Looking to do the Desmo service myself following estimates of £800 - £1200 on y 2014 MTS1200S. I've done the belts previously so have some idea, but can anyone point me in the right direction for HowTo guides ? Searched on here but struggling to find it. Thanks
Great link, thank you Shoboshi, @daddypew , and anyone else reading, you can see why the quotes for the Desmo service are in the range you specify. There are a lot of man hours involved in just getting to the valves and then putting the bike back together.
Well done. I used this video and did mine for first time in lockdown. Did it over 2 days. Time well spent.
Many thanks, think I'm motivated enough to do this over the winter now, I'll let you know how it goes ... Now if I could only get MelcoDiag to reset my service indicator
Yeah, don't know if that's doable. Someone will. Btw, I've found that once milage got high enough the display doesnt show oil and service indicators anymore. Not sure when they stopped being displayed exactly.
I did my valve clearances myself on my 2013 and after a few thousand miles the desmo service warning disapeared. If you have a local dealer check that they have a good stock of shims and are willing to sell you them from stock, my dealer wouldn't sell their stock and would only order them for me, two week wait on average, I bought a shim kit as I plan to keep this bike for a long time. Worth buying a full set of closer split collets, if your closer gaps are out a new pair of collets will often bring them back into spec.
I think my Desmo service was about 7-8 hours, and I needed 5 shims (at £20 each). Thankfully only every three years or so for me (by which time I'll likely no longer own the bike anyway, once it comes round again).
Don't scrimp on shim measuring tools, there's some proper shit on eBay, buy decent stuff and get the job done properly without the ball-ache, it's worth it in the long run. Very satisfying job to do yourself.
A bit later than intended, but finally made a start ... Found all openers within tolerance and 6 closers were above max tolerance. Figured out the new shim sizes required and obtained from local Ducati dealer. All was going well apart from one troublesome valve .... Fitted the new shim but on trying to refit the cam shaft, there was a lot of resistance as the closer cam was too tight against the follower. Thought I'd miscalculated, so replaced the shim with the original, but still too tight. It appears the half rings aren't seating into the valve stem ? causing the deviation ..... still investigating but hoping someone might have an idea to help ? Thanks Stuart
The split collets wear on one side, if you don’t get them back in the same way they came out then your calculations will be wrong, it’s difficult to see but you can see the wear. This is why I use new collets, you can more often than not get away without re-shimming as, generally, it’s the collets which wear. Try flipping the collets and make sure the wear is on the same side.
Yes they’re silly money for what they are! You may as well carry on how you’ve done it now, nothing wrong with that way and you already have the shim. Worn sides down, which is tricky as the damn things are tiny and have a mind of their own.
