1993 900 SS - issues and niggles

Late last year I bought a 1993 Ducati 900 SS with 52000km from a German, private seller. He was the second owner, with the bike having been registered to the first owner for 24 years, The seller had ridden the bike for a mere 2000km. She was in pretty good condition visually: clean, mostly stock with all original parts available, as well as some carbon fibre aftermarket parts (front fender, rear hugger, sprocket cover). I like originality in a bike - at least if I do not wish to modify - and for this bike originality was higher on the list of "must haves" than lower miles, etc. She also came with additional parts (gaskets, spark plugs, carbs) as well as manuals and specific tools (head bolt wrench, clutch basket holder,...).

The seller claimed she was "dry", with the exception of a little oil weep at the rear cylinder. I checked for frame cracks or indications that the bike had been down harder than just a tip over. Nothing. According to the seller, he had to replace the swing arm. The well known cracks. He also mentioned that he had broken off the turn signal control stalk and replaced the left side control unit. He also had exchanged the footpeg hangers with the black colored ones from a later model (this is one of only two items, where the original part was not included in the deal).

When we tried to start the bike for a test ride, the brandnew Li-ion battery was dead. Odd, but hey... We fitted a standard battery and I tried to take off. And stalled the bike - pretty rough clutch, but these bikes are known for them, after all!? We got her running and I took off. And did not get too far. After a couple of kms she started to hickup and eventually died on me. One thing I noticed was how noisy the bike was: the stock cans had at the time of the initial purchase been replaced by open BOS exhausts - and I still wonder how the bike EVER made it through the German TUEV technical control...

Based on how the bike had behaved before it died on me, I suspected having run out of gas and called the seller. When he arrived, it became clear that the fuel punp was not running, which could be traced to a blown fuse. Replacing the fuse did not remedy matters, so we suspected a dead fuel pump, loaded her up and I used the issue as a bargaining chip to reduce the price some.

I brought her home and started to go through her. I'll use this post to describe what I found and learned - I have found similar posts (and the many helpful replies I received when I asked for help) very helpful. I hope this one will achieve the same.