Monster 695 recently making a strange noise from engine

[stopintime]

Interesting, I never saw a set up like yours.  Custom?  Wing it repair?  Dunno. 
..............

My 2007 has the same non-windowed inspection cover. (along with a different main crank bearing)

[Lieutenant Dan]

Interesting, I never saw a set up like yours.  Custom?  Wing it repair?  Dunno. 

Running with no pipes did not cause the problem.  Have you been back to the shop who did the service?  Were they aware of the problem before doing the service?  Does the bike run smoothly when cruising?  Accelerating?

IMO, your next step should be a trip back to the shop.

Running with no pipes did not cause the problem. 

I do not believe anything on the bike is custom. I bought it last year about 5,000 miles ago and the guy said he left it stock. What is non standard about it that makes you say that?

I have actually been back to the shop, they listened to it and were not able to tell me what the sound was. I did mention the problem before the main service they did, but there were other problems that they were focused on. When I got it back, I asked the mechanic who worked on it if he noticed the noise (it was happening but less frequently back then). He said he didn't notice it on his test drive, which I find extremely hard to believe (or he is a moron). The bike runs smoothly when cruising and accelerating unless I am very gently accelerating, like through a slow turn from a stop. If I just gun the throttle, it's fine.

Unfortunately, this shop is now 1,000 miles away. In addition, it was very expensive and I do not have money in my budget to be taking it back to a dealer who can't figure anything out for a long time and will cost me many hours of labor once again for nothing. These two factors make me very strongly desire to fix this myself if at all possible. That, or at least take it to a service technician knowing what to tell him the problem is.

[Buckethead]

Happens at idle and low throttle openings...

Air bleeds, maybe?

[Howie]

As far as custom goes, I was referring to the Allen plug in the side cover verses a sight glass.  I just never saw that before.   This would have nothing to do with your problem. 

Air bleeds are a possibility, as Buckethead said.  Throttle Position Sensor adjustment or vacuum leak are two more.  It could be a valve out of adjustment too.  TPS adjustment on your 695 requires a scan tool.  What is your hot idle speed?  If it is over 1100 RPM  you could try turning the bypass screws in a 1/4 turn and see what happens.  1K miles away?  A long distance to go, particularly if you are not happy with them.  To your left, look at "Local Club Boards" and post up there, maybe help is closer. 

[Lieutenant Dan]

Thanks for the good advice, howie and Buckethead. Just another question, what are the air bleeds? Sorry, if it isn't obvious already, I'm a very green Ducatista... 

[Howie]

A picture is worth a thousand words, but I don't have one.  If you look at your intake manifolds you will see a brass flat head screw in each manifold.  These are the air bleeds.  They control the amount of air that bypasses the throttle, and also control idle speed.  Turn them in  1/4 turn at a time.  Keep track of what you do with them so you can set them back to where they were before.  If this does not help, check for vacuum leaks.  Any luck finding someone close to you?

[brad black]

http://www.bikeboy.org/ducati2vthrottleb.html

first few photos.

[brad black]

Mine was one of the main bearings disintegrating. I checked the flywheel nut and then the clutch. Was looking at the oil pump when I noticed that one of the bearings was scarred and slowly flaking off.

I had been finding bits of metal in the oil screen and on the plug.

Flywheel is on the left side as your sitting on it.

I got lucky when a dmf'er sold me the engine from his totaled 695.

what did you do with the old motor?

[sl8tr]

still have it, i also have a very low mileage bottom end for the same engine. I was going to attempt to put my cylinders on that bottom end when I was offered the replacement engine.

its all gathering dust in my garage now

[Lieutenant Dan]

http://www.bikeboy.org/ducati2vthrottleb.html

first few photos.

Brad and howie, extremely helpful! Thanks for the good stuff like that from which I am learning so much!

More importantly, I have some excellent news. I made a great discovery today, as first suggested by Buckethead and howie, I noticed that associated with each "pop" noise, the throttle body for the vertical cylinder gets jolted a little bit!

Hmm... almost sounds like a slight backfire. Have you messed with your intake or exhaust at all?

I hope this narrows it down a little bit (or a lot). To answer your questions, I have not messed with the intakes myself at all. At the service a thousand miles ago they told me that they did sync the throttle bodies because they were out of sync. I'm not sure if they did anything else.

1. Do you think this confirms that it is a slight backfire through the vertical cylinder intake?

2. What do I do if it is indeed a backfire through the vertical cylinder intake? (howie, to answer your question earlier, my hot idle is around 1,800 rpm. Should I still try that with the bypass screws?)

A while back I had a problem with it quitting on me at stop lights. Maybe they just cranked my idle way up to 1,800. Is the simple adjusting of the bypass screws enough to safely and completely adjust my idle? What about the throttle stop screws? I think I was reading on here that for a Duc, it's not that simple as just adjusting two screws. Also, would adjusting the bypass change the mixture?

[Lieutenant Dan]

howie, I see you helped svp88 back in April to diagnose a similar problem. Damn, you're good... 

[Buckethead]

I'm gonna take a guess and say that 1,800 rpm is a bit high for an idle. I'm used to seeing more around 1,200.

Depending on WHY it was dying at stoplights, I could see opening the air bleeds solving that problem but at the cost of making your bike run lean at idle and low throttle openings. It wouldn't have much effect on cruising performance because the amount of air getting by the throttle at that point would be waaaaaaay more than the amount getting past the idle air circuit. At (and just above) idle, the difference would probably be enough to seriously lean out your air/fuel ratio.

I'd wager if you screwed both of your air bleeds all the way in, then backed them out equally and slowly until your idle was at 12-1300, your problem would likely go away.

I'm sure someone will chime in if I'm completely off base.

[brad black]

read the whole report i linked. 

[Lieutenant Dan]

read the whole report i linked. 

To quote your report, "But both the 695 (afaik) and 800 have a linear TPS, so this setting procedure is irrelevant for them anyway."

This is a 695 here.

[Howie]

I'm gonna take a guess and say that 1,800 rpm is a bit high for an idle. I'm used to seeing more around 1,200.

Depending on WHY it was dying at stoplights, I could see opening the air bleeds solving that problem but at the cost of making your bike run lean at idle and low throttle openings. It wouldn't have much effect on cruising performance because the amount of air getting by the throttle at that point would be waaaaaaay more than the amount getting past the idle air circuit. At (and just above) idle, the difference would probably be enough to seriously lean out your air/fuel ratio.

I'd wager if you screwed both of your air bleeds all the way in, then backed them out equally and slowly until your idle was at 12-1300, your problem would likely go away.

I'm sure someone will chime in if I'm completely off base.

1800 RPM is way to high.  It sounds like the shop couldn't solve the problem and masked the problem by bumping up the RPM.  Turning in the air bleeds until the idle speed is within spec is, if you can achieve this is a start.  If this works, at least the bike might be in a more rideable condition.  I would want to know the vales are within spec, compression is good, throttle stop screw is set properly and TPS is set.  If you cannot get the idle down below 1300 RPM with the bypass I would suspect either a big vacuum leak or the throttle screw that is not supposed to be used to set idle speed was used.  Not having a 695 manual I do not know the spec for the throttle stop screw setting (if one exists) but just barely opened should work.  This is best done with the throttle cable disconnected.  Once the throttle screw is touched TPS must be reset.  If TPS is off the ECU does not have an accurate reference of throttle opening.  As said before, this requires a scan tool or software.  VDSTS software can be purchased from our sponsor  http://wwww.ca-cycleworks.com

Have you had any luck finding a closer qualified shop or local DMF member to help you out?  IMO, experience with engines and fuel injection is a good idea.