The dreaded crank oil plug

[holla]

Hi all, Well there go my hopes of buying a Ducati that nothing needs doing to it.

After buying the bike i noticed the last service saying they had found metal swarf on the oil strainer. Chris who sold it to me did offer a full refund if i wasnt happy, It was a very nice jesture but i told him it was ok.

I took the bike to Italsport in Bury Lancashire and had a quick chat with Roy there.I explained the situation and told him i was going to service the oil and filter and recheck the strainer, i bought the oil and filter off him.

He said if there was further metal on the strainer then it was engine out and strip to see the cause but the dreaded crank oil plug sounded favourite. I rode home with the filter in my pocket and 4 litres of shell ultra stuffed up my jacket.

My fingers were crossed as i drained the oil and took out the oil strainer and.........

......................................................................................................................

........................... It was covered in metal shavings again

I'll phone Roy up on monday morning and take him up on his offer to split the engine and find the cause.

Anyone else had this problem and can let me know how you got on.

Thanks

[jcslocum]

Are they aluminum shavings???

[du907]

I would bet that it is the crank oil plug. I had my engine rebuilt a 50,000 miles because of metal particles inside the engine (my alternator rotor siezed with the stator) and the shop that rebuilt the engine said that the crank plug was coming out and grinding against the inside of the cases. Good luck.
du907

[holla]

Are they aluminum shavings???

yes they are

[holla]

I dropped the 907 off at Italsport this afternoon so they can split the engine to see what the problem is. Whilst its in there they are going to do an oil change and replace the belts.
I'll keep you up to date with thier findings.

[englishstiv]

Fingers crossed for you Ian at least you still have some other toys to keep you mobile mate, finally brought my welder last week so once the 30 amp fuse is spliced to my mains I can start repairing my frame.

[holla]

Thanks Steve, Good luck with the welding. I'll be in touch as soon as i've got a working 907

[englishstiv]

My problem now Ian is getting time to do anything as I am away working in South Wales/Gloucester for the next 5 weeks with the odd weekend at home, if I get a chance this weekend I might get the mains fuse supply sorted, looks my baby is gonna be a winter rebuild now.

[holla]

My problem now Ian is getting time to do anything as I am away working in South Wales/Gloucester for the next 5 weeks with the odd weekend at home, if I get a chance this weekend I might get the mains fuse supply sorted, looks my baby is gonna be a winter rebuild now.

Dont worry, The way things are going we're only going to have 3 or 4 days of good weather before winter anyway. Nice day today so that leaves 2 or 3 !!

I phoned up Italsport to get an update on my engine and they havent looked at it yet, He swears he will strip it this coming week.

I'll keep you posted

[JWilliam]

A recently found journal of a Ducati 900ss engine rebuild mentions the oil crank plug problem as affecting Ducati models from 1991 - 1992 so with a 1989 model it looks like I'm in the clear. I should think I'd have found out by now anyway, what with racing it during 2004 & 05 so the crank plug is not so dreaded.

http://www.ducatitech.com/2v/maint/rebuild/index.html

[holla]

I phoned Roy at Italsport today and he confirmed it was the crank oil plug that was the cause of the metal bits in the oil. He went on to tell me that it is usually about 10mm thick, Mine was barely 2mm thick and practically fell out when he took the engine apart

He recons it could have fallen out at any minute had it not been spotted and missing crank plug = no oil pressure = seized engine

He's going to assemble it next week checking everything as he goes, All being well i'll have it back next weekend.

I'll keep you posted.

[ducbertus]

WoW,

lucky you. loosing the plug does mean a wrecked bottom end.
still you have a lot of trouble getting all the chips out of the engine.
this means extensively flushing the oil lines and bearings. A lot work, but worthwhile.
hope to see you back on streets soon

ducbertus

[paso750]

if the engine is apart I would recommend to take the chance to replace all bearings specially the crankshaft bearings. Just flushing the engine won`t guarantee that all metal particles are flushed out specially if some are stuck in a bearing. Sooner or later you would have a problem and need to open the engine again.

G.

[holla]

Thanks guys, I'll leave it up to Roy to decide what needs replacing when he's rebuilding the engine. I dont mind a few bits floating around after its rebuilt as the strainer will catch them. I'll change the oil again in a few months just to clear any remaining bits out once and for all, I'm going to phone him tomorrow but it looks like it'll be next weekend when i can collect it.

I'm going to take the 999s down to him for a big service and i can collect the 907 while i'm there, I'ts going to be an expensive week ££££'s

[holla]

....................... still waiting Roy tells me he is waiting for some bits to arrive from Ducati. He has waited 3 months for some parts from them .

He hopes to have it ready in a week or so. Next week i'm dropping the hyper down to them for 12 month service then its the 999s for belt service and hopefully somewhere inbetween i can finally ride the 907 that i've now owned for 4 months.

I'll keep you posted