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Shade tree mechanics - a 999 story.

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5.3K views 23 replies 8 participants last post by  BobbyBoy  
#1 ·
Many times I hear people are put off by the conceived high maintenance cost of servicing a Ducati. The belt service is not a black art given the information available online, I believed prove if you can assimilate and replicate information, own a basic tool kit it can be done with little difficulty. I would mark it as a 6/10. The valve check and adjustment I cannot comment at this time but will at some time in the future.

I share experience of my first 4v belt service including unexpected maintenance/upgrades on my 2006 Ducati 999s. The story begins late August 2019, I purchased oem belts and idler bearings via a local supplier and after watching the Chris Kelly video several times I penciled a day to complete the work, 3 month later I was back on the road.

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Spoiler alert - it’s all good.
 
#2 ·
I don’t own a garage or have access to indoor parking so all maintenance is ‘shade-tree’ so to speak. On removing the coils I found both tubes had oil sitting inside, perhaps 50-100ml, I removed the oil with a rag and wooden dowel. I figured it not to be serious as the day before I had ridden 300km/4hrs and encountered zero issues, it was the valve cover rubber seal leaking oil into the tubes. An order was placed same day and the bike went back into the bubble waiting for parts to arrive, this normally takes 2 weeks, sometimes longer. Once the parts arrived I started dismantling the cooling system to removed the valve covers only to discover the ‘H’ cover had been leaking oil from two of the special washers causing an oily mess. I placed an order for the 12 ‘special washers’ and waited once again.
 
#3 ·
This downtime got me thinking. I had always admired the Magnesium on R models and was aware it was paint. It would be an opportunity missed if I let it pass and pure crazy if I didn’t do the headlight bucket and fairing stays at the same time. A plan was hatched. I must have read every Magnesium paint post online and came to the conclusion if you live in USA or Canada your paint option is COLOR RITE and if Europe or elsewhere it is MOTORLACK in Germany. I thought this was because of shipping flammable liquid but could be wrong. I placed an order for a 12ml paint stick and had my local paint shop supplier make a copy. First effort was off but on the second a swatch of paint side by side was identical. Game on.
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#4 ·
I have a Ducatisti friend who works for a marine engineering company, he has access to water blasting, I pulled a favour. The aluminium parts were sent for water blasting, the ‘V’ cover still discoloured from the fire last year. The headlight bucket and stays only required deep cleaning. It was some weeks before the water blasting happened as we had to wait for the machine to be set up for business work, I guess you can’t complain when its for free. Blasting done and looking new it was off to the paint shop for paint and a matt clear coat. I was stoked with the finished item when I went to collect. Job complete.
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#5 ·
Whilst all of the above waiting was happening I decided to ‘future proof’ my electrics. I have never had electrical problems but looking at the state of the wiring I don’t know how. I purchased self amalgamating tape and started to wrap, the time I finished I had used shy over 40m of the water and heat resistant tape. At the same time I was able to wrap the GPS Tracker wiring into the harness making it invisible. All Superseal connectors were opened and sprayed with an electrical protector, all were in good condition with no green residue or contamination present. I had replaced a lot of the connectors only last year using the excellent YouTube tutorial by @Track848, ‘How to Replace Motorcycle Dash and ECU Connector | AMP Superseal 1.0 Connector’ I was about to use his knowledge one more time. For all the reasons @Track848 explains in the video ‘How to Hardwire a Motorcycle Stator to Regulator Rectifier’ I did so with no difficulty. Thank you Sir. (y)Next came identifying earths, I figured battery terminal, ecu, starter motor, engine, solenoid, all got wire brushed and greased. Both relays, fuel pump and headlight were replaced, I do this annually anyways. I checked the fuse box and all fuses were in the correct position. Job complete.
 
#6 ·
To remove the ‘H’ valve cover the oil cooler and radiator had to be removed. This was a good time for a refurbishment, the rad looked like it had been in a firefight and lost. It was stripped of fans, deep cleaned and painted matt black as was the oil cooler. DIY guards were made from auto screen purchased from a hardware store and mounted using safety wire. I stupidly holed the oil cooler by over tightening the safety wire but found a good condition used replacement on eBay from Holland. I secured the screen to the back of the V using high heat silicone and the mounting bolts. Job complete.
 

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#8 ·
‘Gangsta Lean’, anyone who has owned a 999 will know of this word, several different issues were the cause of mine and now was time to fix all of them. The PO had at some time welded a crack in the foot stand plate which was now failing. The bike had been leaning more since a road trip with luggage some months before. The new plate at 120 euro was an expensive piece of steel but a weld was not going to be a permanent fix. The lower bolt hole seemed looser than it should be, the bolt would back out after time even using the red stuff. I drilled and tapped both bolt holes fitting 25mm Heli coils, I had to buy a kit as it was my first time. I had seen a mod where a plastic plate is screwed to the bottom of the foot stand giving a bit more hight reducing the lean. I did this and removed it immediately, the alloy stand is a beautiful thing, for me it just didn’t look right. I decided to tackle the underlying problem, where steel meets aluminium. At the top of the foot stand I used a steel nut and epoxy resin to form a permanent rest for the stand, this is 5.0mm higher than before. Now I have steel resting on steel and the excessive lean has gone, hopefully for good. Job complete.
 

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#9 ·
Several years ago I made up an under seat heat guard using a sheet of stainless steel. It was very effective in operation but when I changed to Mono setup it was never used again, I don’t remember why. The newly fabricated one is made from what came out of an air handling unit and is light weight alloy. Moose heat resistant fabric is simply stuck onto the alloy and placed into the framework. Heat protection is given to the fuel pump, fuel connectors and ass. It really makes a difference. Job complete.
 

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#10 ·
The belt service went without complication and many threads will explain the process so I won’t add. I will say no special tools are required, I used an app called Fine Tuner and my iPhone headphones to achieve 110 hz on the belts. I would point out the importance of replacing your idler bearings if you don’t know when they were last done, mine were close to toast, I got lucky. If a tool exists where the ‘V’ idler bearing can be torqued when the engine is mounted in the frame I can’t find it. The frame is too close to get near the fastener, I used the red stuff and winged it with a prayer. Anyone? Job complete.
 

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#11 ·
Before the summer I serviced the DNA air filters. On assembly I discovered one of the nuts in the air-box was spinning, a quick fix was loctite, now was the time for a more permanent effort. Man this one was difficult, to remove the air-box lid you need a high MENSA score, a lot of research was required. Throttle tube removed, cables routed, key assembly removed and that screw located at the front of the air-box! That screw took more than 1 hour, eventually I bent a long screwdriver and mm by mm slowly removed it. LT say’s grease the air-box lip on assembly and leave that screw out this is what I did. Back to the nut. I discovered it's called a ‘RIVNUT’ and a kit was required to make a replacement. The offending nut was drilled out after taping the inner side of the air-box. The inside was inspected and cleaned of insect body parts before assembly. Job complete.
 

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#16 ·
BobbyBoy said:
to remove the air-box lid you need a high MENSA score, a lot of research was required.
Click to expand...
The MENSA score comment, that's funny. Or perhaps:

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#13 ·
Nice work mate, you seem to have been very busy! Attention to detail shows and it's kinda rewarding knowing you've made your bike better, even if no one else can see because of the fairings....

If i may, with ANY bolt that screws into a rivnut, any rivnut, but especially those in plastic that are serviced often (like airboxes...) use copper grease on the threads and go easy on how tight you screw them in, airbox runners are particularly susceptible to this and the copper grease makes much easier for the thread to start as well as saving the rivnut from spinning and a very expensive mcgiver type effort to get it apart....

New tyres next?
 
#14 ·
loony888 said:
New tyres next?
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Great minds and all that loony. Diablo Super Corsa SP fitted with one ride to scrub them in. Couple things I forgot, new spark plugs and the little blanking caps for the fairing stays. I've never had them caps before and it made my day, like you say attention to detail.

Thanks for the tip on the copper grease, I will save that for next time.
 

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#20 ·
BobbyBoy said:
Many times I hear people are put off by the conceived high maintenance cost of servicing a Ducati. The belt service is not a black art given the information available online, I believed prove if you can assimilate and replicate information, own a basic <snip>
Click to expand...
I know it's heretical... but I like the 999 design as much as the 916/998, maybe even a bit more... and yours looks lovely.
 
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