how to polish a turd (a 750 mod thread)...

[Duck-Stew]

Lookin' good Nibor!

[Nibor]

so I've slowly been slugging away at little bits and pieces. lots of prepping (some good some lazy), lots of rattlecan painting (with results reflecting the prep effort!), lots of pissing off the missus by cooking smelly painte parts in her oven 

collected most of the bolts I need to replace nearly everything. stoked to find the footpeg racket bolts were relatively cheap, whilst being rather particular/specialist. disappointed to find it's damn near impossible to locally source low and ultra-low profile socket head cap screws in silver zinc, what little they had was all black steel. these are for the swingarm/rear hoop bolts, and the headlight mount bolts.

also, the dash/meter mounting bolts, with their thread on the half nearest to the head, whilst having an unthreaded skinny pin section on the tail, are super special with no-one knowing them. and stock $17 a bolt is hard to swallow!

lastly bolt related, I'm sick of taking a variety of bolts or even just a list to my local shop, and having the bloke there "match" them to replace my corroded old stuff. his version of matching is +- 5-10mm, which is ridiculous, and not a match. /rant.

SO! I just cleaned up my rose joints for the hoop, keeping them. fitted the rear hoop, and shock linkage (except 1 bolt to be replaced still, as my replacement bolt supplied was 5mm shorter than requested, so the nut doesnt have a quality purchase). this means I'm nearly up for mounting wheels!!

the bars are on, the brake lines need replacing with longer ones that fit/can be routed correctly and aesthetically. FCRs fitted to my painted inlet manifolds (still need throttle and fuel lines). speaking of fuel, my pump is painted too, ready for the rebuild kit.

the list goes on!

time for some sleep, need to get up and earn some more money to pay for more bits 



P.S. pics to follow, when my phone is not dead

[Duck-Stew]

Cool!  Looking forward to the results... 

[Speeddog]

AFAIK:
The swingarm/hoop bolts and dash/meter bolts are specials, exclusive to Ducati.
Headlight mount bolts are standard low-head configuration, available in Stainless.

Looking good, keep up the strong work!

[Nibor]

painting all the bits!



inlet manifolds and FCRs are mounted.




modified (expanded) airbox fitted. will take another pic of the front, easier to  see the mod.




hard to see with the contrast/bad lighting, but the painted linkage, hoop, and ohlins are all fitted. will decide on a home for the remote reservoir later.

[Nibor]

AFAIK:
The swingarm/hoop bolts and dash/meter bolts are specials, exclusive to Ducati.
Headlight mount bolts are standard low-head configuration, available in Stainless.

available in some countries 

I can't believe how hard it is to source components here. yet to find anyone local with low-profile silver zinc bolts, they're only in black steel. let alone stainless!

[clubhousemotorsports]

Just came across this thread, nice job I hope the best for you and Nugget!

just an FYI to keep an eye on the 97 monster in the US had weak engine cases that were prone to cracking at the layshaft. stock they would be fine with the power but if you start to make power the lifespan is shortened. i have personally killed two sets of 97 cases. the first set was a street bike that I turned into a track bike.  I beat that motor hard but outside of a light flywheel and a little port clean up it was a65hp stock motor at best. It lasted me about 7-8 seasons of about 1000-2000 track miles a season.

second set of cases were from a friend and they were a complete motor with pistons,cams and lots of little bits. I never ran it myself with these parts as I knew of the 97 cases. I swapped all my first engines parts into the newer set of cases and ran it also as a pretty stock motor. I cracked that one last fall after about a year and a half, so I think the time as a built motor shortened its life for sure.

When at the dealership we had a bunch of very built 750ss racers that broke cases after about 4-5 years at the expert level, when the 97 came out we built them on the 97 cases and often did not get a season. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but you should know to keep an eye on the engine casting on the right side under the layshaft pulley. It will often start as an oil leak as there is an oil passageway the crack will spread to.

If you are NOT in the US I have no idea if these are the same cases we had, they certainly are the same style (early).

I just built a 750 from a 02 620 monster to get away from the 97, the 98 and later cases are MUCH better with little issues but there are a number of parts different than you have on the 97 so you cannot just swap your 97 parts into the 98+ motors. You pretty much have it done so just enjoy the bike. As a road bike it may last forever and if it does go you could source the earlier cases which were stronger or swap some of your parts to a newer block.

[Nibor]

so the issue was specific to 1997 cases for the 750?

will keep my eyes peeled, for both the crack/leak, and for a spare case. I think I saw a NOS case floating around somewhere a while back!

[Nibor]

that didnt take long. found a NOS case within 5min! just need to determine what year it is. combine that with NOS vertical and horizontal heads, as mine look shit with age and acid damage, add in my existing barrels (the barrel paint is bulletproof!) and all internals, and I have an virtually NOS engine!

 

[clubhousemotorsports]

First I would verify your 97 750 motor is the same as the us models (where are you?).

I would see little benefit in having a second set of the same case as they will end the same .... some day.  Earlier cases were stronger based on our experience, 98 and later were different but better still. Yes it was one year in the US where the 750 came back after being gone from the US market for a couple years, 1997 monster 750 is the only one in the US.

I do not know if it is true but was told the 97 was built up from the 400 when they ran out of the old castings in the early 90's. The 98 came with completely new cases and though I have seen them break they are super rare. This is why I built my replacement from a 620.

Your 97 cylinders will not mate up with later cases as the tensioners are on the cylinders on the 98 and later motors, your heads will.  If you have your existiting motor together and do not mind the work get the spare cases and hold on to them until you need them. Run it as you have it and if they break change them then. The cracks are NOT catastrophic as it shows itself as a oil leak first.  picture in link.

View this post on Instagram

I was bummed as I really preferred the look of the earlier motor and there was no other benefit to change for me. Some would take it as a sign to build the motor more (6 speed,slipper clutch,  or dropping in an 800 motor) but I was shooting for a 60hp motor and am at 59.9 on my dyno. Yes that missing  .1 bugs me!

[Von Eisen]

Nibour, I did this for dash mount bolts ... You can modify two stainless m8x50 button bolts, just remove the lower 25mm of thread.

Btw this thread needs a like button, those FCR look sweet bud

[Nibor]

Nibour, I did this for dash mount bolts ... You can modify two stainless m8x50 button bolts, just remove the lower 25mm of thread.

Btw this thread needs a like button, those FCR look sweet bud

thanks mate! I'm hoping to have them looking even better in the future, but it's not a priority now unless they need a rebuild anyway. Hydroblasting!



thanks for the tip on the stainless. I spoke to a mate about machining a hardened steel bolt, as I'm using silver zinc metric 12.9 bolts for most of my replacements. but the issues there are damaging his tooling with the toguh steel, and still needing to plate the machined surface. hopefully SS will be easier for him, as there's no need for me to finish it afterwards! 

[Nibor]

so an update of sorts.

not a lot of progress, as life has generally got in the way. combine that with me working on 4 or 5 sections of the build at once, with most of them having only 90% of the parts, leaves not much actually completed.

waiting for some bolts from Italy, as well as other parts from the USA, UK, and China/HK. rearsets are nearly complete and mounted, as goes for the front and rear ends. just need to get the wheels painted!!

painting the sprocket carrier and a new sprocket and Ti sprocket nuts (in the mail), and the rear looks sweet. also 90% complete with adding the floating caliper bracket and rod from the 900 partout, but this mounts with the rearsets which are waiting on bolts.

front end needs painted wheels, and waiting on a NOS speedo drive to replace my broken unit. Koko I have your spare, spare! decided NOS to avoid any issues for a while yet. then its all good to mount and I'll have a rolling bike!

rolling.... but not stopping! need to measure up and order the front and rear lines still, but will do this once the above is complete.

painted some more bits, and tried painting my oem beer tray. this caliper paint likes to be cooked though, but the beer tray didnt! its rather warped now haha. looks good though!! this was after trying RIT dye, which failed miserably. maybe I didnt use enough dye? maybe the plastics didnt want to take it. either way, two components came out exactly the same, except for the beer tray which actually came out slightly whiter/grey courtesy of the heat or maybe some colour bleed. hence the painting attempt. now I have justified a carbon/aluminium tray if I can find one

have been enjoying pulling apart a lot of smaller components to clean/paint, like the seat lock mechanism (both ends). they've ended up looking so much better, but all this has really eaten up what little time ive spent on the bike, so the big picture doesnt look much different to the pics above.

when I pull my finger out, I'll load some more pics, and even one day go back and fix all the broken pics so this can be a proper thread not an unpolished turd 

[koko64]

I'll pop by this week if I can to have a look. Cam has a carbon tray. Make him an offer. It might need a recoat so I'd try and get it as is. I'll send you his number.

[Nibor]

if I removed the wiring harness nearly last, it should go on nearly first. why am I trying to fit it last??