Thought it was about time I serviced the rear hub, quite shocked how much crap had collected in the swingarm in the last 23,000 miles, the stones in it made getting the hub out a bit of a struggle.
Not untypical. I remember many moons ago, there was a plastic ‘plug’ for the hole in the front of the casting of the 9*6/748 SSSA to reduce the amount of filth picked up. Obviously need something similar for the V4. Andy
On my old 1260, when I did the hub service I filled the void with builders foam. An old trick from my VFR days, they had the same problem with the swing-arm filling with road detritus.
Goodness that is truly awful. Surely with this knowledge, Ducati would ensure this was part of a service inclusion. I'll need to check the service detailed listings to verify for myself whether this is the case or not.
I wonder what my 27yr old, 54k mile 916 would look like in there? Though I did replace the hub a few years back and don't recall any mess like that so maybe it doesn't gather there? Reminds me of my old Landrover - had a small rust hole in the bottom of the chassis rail which, on further investigation needed half of the bottom of the chassis replacing and I got 3 buckets full of sand/muck out of that side alone (a bit less from the other) but fair enough, there was decades of off-roading to account for it. I did cut more drain holes into said LR chassis to help it stay clean, maybe the swingarm needs a better drain hole?
The only problem I can see with that is that if/when the foam gets wet, it may never dry encouraging corrosion?
I agree that the drain hole could be bigger, but the amount of debris in that swingarm would plug anything smaller than 5mm
I know it wouldn't let the stones out, but some of the issue with the drain hole is that when it was drilled/ machined out they did not clean the exit of the hole (that's what she said!) so there is a lip around it, that will stop water exiting, I've sorted mine now, as Ducati should have when they built it
If you use foam you want closed cell foam as used for marine applications not the open cell stuff that does absorb water.
To my limited knowledge; only when cut and even then not a lot. I suppose that there could be argument that water could penetrate and be prevented from drying in the area of the barrier between the foam and the inside of the swingarm though.
I suppose you could apply a really thorough coating of ACF 50 before filling with foam to alleviate corrosion problems ?
I think the likelihood is that water/moisture could be trapped in the foam or, more likely between the foam and the metal. In restoring a Land Rover chassis, I have researched the best ways to prevent corrosion as the chassis basically rots from the inside due to trapped moisture and the general consensus seems to be to keep the inside of the chassis as clear as possible as trapped muck gathers moisture which causes the steel to rust. For this reason I have drilled more, larger drain holes which initially seemed counter-intuitive as water can get in easier but it gets in anyway, the big issue is getting it out. Filling the chassis with expanding foam is definitely not considered best practice due to moisture retention plus, you can never get it out and if you do need to weld/repair in the future then the whole lot would burn up. Obviously, the bike swingarm is alloy not mild steel so rust not the issue but, if you can't prevent crap from getting in then you need to be sure to get it out.
Think I'll just clean it out every year, it's not a big job. Bike is worth bugger all so think it maybe staying with me for a while!
Fill all the holes in the chassis and fill it with waste oil and weld up the filling hole, no other part of a land rover can keep oil in so won't matter it it leaks a bit. Seem to remember my dad doing it with Morris 1000 van doors, the door bottoms used to rot from the inside.
