Brad The Bike Boy: 848/1098 Ducati Performance Air filters (and other issues from an 848 with 24,000km)

Thursday, December 30, 2010

848/1098 Ducati Performance Air filters (and other issues from an 848 with 24,000km)

I had an 848 in for a 24,000km service a while ago that had a couple of issues that i thought would be worth commenting on.

The first was that it wouldn't start, which turned out to be because there was so much water in the fuel tank that when it was parked nose up a slight incline all the engine got was water being injected. One of those "I rode it and parked it and now it won't go" jobs. Turned out the drain tube from around the fuel cap was blocked, so when it rained the cap recess filled up with water and then when the cap was opened it got into the fuel tank. There was at least 1 litre of water in the 8 or so of fuel I drained out. So that was an easy fix.

Second the steering head bearings were so notchy it took a detirmined effort to turn the bars. Just pushing it into the shop and onto the bench bought this to my attention. Steering head bearings are one of those things that deteriorate over time and people just don't notice, so often telling someone their bike needs new steering head bearings is met with a suspiscious "feels ok to me" response. We replaced the original ball style with tapered rollers, although this requires spacing the seal off the bearings. I use the original washer from under the lower seal between the new lower seal and lower bearing and fit another of these washers on top of the top bearing under the seal. Works a treat.

Third was the amount of dirt in the airbox. Fitted with a Ducati Performance slip on muffler kit, the supplied air filter was too short for the space between the air ducts, and you could see the dust on both ends where air had been going around the filter. The state of the bottom of the airbox was quite disturbing for a supposedly dirt free environment though - see the photos. To fix it I fitted a piece of vacuum hose (3 or so mm ID, 7mm OD) around the edge groove of the air runner which loaded the filter a couple of mm when both air runners were fitted. Hopefully that will fix it. Certainly worth checking, as I had a feeling early on that there wasn't a great seal on these filters, but hadn't seen any high km evidence to back that up.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: Brad, this also happens with the std filter as well. Ducati has not addressed this issue & it is still a problem with even last models of 1198s as well. We chose to make a gasket from xtra pads from Shorai battery kits (about 5ishmm thick and glue on 1 side), works well putting in air inlet on one side. Could be applied to air filter, this is how the K&N brand filters are. Cheers, enjoy trolling your cornucopia of info BTW.; January 30, 2014 at 5:10 PM
Tanika Co Valda said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; June 11, 2019 at 2:29 AM

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The 851

The 400SS

I bought this 400SS (genuine 93 model Australian delivery! Woo hoo huh.) after seeing it in Ebay for what was possibly an good price. As ever, good was too good to be true. Badly repaired and rusted out fuel tank, badly repainted side panels, lots of km (83,000 of the bastards), etc. You know, the usual. Purchased in October 2012, as of now (Jan 2014) I've nearly finished a major service. The cam timing is done with some of the Madasl adjustable pullies that have been drilled in 4 different settings for easy dyno testing. And I have some 900 headers to try a 40mm dual exhaust set up on it (ala M400). Not a great deal of progress for 15 months, so it's taking on a long term feel. There's an F1 endurance style seat base (more taper at the rear) and front fairing sitting around, which will require frame mods to fit. It's a bit of a mental sticking point as this time. But hey, it's not like I can devalue it much more.

The Mighty KR1S 250

How it looked the rainy night someone came to take it away. Painted all black when I bought it, at some point later I realised i could rub the black off and have much of the original colour scheme underneath. Although the main fairing was originally from a red KR1 I think, and definitely badly repaired more than once, so it stayed black. And the tail panel shown was bought to replace the one I smashed the only time I crashed it and the last time I rode it at a Sandown track day. A sensational little bike, holed pistons and frequently failing stator windings aside. The first bike I rode on a race track and the first bike I had my knee down on. And a great commuter too I found. It's sometimes nice to have a bike that won't wheelie past the city speed limit in first gear.