More Ducati Updates

The summer and fall months have been highlighted by continued work on my old and rusty Ducati.

I can proudly say now that it's not rusty anymore.

I striped and painted just about every piece that was salvageable.  The foot pegs, brake switch bracket, engine mounts and lower steering yoke were all given a nice new coat of shiny black paint.  The frame was also taken down to the bare metal and painted the same shade of black.  I also purchased new fork tubes and now my forks are together and ready to install.

To look at the bike now, you'd never know it sat outside for a decade or more.  Progress is being made, however at a moderate pace.

The real work, though, lies within the engine.

When I first went to look at the bike, I couldn't check to make sure the engine would turn over because the kick-start lever was missing.  No worries, I thought, I'll just take the timing cover off and turn the engine with a wrench.

Wrong.

With the timing cover removed, I put a wrench on the nut and it never moved.  My worst fear had been realized: the piston was seized to the bore.

With this knowledge, I tore into my Ducati's engine expecting to find the worst and that's exactly what I found.  I now know why the bike was parked oh-so-many years ago and I began to regret my purchase. 

The piston was not only seized to the bore but it had a nickel-sized hole in it, as well.  Moisture had entered the engine through the open carb and seized the piston to the bore.  A motorcycle won't run if the piston has a hole in it and so the bike was parked.  Ten years later, this schmuck (me) comes along and buys it.

So now I have to remove the center jug section of the head to get the piston out.  That involved rotating the crank back and forth to get the jug to separate from the bottom end.  Slowly the jug raised off the bottom and I worked it off with a few screwdrivers and wooden shims.

In keeping with my luck, the wrist pin that holds the piston on the connecting rod was blocked by the bore.  I couldn't get to it to press it out.  The piston was not moving for anybody so I had to break the bottom of the piston to free the wrist pin from the piston.  After some hammering and squishing of my fingers, the bottom of the piston came apart and I could separate the jug from the bottom end.

The steel bore liner was cracked and ruined along the bottom and the piston was not going anywhere.  I managed to press out the bore liner and I picked up a new one from Classic Ducati in Derbyshire, England.  The new liner has to be machined for the head bolts.  It's also a little too long and hits the crank.  In all, though, having the liner gets me closer to putting the bike back on the road, even if it's only a few millimeters closer.

The rest of the engine looks pretty solid.  There is some rust on the crank from the moisture that got in through the carb but other than that, it's clean.  The transmission shifts into and out of every gear and I can turn the crank by hand.  The clutch plates were rusted together but I was going to replace them, anyway.

Right now, I'm waiting for my alternator puller to arrive so I can split the engine cases.  I'd like to disassemble everything and sandblast the cases to get all the calcium off.  

My old rusty bike is coming along quite nicely.  I hope to breath new life into its once-tired bones and get this bike out on the road.  The list of things that still need addressed is long and a bit daunting but nothing I can't handle.

I've got my eyes on the day I can put on my puddling bowl helmet and goggles, hop on the kick-start and ride off to the sweet sound off a Ducati single.