Lucky Phil

Winner,winner chicken dinner to me. Ciao

It looks like a capacitor. Ciao

Even more "this is Italian". My 851 Ducati from 1987 arrived in the country during the change over to the international 17 digit VIN system. It had an engraved steel plate with the VIN on it stick welded over the original frame number stamped on the head stock by the Australian distributor. I can just imagine dealing with this piece of work authorities wise for the owner if it was ever necessary 30 or 40 years later. Ciao

You haven't mentioned fresh fuel? If its had old fuel sitting in there for 5 years then the injectors will probably need to come out and be professionally cleaned and the fuel filter replaced at a minimum. Ciao

Don't know but sounds like a waste of time to me. Firstly your downgrading the brakes and I'm sure a pair of 2015 USD forks would work better than the 20 year old Ohlins OEM grade forks anyway. Just get the std Griso forks upgraded with aftermarket internals. The rear shock wont transfer and there are better alternatives around now. There has been suspension progress in the last 20 years. Ciao

Well the suspension seemed fine to me but I'm a bit of a ride what you got guy to some extent. Some of my bikes have got some pretty exotic suspension on them like full race Ohlins (not the OEM Ohlins) and my track Gsxr1000 has a Wilbers rear shock as does my V11 and the 1000SS has an Ohlins. I dont remember the 900 Sport suspension being bad that's for sure. It's a funny thing as a good mate of mine has a Ducati 750 Sport which would be close to 20 years old I guess, it was bargain basement Ducati of it's day, steel swing arm and single front disk and plain Jane suspension. It's the same style as my bike. He's always laughing at the bike mag tests of his bike back when it was new about how bad the brakes and suspension were. Believe me when we ride together I'm working to keep up with him. He was an A grade road racer here in Australia back in the 70's and he's still pretty quick even on the road on a Bargain Basement 750 Ducati with "crap" suspension, at 72 years old! LOL. Yes the 1000SS came with full fairings and I bought some 3/4 fairings as I like the look. I also fitted Magnesium engine covers and valve covers and different disks and Titanium fasteners etc. It came std with the alloy arm, Its nice. The old 900 Sport had the steel arm painted silver. Ciao

Here's some images of my 900 Sport. I bought this bike as a cosmetic write off. They came originally with satin black paint and lower spec suspension and steel instead of alloy swing arm.The SS had the higher spec suspension and red paint.I repaired the cosmetics and painted it red. Sold it to a guy at work eventually. Personally I think they are MUCH easier to maintain than a V11. Remove the seat and unclip a rubber strap and the tank hinges up at the front and stays there with a built in prop and you can access the battery and throttle bodies etc, brilliant. External oil filter, chain final drive which can be totally replaced in 30 min,complete clutch replacement 45 min including the basket, reliable electrics,light weight, Desmo valves every 15,000 klm, easy peasy. Compare 1000 SS DS Ciao

I just wired the headlight with its own dedicated supply and a couple of mini relays to eliminate the voltage drop in the light circuit so the reg doesn't get fooled. Ciao

The alternator rotor is on a keyway so it will be in the same place. Ciao

Ok Pete so its now a solid pin apart from some maybe 5-6 mm drillings from the mains and the same size through the pin intersecting them. A largely solid pin then? 7.1 KG seems pretty light as well. Ciao

Nice Pete, not too impressed with the sludge trap omission. There's always quite a bit of rubbish in there and its nice to know you've got it cleaned out properly if you have the engine apart. Spose there's quite a few around with DLC coating living in the pin. Ciao

Yep. The way to go is use the dead stop method and if the flywheel marks are wrong the make your own. Only need to do it once. Ciao

You need to number these things Chuck, after all they are a "limited edition" May be worth a fortune in a hundred years:) Ciao

Here's how it works docc if it is indeed the case here. An overfull reservoir leaves no room for fluid expansion so you can sometimes to an extent get away with it until it gets warm/hot. So if the reservoir is overfilled when you pull the lever it will as usual squirt a little fluid back into the reservoir until the secondary seal is exposed to the fluid and the fluid connection hole is covered. The problem is now the reservoir is totally full and when the clutch springs/spring tries to back drive the master the master cant push the fluid back into the reservoir because there is no available room for the displaced fluid to return. Your hand pulling the clutch lever generates more force than the pressure plate springs trying to return the system to the null position so even with the system totally full the hand force can create enough expansion in the reservoir (up to a point) that allows disengagement but then there's not enough force from the pressure plate springs to do the opposite. If you were aware of what was about to occur you would probably have noticed the pull of the lever when the sticking clutch event occurred was harder than normal. The Focus I drive has had similar issues with the clutch for other owners, not I ( pedal sticks to the floor and a hard pedal for the first operation after a freeway drive without using the clutch for a while) and the dealers were replacing clutches and master cylinders and slave cylinders etc only to have the condition re occur. When I investigated my car and another one both reservoirs were way over filled from the factory. They have cast into the reservoir an arrow pointing down with a line above the arrow and the word "full" so everyone fills to the "line" which is in fact over full. When you fill to the arrow tip that's the full level and leaves expansion room. I dont think there's been a single event since i mentioned this on a forum. The natural thought is to "fill to the line" which in this case is wrong. The hard pedal push after a run without clutch use is due to the fluid heating up and expanding. Its a bit like the mal adjusted brake lever freeplay issue. Is this the issue here? don't know but its an easy place to start. Ciao

That would be good Pete, and an image? Ciao

For those interested in 78 mm crank differences. On the left a Centauro and later Daytona crank. On the right a 78 mm Cali crank. I think the earlier Daytona cranks that used the standard rods also used the Cali version with the balance adjusted but as can be seen the difference between the Cali 78 mm crank and the Centi/Later Daytona cranks is a lot more than just a dynamic balance adjustment. The 78 mm Cali crank is just a heavier version at 8.3 kg compared to 7.5 kg for the Centi and later Daytona Cranks. No wonder the lighter Centi crank and single plate flywheel feels like a Ducati engine. Ciao

Its not overfilled is it? Ciao

In your climate John your running oil temp even ( not traffic) in summer will probably only be around 100C maximum, probably a fair bit lower. As you can see from the graph below with regards to the change of viscosity from 80 to 100 deg C its very small. It's not a straight viscosity reduction but an exponential change so the difference between 80 and 100 isn't great. The issue you have though isn't going to be at the top end as you wont be needing max oil pressure when the oil temp is up around or over the 100 deg C point, that will be when you're in traffic and even if you did the pressure at 100C will probably now be around the 65 psi mark which is still plenty. Your concern is at the bottom end with the oil light coming on, or has been. Presently you have 32 psi idle pressure at 80 deg C and you wont have the LOP light issue any more even at 120 deg oil temp. From the graph you can get a reasonable idea. I'd estimate the top end at 120 deg C will reduce to around 55 psi and the idle will be around 15-20 psi. plenty in both cases. Of course this doesnt take into account engine clearance changes with temp so it will still be interesting to see what the actual figures are. Ciao