Wolfie's Ducati Multistrada Pages: Ducati Service Tips

Multistrada Service Tips
by
Mark Barrett

Contents (click below to jump to the topic)
Intro
Belts
Oil Filter
Fork Oil
Swingarm
Fasteners
Spark Plugs
Flywheel
Brakes
Screen Vibrations
Mudguard and Hugger
Spares
Electrical
Valves

I’m writing this after completing a service, rather than during, so I have not been able to include photos of the processes you need to work through. This makes it more of a hints and tips sheet than a how to section, but for what it’s worth, here’s what I have found out working on the MTS.

Disclaimer – I am writing this based on my own professional engineering background and 20 years of spannering my own bikes. I am not a Ducati employee. I hope that you will find the following useful but once if it all goes horribly wrong please remember that it’s your fault, not mine.

A cautionary note – The MTS is no more complex than most other modern bikes to work on, and the Desmodromic valve gear itself adds only a limited degree of difficulty, however one of my mantras when carrying out any work is to ‘know your own limitations’. With many aspects of servicing the bike you pass a point of no return and it is simply not possible to ride the bike to the dealer to get him to finish it for you. Eg if the timing belts are off the bike and you don’t feel happy putting them back, what do you do? Similarly if you pump a brake piston out and aren’t happy bleeding the system afterwards, what do you do? It is also essential that anything you attempt is completed properly. Mistakes vary from annoying to fatal, passing through expensive on the way, although if you achieve the f word then you probably won’t be too worried about the expense.

It is very important to have read the instructions from beginning to end before starting out on any job and to have all required tools and spares available and easily accessible. A workshop manual is a must, as is a good set of spanners and sockets, but in reality the MTS does not need too many specialist tools, and some of the specialist tools listed in the manual can be made fairly easily.

If the above puts you off well sorry but it’s better to be scared off than to start something you may live to regret, but for anyone with the confidence to carry on there’s a lot of satisfaction (and money to be saved) in doing the job yourself, so here goes.

Belt replacement & tensioning - Much has been written about the belt tensioning methods. I attach one of my previous posts from multistrada.net

Remove the covers - tight fit but move the cables out of the way first and it's a bit easier.

Engage top gear and turn the rear wheel so that the timing marks on the pulleys and cases line up. All three (horizontal cam, vertical cam & crankcase drive pulley) should line up at the same time.

Loosen the movable tensioner and slide the belts off the camshaft pulleys then off the engine drive pulley. Its a bit of a fiddle and you are relying on the softness of the rubber to get the belts off the timing pulley, but take your time and ease them off and it's quite easy to do with out damaging the belts.

With both belts off nothing should turn, but if it does don't worry.

Ease the two new belts over the engine drive pulleys, and fit around the camshaft drive pulleys, making sure that the timing marks all line up again.

Using gentle pressure take up the slack in each belt and snug up the bolts in the cambelt tensioners that you loosened off earlier, but don’t worry about setting the correct tension yet. Now check the timing marks again. If all still lines up then rotate the back wheel until the whole engine has gone round twice then one at a time remove the tensioner bolts and apply a dab of threadlock. Position the tensioner to just touch the belt AND NO MORE. with the tensioner in this position snug the bolts up again. This is not the final tension but is a pretty good place to start from for setting the final tension.

Check the belt tension by fitting a 5mm allen key between the belt and the fixed idler pulley. Adjust the tensioner to get a snug sliding fit.

Looking at the belt afterwards it looks pretty loose, but it must be or the engine will heat up and expand and stress the belts. Try to gently ease the belt over the pulley to get it to jump a tooth - you probably can't in which case everything will be fine. If you can get it to jump a tooth then it's much too loose and I guess even a 10mm allen key would have been a loose fit.

When the tension in both belts is right torque up all 4 tensioner bolts to 26Nm.

Turn the engine over again using the back wheel. If the marks still line up you're done. If you feel any resistance stop. It could be valves hitting the piston.

A word of caution. If you are taking this line of attack NEVER EVEN CONSIDER UNDOING THE THREE BOLTS ON EACH CAM SPROCKET. They are there for people with all the Ducati service tools and allow tensioning with the cam itself locked in position, when not undoing them would allow different tension in different runs of the belt.

If you loosen them you will allow the cam to advance or retard and the bike will not run so well. Given that they were set properly when the bike left the factory, they are still set right now, so leave well alone.

Put the belt covers back on.

Admire the £150 that's still in your wallet, and go for a ride.

Some have suggested that the 5mm allen key method does not work for the MTS engine. I can only say that I have never had any failures after using that method, and I continue to trust it. If you do tension your belts another way remember that the belts do not stretch – If they are not slack when the engine is cold then they will snap as the engine warms up and expands, moving the pulleys farther apart as it gets hotter.

Oil filter – I advise buying only K&N filters, not for any filtration issues but because they are the only ones I have seen with a nut on the bottom for easy removal. The design of the Ducati sump makes it difficult to get a strap wrench on the filter, and sticking a screwdriver through to turn the filter off always seems a bit brutal to me. Despite trying many times I have been unable to get a cup type filter wrench that actually fits the bottom of the MTS filter.

Fork Oil – The manual falls down here, because it quotes an oil volume, not a level. When I changed the fork oil recently I put in the quoted 600cc which filled the leg completely. The problem is that some oil is trapped in the leg and does not drain unless you strip the fork innards. Ducati USA recommend 120mm air gap which seems to work fine – next time I change the oil I shall strip the fork completely and then measure in 600cc to see how it compares with the 120mm air gap. The correct way to measure the fork oil level is with the fork fully compressed and the spring out – some magazines show pictures of measuring the oil level with the forks still on the bike and the innards still in (and the fork not vertical), which can never be accurate.

Swing arm removal – Last week I took the swingarm out to grease up the bearings (which turned out to be fine anyway – I am frustrated at how many times I have taken something apart only to find it perfectly ok. Sods law says that the one thing you don’t check will be the one that seizes a week later). Starting with the bodywork already off, allow about 8 hours to remove the swingarm, clean / grease it, and replace it. The biggest nuisance factor is the need to suspend the bike from above to do this as the footrest plates must come off and they in turn hold the stand. I took up the weight of the bike on my engine hoist and then removed the footrest plates – the centrestand has two bolts each side, one bolt goes through the footrest plate, another goes straight into the engine. I found that the stand didn’t move with one bolt removed each side when the engine hoist was taking most of the weight. At this point another nuisance appeared as the heads on the screws holding the rubber strips onto the swingarm had seized completely. This meant removing the rear brake with the swingarm and also disconnecting the speed sensor at its plug & socket alongside the vertical cylinder. If your screws haven’t seized then use plenty of copper grease when you put them back in. One point to note, the rubber plugs that go into the swingarm either side of the shock bottom bolt, don’t stay in too well. After losing a set I put my replacement ones in with a dab of silicon sealant so that they’ll stay in rather longer this time.

Greasing threads – The Ducati Manual calls for greasing most screw threads prior to re-assembly. Hooray for common sense. However the effect of the torque setting varies tremendously depending on the amount of grease you apply. I use a varying amount from a thin smear, to completely smothering the threads depending upon where on the bike the fastener is – generally speaking more exposed = more grease. When torquing up fasteners (always use a torque wrench) it is worth reducing the stated torque by 5 – 10% depending on how much grease you apply so that you do not strip the threads. If you feel a thread starting to strip STOP IMMEDIATELY, back the fastener out and re-tighten. If you cannot feel the yield point on a fastener just prior to it breaking, then I suggest you stick half a dozen nuts & bolts in a piece of steel plate and tighten them up until they shear off. If you are very careful you will feel the point at which the fastener starts to turn more easily and you will find that about 1/3 of a turn later it will break. Learn to feel for this every time you tighten anything up and if you reach this point then stop before you end up stripping a thread and replacing an engine casing.

Spark Plugs – I have had excellent results with NGK Iridium and will only use these plugs now. They genuinely do pep the bike up throughout the rev range. If you order some check the NGK website for the part numbers / fitment list. At least one UK supplier is quoting the same plugs for the MTS as they do for the 996 range, and different plugs for the 1000DS SS and Monster. Draw your own conclusions and order the plug you want, not necessarily what they say you want.

Lighter Flywheel – I have recently put in a lighter Flywheel with good results. The bike feels a bit more eager to rev and pulls stronger all through the rev range. I bought a 916 flywheel on eBay for a tenner and turned it down myself. Even if you go to a machining shop for the work then I suspect that you could have a flywheel at whatever weight you want for less than the cost of the new DP item. You can turn the flywheel down to pretty much the 2lb weight of the DP Aluminium one if you want, I took mine down from 4lbs to 2 ½lbs on the basis that I can always take a bit more off if I want to but can’t put it back. The bike has suffered nothing at the low end of the rev range with no tendency to stall and only a slightly lumpier idle. A great mod at very low cost. The only issue you will find is that if you turn the diameter down you will need to make a flywheel holding tool to hold it whilst you remove the central nut as you will be removing the metal on the circumference where the standard holding tool picks up. Take a thick piece of steel plate, bore the centre out to fit over the centre boss and nut, then drill eight 6mm holes so that once you remove the alternator magnet you can bolt the holding tool on. I welded on a long bar which just rested on the ground near the front tyre to take the torque of the nut as I undid it. When tightening the nut just put a length of 20mm bar through the front wheel spindle and let the long handle on your holding tool come up underneath the bar to stop it turning. Sounds a bit Heath – Robinson but it works, and costs nothing but time and a few pieces out of the steel scraps box.

Front Brakes – Is there a MTS forum that doesn’t mention the front brake shudder? Probably not. I read something a while ago about the front brake rotor bobbins getting dirty and binding. My brakes never shuddered too badly – I found I could either provoke it or ride around it, but it was there from time to time. After stripping and cleaning the bobbins the shudder has completely gone and despite going looking for it I can’t provoke it to happen. It may not be a universal fix but it worked for me, and cost nothing, so it’s got to be worth a try. A lot of people swear by EBC HH pads. They’re fantastic, try them and you won’t want to back to the oe ones.

Rear Brake – Nothing much to say here except that if you’re going to the trouble of removing the rear wheel & axle to get the pads out, make sure you inspect and lube the big roller bearing inside the hub. No idea how much it costs but it’s bound to be a lot and it’ll probably last for ever with regular greasing. As above, try EBC HH pads.

Front Screen Vibration – A while ago I got fed up with the screen vibrating under 4000rpm so made up some supports with brackets on the handlebars. Stops all the vibes and when sprayed up matt black looks like oe.

Front Mudder – What a useless item the front mudguard is. A complete waste of time if you ride in the rain. After getting a Fenda Extenda which was an improvement, but only a small one, I have fitter the rear ¾ of a Monster mudguard onto the back of my MTS mudguard. Big improvement. It doesn’t hug the tyre as well as I would have liked due to the curvature of the MTS item at the point where they are fixed together, but to keep the front cylinder (relatively) clean that is a sacrifice I am happy to make. Another eBay bargain. £5 plus an hour with the Dremel.

Rear Hugger – If you are selecting one be aware that the DP item looks fantastic but is pretty useless at keeping the bike clean. My shock looks like it has been shotblasted after 6000 miles in all weathers.

Buying Spares – Remember that the bottom ends of most current Ducati engines are pretty well identical. Ducati publish plenty of Microfiches on their website so when pricing spares or searching eBay you can do a cross reference between a part on the MTS and on a 916 or ST2 for example. If the part numbers match then you can search for the other model safe in the knowledge that the parts will fit the MTS. My flywheel came of a 916, but fits the MTS as though it was designed to. A point to note here, check the DP parts catalogue too. The 916 and MTS flywheels are not the same part number, but the same DP flywheel fits them both so the splines where they pick up the crankshaft must be the same.

Electrical connectors – The bike is covered in the AMP waterproof connectors. If you want to buy some then Vehicle Wiring Products will sell individual connector assemblies in the UK, or you can buy the bodies and contacts separately from RS. They are great quality but for a ‘belt and braces’ solution I open them all and smear Vaseline inside them to help the waterproofing. There is an accessory terminal fused at 5A and switched with the ignition on the right hand side just in front of the tank. Great for heated grips, GPS etc. Do not connect to the similar connector on the left. It’s for engine management diagnostics and won’t source any current at all. You probably won’t damage it if you connect to it by accident but it’s better not to.

Valve Adjustment – Get ready for the long haul, because it takes a while. Basically getting accessibility to the valves takes ages – the checking itself is pretty simple. I suggest following the Desmotimes approach of checking the opener clearances then pressing down on the closing rocker and measuring again. The difference in measurements is the closing clearance. This sounds complicated but is easier than measuring the closer clearance directly, as the amount the shim overhangs the closing rocker results in a pretty small area for the feeler gauge. Fortunately mine were well within specification, but if (when) I need to change some I’ll probably follow some advice I read ages ago – check the clearances with the heads on the bike but change the clearances with them off the bike. From previous experience on my old 900SS its much easier doing the clearances with them off the bike. You can then assemble the heads with the closer springs omitted so that you can measure all the clearances without the springs influencing things. You can get the clearances spot on and then strip the heads and pop the springs in. (Half an hour the first time and 10 minutes after that). Please if you have not had the bike apart and are thinking ‘what springs?’, read the service manual VERY thoroughly before you start. ‘Know your enemy’ and all that. At least having the heads off, (which sounds like a big job but isn’t too bad and if you’ve got this far you are clearly pretty competent,) you can then clean up the combustion chamber as well and get any carbon deposits out. On the Desmotimes subject – buy the book (about £21 inc shipping to the UK), it is excellent and covers many aspects of the bike, complementing but not replacing the Ducati Workshop Manual. Do beware trusting the sizes of shims that you take out – It is fairly standard practice to buy the next size up and rub then down on wet’n’dry paper to get a perfect fit. Obviously they must be scrupulously clean before they go in the engine, as any grit left on the shim will carry on grinding away at whatever it touches.