998 water gauge dismantling

They are crimped at the bevel (the black outer ring) so the only way to get them apart is to either cut/destroy the bevel, which is obviously not ideal if you want to put it back together again, or to cut the outer plastic case behind the bevel to pull it apart. You can then glue/tape the case back together.

I inherited some clocks that had the faces changed, and this is how they had done them.

 

they are actually assembled with a styrene type of glue and the only way to gain access to the instrument as already said, is to detach the top by neatly cutting around the whole perimeter just below the rim of the main body. You still have the problem of replacement of glass and black cover of course. The temp gauges cases fitted to early type Cagiva Mito are identical and you may be able to find a good s/hand unit for salvaging.

 

I had the clock faces changed on my 998 and I watched while it was done by Superdials at the time. It's not a job for the faint hearted though. What this person did was to pierce the side of the dial with a soldering iron enough to get a thin blade under the bezel you then lever gently around it from side to side. The glue is hard so it cracks hopefully before the bezel!! but it can be done.

The problem you will encounter though is that the bezel will come off with the lens, you cannot split them as they are sealed together, so if you have a spare bezel with lens then you can replace the unit as a whole (bezel\lens).

It's a common problem with Ducati's and the best way round it is to get some alloy bezels and then use glass for the cover lens. I have a spare pair in Red alloy that I am going to fit when the need arises as the lenses all go eventually unless you can keep them in a stable temperature environment which is almost impossible.

Use light grade epoxy to put them back together again.

 

^ I have tried separating black bezel on large and small gauges many times and they have cracked almost every time. It's much safer to remove the top completely if you are trying to protect the black ring. Also it's much better to split with a blade than a soldering iron. Last tacho I removed top from was by using a lathe which is best option of all.

 

Not to bad. Ducati 748 916 996 998 Temperature Thermometer Guage | eBay

 

listing says '.....slight fractures on screen...".

not sure how long that would last before slight became less slight? but maybe worth a punt.

 

Well spotted, Hadn't read it, just caught my eye last night. Must be more observant.

 

not at all sir, mine was intended to be non critical, just pointing out the small print, in case anyone looking for such ( such as me...) rushed in and bid.

you spot em?, keeping posting them up please- i need water and rev counter gauges.....

 

"They all do that sir." I have white clocks (with the obligatory crack in the temp guage glass) on my 748 and they really are rare as rocking horse sh!te so I bought a black one to donate the 'glass', however it will not come off without some pretty careful cutting so I stuck with the cracked one. I did find them to be regularly auctioned on ebay in black (both centigrade and Fahrenheit versions) and intermittently there were new ones as well, mine was only £20. You may want to be patient and keep scanning the listings for a while or find out how much a new one is. If you find anywhere that can repair the damaged one please post the details as the cracked lense seems to afflict 1 in 3 of the 748/9xx range. Good luck finding one and sorting this out.

On glueing the bezel, the reason they crack is down to the hard glue and lack of any slack or expansion room, if you get that far I would strongly recommend a flexible glue similar to the one used for the head light shell-lense. It will allow the assembly to expand and contract and prevent the stress build up which causes the cracking.

 

if you are up for a bit of cutting and shutting David (did we ride to Godstone together once?) then this is one route if a whole gauge doesn't turn up for sale :- Cagiva Mito evo, clocks, speedo, rev counter,Breaking Complete Bike | eBay

 

They are still available new, but not cheap...about 125 quid. They are a pain to open up as mentioned, but with care can be done. I've changed the dial in a few over the years. Remember though that the glass is bonded into the bezel, so getting a clean cut is only have the job. You'd need to be real careful not to break the bezel itself getting the glass out of it.

 

even better - use this one :- Cagiva mito clocks dash speedo speedometer tacho rev counter clock set evo 2000 | eBay it's a straight swap as background dial is in (nearly) matching black and this is a bargain. Would be buying this myself if I didn't have two spares.

 

I had the same with my 996 and got a spare off ebay. I still have the old one but the bezel and lens are removed. Dunno if you would want it so you could try repairing it?

 

I waited ages but got a water gauge off ebay for 40 quid. Quite a lot of clock sets come up complete if you watch but are near 100 quid.

 

Forgot to add, I emailed one of the sellers who routinely sold clock sets and asked for a single gauge which he listed for me as a buy it now

 

ive never had a problem with mine, but with these bits getting rarer and rarer i might start looking to build up a collection of spares....