The ugly Ducling

[mileshh1]

Hi all,
I just bought my first Ducati, a 2001 750 Dark from a coworker, for the low low price of free. Now I know better than most that there's no such thing as a free motorcycle (my previous bike was a neglected BMW K75, now those things cost a lot to maintain). He was getting rid of it because the dealer quoted him $1200 for necessary work. I'm pretty sure I can beat that.

Here she is as she sits now. I was able to ride it from my buddy's back to my house, and it drove pretty well. The tires are racing takeoffs and are downright scary. Has ~20k miles, and service records are spotty.


Let's pop the hood and see what we're dealing with...


Woah, someone's had some work done. The airbox is missing and those giant pods were installed. The fueling felt pretty good on the ride home, so I guess it's been jetted. Smelled a little rich at idle, so I'll check the plugs and see if I need to adjust the bypass screws.

First things first though, oil change and belts. The last service record I got says that fork seals, oil, and petcock were replaced in 2015... but nothing about belts. Yikes.

Of course I booger up the cover trying to get the very seized screws out. Broke the rubber inner cover too.





Got the new belts on no trouble, and she started right up, so that's a load off my mind. I'm thinking the next thing to tackle is the general dirt all over. This thing is filthy.

Like, there's actually an ant colony or something living in the gage cluster, and there was a cockroach in the spark plug hole.

Just realized looking at the pics why the engine is so dirty: the front fender is missing!!

The wiring to the taillight is questionable as well, and I'd like to put turn signal back on instead of using the integrated signals in the taillight. I'm thinking I'll order the Monster Tail Chop kit and install their bracket, nothing else I can find allows for mounting turn signal with my high exhausts.


So the techy question for the board is, how do I remove the cam gears in order to replace the rubber cover things?

Total cost so far:
69.97 Front tire
94.86 Rear tire
22.47 1 gallon oil
11.78 oil filter
13.21 new grips
82.22 2 belts from Motowheels.com
46.99 4x LED turn signals from amazon

Tools purchased for job so far:
70.99 Venom front and rear stands
7.89 28 mm socket for front axle

[GK]

Great pickup. It’ll be great to see the old girl get put back to her former splendor.
👍🏻👍🏻

[stopintime]

It'll be fun following this bike to it's new life 

Small minus for the clip ons 'soloution' 

There is a tool for the cam gears, but if you have three out of four screws..... maybe that's enough...

[koko64]

Good score
I need someone to give me an M750.
Subscribed

[koko64]

Usually a special tool like a castle nut socket and a pulley holder. Oem is expensive but aftermarket are available in USA. Our sponsors should supply or know of suppliers. Some make a castle nut socket out of a regular one. You gotta do it right.

[mileshh1]

It'll be fun following this bike to it's new life 

Small minus for the clip ons 'soloution' 

There is a tool for the cam gears, but if you have three out of four screws..... maybe that's enough...

I'm not a fan of the look of the clip ons on top of the triple clamp, but it's more comfortable than I would have guessed (for the half hour I've ridden so far). Unfortunately the stock handlebar clamp didn't come in the box of parts, so if anyone wants to sell me one... Ebay sellers are wanting at least 100. I figure I can always get clip ons with higher risers.

[Howie]

If you want to stay with clip ons our sponsors Monsterparts and Moto Wheels carry a variety, some properly designed for over the triple and some under the triple with rise.  SPEEDYMOTO tall boys a lot of rise.  They also carry a good selection of aftermarket specialty tools.

[mileshh1]

It looks like this tool might work for removing the cam gear in order to replace the cover.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/DUCATI-Monster-1100-Cam-Pulley-Tool-for-Ducati-2-valve-Belt-Engine/142788648677?var=null

Anybody know the size of the rear axle nut? My new rear tire is coming this week, and I just had the thought that I might not have a socket large enough. Already had to order one for the front axle.

[mileshh1]

Didn't accomplish a whole lot today:
Got the front brakes back on, torqued everything on the front end properly.
Did some cleaning, flushed a ton of dirt out of the oil rad.
Installed new front turn signals and cleaned up the wiring.
Changed out the skull grips! The throttle side was a booger, the expansion nut holding the mirror in slid way in, had to rotate the clip on to push it out. I hate those expansion nuts, there's got to be a better way... I do own a welder... I forgot to buy open ended grips, so I had to cut out the end which is annoying. The throttle tube is binding a little.

The clutch side was more interesting: 


Discovered the source of my any problems. Gave them a spritz, put a bait trap on the gages, so hopefully when I get back out there my buddies are gone. Anybody have a handlebar clamp and want to trade for some clip ons?

[Speeddog]

You can use an old cambelt and an offbeat style of visegrip.

http://www.irwin.com/tools/locking-tools/the-original-large-jaw-locking-pliers

That is the serious low budget way of doing it.
Problem is the castle nuts are very tight.

That bike has adjustable pulleys, mark the alignment you've got now in case it slips when you're torquing on the castle nut.

And check it before you turn the motor over.

[mileshh1]

Got myself the special castle nut tool and pulley holder, $38 shipped. After I'm done I'll throw it up for sale in the classifieds section. Just waiting on the new rubber cap things to arrive from AMS Ducati. Found a NOS horizontal belt cover on ebay too to replace the one I cracked.

Got a lot of good work done over the past few days, but didn't take that many pictures to prove it. Used the zip tie method to change the rear tire, and holy crap that is so much easier than using spoons. Took about 15 minutes to get the old tire off and the one on and seated. Getting the wheel back on the bike was a boondoggle. I mounted the axle spacer backwards of course, had a hell of a time getting the axle through. Left it for the night because I suspected something wasn't quite right. Looked it up here and saw that it was a common mistake.



Installed a front fender that I got for a steal off ebay, including the stupidly expensive fork clamps and hardware. Looks pretty good if I do say so.



Installed LED turn signals, front and rear. I was having the issue where all four signals would flash regardless of which direction the switch was pushed. Solution was to pull the idiot light out of the dash. Would replacing that light with an LED fix the bleed through?





At the same time I installed a new mounting bracket for the license plate which had provisions for mounting the rear turn signals. Shoutout to Monster Tail Chop for their excellent kit.

Took her out for a spin and went and got the state safety inspection, passed with flying colors (not that it's hard, they just check lights and horn). Synced the carbs while it was warm (it was actually already in perfect sync, didn't need to adjust).



Next steps: clean the pods, degrease and detail engine, route wiring better, replace belt thingys, and ride the damn thing.

[Howie]

Keep the tools, at least for as long as you own a bike they work on.  How is the blink rate on the LED blinkers?  Resistors will slow down the blink rate and prevent feed back. allowing you to reinstall the idiot light.

The ugly Duckling is starting to look good 

[ute]

Looking Good

[Ddan]

I did this for the directionals:

[mileshh1]

Thanks Ddan, that'll help a lot. Feel weird ordering such small mundane things on Amazon, but without radio shack I don't know where to buy such things locally.

I replaced the relay with an electronic flasher unit, $10 off Amazon.