help with repair of my 98 m900

[phantomaz]

Hello guys , I am new here ,and new with ducati and a motorcycle at all and bought carbed monster 900 for a first bike.
well I don't know how to describe it but the bike doesn't run good. it's winter here ,so it's cold ,and it won't start easy. I needed to go to police with it to register it ... 2 days trying to start ,no chance, I ended warming the bike in my room ,warming the sparks separately etc.
Well I decided to start repairing my bike by myself ,and I will need help from you , I hope you won't leave me alone in all this )
Firs I started with changing the fork seals. I don't know how it happen ,when I was buying my bike ,everything was ok ,no fork leaks ,it started immediately ,and it wasn't started before my visit etc. everything was ok . In the morning i saw big leaking form both of the forks ,4 days leaking ... until the oil finished ) and this problem with the starting too , oh there was another leaking but of engine oil ,from some sensor I guess ,on the right side of the engine ,on the left side from the oil cap. I tough it may be from the cold weather and maybe a lot of oil in the engine. This leak was when I was riding 20 around minutes /10-20ml of oil/. No more oil from the sensor on the next rides ... well just tearing.
ok no more talking ,I removed the fork ,I found some good manual ,but how many seals I need to replace , and what size I need to look for ,41mm ? I found gsxr has the same size seals , I suppose I will buy a pair.




this is how my fork looks like, it is adjustable showa i think from what I read .

ok ,now about the carbs. there is a smell of gas around the bike , when it starts there are explosions or detonations I don't know how is correct, when removing sparks there are wet from gas ,the bike running is not flat ,it pulls ,it is trying to stop when I twist the throttle , then it runs good , and when I stop the engine wants to stop too ,thats why I ride with petcock pulled on a half, and the engine is working on 1700-2000rpm ,but I think the petcock is not working good too ,it does not keeps the rpm stable, but anyway ,for this later. And from all this and the things I was reading I suppose that my carbs are running rich. I will remove and clean them ,than I will make synchronization , I'll check the valves too , because I doubt someone done all this before ,or maybe soon.



this is a gas , is it normal the gas to be there?

so I will start with removing the carbs ,the problem is that I don't know how to do it safely. Sure I can loosen the bolts and everything but ,should I expect oil leaking, gas ... etc. I couldn't find "how to" remove the carbs ,only how to clean them , so tell me is there something I need to look for ,or just to dismount them . I already removed the airbox.

oh ,and one more thing ,there is some tube which is missing I think ,on one of the carbs ,on the other the tube is available:



is it a problem ?

well that is all ,I hope there will be someone who will help me with this bike , it was completely different when I was buying it ,and for a week it showed me all it is able to. Like someone said ,there a so beautiful but with a character of an old gypsy ).
I just wanted to ask how to remove the carbs ,but needed to describe the picture ,thats why my post is so long, and yes my english is broken
thank you guys!

[Howie]

You will need to take the forks apart and inspect before buying parts.  Are the sliders pitted or scratched?  Do you need bushings?  As far as 41 0r 43 mm, just measure the slider with a caliper or mike.

I'm assuming by petcock you mean choke.  The "hoses" you are missing are vent hoses.  They should have filters in them and need to be placed in an area where they are not affected by wind.  Before doing anything with the carbs you want to make sure the fuel is not stale or contaminated, the fuel filter is good, the fuel pump works and no lines are kinked.  You also need to know the engine is in reasonably good shape.  If the timing belts are over 2 years old they need to be replaced.  You want to do a compression or cylinder leakage test and check valve clearance.  If the oil pressure switch is leaking it needs to be replaced.

Do buy a good manual or two before starting.  

You might want to tell us where you are from, local help might be available.

[phantomaz]

thanks @howie I will listen to all of your recommendations, but I already removed the carburetors and half disassembled one of them because I want to be sure that everything there is good and clean ,then I will check the valves etc.I have some pictures to share. I followed the instructions from this site

http://www.super-tenere.net/forum/knowledge-base-and-library/38471-carb-overhaul-pictures

they are nice shots there, but I cannot decide which parts I need to replace. for sure I need to replace the diapharm because it's rent ,but I don't know about the jet needle and the needle valve. also should I replace all the o-rings even if they look good?

You might want to tell us where you are from, local help might be available.

thank you all but I doubt if there can be a local help , I live in Europe / Bulgaria ,ducati here is an exotic make ,that's why I cannot count on help.

[Howie]

Good detective work!  Now you have a good source for parts for those carbs.  A ripped diaphragm will cause your symptoms.  The O rings are cheap if you can get them.  If the emulsion tube (the jet the needle in photo #2) is at all oval or you can feel wear on the needle, replace both.  Oh, you called it the needle valve.  Same thing. 

[BG DUKE]

Greetings from Bulgaria!
Small world, isn't it 

I'm not even close to the reputable specialists here, but can give you a few advices and arrange some local help for your problems

I'll send you p.m. with my phone number.

[phantomaz]

@BG Duke that's great!

@Howie the emulsion tube is not absolutely oval ,I will replace both ,but I checked here and it looks like I can find used keihin fcr's cheap ,I don't know if they will work to me and wanted to ask here first. So they are from kawasaki zx7 and are 39mm ,I think I can find 41mm too ,the problem is that they are 4 non split and I don't know if I can split them ... are they different from the ducati fcr kit which ca cyclework sell ,is it worth to take 4 carbs to split them and to make them work to my 900 ?

Well since the carbs will wait for a while I decided to disassemble the fork. The slider are not scratched ... a lot ,I don't know but my opinion is that these are minimal scratches



the light from the camera makes them more visible. The seals are dead ,when I slide them through the slider they leave traces of oil behind ...
About the bushings ,is there any method to know if they are ok? this is the picture :

[Howie]

@BG Duke that's great!

@Howie the emulsion tube is not absolutely oval ,I will replace both ,but I checked here and it looks like I can find used keihin fcr's cheap ,I don't know if they will work to me and wanted to ask here first. So they are from kawasaki zx7 and are 39mm ,I think I can find 41mm too ,the problem is that they are 4 non split and I don't know if I can split them ... are they different from the ducati fcr kit which ca cyclework sell ,is it worth to take 4 carbs to split them and to make them work to my 900 ?

Well since the carbs will wait for a while I decided to disassemble the fork. The slider are not scratched ... a lot ,I don't know but my opinion is that these are minimal scratches

the light from the camera makes them more visible. The seals are dead ,when I slide them through the slider they leave traces of oil behind ...
About the bushings ,is there any method to know if they are ok? this is the picture :

I suppose you could make those carbs work, but it would be very difficult I think.  I recommend staying with the stock carbs until you get things sorted out.  I can't say for sure from the photo about the fork sliders.  Do they feel smooth if you run your finger nail over the scratch?  If so, you could try the new seals and see what happens.  I think you could get away with the bushings.  Others, please chime in.

[Cloner]

I've used worse bushing on my personal equipment.  If it was a customer's bike I'd ask the customer to choose and advise replacement. 

If you want to reuse them, just clean off the teflon that was damaged when you beat the fork legs apart.  A sharp x-acto knife or razor knife skiving away from the good surface should work well.  Be sure to likewise check the inner surface of the lower bushing, too.  Clean EVERYTHING you can see as well as you possibly can.  Small bits of trash are the enemy of well-performing forks!  Debris gets into the small orifices used to pass oil for damping, and between wearing bits, and causes all sorts of problems.  CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN.

Replace the fork seals and dust seals, which are often sold as a kit.  Dust seals aren't critical, but new ones will help keep out things that destroy the oil seals.  You can use a small drift and hammer to seat the bushings and seals, but don't get impatient.  Work methodically and be careful not to damage anything in the doing.  If you can get a set of fork seal drivers, they do work better and have less chance of damaging a seal.  Motion Pro makes nice ones.

As to FCR carbs, if you intend to get a set to fit the stock manifolds, get the FCR kit from Ca-cycleworks.  It'll save you tons of headaches.  You can get the parts to convert the Kaw units for use on your Duc from Sudco, but in the end it'll probably cost more than just getting the correct bits to start.

You might consider buying the FCR kit now if you intend to do it at some point in the future.  The parts for your carb rebuild aren't expensive until you replace the diaphragms.  In the US the diaphragms are well over $100 each.  If you're buying new jets, needles, emulsion tubes, and gaskets you'll probably spend $350 or $400 just on parts....which is well on its way to buying FCRs that aren't worn out.  The Yamaha 850 Tenere wasn't sold in the US, so we don't have good access to parts for our Mikuni carbs from our Yamaha dealer network.  Being in Europe you might save a lot of money ordering those parts through Yamaha.

However, for a bike you intend to ride often, and isn't a track bike, I'd suggest keeping the CV carbs.  They have nice creature comforts....mainly their enrichment circuit....that can make flat slides hard to live with on a bike that's ridden often.  FCRs have no choke and can make the bike very hard to start, especially in cold weather (says the guy with FCR carbs on his SS).

Good luck, in any case.

[phantomaz]

@Cloner ,thank you for your reply!

Hello guys ,my passion to disassemble things took me too far. I bought a V heads ,because my bike was with W stamp heads.
I am disassembling them now to do soda blasting and repainting. I saw some wear on the head caused by the shims of the lower rocker arm. Someone knows is it a normal wear ,or someone forgot to put in place those tiny shims /like the ones on the upper rocker/ . Because it is hard to me to explain it I will say it this way : should the sequence be like this - the cylinder head wall ,tiny shim ,thick shim ,rocker arm? One more thing I don't know if this wear caused the next problem ,but those roads of the camshaft which pull down the lower rocker arm ,make not full contact with the rocker surface which causes even wear of the camshaft ,it is seen on the picture below /the left road - /tooth?/ of the camshaft/. What do you guys think about those 2 problems, should I repair the head walls by the wear /I know it is repairable/ ,and should I put than a tiny shims too between the wall and the thick shims?

[phantomaz]

no one knows anything about this?