Ducati 996 engine custom build

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out in the sunshine... people are saying I have an obsession with Orange!

Clutch cover is now on...

tank plate now finished....

lost an entire day as I could not get the TPS voltage to register on the ignition... turns out that I had the TPS load in pin 9 and it should have been pin 6.... wrong way up! its registering voltage readings now so next few days I will post a video

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I think the single sided SA will fit...


I am going to run it without belt covers.... and take the risk....

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Question... is bike building a form of self isolation?

As I am going to leave the belts open I thought it best to at least have a token grill to stop big stones flicking up… particularly off the front wheel. Its still a risk I know… I made this grill out of Stainless steel mesh, and 6mm stainless tube. I needed to cut a slot in the tube to make it neat, so I made a jig and used a 0.9mm cutting disk. it worked rather well! just got to polish it now.

Also fitted new belts... I have used the app on my phone before for tensioning and its very good. takes any guesswork out of it. after fitting the belt on the horizontal cylinder I tensioned it using the app… and on the vertical cylinder I tensioned it to the good old trusted method of twisting it 90 degrees on the longest run to what years of experience told me felt right… when I checked it I was VERY close, which was quite pleasing.

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Sometimes it doesn't go to plan...  it would not start...  I spent a good few hours trying to understand why...   I had taken the tank off a few times to change things and had put a clamp on the fuel pipe....  and forgot!

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hope this works!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttwXvitwLT4

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Made a stand today to keep it upright and safe in the garage… The wheels are idler bearing i changed on a car recently when I did a can belt... makes it roll nicely. Also fitted the seat badge and tank protector.... with all the Corvid 19 issues its looking like I won’t be riding it for a while…

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Scratching around for jobs to do now while I cant ride it! made some frame finishers…

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well I came to make the last frame finisher that was actually a different size to all the rest... then I noticed that Ducati had cut the frame at an angle! So I had to make an angled finisher... this took some setting up in the lathe to get the angle just right....

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As an aside from working on the Ducati.... I have been busy doing a job on my Harley V-Rod today...I changed the oil and filter and in doing that took the opportunity to check on the timing bolt in the engine that can come loose on some bikes, which wrecks the engine!  nice and easy job, just drain the oil and remove the alternator cover which comes off easily.  I checked the torque of the bolt before I removed it and it was tight...  However to be on the safe side I removed it and cleaned both the internal thread and the bolt, and used some high strength thread lock on there as advised by the factory...

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None Ducati this time, but with lockdown still in place I helped a mate out who needed some brake calliper pistons for a Norton Commando he is rebuilding...

I made two out of stainless steel for him as the originals were pitted quite badly... took a while to grind a tool to the correct angles and get the speed of the lathe right to get a nice finish, but I got there in the end...

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Been a while since I updated....early May, lockdown continues, still can’t ride, it’s very frustrating to have bikes on the drive and not ride them!!

done a few more jobs like programme the ignition advance to get a steady tick over, and importantly retard the ignition at cranking speed to give the starter motor an easier time.

Also balanced the carbs.  for years I used a mercury gauge for this but a mate borrowed them  and broke it!  so I bought a set of gauges, but noticed I could get it closer by ear!  so I checked the gauges by connecting them to a single vacuum source and found they were all reading differently!  hence the single gauge with 5 valves.  the 5th valve provides damping to the gauge.  I have found you can get a perfect tick over with this method.

lets hope we can ride soon!

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Middle of may and lockdown has eased a little and I have been out doing a few miles... It runs REALLY well on the carbs! the throttle response is amazing and it feels very crisp and lively! made a few adjustments to the timing at low RPM, but the jetting feels OK, and a plug chop confirmed its not far out... just need to put a few miles on it now... its VERY loud though!

will post a video soon as I can get someone to take it!

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Been out and about the last few days bedding things in after the rebuild... one thing I noticed was its slow to turn over when you start it. I had upgraded the cables, and the starter itself was good, so I had another look at the timing. When I did the map, I had the first RPM point at 400 with 10 degrees BTDC and the second at 1000 again with 10 degrees... so i changed this to 5 degrees from 400 to 1000, so there is not so much advance at cranking speed.

I also configured the software so it did two full dead revolutions before it sparks...  this means the engine is properly spinning before it fires... It really spins over now and starts MUCH better

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thought I would update this... been using the bike all summer and have done quite a few miles... here is a short video with sound :-)



https://youtu.be/rfqe5zYf5Kw