DUCATI 996
Jim’s keeping his wagon rolling alright! This month he’s alarmed by wiring and making his own moveable stand for the 996.
Jim Lindsay strips his!
Plans only exist to show how wrong you were in the first place. When long-time mate and CMM’S 888 restorer Mark Forsyth dropped in for a cup of tea and we went to look at the 996, he asked why on earth was I planning to strip it completely. “Just the job for a rolling restoration,” he said. “Take the engine out and you’ll have a whole load of work you don’t need to do.” I could see his logic and it was all the more appealing because I’ve got two bikes after the Ducati that need a huge amount of time and money spending on them – a complete but uber-tatty 1985 Yamaha FZ750 and a Triumph 1050 special. The engine on the 996 runs perfectly and I reckon elbow grease will get the thing looking presentable. The same goes for the frame. Plenty of Farecla rubbing compound, a few colour-matched rattle can sessions and the chassis tubes will come up looking good. It will retain that used but smart look. That still leaves plenty of work so I set about pulling the thing apart. The first thing was to build a nice big pile of detached bodywork. That’s all bagged up now and ready for the painter. With the silencers removed, I started on the rear sub-frame. Dead simple except the disabled Datatool alarm body was still attached to the wiring loom and the wires had been routed through a gap too small for the alarm body to pass through. Oh yes, and the wires had been spliced direct into the loom with no connecting plug. I’m not sure which irritates me most – battery-draining alarms or people who modify things without thinking that they may need to be undone at some point in the future. I hate the things and never fit them to any of my bikes. People ignore
them anyway, “Ooh listen dear. It’s a bike alarm. Hand me some ear plugs will you?” And so to the exhaust link pipes – the first, but I am sure not the last, sign of age, trouble and neglect. The silencers had come off easily enough, as you’d expect: I only put them on last year. The lower exhaust link pipe mount on the other had decided to mate for life with the right hand side of the crankcase into which it is bolted direct. Penetrating fluid, a hammer on the end of the Allen key, gentle heat from the oxy torch accompanied by more hammering – all the usual stuff and a cold chisel as well – all for nothing. I drilled it. That fixed its hash good and proper. It won’t do that again in a hurry. I tried to tease out the remains of the bolt and leave the threads intact but that failed too so I am left with a smooth hole. When the time comes, I’ll machine up a threaded plug from aluminium bar and bond it in place. After the controlled violence of the bracket removal, getting the link pipes off was easy enough. They are a bit of a mess though. I’m going to try Scotchbrite and metal polish first. If that doesn’t work, they’re off to the blasters. Electrical expert Ferret is heading my way later this year to make a new loom for my special so I’m going to get his advice on how to fix the wiring. I cut the wires to get the alarm body out, labelling each one with coloured cable ties just in case I do have to reconnect the horrible thing. Next to come off was the headlight and instrument setup, all of which is held by a sub frame substantial enough to bear the weight of a medium elephant: everything looks good there, so I’m leaving it. Having decided to leave the engine in the chassis, this left me with another problem. The wheels, forks, rear shock and swingarm will all have to come out for servicing and cosmetic attention. My workshop is only big enough for two bikes at a time, so I needed to make the Ducati chassis easily mobile. With some steel kicking about and with the good fortune to have a decent lathe and some welding gear, the obvious answer was to fabricate a rolling stand to support the guts of the bike. Well, it was a way to improve my metalworking skills! I made the framework out of 25 x 3mm RHS (Rectangular Hollow Section). Before welding it all up, I machined the ends square in the lathe. I didn’t actually need to do this but it was a good excuse to see if I could remember how to centre work in a four-jaw independent chuck. The last time I did that was about 40 years ago! For attaching the bike to the stand, I copied the method used on the Abba stand which has been a favourite accessory of mine for a number of years. I machined up four inserts to plug into the recesses in the frame and bored out the other ends to fit over the M20 threaded bars that are used to screw the inserts into place. I made the inserts from mild steel, cheap if a bit horrible to machine. Before slapping on a few coats of smooth Hammerite and attaching the castors, I tried the stand out to see if it worked. All seemed good! That’s it for the moment. Next time I’ll be removing the forks and swingarm and getting down to business with refurbishing the many parts that need some attention. See you soon!