Tools for valve adjustment

[lazylightnin717]

Disassembled one of the 748 heads completely to rob what I need out of it. I was able to practice getting the closing springs back into place. Not bad with the head off the bike, but that suspension linkage is gonna make it a PITA

If worst comes to worst, I'll be yanking the heads and making myself a head nut wrench tool. Not thrilled about that idea but what the hell. I'm already halfway there.

It's 10 AM. I've just had my  and breakfast. Time to pinch a loaf get the bike up on the stands and have at it. More on this later. Hopefully it will be good news.

[lazylightnin717]

Update

Yesterday went as expected. It took me about 3 hours to take care of the vertical exhaust closer. I never want to have to do that again. I'm praying that the vert. intake closers never give me a reason to have to swap 'em. That was the suck.

After that, everything else went smoothly. All in all, I swapped out 6 openers and 3 closers. Got everything reassembled and checked my clearances again...

I couldn't get any feelers in to check one of my unloaded gaps on a horizontal exhaust. My gauges go down to .0015. Should I be concerned? This was one of the closers and openers I replaced. My next question would be... how much can I sand down a shim? Is there any rule of thumb for the max amount a shim can be sanded to fit? I'm assuming that the opener needs to be taken down .006" and curious if that will be too much. Or am I totally wrong in the way I am thinking about this?

I'm starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.

On a side note. What are the torque specs for the head nuts? In a fit of rage, I loosened them up on the vertical head and was gonna rip it off.... but the head and cylinder was wobbling around and it freaked me out so I tightened them up and figured everything out in the end. I really cranked on them but should probably get a torque wrench on there.

[lazylightnin717]

http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=54039.0

Yay for search button. 38 ft-lb doesn't seem like so much though.

I'm still skeptical about the fact that I kinda shook the head vertical head to see if it was loose. The head and cylinder seemed to be stuck together so the cylinder was actually lose from the case. Is this a point of major concern?

[Speeddog]

Three-step on the head torque : 11, 22, 38.

If you've broken the base gasket seal... you should pull that cylinder off and clean and re-seal the base gasket.

If you don't you're flirting with a base gasket leak.
S4 were prone to it.
Worthwhile to plug the oil gallery while you've got the cylinder off.

Get a good ring compressor, the cast-iron oil rings are fragile.

[lazylightnin717]

Is there any easy way to tell if the cams are shagged?

Between my own and the cams that were in the 748 heads, they both have similar wear patterns.

I'm honestly a little shocked at the rough nature of the surface of the cams.

[Speeddog]

Post up some pics of the worst looking one, try to get about as close as you did for the flaked rocker pic.

[lazylightnin717]

I chose the one that looks the worst IMO

[Speeddog]

Well, that opener doesn't look great.

But it's hard to tell from the pics.

[lazylightnin717]

Is there anything that can be done to spruce up the cams a bit?

Polish wheel on a dremel?

[Speeddog]

I've used lapping/sharpening stones to smooth a couple cams off.

I've got no long term feedback on the cams I did.

[lazylightnin717]

I'm going to change the thread title to

"the why can't anything ever be easy thread"

Speeddog...

I have two M4 set screws with stripped out heads. I'm trying to get the gas tank apart but can't seem to get them out. Any suggestions?

On another note

I had to cut a bolt to get the exhaust off. It was rusted and seized. Not I can't get the threaded part of the bolt out. Do they sell the clamps separately anywhere that you know of?

[Speeddog]

Gak... stripped out grub screws.

I've had reasonable results with torx drivers on FUBAR'ed allen bolts.
I've just checked, a T8 Torx driver fits in an unmolested grub screw, so it may work on a bad one.

Soak 'em with penetrating oil first.

Also, put some torque on 'em while you lean on the filler ring, it may unload 'em enough to get 'em turning.

Are you talking about the clamp on the vertical cylinder downpipe?

[lazylightnin717]

Vertical cylinder downpipe be the area. I clamped it up on a mill and and drilled through the rusty bolt. Unfortunately, I'm not a machinist... So I'm just going to drill it out enough to through-bolt it.

I got fed up with trying to get the set screws out and said make the beast with two backs it. Replaced the other ones and called it a day.

From what I could see, the lines in the tank looked and felt fine. Not brittle at all. I still wish I could replace the fuel filter though.

The black rubber piece on the inside of the gas cap popped off.... This was not a point of major concern for me because I assume it is just to keep gas from splashing out as I fill it up. But I tried for 2 hours to get it back on before I took it out into the parking lot and soaked it in thinner and burned it. It wouldn't go on. It can't go on. I cut it in half just to see and it overlapped itself by at least 3/4" 

Either I suck at working on bikes, Italian bikes are not designed well, or ....??

I'm getting fed up here Nick. Give me some love

[Speeddog]

You should be able to get that clamp from a dealer.
Someone here *may* have one, not sure if the 2-valve ones are the same.
Those clamps get quite hot, blasted with dirt and water, and don't get any anti-seize at the factory.
I've had a couple on customer's bikes that died.

Leave the fuel filter job for later.
It's easy to get too many upgrades/fixes going at once when the bike's down.
Pretty soon you have the frame off and out for powdercoat and you're making a new wiring harness. 

That filler splash shield thing... they all fall off.
Even if you had managed to get it back on, it would have fallen off again.
Mine was roaming around in the tank for quite a while.

 

[DTR]

....... But I tried for 2 hours to get it back on before I took it out into the parking lot and soaked it in thinner and burned it. .... 
Either I suck at working on bikes, Italian bikes are not designed well, or ....??

Ahhh, a man who understands frustration, I would have pumped it full of buckshot while it was burning in the parking lot!!!!!!

You most likely don't suck at working on bikes, like Speeddog says " you can attempt too much and things spiral out of control. Why not take a break from the project and do something fun for a spell? Come back with a fresh perspective and a new can of thinner