1966 Ducati 160 Monza Jr

DesmoDog

Been Around the Block
I signed on here a while back and then didn't check back in for a while... here's the bike I was working on when I signed up. I finally got it back on the road in time for Ducstock 2011 at the Barber Vintage Festival last October. I'm copying posts from another forum to create the build thread so if something doesn't make sense that's likely why. Please excuse the rapid posting...

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This project began when I got a 1966 160 Monza Jr as part of a package deal with a '66 250 Monza, which was the bike I was really looking for. Pictures of the 160 from the ad;
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It was a ratty bike to be sure, but the parts it was missing were all things I would have replaced anyway - it looked like it could be a fun project. The 250 was in about the same condition. When I saw the bikes I was sure I'd leave with the 250 but the 160 depended on the deal I could get. I made an offer for both (all the cash I had brought with me!), the seller accepted, and I took them home. Before I left the house that morning I had told my wife I was going to look at a bike. She didn't notice I had set the trailer up for two bikes the night before. I called to tell her the news when I was half way home... she's very understanding! I'll show the 250 in a different thread, here's more of the 160.

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I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the 160, but figured I'd come up with something while I was working on the 250. I was still finishing up my 750 when I got them so they sat for a while and about all I did was gather parts. For some reason I put the tanks I was considering for the 250 onto the 160.

Stock Monza tank
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An older Monza tank
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A Benelli Mojave tank
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Ducati Mach 1 tank, or so I thought. Turns out it was off an early Sebring.
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I wasn't sure what bodywork I was going to use on these but I knew it would be rounded vs the squared off stuff they came with. Most people agree that look wasn't a high point of Italian style. Eventually I decided I wanted to build a 125 Sport replica out of the 160. I had seen a 100 Sport at the 2005 Motogiro d'Italia and thought it was pretty cool. It was the bike that convinced me I needed to stop talking about wanting a single cylinder Ducati and to actually start looking for one to buy.

Here's a picture of Rich Lambrechts' 125 Sport which provided a lot of inspiration early on:
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Even though the 250 was my main interest at first, by the time the 750 was on the road the 160 had become my main focus. The 250 was put on the back burner. The Sebring tank was always intended to go on the 250, but I left it on the 160 as I collected parts because I liked the shape. I wasn't planning on making an accurate Sport replica, just something along the same lines. I found a headlight, fenders, and (fake) earlier tool boxes, but my search for a 125 Sport wasn't getting anywhere.
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Repop F3 tanks are out there, but they look a little different than what I wanted. Maybe close enough? While I was mulling over what to do I stumbled across a nice 175 TS(?) tank, so I bought it. I'm not positive it's a TS tank, but I'm pretty sure it's from the late '50s.
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Now I had the basis for my bike. Still a lot of mods to be made, but the basics were falling into place.
 
One of the first issues I ran into was the battery tray. The later Monza Jr's have a big indentation in the rear fender to clear the tray, The older rounded fenders don't have that so they won't fit properly on the newer frames. This shot is supposed to show the mounting tab not fitting but if you don't know what to look for I guess it's hard to see... look at the tab on the tray and the hole in the fender.
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My first attempt at fixing that was to cut and bend the tabs so the fender could move forward. I suppose that would have worked, assuming I could find a battery that fit, but I decided to copy the tray off my 250 instead. It'd look more like a Sport that way. I made a tracing and started cutting/bending.
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The circular cut out on the front was off center on my tracing so I "fixed" it. Then I did a trial fit on the bike.
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Yeah, the tabs interfere with the chain guard. Potentially anyway. I ended up putting it in place just a tad higher than it should be and shaved a little off the tabs and it cleared the guard at full compression, no problem. But now I know why the cut out was off center on the 250! I also should have put some stiffening ribs in. it did warp a little when I put it in place. Not bad, but it's not flat either.

The next thing to tackle was the seat. The easy way out would be to buy a fiberglass tail and go with it. But... I wanted something that looked more "factory". The stock seat was just too squared off though. I took some paper and cut out a shape I liked better.
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After spending way too much time devising numerous methods of reforming the radius on the edge of the pan after I trimmed it down, I decided to cut and paste instead. I traced the shape out on the pan (black line). While thinking about the best places to cut to get everything to match up so it could be butt welded nice and pretty, I realized there was no need to get perfect joints on this rusty tray that would end up hidden under foam and fabric. I laid out the "cut here" lines (pink) freehand and started cutting. After about two minutes of that I was just cutting where it looked to make the most sense.
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When the time came to form the shape, I ended up eyeballing it instead of using the template. I made a new template from the now modified side and used that to check the shape of the second side. First side shaped and tacked:
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I finished cutting/shaping/welding and moved on to the front of the seat. The tank I was using was longer than the original tank, so I trimmed it off and changed the profile to match the back of the new tank.
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Now I had my seat base and I moved on to building the wheels.

The Monza Jr came with 16" wheels. I didn't like them, and as luck would have it, some 17" San Remo NOS rims off a Benelli(?)showed up on eBay. I didn't want to go with 18" rims because I wanted this bike to look like a smaller scale version of the 250s. I bought a set of the 17s, ordered some stainless spokes from Buchanan's and polished up the old hubs.
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Much better than the stock rims.
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There's no real reason to have this photo in here other than it makes me smile. The front fender is an NOS Bronco(?) part from Domiracer. They supplied the NOS Monza Jr rear fender too.
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I had issues with my front hub so just for yucks I put the larger 250 hub in there. The spokes are way too long obviously, it's just thrown together. If you look closely you can see the nipples aren't seated and the angle of the spoke holes is off. I like the look of the wheel with that hub, but the spoke holes are too far off to tweak and I already had the spokes for the smaller 160 hub. So... it wasn't to be. Hmm... on second thought maybe the shorter stock 160 spokes would have worked? Nah, the angle of the spoke holes would still be off.
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Front hub fixed, I laced it up and installed tires. Then on to the toolboxes. The smaller "Sport" style tool boxes show up on eBay fairly regularly, but they usually sell for more than I wanted to spend. Instead I got fiberglass replicas from Phil at Road and Race in Australia. He also carries steel reproductions. The steel parts are functional, while the 'glass parts are just for show. In order to mount the boxes I had to cut the stock mounts off the 160 frame and weld on some new tabs. Since the fiberglass boxes don't open, I simply installed some wellnuts so I had a way to mount them. More pics of the details after it's painted but for now, the bike in roughly it's new form.
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At this point I had to admit to myself I liked the valanced front fender too much to the cut off the panel. But the rear fender didn't really go with it? Once again Rich Lambrechts came to the rescue. More on that later.
 
I decided to go with the front fender as-is, which meant the non-valanced rear fender didn't match. I mentioned this to a friend and he said he had an NOS fender that would work. He also had a Sebring to restore but needed a tank. One thing led to another and a trade was made.

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A taillight and some other things were involved in the deal but it was the fender I had my eye on. I had also been playing around with some colors since it was almost time to start painting, but first... another mock! The updated rear end. I had to relocate a couple mounting holes on the fender but other than that it fit great.
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The basic shape of the bike was done, time to start painting. (With my apologies to both you dial up users out there, I'm going to start posting bigger pictures.)

My initial color choice was pearlescent silver and pearlescent black, with gold pinstripes. I sprayed a test panel and decided that the black wasn't going to work. It looked more like a charcoal gray with different colored metallic flakes in it than a black to me. I guess I was expecting more of a black that had sort of a shimmer of other colors in it or something? Whatever, I went with a straight black instead. Again House of Kolor paints. The black was great. The silver was a pain to shoot - I'm not a pro and I wasn't expecting how unforgiving it would be. I got through it but on at least one part I basically had to start over after my first attempt. I no longer have any desire to spray a candy color!

Pearlescent silver. I'm not sure the best way to capture the color indoors, it's literally dazzling in the sunlight. (and no, that is not a run you see above the rivet on the right side. It's a reflection)
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I screwed up my first attempt at the fender graphics. Oops. The finish looks dull because it is. I cleared it, wet sanded it, put on the graphics, then cleared over it again. The Monza Jr decal didn't make the cut, not that it'd make sense to anyone that knows Ducatis anyway. Neither will the SS decal but so be it, I like how it looks. I probably should have had "160 TS" decals made...
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The fiberglass toolboxes come as closed boxes, you're on your own mounting them. I went with welluts.
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When I drilled the hole in the front for the knob, I went all the way through the back so I'd have a guide for a hole saw to give me access to the back of the knob for a nylock nut.
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I added another hole in back for a third wellnut, and then found some gray plastic plugs at the hardware store to fill the large hole. I wish I could say I planned the color and size match before I started but to be honest it was just dumb luck.
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And the reassembly begins!
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Forks are on. I was having second thoughts about a silver headlight shell so I bolted on an old black one I had sitting around.
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Fenders back on. Bike pushed to the side of the basement?
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Typically I don't like "fake" features on a bike, but for some reason I put a few on this one. I've already shown the toolboxes. I doubt anyone has noticed but I've also shown a "steering damper".

The larger bikes have steering dampers with a big knob on the steering stem nut. I thought about putting one on this bike but in the mean time I bought a few things at the hardware store, drilled a hole in the nut, and bolted it all together. Crank the nylock down until the tension is about right and install the nut on the stem. The knob is smaller than a stock one but everything on this bike is small, so I think it looks ok.
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I also made up a tire pump. Even the reproduction pumps for these things are expensive, so I got a cheapie generic bicycle pump off our favorite auction site and cut it to length. Added a badge decal (that barely shows up) and I was done.
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Progress came very slowly at this point. It was about two years from when I painted the fenders and frame to when I painted the tank. Numerous reasons for that... I'll skip the details on the junk tank I tried to save.

The first order of business was trying to copy the original graphics. The factory layout wasn't exactly an excercise in precision.
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I took some measurements, did some tracing, and tried to make a template.
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Time to strip. How's this look for a 50 year old tank?
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Primed and sealed
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Silver, intercoat clear, and the lines laid out.
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Black is sprayed, graphics are on and clear coated
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And for the final touch I brought it to Ray Smith, a local pin striper.
A couple last minute decisions I made were
A) striping the toolboxes too and
B) going with red instead of gold for the stripe.
I wasn't sure about red, gold seemed a safer choice. My wife told me I should go with red. She was right.

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I've got to say, I was pretty damn happy to have the tank done. There were a couple reasons I had put it off for two years and it was great to have finally worked through it. That milestone provided inspiration to get more work done. As I sorted through more parts I realized I had everything I needed for a headlight so I put that together too.
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Next it was time to finish the seat.
 
I already posted this info here but in order to keep continuity with the build thread I'll post it again... sorry if people are sick of seeing pics.

After rounding off the corners of the pan this is what I ended up with. After this I coated the top with POR15 and painted the not nearly as rusty bottom.
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With the pan done, I stopped by a local uphostery shop and picked up some foam to create the new seat. It was 1" thick so the seat was built up in layers. I wasn't all that sure this was going to work out well and I didn't take many pictures of the process, but it's not that complicated. First I cut the bottom layer to shape with an electric carving knife, and sculpted the places where the ridges in the pan were.
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This worked ok up front, but I put the rear indentation in the wrong spot so I ended up cutting this bottom piece and working on the front and rear sections separately.

For the rear part I laid out a template of the side and front views on some paper. To get the curve, I marked the starting and ending points I needed, and then took welding wire and flexed it to fit between those points, holding only the ends. This gave a nice smooth curve that could be modified by forcing the ends this way or that until it looked right. I only did one half of the front view and transferred it to a piece of wood to get a stiffer pattern. Then I flipped it over for the other side.

I cut out more horizontal layers of the foam to get a step-shaped block in roughly the shape I needed, then glued the sections together. The front profile was relatively easy to lay out on the foam with a Sharpie, but the side profile... the shape I had drawn would only occur in the center of the block. I could either cut an outside template and then try to carve by eye and keep checking, or... I could cut the block down the middle and draw the profile on each side. I took it over to the band saw and cut away.

The rough shaping was done on each half seperately. I used the bandsaw again, first cutting the side profile, and then the front, leaving myself some room for the final shaping. The foam is pretty forgiving, if you mess it up too bad you can always cut out the bad spot and glue in some new foam. Luckily it never came to that but it does boost the confidence. Once both halves were roughly the shape I needed, I glued them back together. I should have taken a picture after this step, it was UGLY. So ugly I was convinced this wasn't going to work so I hung it up for the night.

A day or two later I came back to look at it, and decided to keep going. I took the part over to the belt sander and shaped the front edge so it matched the profile I had drawn out. Then I shaped the center section so it looked relatively smooth. That worked out better than I had expected, so I started sanding away until it was smooth. Once it was close to what I needed, I fit it to the base and glued everything down.

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Then came the top layer, which I curved up over the face of the bump to get a nice, flat surface. Once that was fit and glued down, the entire mess was brought over to the belt sander and the final shaping was done. It isn't perfect, but it's close enough! (These pics are from before the final shaping was complete)

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Off to the upholstery shop where it was covered in another thin layer of foam, followed by black vinyl. The recovering worked ok but it revealed a mistake I made in shaping the foam. I put a gradual curve between the seat base and the front of the bum stop. There's no good way to make the vinyl follow this curve - it would have been better to go with a sharp edge. Also, I made the hump too big. The seat looks too massive on the bike and to be honest, I'm not entirely happy with it.

I came very close to tearing off the new cover and shaving off the hump, but decided to follow through on my initial plan and add side trim and a badge on the back. I reused the trim off the old seat, polished and then cut and reshaped to fit. The tape is a guide to show where to punch holes in the cover and drill through the metal pan. (The trim strip hasn't been tightened down yet in this shot - it compresses the foam under the cover just enough to fit flush with it = no gaps.)

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With the trim on the seat and the rear wheel in place, it doesn't look quite so bad anymore, but I think I'll still end up redoing it. I'm going to wait until I've ridden the bike though, I may decide on other changes to make it more comfortable and it makes sense to do all the mods at once. The tank and seat aren't in the right positions in this shot. Since this was taken I've raised the back of the tank, and plan on dropping the back of the seat a little too.

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FWIW - this is NOT a cheap way to do things. A fiberglass tail would have almost certainly cost less, especially when you add in the cost of me redoing it! If I build another bike like this, I'll probably buy a fiberglass tail. I like the fully upholstered look but it would be just as easy to upholster over fiberglass.
 
The big brown truck showed up one day delivering... bright and shiny things, people. BRIGHT AND SHINY THINGS!

Following the advice of some bevelheads list members I sent off some parts to be chromed at St. Louis plating. I'm really not a big fan of chrome but there were a few parts on this that pretty much demanded to be plated... so I decided to test the waters with the kickstart lever and the lever perches.

Before:
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After:
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Oh my, chrome is fun... I'm going to need a bigger box for the next round... my 750GT may get stripped of some items too!

I told the shop I didn't need a show finish on these things, weld imperfections and the like could be left in. With that criteria in mind they did a great job. The only thing I could imagine someone being unhappy with would be the top of the kick start lever. They masked the area that goes into the lever that flips out (Thank you!) but that left a rough edge on the very top of the lever that I had to dress up a touch with a file to make fit. Doesn't bother me, took about a minute to fix. I'm just mentioning it because I know some people are bit more demanding than me...

All the other parts look great with no excuses. Better than expected in fact - one part of the kicker was worn/ground down and they seem to have blended that area into the rest of it better than I thought they would.
 
Test fitting the levers and switchgear. These aren't the grips I'll go with - I've got a pair with white rings on the flanges but they're not going on until it's done, for what I'm guessing are obvious reasons. Apparently I'm not going to have room for a mirror and/or a kill switch on the right side. I have mixed feelings about putting bar end mirrors on if for no other reason than I'd be cutting up the aforementioned grips to make them work. I could put the kill switch inboard of the miter, but that might look dorky. It didn't have one stock so do I really need one now? Hmm...

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On the right side, the throttle housing pushes the lever perch about an inch away from the end of the grip. If I put the grip and perch in the same relative position on the left side, it leaves about an inch gap between the two. I've never noticed this on these bikes before. I'm thinking that might be a good place for the mirror to mount? We'll see, I'll just have to play with it more. Putting the levers in different positions side to side to avoid a gap isn't going to fly though.

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I also have to find a place to put the tach. I'm thinking of fabbing up a mount that replaces the washer on the top fork bolt, which would put it in about the same spot as on the larger bikes. This would work, but... I've got another idea I'm mulling over.

The tach would also fit in the headlight housing, where the speedo is now. For a speedo, I'm thinking of going with an electronic version that also shows temp, time, and distance. I realize this clashes with the vintage feel, but hear me out. I've been building the bike with giro events in mind. Assuming the unit would be legal in these events (it seemed like it would for the eastern giro when I checked last year) it'd be something I'd want anyway. Plus, the electronic speedo would save me from having to mess with drive ratios on my not-stock size wheels. The unit I'm considering is a Trail Tech Vector:

http://www.trailtech.net/vector.html

It would mount directly in front of/above the bars and top triple clamp. I think it could work but I haven't mocked it up yet to be sure. I'll have to do more homework on it.
 
I was playing around with the tach and speedometer mounting on the 160. Two things I discovered were that A) older bikes came with a ring on the right hand fork cover to hold the speedometer cable and B) Domiracer had one of these covers in stock for a whopping $27. That solved one issue, so I was inspired to make a tach mount out of some aluminum I had sitting around. It's basically a copy of the mount the tach came with, modified so it fits on the top triple instead of the bars.

Long story short, I'm not going to go with an electronic speedo just yet, I'm going to give the analog gauges a try first.

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Neither the tach nor the headlight shell are at the right angle in that shot but you get the idea. The cable is pressed up against the headlight mount, but there's more than enough room to mod the new fork cover to make it work.
 
At this point in the project I went about five months with zero progress... but then I came home from work one day to find a box waiting for me... a box containing my long lost case half! Woo Hoo! (I had sent it out to be repaired and the repair took some time)

That inspired me to start working on the engine.

The heart of this powerful little beast - 160cc of Italin single cylinder fury.
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I had to take a pic of this. An open velocity stack on a 160cc single. What's not to like? Imagine this engine only much cleaner with a shiny pipe. Nice....
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Random thought: I recently bought a new lawnmower. Self propelled, walk behind. Nothing fancy. It's got a 160cc engine too. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

On the bench. Pretty simple little engine, no? Dare I go so far as to say elegant? Wait until it's clean and shiny, you'll see.
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Other side with a few parts removed.
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And right about here the ugliness begins. Can anyone spot the result of my not reading the service manual closely enough?
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Here's better view.
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That really clean spot is where the boss for the kickstart shaft was for about 40 years, until I started screwing with it. Yes, I broke the boss when I used the shaft as a brace for the clutch basket tool. DO NOT DO THIS. The manual warns against it. I glazed over that part. I paid the price so YOU don't have to!
 
I thought I took more pictures of the engine teardown but I don't have many! I guess breaking the boss took the fun out of it so I put the camera away and worked in the shadow of my shame?

Here are a few of the pre-break condition. I'll have to remember to take more as it goes back together.

Notice how convenient the kickstart shaft is in relation to the clutch basket. This is a fragile area for narrowcase engines... do NOT use this shaft for anything other than holding the kickstart lever. The bosses are known to break even under their intended use.

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This shows the factory lead seal that is SO nice to find on a bevel Ducati as it generally indicates no ham fisted owner has gotten in there and screwed things up before you have a chance to. It's on the safety wire between the bottom rear two bolts holding the case together.

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This next shot shows where the "bevel" name comes from. See the bevel gear on the end of the tower shaft that goes up to the cam? The crank is the thing in the center, and the lower gear runs the ignition. A slot in that shaft spins the oil pump.
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And that, I'm afraid, is the last of the pics I have of the engine teardown.
 
Working on the rearsets. I might end up not using anything I've done so far but you can only do so much of this in your head, the time comes you have to start trying a few things.

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The shift lever on the engine is from Road and Race in Australia. The bolts holding the rearset bracket on are just what I had handy. The final product will be countersunk/flathead so they are flush with the bracket.

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I stole the template for the brake lever off of the Motoscrubs.com site. They've got a lot of info on these things, along with a forum dedicated to Ducati singles.
http://www.motoscrubs.com/

The space from the footpeg to the brake lever peg feels a little long to me, but I can't move it all that much. Basically if I decide to move it I may have to remake the lever - I don't think there's enough room to get it far enough away from the existing mounting hole yet not be in line with the thick part of the kickstart. Hmm...

The footpeg is Delrin - I wanted to see if I could get away with rigid pegs before playing around with aluminum. Looks like I'll need folding pegs. There's enough room to clear if you position your foot just right on the kickstart, but the kickstart won't be in this position at the top of it's travel so there's no good reminder. I can imagine I wouldn't be happy when (not if) I forgot about holding my foot just right and ended up kicking the peg. Buying some folding pegs seems like a prudent course of action...

I seriously considered buying some Tarozzi rearsets but truth be told, my toy fund isn't what it used to be and I have to stop spending money every time I need something for this bike! (That said, I reserve the right to buy a set at a future date when I'm feeling more generous)
 
I decided that .75" was too small for the pegs so I made a mock up out of 1" diameter aluminum to settle on some dimensions. Still non-folding as you can see... I also put a bearing in the lever so it could be mounted as intended. Bought the bolts and tool to countersink the mounting bolts but didn't get that far before I bolted it all up again.
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It was right about here when I started to really like the idea of going with the stock footpegs. I realize that clubmans and stock pegs are typically frowned upon, but Ducati themselves have done it with clip ons and after sitting on the bike and faking the position (but not making any Vrooom VROOOoom sounds, I swear!) makes me think it would work. It would solve the issue of kickstart clearance, I wouldn't need a folding peg, I could also then use the stock brake and shifter linkages, and to top it off, it would look more stock than my fabbed up rearsets. The downside is the stock mounts are bent. I didn't bother fixing them when the frame was bare since I had no intention of using them. I'm going to tear it down to the frame again anyway so I'll give it a shot then and see if i can do it. Even if I have to do some paint repair, it's not in an area you can see very well when the bike is together.

The rearset parts got tossed on the shelf for possible use on my 350. With those out of the way, I decided it was time to tackle the engine rebuild.

A couple pages ago I posted the details of my big mistake in pulling the clutch basket off. Here's a reminder:
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Thanks to Rich Lambrechts, here's how the case looks now:
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New bearings are on the way, but I seem to have misplaced the bushing for the kickstart shaft now!
 
When I got the case back, my goal was to have the bottom end put together by the end of the year. I made it with 32 hours to spare. Woo Hoo! (By bottom end I mean having the case halves bolted back together with all the appropriate bits in place)

I've already shown the repaired case. From there I installed all new bearings and then test fit the crank with no shims to find out what sort of sideplay it had.

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No need to get TOO anal about the measurement here as I had to recheck everything with the shims installed. Speaking of shims - as it turns out the shims needed to do the crank are readily available from McMaster Carr. I got a few thicknesses with a 1" ID and they worked great - it's a 25mm shaft and the Ducati specific parts are 25.5mm ID.

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Speaking of cranks, does anyone know what the "-10" is for on there?

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I also got shims for the small end of the shift drum - it's the shaft in the middle on the bottom with the flat machined in it. I used 16mm ID shims here, again from McMaster Carr. The real reason I took that shot though is it reminded me of when I first saw an engine pulled apart. I forget how old I was, around 10 I think, but I was surprised and slightly disappointed at how simple it looked. I was imagining much more magical things than simple connecting rods and a crank shaft...

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And there it is, back together again just in time for the new year. Now comes the fun part - shimming the bevel gears. Well in fact shimming the bevels isn't rocket science, I've got a wide selection of shims ready so no big deal there.

D'oh!

I had lockwashers on my list of things to buy but apparently never did.. Anyway, shimming the bevel was trivial. Nothing changed so the factory shims worked fine.

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Note to self - do not store engine parts in multiple containers for periods of over four years... I spend way too much time searching for parts that I know I have. Today I found a shim, some bolts, and a plate the I had safely stashed away so they wouldn't get lost. Too bad I already replaced the shim and bolts because I couldn't find them. The good news is, the OEM shim is the same thickness as the size I used, so I guess my measurements were good.

I rewired the stator since the old wire had gotten brittle. I thought finding suitable wire would be an issue but fellow bevelhead lister Mike Cecchini sent me some helpful information on what type of wire to look for (Thanks again, Mike!) and I ended up finding it at my local True Value hardware store.

Per Mike's info I bought some SJEOOW wire or "power cable" I think they call it. SJEOOW is rated for -50C to 105C. Some guys have been running wires with lower temp ratings and haven't had any issues, so I'm hoping this is good even though I realize oil temps can get higher than that if the engine's run hard. Mike is searching for wire with a higher temp rating but so far has only found it in red. The stuff I used has the specs printed on it, but I'm going to install it so the writing isn't easily visible once it's on the bike.

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Time to install the flywheel. On Ducati singles the flywheel has to be timed correctly as it's part of the ignition system (this bike can run with no battery) I don't know the specifics since I'm allergic to electrickery, so I just accept that it has to be done. The line on the flywheel is the timing mark. The specs on where this mark is supposed to be is cleverly hidden in the shop manual but after consulting multiple books numerous times I found it. Then I noticed that there are two marks near the hub of the flywheel. I'm not sure if they are marked at the factory? I didn't think so, this may be the work of a previous owner. In any case, I checked them out and they are in the right position to use as timing marks, so I just lined them up with the gear's keyway and I was good to go.

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Next comes the kickstart gears. If you ever try to kickstart a narrowcase Ducati and the kicker doesn't engage, try leaning the bike to the right side. What sometimes happens is that forked spring pushing down on the gear will break (actually most bikes have TWO of those springs installed) and when that happens, the gear won't engage anymore. When you lean it to the right there's a chance that gravity will do it's thing and drop the gear into place.

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All that's left on this side is the clutch basket. Well, the clutch and pressure plates too I suppose but I'm not putting that stuff on quite yet. I have a couple other things to do first. Not the least of which is to figure out where the hell I put them...

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Houston, we have a problem. I knew something was wrong when I tried to torque the head bolts and the engine got hard to turn over.

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The clip isn't in it's correct position in that photo - it's supposed to be in the slot above the coupler. But, the slot for the clip doesn't clear the coupler. I think the new cylinder base gasket is thinner than the original, so the cylinder/head are a touch shorter than they should be. With the clips in place, when the head gets torqued the cam drive gets pushed out of shape and the gears don't mesh correctly anymore.

The solution is to either get a thicker base gasket or to trim down the coupler. Yes, I should be checking the squish and setting the cylinder height from that but dang, I figured it'd all go back together nice and easy if i didn't mod anything! I may as well have shaved a bit off the cylinder to bump compression if I'm going to have to be trimming parts anyway! (High compression pistons for this engine are "no longer available")

And no, that isn't a crack near the bolt in front of the cylinder. The casting just gets rough through there.

After a date with a lathe and some carbide tipped cutting tools the tower shaft coupler is now about .6mm shorter. I wasn't sure how much clearance there needed to be between the collar and the clips, IIRC it's around .2-.3mm now (I didn't write the numbers down). In any case the head is torqued and everything works like a champ. Turns over easily and the gears mesh like they should.

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I didn't take any in progress pics but the engine is far enough along that I put it back in the frame. The various covers are just sitting in place for the pics.
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Along the way I did find one set back... This is the tabbed tach drive hanging off the head, showing the end of the cam. So, what's wrong with this picture?

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No? Here's a hint. In theory the tab on the tach drive fits into a slot in the cam. Here's the cam.
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No slot. D'oh! How could I screw around with this thing for this long and not notice that until now???

Ok, so the tach is getting shelved until further notice. I have an extra top triple and I'm going to look into modding that to mount a modern electronic speedo/tach like I mentioned earlier. Or I'll just go with an old school speedo. Depending on what happens I may get another cam and mod it to work but for now it's press on regardless.

I've resigned myself to the fact the bike won't be DONE in time for Barber, but it will be in more of a "final mock up" condition meaning it will run but there will still be some issues to address, mainly cosmetic.

More shiny parts. Thank you St Louis Plating!
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Getting there
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Wiring. Takes me forvever...
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The only way to stop the engine is to pull the key out, so I added a kill switch.
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The handlebars aren't round where I have the switch though, so if it gets spun it gets loose. Not a huge issue as it shouldn't get spun in normal use, but I might remove it and use a switch in the side of the headlight instead. It's on the right in this picture. This headlight isn't from this bike so the switch isn't used otherwise
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The throttle and choke cables took a bunch longer than they should have too. It seems to be a theme with this bike.
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Tidying things up but still not done with the wiring. I still need to build a base for the diode, fuse, and terminal strip I forgot to buy...
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Milestone reached

Aside for connectors on the battery cables and the rear brake switch, the wiring is done. Here's a picture. I can not believe it took me so freakin long to get to this point. This shows everything under the seat, including the battery.
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I just couldn't bring myself to mount the battery there though. I know the battery is sealed, and can be installed on it's side, but I just didn't trust it. So I bought a fake battery and will put the real battery inside that. If the charging system blows up the battery or the vibration cracks it or I just get a bad battery, whatever, now it will puddle inside a rubber box rather than run down the painted fender and frame. Here it is with the battery box in place (underneath where it used to be)

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But finishing the wiring isn't the milestone I'm talking about... what I mean there is, the rest of the (planned) work can all be done with the tank and seat in place. Pardon the poor pics but it was raining outside (though it's sunny now!) and I couldn't get to the door anyway. (Messy shop!)

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Aside from some obviously missing parts, that's what it's going to look like.

Now to make it run...
 
This was written on September 22, 2011

So... I've been buttoning up a few loose ends the past could days, got home tonight and thought... it should run. The battery isn't wired in yet, but it doesn't need the battery to run so what the heck. I dumped the last of my lawnmower gas in it, fiddled with this, tweaked that, kicked it over. Fiddled with this again. Kicked it a few more times...

And it BARELY started. JUST turning over, and then died. So I tweaked a few more things... and Tah dah!

It runs. Even seems to have decent throttle response. And backfiring through the carb doesn't seem to light anything on fire.

So I've got that going for me. Which is nice.


And then September 24, 2011

And... first ride completed. I learned a couple things.

1) it's only got two gears. I think I must have indexed the selector box 180 degrees off, not a big deal to fix but I'm letting it cool off and won't know for sure until I pull it off. I did the same thing when I put my 750 together, you'd think I'd learn!

2) When disconnecting the rear brake cable near the end of a project, it is best to reconnect it before the first ride is taken. No harm done. Front brake works.

I'm sure I'll find other issues as I start to put some miles on it in prep for Barber, but I doubt I'll be doing much updating between now and then. There's really not much to say anymore. So, here are a few pics from it's first outing.

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A "before" pic in here too, just for yucks.
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Oh, one more thing. It started first kick each time I fired it up today. I'm loving that!
 
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