I had a 94 900ss for 5 years, trouble free apart from the steel ring on the vertical cam shaft pulley came loose and dropped down between the belts , caught it purely by luck when i checked the belt tension, vertical belt was about to break, looked like a mouse nest in there. Also large hex plug on the rear of the gearbox loosened up causing shift problems. Mine was a carb model tuned by Baines racing, with exhaust affle mods, sounded amazing. Good luck.
What steel ring was that? The washer behind the castle lock nut or the round steel plate behind the pulley? Never heard of that happening, sounds serious
I've just been trying to find a picture/video of same thing that happened to "Ghost" (a member who used to be on here and several Forums) who was even luckier. His ring (!) once departed, also bounced around inside his vertical cambelt cover but instead finally managed to hook itself onto the end of the adjustable idler post of that cylinder where, until eventually discovered, it happily spun like something straight out of a circus act.
not sure of the years introduced or sequence but do you remember the central, common outer pulley in picture having a "guide" incorporated in the outermost face as a deterrent for belt creeping off? I don't think the very late 2V engines had them at all. Around Pantah/2valve belt introduction time, this guide was a separate ring that was spotwelded onto the pulley in only around 3 places from memory and so could work loose/fracture and detach completely.
There was one on each pulley of my '97 750.....never seemed they would come off easily. I think Ghost had his come off because IIRC as it was a race bike he used to change his belts quickly by pulling them off and putting them back on afterwards.
You can only speak as you find - one of my early Elefants had one that was part fractured and so I removed it, and so wasn't at all surprised when Cagiva/Ducati went to the trouble and expense of making the guide one-piece for later engines, they certainly wouldn't have done so without good reason.
as Alan said, at one point they were on the cam sprockets as well and it was this configuration that made belt replacement on the horizontal head more difficult than later versions.
As mentioned, I had them on my '97 750 on all three pulleys, but I found a quick dodge for easy belt replacement. When you slacken a belt off, lift the loose belt up a bit, so you can swing the movable adjuster idler under the belt from the outside to the inside of the belt. Belt just lifts off over the flanges easily. Well, it works on the 750 and 600.....I don't know about the 900.
I have a '94 900 SS which is sat in the garage, needs a service / belts etc which may be up for sale soon as a change in personal circumstances is happening. No where to keep her etc.... will post here first when the time comes. Would like some one who loves these bikes to take her on.
Quite right, they are an easily dismissed gem by many people. Theres also the FB groups which are awash with SS fans
I have the clip ons as high as poss , it feels like a sports tourer in comparison to my fireblade, I had to sell the blade eventually because my wrists would ache for days after a weekends riding, amazing how relaxed the riding position is in comparison to modern sports bike but it probably felt committed back in the 90’s!.
