Ducati Monster Forum

I'm going to use the knowledge gleened from the first tech sesson at Stuart's and do a Valve check/adjust on my ST4s on thursday or friday this week.

If any of you are bored, feel free to stop by. PM me or call me at 972-567-6375 for directions. I'll start Thurs morning for sure. Don't know if I'll get it all back together or not. I'm waiting on my harmonic belt tensioner to get here from LT's. I have the shim kit though.

Steve
Flower mound

Good luck man!!  Glad to see one of the students getting to use the training.  Take photos.

Bench partner I would be most interested in seeing this proceedure but have to work for my sheckles on those days. I will definately be watching this thread and hopefully can talk to you on the phone to hear about the progress. This is cool!

I'd recommend you go ahead and pull the cams out completely after you check even if you don't have to change the shims, wanna check those surfaces!  good luck

Not a bad idea. But if they are in tolerance, I may just leave well enough alone and go for a ride! We'll see.
Steve

You have to remove the belts, right?  How do you prevent the cams from rotating?  Do you just let them run loose during the valve check, and then line them up properly during belt reinstall?

helps to have a cam gear holder, but not altogether necessary

Well, as I've been reading my tech books to freshen up, I'm thinking I may need a few more parts before I get into this. I want to pick up some seals/gaskets/orings to avoid wait-for-parts-before-finishing syndrome. Plus I may go the MBP route haven't decided.

Stay tuned...

Steve

how many miles you got?   I went ahead and installed MBP collets, but I was already having to pull all the rockers for resurfacing anyways...

and don't forget, if you go with MBP collets, you'll have to buy special opening shims to fit those collets.  The shim kit you bought would only be half good then...

that's the thing, the shim kit belongs to the st2_owners yahoo group and the next guy on the list needs it and i don't want to be rushed.

so i may just buy my own kit and if i do it may be the mbp.

oh, 12,000 miles.

Steve

Ok, I've decided I'm going to do the valve check starting Friday morn. I'm also installing rearsets from an 888 and clipons as well. This could render the ST4s into an ST4r and make it not so comfy for the long hauls. We'll see.

So, if you're bored and feel like dropping by, call first at 972-567-6375 (I may on parts run).

Steve

Wowl I'm feeling the mods and think RED is needing some love!

by RED i really hope you are refering to your bike and not yourself in some creepy third person sort of way.

Steve

(http://www.dfwducati.com/images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)

That explains the carpal tunnel

Hey there Steve, how'd the mad wrenching go?  Wish I could have made it over to see the action ('action' in this case being, just to be clear, the singular endeavour of affecting mechanical improvement to a static, mechanical device, i.e., a gasoline powered internal combustion, twin-cylinder engine - with an included angle of 90 degrees - manufactured from alloy composite material; functioning with four strokes per combustion cycle of 916cubic centimeters in volumetric displacement, that employs desmodromic intake and exhaust valves actuated directly by lobes on the twin overhead camshafts and other completely inexplicable design "features" unique to Italian motorcycle motors, Ducatis in particular)   [evil]

 ;D  Seriously, hope it went well.

Lisa

ahem, 996 thank you very much.
(said in proud father tone)

And it IS GOING well. By the time I got all the body work, tank (gas tastes like crap but it's not so bad the second time the syphon stops working, and even less yucky the third), radiator (fluid is rather slippery), Airbox, Throttle bodies, and valve covers, i had enogh time to measure all shims and take off the vert belt and adjust the vert exhaust shims. I just have to adjust the rest of them now. Good news is that the rockers on both sides of the vert head looked good without any flaky chrome! Hope the rest look as good. I'm hoping to have it back together thursday or friday at the latest.

That tech session with Stuart sure did help out a lot!

the saga continues...

Steve

Way to go Steve! Glad to hear it's going well.

Good job [thumbsup] Keep us posted!

+1

Cute,  [laugh]  [clap]

No worries.... [roll]  [laugh]


You guys are making me scared now  :o ....RED=ST4s. It was really late and I was drinking at Strokers (it's a bar, a bar, no not that kind of bar!!) and I was on the phone keyboard so it was really hard (stop it, I know what you're thinking  [roll] ) to text with one hand (D'oh!  [roll] ) and that was just what came out.  [roll]  ???  I give up...  [beer]

Very cool, Steve.  Glad to hear it is coming along  [thumbsup]   You know I heard about this Ducati ride this weekend...

Get goin'!   [evil]

Lisa

Can't rush greatness. But I will go as fast as I can. Gotta work weekends for a while. Been out of town a few days, hope I can remember how it all goes back together. After all, valves aren't THAT critical in a desmo are they?  ;D
Steve

The confusion is brought on by jet lag in several different countries on several different continents I imagine  :-\
Take two of these,  [bacon] [bacon] drink three of those,  [drink] [wine] [beer]  get some sleep  8) and call me in the morning...er, U. S. time. hang in there.

IT'S ALIVE !!!!!!!!

Awesome! I got it all back together and didn't lose one part or have any 'extra' left over! Now I still have to sync the TBs and set the TPS. I'm almost done with my 888 rearset adaptation. I don't have the clip-ons on yet. Also, I'm planning on doing a Dzus conversion to the fairing. Bike should be done in a week or so. I did a lot of cleaning too.
Here's what I did:
Valve check/adjustment
Adjust belt tension
cleaned and refit crankcase breather with new o-ring.
Change clutch, brake fluid
Coolant change/flush.
Oil/filter change
Clean/degrease

Nice.

Steve

congrats.  you are one brave man.

you the man, brotha

+1

Really it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be REALLY bad. I'll admit it was a little scary digging deeper and deeper into the bike. Of course having the fairing off wasn't a big deal. Nor was the tank as I've changed fuel filters before. I'd never taken off the airbox which entails the intake cones and of course you'll need to remove the radiator to get at the little 8mm bolt holding on the airbox. Since the radiator was off, well it needed flushing and so did the reservoir so that had to come off. Then it got a little more spooky when I took off the throttle bodies. Oh, yeah then the intakes, no big deal there. Take off the battery box and most connections so you can see what you're doing when taking off the belt covers. On the left side of the engine, take off the crank/timing cover so you can hook up your engine turning tool. Take out the plugs to ease turning said engine. Set horizontal cylinder to TDC. Now crack open the valve covers to see what you're working with. The exhaust side of the vert cylinder is a PAIN (nice words for the public forum). No way around it unless you want to take out the shock linkage. I tried. bigger pain to do that.
Once you find out what you need to change, go about changing it. And change it again, and again. After about the 3rd or 4th time of pulling the each of the cams since mostly the closers needed changing, it works. Button it all back up and give her a crank and hope she doesn't blow up!
Whew, I need a vacation.
Steve

 :o  :o   Wow!   [bow_down]