Basket still looks like it has some life in it. It just gets noisier with wear, which isnt such a bad thing is it? I would certainly keep it as a spare as I have seen one of mine a lot worse than that when I replaced it.
Putting a friction plate in first is not in order to transfer the wear to high points in the basket slots. It is to take advantage of the rounded bottom end of the basket slots that the friction plate tabs fit into. That first friction plate then jams down into the rounded end of the slot, where it is no longer able to oscillate backwards and forwards. This plate in turn dampens the movement of the whole stack, dramatically cutting wear and the noise from the chattering that is causing the wear. Having done this, it is then only necessary to replace friction plates when the the friction material wears out, not when the tabs get worn. It is not even necessary to use an extra old friction plate, you can simply put one of your existing plates in first and the clutch will work perfectly well. Of course, some don't want to lose the 'music' of a chattering dry clutch and are happy to accept the associated wear...
Oh, right. We live and learn. Thank you! I do like the sound of the clutch - and I like the idea of making it better so easily! I wonder why Ducati don't do this from the get-go. Seems an obvious way to improve things.
The moment of truth... Fill the engine with oil. No leaks (tick) Put some fuel in the tank. No leaks (tick) Connect the battery No sparks, no smoke (tick) Switch on. All idiot lights lit (tick) No smoke (tick) Petrol pump whirrs and stops. Some gurgling as circuit charges (big tick) Disconnect spark plugs and press starter. Engine turns (tick) repeat a few times. Oil pressure light doesn't extinguish, but no leaks (half tick) Reconnect the plugs, set choke, hold breath, press starter.... ... and there's life! Engine starts and runs. Oil light extinguishes immediately. Feeling just so chuffed. Not everything works - the choke isn't set up right - even with the lever fully over, the engine stops if I let go of the accelerator, and the brake light is permanently lit. But the feeling's so, so good. immense relief (I did worry about cocking up things like valve timing I fitted the belts), combined with not a little pride. When the bike was a pile of parts, it seems a mammoth task to put everything back in more-or-less the right place. I was prepared for a long fault-finding session, what with everything depending on inputs to the computer, so hats off to the quality of the Ducati wiring (not at all like my old Moto Guzzi in the 80's, which rewarded disturbance with failure to reconnect until you'd wiggled and twisted and reinserted connectors a few times). The brake light issue is sorted now, and I'm ready to put the plastic back on. Roll on the weekend!
Nice one. I experienced a massive low after the high of finishing the job. I did not know what to do with myself after months of weekend re-build joy. That first ride was worth it though. Enjoy.
So - here's a picture of the bike a couple of weekends ago - half of the fairing is on... Now I can see that I could have spent an awful lot more time (and money) on this project. But I like the frame colour, and it's so much smarter than when I started. However.... ... in a fit of enthusiasm, I bought a 2nd hand pair of OEM cans. It's in case I have trouble at MOT time. But one of the mounting bolts is sawn through, as you can see in this pic... The reason that it had been cut is that the nut below just spins, so it can't be undone. B******s! I do wish that the seller had been upfront with this! Broken mountings are an automatic MOT failure, so unless I can fix it, it's no use. Any ideas how I can sort this? I don't think that trying to fill the space with epoxy would work, as it'll be greasy in there. I thought perhaps drilling a small (2mm?) hole through the ally skin and into the nut below, and then putting a pin in there might be a solution to jam the nut, but has anyone a better idea? The other thing that puzzled me for a while was that after starting so well, the last time I tried to start just resulted in a chattering starter relay. Turns out that the Chinese (Dynavolt) battery had been fitted and removed one time too many. The connection between the terminal connector and the lead mounting post, which was just soldered together, had almost failed (has completely gone now), do it couldn't deliver the starting current. It's a shame, because it was holding charge well, so it's just the terminal that's dies and not the whole battery. Oh, well.
