[Apriliarider]

anxiously awaiting results of start attempt.

You’ll be the first to know....I’ll PM you before posting here 😊

 

[Apriliarider]

A little more progress tonight:

Battery charged up nicely over night. Got the harness ground connected to the frame lug. There is still another but it appears to connect on the front subframe....and it really should have a cable ground also.

So, I’ll make another ground cable to provide a real ground up front. Just so I know it has one that doesn’t rely on just the subframe bolted to the steering head.

Paint doesn’t not make a good ground and both are painted quite well. Not a big deal, I have plenty of ground cable and lugs to crimp on.

more to follow....sooner than later

 

[Apriliarider]

Got quite a bit done over the last few days. Carburetors now installed, though I installed and removed the airbox at least twice today.

1st time was to ensure it was going to fit as I installed a frame brace across the front of the frame just behind the steering head tube. Then the second time to make sure it would sit down on the carbs correctly.

I took it out the second time because after install I discovered it was impossible to install the fuel lines.
I got the feed line in from my remote tank but the return line is too short.

I have a bunch of fuel line that I ordered in my garage somewhere but I’ll be damned if I can find it. I just saw it a little while back but was not ready for it yet at the time. Now I am and “poof” it’s hiding somewhere.

Hoping for some smoke noise in the next few days. Had to put the battery on the charger again-it’s an older AGM that still seems to work. It won’t last for too many crank cycles on the starter though.

Just waiting on it to charge up, and gotta grab a gallon of gas or so to fill the remote tank....after I find that fuel line to connect the return line. Crossing fingers for smoke noise after that. More later.

 

[Apriliarider]

Got gas, filled the remote tank...still no smoke noise. Dribble fuel directly down the carbs....still nothing. Found a few less than secure connections. Fixed those and tried again. Still nothing.

Went through the ignition circuit wiring Ms connectors yet again today. With some pics from Saabnut I verified what I had was correct. Still nothing. I’ll get after it again tomorrow.

As I was getting nowhere, and had to charge the battery again before continuing, I used the time to clean up some bolts and install some new to me rear sets.

Now, I’d had my eye on a new set from a 1996 that came in an anodized/painted black color versus the OEM 1993 silver. This particular set was not only off of a 1996 and black like I wanted but these were also modified a bit.

They’re for with different pegs for one, and quite a bit of the excess material has been milled off. It makes them look very custom even though they’re OEM.

Left side above. Right side below:

 

[ducatiman]

following up on last post here from 4 months ago......whats going on with the SS?

 

[Apriliarider]

In a word, nothing. No progress since I installed the foot pegs, other than I received the new Shorai battery I ordered.

Have not been motivated to get out to the garage since returning from vacation…and when I’ve had a thought of going out to at least assess where I left off, a blast of 100+ degree heat greets me.

I just shut the garage door and retire to my air conditioned living room instead. However, the heat is turned down a bit this week so possibly I might get out to my garage and get something done this weekend

 

[Apriliarider]

A small update:

Last weekend I got a little time out in the garage and finally got the PSS to make some smoke noise.

I got it to start and run for about 45 seconds. I was able to throttle it up a bit to about 2500 rpm.

Filled the garage with smoke as I’d poured a cap full of Marvel Mystery oil down the cylinders after I got the engine.

What I further discovered is a) I bought the wrong oil pressure switch. It needs to be a normally closed switch that is open when oil pressure is present.

B) the starter sprag clutch is toast. Looks like I’ll need a new one. It seemed to work okay, but not great until I got it started.

Once oil circulated as it should the sprag no longer turns the engine over for more than a a single revolution, maybe 2.

So, looks like more parts to order and the obvious wait time until I get a new sprag and oil pressure switch.

More later

 

[Apriliarider]

Parts update:
My starter sprag finally arrived on Wednesday. That was the last of the parts I needed. The oil pressure switch arrived in about 2 days from Amazon.

Also ordered some heat transfer vinyl to do up a custom Ducati t-shirt. I have plenty here but I’m doing a retro logo on it from 1960s

I wanted to use something a little more 60s ish than crisp 2020 looking vinyl. All of that arrived yesterday so hopefully, I’ll have the shirt done by Sunday and project 900SS ready to start with a new sprag by tomorrow afternoon.

More later when I have something to share

 

[Davenay67]

Parts update:
My starter sprag finally arrived on Wednesday. That was the last of the parts I needed. The oil pressure switch arrived in about 2 days from Amazon.

Also ordered some heat transfer vinyl to do up a custom Ducati t-shirt. I have plenty here but I’m doing a retro logo on it from 1960s

I wanted to use something a little more 60s ish than crisp 2020 looking vinyl. All of that arrived yesterday so hopefully, I’ll have the shirt done by Sunday and project 900SS ready to start with a new sprag by tomorrow afternoon.

More later when I have something to share

Do you have a heat press machine, or are you "MacGyver-ing" it with a regular iron?

Thinking you cut the design from the vinyl with a regular vinyl cutter?

 

[Apriliarider]

I bought all the necessary stuff to do all manner of heat transfer “stuff”

We bought a Cricut Maker to cut the vinyl and a random heat press that had good ratings on Amazon.

I’ve experimented with a few shirts already to get the process for multi layer designs down.

My first one came out stellar so I decided to try a more intricate one for this design.

I’ll post a pic of the first one here in a bit

 

[Davenay67]

I bought all the necessary stuff to do all manner of heat transfer “stuff”

We bought a Cricut Maker to cut the vinyl and a random heat press that had good ratings on Amazon.

I’ve experimented with a few shirts already to get the process for multi layer designs down.

My first one came out stellar so I decided to try a more intricate one for this design.

I’ll post a pic of the first one here in a bit

Look forward to seeing oyrur shirt. When my wife had her own graphics business we bought a Roland CAMM-1 cutter. Entry level professional 24" cutter. Still have it. Amazing machine. I looked at the heat transfer stuff, but it can rapidly get expensive.

 

[Apriliarider]

We use Cricut and Seiser products and we don’t buy bulk so it stays reasonable.

I imagine the CAMM-1 requires the toothed type feed vinyl which is much more expensive.

The Cricut and Seiser vinyl is for the home hobby user rather than commercial type machines.

A small roll will only set you back around $9 if you catch them on sale. $20 or so at other times.

All the special colors I ordered for this project only set me back $20 shipping included

 

[Apriliarider]

Here’s a pic of the design as applied to the back of the shirt. This was my first attempt at a multi layered design. Each color is a separate cut:

This was 5 layers but not especially intricate. The next one is also 5 layers but much more intricate. I’m hoping I can pull it off as good as this one.

 

[Apriliarider]

Mostly successful day today. Got the sprag clutch removed and replaced. Mechanically not too difficult a job.

Problems were all the clean up prior to reassembly. Getting all the old loctite out of the threads of the flywheel nut and the shaft. Then all the RTV off both the crankcase half and alternator cover.

Along the way I discovered the rotor for the alternator had been installed backwards. Likely when whomever was in there before me installed the light flywheel.

Managed to get it all clean and reassembled before I got too cold. Ensured I had everything correct timing wise before buttoning up.

Made sure everything rotated manually before testing the starter and new sprag clutch. All worked beautifully with no issues turning the engine over.

Started on my t-shirt project…..Cricut taking a while with the intricate detail for this design.

Might get it on the shirt tomorrow….at least the back of it anyway.

 

[Davenay67]

We use Cricut and Seiser products and we don’t buy bulk so it stays reasonable.

I imagine the CAMM-1 requires the toothed type feed vinyl which is much more expensive.

The Cricut and Seiser vinyl is for the home hobby user rather than commercial type machines.

A small roll will only set you back around $9 if you catch them on sale. $20 or so at other times.

All the special colors I ordered for this project only set me back $20 shipping included

The CAMM-1 takes plain vinyl sheet. Feed is friction, via rubber roller wheels and a rough-texture metal feed bar. I have plenty of the exterior and interior (wall) vinyl, good for making those interior graphics and the graphics you see on car rear windows.

It would be interesting to see how the heat transfer vinyl is like to cut. I imagine it's much thinner than the vinyl I'm used to. Each vinyl has it's own settings needed for a good cut (pressure, speed, blade type, etc).

 

[Apriliarider]

Yeah, the Cricut has its own program that allows you adjust for different vinyls…..the heat transfer stuff seems roughly the same thickness as any of the permanent or regular vinyls we have. I use the same cutter tool for it too.

Any of your local craft stores will have the Cricut or Seiser HTVs for roughly the same prices I wrote about previously.

143 vinyl dot com has it by the sheet too if you wanna try a smaller project just to see if you can cut it with your existing cutter/tool/software combination.

 

[Apriliarider]

Got the shirt project done. The font on the front is the same as on the logo on the back, just blown up to 11.5” wide.

Thats the back. Front below

The front was a piece of cake compared to the back.
The color layering did NOT go as smooth as the previous project.

Also, weeding the unwanted vinyl from the cut before application was quite tedious with vine leaf pattern in the green portion.

For sure if I decide to cut this one again I’ll have to load it again and arrange the layers more precisely.

All in all it came out reasonably well if not exactly to plan. Got a few new shirts to try designs on and a number of other designs to cut (not all Ducati) and try.

 

[Apriliarider]

Got started on the original body work a few weeks ago. I’ve posted pictures of the pitiful attempts at basic repairs on the factory original body before. Here are a few to refresh memories:

Above and below, a section above the right side turn signal. Rashed away from a crash, this was “repaired” by stuffing the backside with fiberglass reiforced filler, and then piling Bondo on top to contour the shape of the missing FRP.

Below, the right side cooling duct was cracked at some point. The same method of “repair” used:

This is the back side of the turn signal opening. I don’t know what you’d call that mess below it. I think it was an entire tube of RTV. Underneath was a spiderweb of cracks.

I spent a great deal of time removing all of this garbage. Some of it was painfully difficult to remove. The fiberglass filler behind the turn signal was almost an inch thick:

The filler behind the duct was about half that thick. Just as difficult to remove though. I wound up taking an old screw driver and sharpening the tip to chisel out the old filler.

 

[Apriliarider]

In order to remove some of the filler, I wound up using a wood rasp. It worked pretty well too:

After finally getting all the garbage out, I was able to actually repair the damage. Or at least, make a good start at it:

Above is the “spiderweb” of cracks. Each ground out and stop drilled. The FR of the FRP readily recognizable in this image.

Thing is, the OEM “plastic” is FRP, fiberglass reinforced plastic. It does not respond to plastic welding well. Grinding out the cracks and filling them with fiberglass and epoxy is the proper way to do this.

I use marine grade epoxy resin which is far more durable than polyester resins. Currently I’m using West Marine systems 105/205 resin. It isn’t the cheap way to go.

More later

 

[Apriliarider]

Moar pics. It’s been a few days, here’s some pics of the same spots depicted above, only after some fiber glass repair work. Only the 1st stage, so definitely more to go before I get to the filler stage.
The spider web of cracks:

Outer or front above, inner or back side below.

Here is the abraded away corner where the turn signal mounts. It was built up solely with Bondo before. Inside, it never cured and was still soft when I took the wood rasp to it. If you’re curious, these panels have been in my garage since 2018. And we’ve had 3 consecutive summers with well over 100 degree weather. It’s like no hardener was ever added to it.

Again, front or outer side above, inner or back side below:

That squarish “hole” just below the mounting hole is the spot where the near 1” thick chunk of filler was pried from.

Here is the broken spot at the cooling duct from the back side. All the old filler removed and the break bonded back together with fiber glass and epoxy resin:

Finally, a shot of the hole cut for the cigarette lighter socket on the left side panel, now capped from behind with a layer of glass. This will get ground back from the visible side and completely filled with glass a little further down the line.