This is a how to guide WITH PICTURES on how to ventilate the clutch on your Ducati. Let it be known before doing this that this ONLY WORKS WITH DRY CLUTCH SUPERSPORTS. I know that may sound stupid for some people, but I also know that some people are more into riding than wrenching. If you are NOT SURE which you have please ask your dealer or someone you bought it from or a mechanic or check the manual FIRST.
That said...
If you've got a dry clutch and you've been drooling at pictures of other people's clutch covers, pressure plates, pretty springs and caps... well... this tutorial is about to take you down that road so you can do it yourself.
Total cost to do it the way I did it with my clutch cover? ..... $0.00 However, you CAN purchase clutch covers from a dealer or performance shop or online or what have you and I've seen those range from $100 - $300
Total cost with the accessories I used? $140.00 (this includes the billet pressure plate with the nice caps and new clutch springs which are far stiffer) and the cost can go anywhere from $140 to $300+ depending really on what you want for accessories, what plate, what springs, what caps...
Also keep in mind my setup includes speedymoto accessories, the springs are very stiff and makes riding in town difficult if not painful as the clutch is much stiffer, so if you want it to stay easy as stock then replace only the pressure plate and caps and not the springs.
The possibilities are as extensive as you want to go. So lets start off by beaming you up to the tutorial. Let it be noted this tutorial is for replacing the clutch cover and pressure plate and springs and caps and allen bolts
Here we have a 1999 Ducati 900 SuperSport. Note the stock clutch cover.
Step one includes taking off 4 small allen head bolts that come out. I am unsure of the size, I just took out a huge package of allen wrenches and picked and chose till I found one that fit. Please note that the top allen wrench bolts will be very long, and the bottom 2 will be very small. Remember this if you choose to put them all back in.
Below is a picture of what it looks like with all the allen bolts out and with the clutch cover pulled off. Note there are still some allen bolts in, they did not actually hold the cover on, but the cover had a hole for them. It goes around them.
In the top of each cap circled below are more allen based screws. Loosen these up one by one. Use the ABSOLUTE CORRECT SIZE that fits and be VERY CAREFUL as they may be VERY tight. If you strip the head of them you will have to have them extracted at a shop. I was unlucky enough to have 3 of them stripped even though I used the proper size as they were so tight they would not come out. Alternatively I used a dremel and heavy duty cutting wheels to cut the springs and caps off and extracted them successfully with vice grips. This is in no way shape or form recommended unless you are very precise with cutting tools, very careful and very patient.
Easy story... just use the right size allen wrench and be very careful. Some of you will probably have absolutely no issues, others may have some tight ones where the bolts have tightened from the heat and what not.
TIP: If you see a lot of dust built up around the allen bolts and the caps you can try lightly tapping on the cap with a rubber mallet or a hammer LIGHTLY to see if you can possibly loosen up some of the dust that has built up. This may make it easier for you to get the bolts out.
Once you have loosened all 6 of the allen bolts you can now take the stock caps and springs out. You will be left with the STOCK PLATE exposed. You can pull it out slightly and using a rubber mallet and a screwdriver or a rod of some sort very slowly and lightly tap out the rod in the middle resting on the bearings. The rod is highlighted below in red in the center, around it i have highlighted all the allen wrench bolts you need to loosen.
Once you have tapped it loose you should now just have a big rod sticking out and the plates underneath exposed. TOUCH NOTHING.
Now, go get your new plate that you've bought, that's right, the pretty one.
Now in the same fashion you took it off, line it up. Wait, what? Line it up? But you took it off and they all fit the same right? WRONG, there are marks for the balance point! Note that one of the spots for the springs should have some slashes in it, or marks as you will, marking the balance point (yes, it's a balance thing) and one of the towers that you slide it over will have them to. But don't worry! I TOOK PICTURES!
In the picture below you will notice one of the springs and caps and bolts is missing. you will ALSO notice that the tower has grooves and the plate has grooves. NONE of the other spots on the plate or towers will have these. Line these up and it will look like below. Please note that I have already put my springs and caps on in this picture... you obviously have to line it up before you do that.
Once again using a rubber mallet or a hammer, LIGHTLY tap it into place so that it is tight as the stock plate was so that the rod goes into place in the bearing.
Now using a small torque wrench put your springs in, caps and the allen bolts and tighten them to 60 in pounds. Yes, this is VERY LIGHT, there is not a lot of torque on these. If there is too much the bolts will break.
If you do not have access to a torque wrench such as this you can still torque them down with your bare hands but it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to use a torque wrench. The secret is to get them all down and tight just barely to where your hand meets resistance (it stops turning), but not tightly, very lightly. Then using your eyes watch the allen wrench and turn it just a little till the allen wrench BARELY FLEXES, this should get the bolt tight but not extremely tight, its inbetween "snug" and "tight". Only do this if you know what I'm talking about and you are confident in doing this, otherwise use a torque wrench.
Zoomed out a bit this is what it should look like when properly tightened, torqued and put in place.
Now the fun part. I used a dremel and cut up my stock cover and used some metallic black paint and clearcoat and painted it and cut half of it off and put it back on. I put the long bolts back in plate and one of the short ones as well. The end result is this. The stock bolts just need to be snug for the clutch cover.
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