[XcesiveSlyd]

I picked up a 749 on Thursday. I was quite happy. I changed the oil and mounted a tire on friday. I was pretty mad at the fact I couldn't change the plugs till the following day. I learned from Ducati that their special plug socket was more than a $100 bux! A little searching around on the forum resulted in a milled down spark plug socket. Voila old plugs out and new plugs in. Now come the questions.

1. Should the sparkplugs have oil on the thread? Mine did.

2. Bike is having idling issues. I have searched the many and various threads. My idle is on the low side. I have bled the clutch, it was dragging. Stipulation-if I start the bike it runs fine. No matter how much revving I do. When I ride the bike any closed throttle operations result in fall to idle then die. If I hold the idle @ 1500 RPM for a few moments then close the throttle completely the bike will idle like it should.

3. How much does a clutch cost and where can I find one for cheap. It's a funding issue right now. I can register it or replace the clutch, but not both. I was taking the bike to Palomar for a Sunday ride when not 10 mi from my house I discovered the clutch was slipping. From 5K< with more than 20% throttle all that would result would be high revving w/o much increase in speed.
I took some pix of the plates. Some have entire sections of material missing. The ones that don't have significantly less than what the book calls for.

http://s837.photobucket.com/albums/zz294/MarineDragger/
I can't post up a wtb ad for awhile still.
Any one upgrade to a slipper and wanna sell me their old one?

Thanks for any advice.

-Chris

 

[rapter]

I had an idle issue with my bike after I changed the spark plugs.

Forgive me, but I don't know what the part is called, but on the top of the spark plug there are these little bottle cap types things. These have to be installed on the spark-plug in order for them to make a really good spark!

Without these my bike would stall pretty much right away when it got down to Idle. Installed, the bike ran perfectly fine.

Another issue to look into would be the spark plugs themselves. They are a bit Tricky, they have to be THE CORRECT ones and not something really cheapy cheapy otherwise you may run into issues.

As for your clutch, see that you levers are adjusted correctly so that when you grab the lever you are pushing the control rod all the way through. There is also a fine adjustment nut (bronze type assembly) that will give your lever some more push with regards to the Master Cylinder.

 

[tye1138]

The plugs sometimes have oil on them from the cam cover gasket. Lots of techs don't replace that cover gasket when doing service and it can easily cause a small oil leak onto the spark plug over time. Just as a tip, the plugs should be brown, if the bike is running properly.

The idling issues are related to fueling. The solutions are pretty easy; give it more fuel (which requires an ECU remapping and an exhaust with out a catalytic converter in it) OR alter the cam timing. Most people have found that a simple timing change resolves it (my 848 doesn't stall anymore after my first valve job).

Clutches are roughly $180 - $269. You don't have to buy a Ducati OEM clutch, but the factory clutch does last longer.