Multistrada 1000ds Custom Project

I have finished the exhaust, save for the final mounting of the silencer, and giving it a good polish which can wait for final assembly.

Next step had been to remove the engine and start the rebuild on that as I want to make sure its all OK before i get into spending. I also want to vapour blast the cases as they are painted as standard and this is really poor.

First couple of jobs was making an alternator cover puller, and a cam nut tool. This was followed by making a primary gear puller... boy it was tight on the shaft! I tightened it really tight, and left it for a couple of hours... it was on the bench when I got back!
Also made some mandrels for pressing the bearings out. I have to figure how to get one of the bearings out that I cant get to the back of...

 

It took ages to clean the cases. I left them in a container of thinners for a few days, and then jet washed the paint off (what was left of it) I gave then a clean in the bead blast cabinet afterwards and they came up quite well, but I don’t like building engines where the cases have been in a dry blast cabinet… it tends to impregnate the surface, not good in the inside of the engine. So I took them to the vapour blasters who gave them the once over in the machine. Now here is the important bit… they need to be cleaned to perfection! I have seen many engines scrapped buy not getting every single bead of glass out. so, jet wash to death… making sure you flush app the oil-ways out. dry off, and clean with paraffin, use an airline to blow the bead out of every single orifice. Jet wash again, clean again with paraffin, and blow out. the final clean, i use some thinners in the oil-ways, blasted through at high pressure, just to make sure everything is out!

 

I have a bit more progress on the engine. the bottom half is all back together, and I have also been building a spare engine which I have which I will sell later on when its finished. (contact me if anyone is interested)

the cases have come up really well, I love the finish you get with Vapour Blasting


Lots to clean…. I like to get everything washed and cleaned thoroughly before assemble. Even thought the inside of the engine was very clean, I still like to wash everything off in petrol, and lay it out in trays. In the picture below you will also see an engraving tool… this has a diamond tip, which marks parts nicely, without putting a stress raiser in the component. I like to mark things so they go back the same as they came apart, especially things like oil pump gears.


here is the clutch crush drive, it all looked excellent in here, testimony to the fact this is a very low miles engine! Also a selection of tools I have made. the socket and the one holding tool is for the cam pulleys, which are torqued up to 71 NM, which is quite tight, you just cant do it without the tool… the other is for holding the primary gear, which is torqued up to 190 NM, you definitely need this one! I have seen people say put a copper 2P piece in the gears… shame on you!


I could add a picture of the tool I made out of some old clutch plates to hold the basket and drum… but its not pretty!



Again, no wear on the clutch drum, or plates, which is a bonus! here are the pistons, in nice condition. I removed the rings to make sure that the lands were clear of carbon, always a heart stopping moment, but it has to be done!

Another tool to make… you need some way of holding the flywheel… I was OK in undoing it with the air gun, but again this is tightened to 190 NM and you need some way of holding it solid. the 10 mm alloy plate has a lug on it which engages in one of the holes in the flywheel perimeter.


The rings are thin and fragile, and its easy to break them trying to get them into the bore. best way is to put the piston in the bore, and then slide the gudgeon pin into place. Not the paper towel in the opening… the circlips are tricky, and if they ping out, you know where they will settle!




Moving onto rebuilding the heads next....

 

Next job has been the heads…. seems the Multistrada and a few other models of Ducati suffer premature valve guide were, its well documented. While the inlets were perfectly fine, the exhausts has more play than I would have liked… so I decided to replace them. I heated the head in the oven (hope she does not read this!) up to 180 degrees and used a drift to knock the guides out. I nearly fainted when I rang the dealer… seems inlet guides are £14… but exhausts £150 each! So I decided to have some custom made in Colsibro. They came finished to the correct OD, and ID, I just had to machine the valve seal step. Colsibro is a wonder material for valve guides (google it!) I first came across it with Ford Crossflows, which when fitted with extremely hign lift cams, wore the guides out rapidly due to the arc the rocker arm operated through, which pushed the valve against the side of the guide. Once I did a head with Colsibro guides, they lasted forever!

Putting the guides in is a little more tricky… I made a tool up as in the picture, whereby a slow taper mandrel sits in the valve seat, so the guide can be knocked in square. I heated the heads up again and they knocked in a treat. A quick lap with the grinding paste and I have a nice seal on the valves. An old trick is to mark lines across the seat with a felt tip pen, and then give the valve a light lap, just to be sure the lines are broken, indicating you have a full seal.

Next job will be setting the valve clearances

 

The next job has been setting the valve clearances… what a time consuming and fiddly job, and expensive with the shims costing £15 each, and there are 8! Lucky I only needed to buy three…

With the engine almost finished, I have turned to fully stripping the bike. The frame and wheels have gone off to be powder coated. this meant I had to remove the front wheel bearings. They are difficult to remove as you cant get behind the bearing, despite a small cut out in the spacer… so I mad this split mandrel which has a small .5mm lip, which expands behind the bearing. with this they came out easily. I have also designed some clutch covers, and headlamp brackets and had them laser cut in 304 Stainless.

I have also removed the bearings from the swinging arm, so this can be polished, yet another puller!

 

My first attempt at Hydrographic dipping went well...

 

It was surprisingly easy to do... bought some film and activator off Ebay (£20 for a tin of activator and loads of film) and used an old Ikea box as a dipping tank. Lots of instructions and videos on the net (google hydrographic instructions) to explain how to do it. My first mistake was not having the water the correct temperature, so the film sagged in the tank. once I realised it needs to be 80 - 95 degrees F it all went well. Note you have to use some tape on the film to prevent it curling, and make sure to leave an inch around the edge so the film can expand when the activator goes on.

I can think of a lot of nice things to do on the bike with this!

 

The engine is almost finished. I am pleased with how the hydrographic dipping of the parts came out, I will use the process on other parts like the mirrors. For now I cant make my mind up which is best, the cam belt covers with the poly-carbonate windows or without...

The frame and wheels should be back from the powder coaters at the end of the week

 

Wheels and frame back from powder coating in the last few days. I am VERY pleased with the results from this company, the finish and detail is superb! the engine is nice and easy to get in the frame, you just lift it on! started the build on the calipers, they are pretty good inside, no marks on the pistons at all.

I hate hammering bearings in… where I can I make a tool to pull them in, here is the needle roller on the swinging arm being pushed in. I have also been frustrated with the finish I get in my bead blasting cabinet. A bit of research and I have found that for years I have been using too high a pressure! seems this shatters the delicate glass beads. some new bead, and a low pressure and the results are MUCH better as can be seen in the before and after photo.

 

It took a while to decide what to do about the instrument cluster… I have no choice but to use the original as there are too many electronics on the bike integrated into the unit. I ended up making a case out of aluminium, but it didn’t look right with straight sides, so I planished the edge using a former in the vice. It came out quite well.





I wanted to put the exhausts on, but didn't have any new copper gaskets… I found a bar of copper that's been under the bench for 30 years, I turned a couple up and annealed them. I also had a couple of rear wheel sockets cut by the laser cutter out of 10mm steel plate, rather than spend £50 on big sockets I will never use again… one 42mm and one 46mm. I am amazed at the accuracy of laser cutting. I design the parts in Solid Edge (free software) and send the file to the laser cutter, who feeds the drawing straight in!




here are a few shots of how it looks now...

 

Hi Pete. It the 2 D free version I use. It’s pretty good to use and there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube to help.

 

Not much progress over the Christmas holiday, I have been banned from the garage!

lots of bits arrived though, new brake lines from China, along with a wireless key relay. I have used these a few times on custom builds... saves having an ignition key, and as they have a learning mode they can be integrated with an alarm system. They are prone to failure though vibration though, which can be overcome with a few blobs of silicon to mount the circuit board in the box.

 

The results of a mornings polishing…A job I hate… its not the polishing bit but the cleaning up afterwards I hate, hence I try to do it in batches!