Look what fell off my 907ie today after a 120 mile ride. Fortunately it decided to throw itself off when parked up on my drive at the end of the ride. I would check your fans folks as it seems to be fatigue that caused it.

The actual central spinner shell has come away from the plastic fan housing which has become brittle and then cracked and shattered this caused the fan to drop off the motor housing.

The white paste you can see is just corroded alloy. The actual plastic covering has become brittle and warped and let go. It is essentially the fan housing that has corroded and obviously the hi velocity spinning has caused it to come loose.
I have cleaned it out and had hoped to press it back in and use a two pack resin glue to attach. The aperture has though shrunk so unsuitable. The fan motor is in perfect order. Since I now use waterless coolant the fan does not really activate that much apart from when I come to a standstill for longer than 5 minutes.( normally at the end of a ride).

You can see the three cross head screws that would be holding the fan plate and fan onto the motor.
As a fix you could easily rivet or screw precisely where the three black lugs are on the inner fan plate housing or glue it securely, however as I cannot sit the fan back into the plate housing due to the plastic shrinkage it's a non runner.

Luckily I have a spare which I swapped over.

I now have a spare motor and housing, will be interesting to see if this is interchangeable with any others in the Ducati range.

Hi Sti sounds like you were quite lucky it did not cause more damage! I took my 30 year old Benelli for an mot many years ago and the rear brake hose split during the test! I subsequently changed all the hoses and seals it was a lucky escape. My 907ie is 23 years old ,next month or so I will remove the fairing and give it a good check over.

I think the corrosion of the alloy is the root of the problem. It has effectively pushed the plastic housing off of the metal motor housing. I'd think a fan off most of the other Ducati models could be adapted as a replacement.

looks like you've had the fan fouling issue on the rev counter cable as well judgung from the blades

It would appear so but not in my ownership, when I previously stripped the bike down I noticed this damage and it was pretty old then so think it was most likely as a result of previous accident damage as the Radiator had obviously been replaced.

The bike has spent most of it's early life on the North West English Coast and I had stories passed down to me that two of the previous owner's ( father and his son ) spent many a happy day riding along Blackpool Promenade on the back wheel.

I had fully inspected it before returning it to the bike so I am pretty sure the reason for it's demise is the alloy expansion and brittle heat damaged plastic.

the replacement has come from a 30,000 miler and has no visible signs of damage or decay.

its the rev countr cable - it rubs on certain lock positions (only with the fan running)

do you use Simple Green to clean your bike?

The citrus cleaner does a fantastic job of cleaning, but must be rinsed thoroughly, or it will oxidize aluminium bits rather well. It will certainly create the problem you are seeing. That, and the salt air.

Cheers, Phil

Confession time

As I ride my bikes all year round they tend to be coated in WD40 permanently

It has it's benefits as I have a rather nice one piece Ducati Mechanics overalls set won at a Ducati Rally for having the Ducati ( Monster ) bike requiring the most amount of loving attention which kinda sums up my attitude to washing and polishing my Ducati's and Bikes in general. Believe me when I also say that had I sold all the bling on the other bikes I could of brought another 10 Paso's with the profits so I was a little out of my league.

They are clean and rideable but in no way showroom beauties so my cleaning regime involves little soapy water, a chamois leather and some Auto Solvol on the shiny bits followed by lots of Fish oil ( DON'T SAY IT I KNOW IT'S A MYTH ABOUT WD40 ). I do not use any branded bike cleaning products externally if I can help it.

I am pretty certain it's our famous wet salty winter British roads that have caused this problem.

WD-40 is a great product, and pretty good at protecting stuff. I always start the cleaning process by spraying the entire bike with WD-40, get lunch or a coffee, then apply Simple Green to dirty bits followed by a strong hose. I don't know what myth there is around WD-40, besides it surely isn't a very good lubricant for very long. it will make a hinge quiet, but only for a short time. needs to be followed with real oil. A bit of WD-40 on that fan hub would have helped it live a bit longer, but it isn't a match for salt.

Cheers, Phil

"Muc Off" does the same to aluminium parts too - nasty stuff if you're not careful

This long life is good stuff, I use it on all my rifles , and the degreaser is 3 bucks a can here ( put a long straw on it and its a mini water blaster , and its water soluable so a hose down after is the go

PB Blaster and Seafoam and simple green here WD-40 has its uses but attracts more dust and is on the toxic list

All the good stuff is on the toxic list