data/900ss/20a.gif[/qimg]
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That's exactly what it is, and if you don't need it, I'll have it off you.
 
Yes it was the trip reset cable, now need to find a very small pin to put back in the hole so it works. I'll have one some where!
Meanwhile did this yesterday whilst I had nowt to do!

Before and after!:)
 
I thought it about time I did a bit of and update. The reason you have not heard anything about the bike for some time is that since about January every spare minute of the day I have been out cycling in preparation for my cycle ride from Rome to London. This now done I have been able to spend some time with Mrs. SS!
A couple of days after my return I went through the box of bits I had removed. Including the bits that I had rubbed down, repaired with fibreglass, filler and plastfix, rubbed down some more, sprayed with etching primer four coats of undercoat, rubbed down some more, sprayed with top coat, made a balls up of it, rubbed it ALL DOWN AGAIN! Sprayed with four coats of topcoat and two of clear lacquer and realised that that was perhaps the best I could do.
I had also replaced the timing belt and checked all the clearances having to only purchase one shim. New oil, filters, front brake pads, and clutch and brake fluid, new throttle cables as well as some stainless fasteners.
So I was set to put it all back together, it only took me about three hours and it was done. So I took some pictures, hope they upload all right.
Whilst I had the clutch and alternator covers off I found that the alternator retaining nut could be turned with my fingers!!!!! Hmmmm not right me thought so a quick call to Mr. Ducati John and he very kindly lent me his alternator tool so I could torque the nut up appropriately. So now its on and also fixed with some lock tight.
The engine ran up really well and today the sun came out when I did not have any other commitments. So on with my stuff and off I went. Now, having tightened the alternator nut up I found that the engine was making s strange whining noise that it didn’t before. So I pootled over to the aforementioned Ducati John who, on listening to the engine pronounced that all was fine and it was just the usual transmition / timing gear noise that some Ducati’s have. At this point I would like to say what a fine chap Mr. Celliers is, always ready to give you advice for nowt and having him 10 minutes away from me is a real bonus. Can you imagine how much time it would have taken if I had had to phone a dealer and take the bike over, only to find nothing wrong? Must put him on my Christmas card list J
Anyway as the sun was out I decided to take the bike for a spin just to get things settled down unfortunately I ended up at Squires and had one of their ‘worst cup of tea’s’ in the world moments. However I did find a small oil leak, which turned out to be a bolt on the rocker cover I had not tightened up properly so a quick bit of spannering with the Allen key sorted that.
Then home the long way. What fun this little bike is. So much easier to handle in traffic than the ST and light! Front brakes are really good and easily operated by one finger. So Mr. Chuffed am I. Lets hope the sun continues to shine so I can get some more miles on it. You know how these Ducati’s are? the more you use them the better they get. And this one had been in the back of a garage for seven years only covering 170 miles in that time……that’ll change.
Oh! And one other thing, when I got the bike it had a twin headlight conversion on it, but I wanted the original look so got a second hand headlight and fairing (hence the rubbing down!) so now I have an unwanted twin headlight unit that’s not in bad nick and easy to fit, So if anyone wants to make there 600, 750, 900 (I am sure it will fit all pre 99 models) look like an R6 then you know where to come, I would like about £4 million for it Ha!…………
 
Nice one! My 900SS should be running tomorrow with luck. Want another rideout? Come and see me. GYS week so I won't be up to much..........
 
rockjock620 said:
Nice one! My 900SS should be running tomorrow with luck. Want another rideout? Come and see me. GYS week so I won't be up to much..........
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Howdy Pete.
Did you get the underseat pipes on?
I'll give you a ring about coming over, Thursday would be good for me!
Stay safe.
 
You know how it is? The sun comes out and you get out……with the polish! Anyway I took the fairing off to give things a good clean up and whilst at it I thought I might as well just check the carb balance, like one does! So with the bike on its paddock stand and nicely warmed up I lay on my back to fiddle with those two well hidden carb adjusters, you know, the idle speed and carb balance. The first one is not to bad to get access too but the second is dam near impossible. However whilst laying there I heard the bike ‘fart’ back through one of the carbs ( I had set the idle speed really low) I happened to see some of the vapour come out of the rubber connector between the carb body and the inlet manifold on the horizontal cylinder, now, I did think I was seeing things but it did the same thing again a minute or so later. So up I got and checked the two jubilee clips around the aforementioned rubber thing. They were by no means loose, but on tightening them up the tick over speed went up quite a bit. So I checked the other one on the other cylinder, and the same thing happened. I tightened them as much as I dare, and checked that neither was split or damaged. After this I was able to balance the carbs quite well and it seems to tick over better but perhaps that’s my imagination?
Like I said above to all intense and purposes I though the clips were tight enough, but obviously not, so I mention this just in case any of you find the same, so next time your lying on your back under your beloved SS………….
Later that same day I took it to the MOT man, it passed easily and he was quite impressed with it, That made me smile.
 
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Great story!I had a 750 SS for many years and loved it. I paid two grand for it in the early nineties and got two grand again when I part exchanged it for a 999 last year.
One interesting thing I found in the Ducati workshop manual is that they list carb settings for street use ( to comply with emission regs) and also another set for 'racing' for maximum power and best running. Guess which I used...
I fitted a Dynajet kit and opened up the airbox to complement the race cans that were already on the bike and it sounded just wonderful - much better than the 999, even if it does have twice the power. I also fitted a Dynocoil kit from Chris Kelley - all these changes added up to make the motor enormously more tractable and snatch-free.
One thing I have done to the 999 that the SS would have benefited from is to fit a motoelectric starter circuit kit that piggy-backs on top of the existing cables. This transforms the way the bike starts from being slow and reluctant to eager and quick. It is pricey though.
As you're into polishing, I can tell you that the rather dull powder coating on the wheels and especially the frame will polish up to a glass-like mirror finish...
Have fun.
 
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