CorsePerVita

Joined: 25 Jul 2008 Posts: 1992 Location: Redmond, Oregon
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Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 3:58 am Post subject: (off topic) Ducati clutch failure |
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I don't think i posted up my vacation photos. But about a month ago i went on my first vacation in 4 years (yeah, i work too much). I spent a full week out at a camp that me and a group of 20 friends all riding sport bikes rented out.
In the course of 2 days we did 850 miles across the state on miscellaneous canyon and mountain roads. Was an absolute blast.
However, towards the end of the ride it seemed like my Ducati was feeling a bit of a power squeeze. Our camp was down a dusty dirt road for 1.5 miles. I figured the air filter was just getting dirty.
Got the bike home. Parked it.
Decided "Hey while i'm at it i should work on the porsche 944 and get the CV joints repacked, and the axle inspected, and hell while i'm at it i'll fix these wheel bearings and refinish the axle housing! Yeah, that'll be a good thing to get done before winter."
Well low and behold i ran out of moly grease so i hopped on the Ducati and took off to the parts store.
On my way home I was at a light, turned green, was on my merry way. I killed the bike while i was in motion. "HOLY HELL" i thought.... THAT was weird.
I started it back up, it was okay. But the clutch sounded..... weird. I went to shift into 2nd after going again and low and behold the clutch lever froze up. Wouldn't move. I tried squeezing, but at the risk of breaking something, I clutchless shifted the whole way home, and barely managed to squeeze it in just enough to come to a stop in my driveway.
A quick visual inspection looked fine. I saw nothing weird. I bled the clutch. Nothing.
I managed to work the lever enough to pull it. So against my better judgement, i limped it into the local dealership. When i got there, we noticed the pressure plate was wobbling. Not spinning on center. The verbatim words out of my friend's mouth (owner of the store) were "Oh shit that's not good." coming from him, that worried me, since i look up to him and his mechanical abilities. He said "you get to remove this this this this this this this this and this. Good luck."
I'm 2 weeks from my closing date on my new house. And now I get to deal with a ducati that can't even ride 3 blocks to the new house.
After yanking the clutch into pieces I found the culprit as i pulled off the pressure plate and found a wonderful metallic glitter, decorating the inside of my pressure plate and clutch. The hub bearings had apparently decided to have a party inside the hub and ground themselves into ducati crisp cereal, part of a clutch hub's well balanced breakfast.
If you look in the center of the shaft you'll notice there is a fine dust. And if you look harder you'll note that there is approximately 3 bearings in there, total, that's it.
Lovely.
 _________________ - 1977 Porsche 924 2.0 N/A (Trackday Project)
- 1979 Porsche 924 2.0 N/A (The other daily)
- 1980 Porsche 931 (Daily)
- 1987 Lamborghini Jalpa
- 1999 Ducati 900SS |
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