906 back to the road

[RiTo]

Hi,

Seems that I made user account here some time ago so here's finally my first post

Here is some history of the bike. The previous owner had bought the bike autumn 2008 and he had kept it in storage to ride it next summer. He had run it periodically during the winter and when the ice was smelting he began to service it for the spring. He had serviced the carburettor and done some other maintenance work for it. When he tried to start the bike it would not fire up. He started to look for fault in the ignition side guessing that spark was too weak. He had tried to start the engine many times for long periods and this had wore the starter motor and sprag bearing down. He gave up and decided to sell the bike so I picked it up.

I bought the bike in the spring of 2010 and my intention was to make it run and ride it for the summer. I got the engine to fire up after servicing starter motor, sprag and the carburettor. Seemed to me that the fuel clog had been jammed up and engine didn't get fuel. After replacing the fuel lines and giving some fuel from separate container engine fired right up. I started to put the bike back together when I noticed the fuel tank was leaking. Bike had been flipped over at some time of its life and the upper support of the tank had been torn at that point or it had broken a little bit later. I didn't want to run a bike that spills fuel all around and it was already autumn so I decided to leave it to sit for the winter.

Last year I got the tank fixed, but I had a lot of other things to do so Paso sat in the garage waiting for better days. I tried to get it on the run but I noticed the water pump was leaking quite badly so I decided to leave it for then. Oil is leaking also from somewhere, I have to find the source for that also.

Now the days are getting longer here in Finland and I am urging to get the bike running when the weather gets better. Today I pulled it out from the back of my garage and took a look at it

To do list:
-Clean tank (rusted from inside)
-Fix the water pump (leakage and one blade missing from the impeller)
-Find source for oil leakage
-Set up carburettor
-Find new ignition coil (broken fastening for ignition lead)
-Replace cam belts
-Polish
-Some surprises

I guess I will be asking for some help here in the future, so here is the first question: What are these silencers? They seem to have original Ducati part numbers but also a mention that they are not for road use. They sound absolutely fantastic though



Some pictures: http://kuvablogi.com/blog/21657/12/

[paso750]

Hi,

those are the open Silentiums that came with the Paso 750 Limited (the power versions)

G.

[RiTo]

Thanks Paso750 for the info Did these came from the factory with road bikes or were they some kind of option? Are these rare or common?

Today I prepared the tank for cleaning and poured it full of citric acid. It has now been bubbling for few hours, rust should be gone tomorrow evening. Hope it turns out clean.

I tried to locate source for the oil leak but the whole underneath seemed to be covered with fresh oil. The engine is quite dirty so I tried to clean it a bit but it turned out to be hard with the engine in place. I decided to leave it for now and give the engine a proper pressure wash when the temperature gets above zero. So I moved on to remove the left engine cover to pull the water pump out. For this I needed of course to drain the oil so I headed for the drain plug. Really embarrassing to confess but the drain plug was only hand tight, I had left it loose when previously draining the oil . This was definitely one source for the leakage, but oil had spread so widely that I guess there might be some others. Still I hope this little oblivion would sort the whole thing.

I got the water pump off and the shaft seemed to have some heavy wear on it. Seems that the impeller is not removable and because the impeller is broken and the shaft has worn down I would need the whole package anyway. Is this some Paso 906 specific part or can I found a replacement from some later model?

[paso750]

Hi Rito,

those open Sientiums are rare. You find some pictures in the exhaust thread in the Aiming for Apex forum. They were delivered in a crate with only a few P750 Limiteds which had some additional upgrades. It`s not often you see some for sale.

Pressure washing is not for bikes. Rather spray on some engine cleaner on the motor, let it work, brush were you can and rinse it off. Pressure washing could even take paint off the engine on areas where it`s already lifting.

G.

[higgy]

Not to mention water in a dry clutch is bad news if you don't get it dry

[ducinthebay]

Yeah, if you put away a Ducati with a wet clutch pack, you may find the whole thing locked up a week later. It sure is a rude awakening when you are going for a nice Sunday morning ride, have let you bike warm up, get all your gear on, pull in the clutch, and stab it into gear, only to have it lurch forward as the clutch won't disengage. If you aren't ready for it, you may find your self lying in the gutter with your bike. If your bike has been sitting for a while, or you rode in rain last, make sure you break that clutch pack apart before you set out. Just pulling in the clutch and rocking it back and forth in gear usually does it. After a few starts, its back to where it was.

Nice pipes by the way.

My preferred method of engine cleaning is a mist of WD-40 (great solvent) , let that sit for a while (a full day is great if you have the time), then follow with a mist of Simple Green or other citrus based cleaner and a good rinse with a hose. Takes off most stuff you don't want. Any project bike starts with a full coating of WD-40 just to stop any corrosion, and makes working on the bike a bit easier. I buy WD-40 by the gallon and use a hand pump spray bottle. A lot cheaper than aerosol cans.
Cheers,

[RiTo]

I think I was little bit careless by just mentioning pressure washing, I guess my methods are not that far away of what you all mean. I usually cover up the places I want to stay dry (for example carburettor) spray some solvent on the place that I want to clean, let it work for a while and then hitting the spot with pressure taking care not to hit oil seals etc. directly. If the dirt doesn't come off easily then repeat adding solvent and washing. When I'm happy with the result I try to dry places up with compressed air and if possible, warm up engine and ride for while. Good point about the clutch though. I didn't take it into consideration and I will cover it up.

What comes to chipping paint of I'm not that worried about it. This is an old bike and it has already paint missing from the engine. If it will ever be restored to a veteran bike the engine will have to be painted anyway. Sorry if this sounds harsh but I'm happier to work with clean engine than keeping some loose paint on it.

I rinsed the tank and it turned out quite ok in my opinion, at least a lot better than what it was. A lot of loose dirt came out, I'm not sure if I got all out but at least tried my best. I might have to take the fuel clog out after some time of running for cleaning and replace the fuel filter but I'm prepared for it. I flushed the tank with fresh fuel and left some in the tank, need to get it full as soon as possible to prevent it from rusting again.

I did some searching on the water pump. The original number is according to 906 parts catalogue 25110011A. This didn't give many results on google. Here seems to be the correct part with price. I sent a question to them about the availability, but they haven't answered yet. I also asked the Finnish importer for it but they said it's no longer available and it doesn't have direct replacement. Looking at the different Ducati water pumps the impellers seem to have slight differences and the shaft dimensions are a big question. Hope that I can still get my hands on an original one and don't have to order a later model by a guess.

Thanks for all the comments and advices

[persempre907]

Unfortunately, I'm not at home and I have only my cell phone to reply.
However, I don't think that spare part is no more available.
Search the number on the 907's spare parts list (you can find it here).
The water pump is the same of 906 one, probably the number of the spare part does'nt.
If so, ask Ducati dealer the spare part with the 907's number.
Let us know.
Ciao

[RiTo]

Hello Francesco,

I downloaded the 907 parts manual and the part number was indeed little bit different (907 part number 25120021A, 906 part number 25110011A). The sealing solution seemed to be little bit different from 906 water pump, but maybe the impeller/shaft will still be with same dimensions. I entered the new number to google and there was still not many results. Luckily there was one new for sale on ebay with a reasonable price so I ordered it right away. Hope it arrives soon and that it's the right kind

[persempre907]

Ciao

[RiTo]

The water pump arrived and I can now confirm that there was not just a number change between 906 and 907. You cannot make the 907 shaft fit 906, the 907 shaft is much smaller. Probably you could make it fit the left engine cover with some machining, but I didn't want to do that. Once again surfing through ebay I found a water pump from Germany and my gosh it was the right one . Now I'm waiting for the oil seals from importer, they should hava arrived today but they did not

Original pump, German import, 907 pump

[higgy]

Guess that makes you the water pump expert now
congrats.........

[persempre907]

I'm really sorry to have given you a bad info .
Really, the late 906's engines are very similar to the 907's ones.
The first does'nt.
Anyway, I hope you manage to fix your bike.
Ciao

[Mobius]

Make your own oil gasket! Even yours truly, with 8 thumbs and two fingers managed to make an oil gasket for the water pump and the engine case in under 30 minutes, using a sheet of gasket material.

And even more amazingly when I put it all back together nothing leaks.

One thing that did concern me a little was the shocking build up of green gunk in the pump. Every alloy surface was covered in at least 1mm of this fairly hard goop. A little time with a wooden scraper and a light wire brush got it nice and tidy again - but that buildup must be affecting every alloy part of the water-cycle in the engine.

[higgy]

Too much antifreeze not enough water