I bought my 748BP in 1999 but despite my best intentions it spent most of its time in a rented lock up garage rather than on the road. It only came out when there was a fortunate alignment of the stars and it was a sunny Sunday and SWMBO didn't have other plans for me. Those times were few and far between. Occasionally I'd use it to commute to work but realistically, in the London traffic, it was a damn sight easier on the twist & go scooter. The years went by and in 2012 we moved to SW Ireland, lovely house, great grounds, fantastic location but no garage . So the 748, the scooter and SWMBO's 2CV sat outside under waterproof covers. I started a business, it consumed me completely and utterly and I had no time to ride the bikes - shame on me for letting work rule my life. A change of circumstances last year and I find myself with some time on my hands, my life is my own again and I set about recommissioning the 748 and getting it back on the road. The story behind that is in this thread here. https://www.ducatiforum.co.uk/threads/making-the-old-girl-beautiful-and-sleek-again.64040/ It was in a sorry state and the plan was always just to recommission it, get it going again so I could use it for the latter half of the biking season and then give it a comprehensive overhaul over the winter months. This thread follows that overhaul. A refresh of a 20 year old 748. The first thing I had to do was build myself a garage to work in. She doesn't look too bad there .....but, starting with the front end, on closer inspection The state of the fasteners is just diabolical. The zinc galvanising has long since vanished, taken by the elements, there's also 20 years of muck in the recesses a quick clean never got to. There's corrosion on the disk rotor holder around the bobbins - although the bobbins all turned freely and weren't seized as I'd gone over them as part of the recommission last August. Having read all the horror stories on here about seized bolts and rounded heads due to the arguably sub-expected standard bolts used by Ducati in the 90s I have to admit I was relieved when they all came undone undamaged (not without some effort and use of penetrating fluid mind you). The wheel dropped out, the spindle was knocked out and the rotors came off the wheel (this was the hardest part, undoing the rotor retaining bolts). There's a bit of corrosion on the front spindle but nothing that can't be removed with fine grit emery cloth and wire wool. Next, the front calipers. Mucky pups that they are. Remove the brake pins and spring and pop out the pads O M G ....... and I'd ridden several hundred miles with them like that last year! Surprisingly they still worked. I know as I'd been a) testing them when I first put her back on the road, and b) practicing my emergency stops - just in case I ever had to do one. As you can see, after 20 years - yes these are the original pads, it's a low mileage example - corrosion has caused the pads to come away from the backs, the pads to break in half and on one side the metal back had even corroded through Finally, remove the front mudguard. This was the most difficult part. Those little feckers of bolts with the nuts embedded in plastic are just shites to undo when they've corroded. The nut just turns around in the plastic and chews it up. Time to bring out the fretsaw. Front wheel & attachments now all removed for refurbishment. More to follow. ps. I know it's a long post but (following the rules) there are pictures to break it up
Sell probably. I can't justify keeping it as a work of art, although that is tempting, it's just not the right sort of bike for around here and would continue to be massively underutilised. My M1100S is my go to bike at present although that's hardly surprising as the 748 is in 500 pieces all over the garage with no front end, rear end, crankcases, rocker covers etc etc, just an engine in a frame suspended from the ceiling by straps like some in some S&M dungeon
I reckon once you have done her all up changed her to red you will find anew found love for her Not SWMBO
Next job, drop out the front forks. First, the fork tops got loosened while the forks were still held in the headstock, then pinch bolts undone and twist & slide out the forks. Relatively easy, no stripped bolts or heads either .However, what I should've done was to wrap the fork tops in insulation tape before applying the wrench. They came undone, eventually, but were bloody stiff. The first one got ever so slightly damaged. The second one I wrapped in tape so no damage.
You are supposed to undo the top clamps before undoing the fork tops as it releases the pressure on them. You just leave the bottom ones done up tight.
Then strip them all down and replace the seals and bushes. The oil seals weren't leaking but the dust seals had corroded. At least the wire in the dust seal had corroded which, as it expanded, caused the rubber to split, so the forks had to come apart to replace those so I may as well replace the oil seals and bushes at the same time. Oh, and change the 20 year old oil The spring was checked against it's specifications - no issues there. Hardly surprising as the bike's only done 3500 miles! This is what the 20 year old oil looked like (although there was as near as dammit the exact amount there should be) This is what it should look like - big difference. Both forks overhauled and placed in the corner of the garage for reassembly later . BTW, getting the forks apart was tricky but not impossible on my own but reassembling them was impossible so I had to enlist the help of SWMBO, so if you're doing it get a helper
