As I indicated in a previous post, I bought my 1992 red 907ie in January as a non-runner but potentially fixable or at least something I could get my money back from parting out. The story was that the bike was not running right and the PO, afraid of potential valve train issues took it into the now defunct (thankfully) Richmond Motorsports (RM). Bottom line is that they told him the heads were shot. I know this because after I bought the bike, they were still in business and I spoke to the service manager and the mechanic who "worked" on the bike and they both remembered it well.
Before I spoke to them at RM, I "met" Josh at Sport Cycle in Calgary through the Western Canada Ducati forum. He told me (as did others on this forum) that hand grinding valve shims is not only not rare, but it is the proper thing to do. So when I had the chance I visited them at RM.
They assured me that the 907's were crappy machines and hoped I hadn't spent much money on this useless bike. They said the heads were shot and at a minimum would need a valve job, but that the seats on these heads are virtually impossible to work with. They said that there was no one in Canada they knew with the talent to work on these types of heads and the couple of places in the States they had used in the past were hit and miss. They themselves were not interested in touching this machine. The mechanic also told me that he thought there was likely a problem with the injectors. They could probably tell that this was not the kind of discussion I was hoping for when I went in, so they kindly offered to sell me a new bike if I was interested.
Of course after having the service manager and mechanic from a Ducati dealter just devote half an hour to extolling the excrement that these machines are, somehow didn't work for me as a segway to the sales department (did I mention this operation has since gone bust? Go figure 
). In reality I didn't have much invested in the bike and I have a thing about throwing things out that are fixable. I was also assured from those on this forum that these are great dependable bikes after I shared the RM news here. Speaking to Josh, he was most diplomatic but what I gathered from our conversation was that he did not share the RM opinion about rebuilding Ducati or these heads. On Ebay I found a set of ST2 heads (which apparently fit the 907 with just a drill out for the tach drive) and throttle bodies for a good price. Figuring my heads were toast, I swapped what I could from my 907 heads to the ST2 heads and shipped out both sets of heads to Josh. I think that was early March.
Once Josh and Brian at Sport Cycle looked over what I had, Brian called me and told me that he could see almost nothing wrong with the 907 heads. There was some slight leakage around one of the exaust valves, but that was it. So we went with the program to clean up the 907 heads and do a bit of a grinding to properly seat the valves and make these heads as new. In the meantime, I planned a trip to California for mid July and figured I would have the bike on the road early June at the latest so I could give it a try out in the 3 Valley Gap ride in the mountains of Eastern British Columbia. Brian told me there was a bent valve on one of the ST2 heads. While the heads were there, I figured they might as well put them into top form as well. I can either use them at some point, buy an ST2 for cheap that needs new heads, or resell these.
Well...time drifted on. Josh had a hard time getting an idler bearing for the cam belts and bottom line is that the 907 heads were not completed until essentially the weekend of the 3 Valley Gap ride n(July 1), so I would not be at that event. To make matters worse, I had a family reunion in that area so on my way home, with heads in trunk of the car, I kept seeing all manner of Ducatsi on the mountain roads with big grins on their faces (I can only assume smirking at me and my mode of transport)!
I leave for California on Thursday. Because I thought I would be replacing the 907 heads with the ST2 heads I swapped a pile of the stuff for the 907 onto the ST2 heads. Brian has not finished with the ST2 heads. This created a few further frustrations as I could not reinstall the heads until Wednesday night because the locating dowels were left in the ST2 heads, which are still in Calgary. So Wednesday and Thursday nights after work, the bike was put back together.
So yesterday was the big day! Time to set the TPS and start 'er up. Late start. Setting the TPS was actually quite easy. LT Saunder's book is a must have and having the extra throttle bodies on the bench to see what I was looking for was a great help. The TPS was way, way off (as I may have replaced it along with the injectors from the Ebay unit I bought). That done, time to start it. It was a bit reluctant to wake up after sleeping a few years, but after a few nudges, wake up it did, cuss'n and and fart'n (my wife says I do the same thing). After warming it up I took it out to fill the tank. Ran like a bucking mule. Returned to the garage with a warm bike and time to balance the throttle bodies. Now that was a swear fest! First, the rear air bleed was out three turns and the front air bleed was screwed all the way in. With both screwed in, getting to the synch screw was real fun...NOT! The front and rear cylinders were waaaaay out of synch. When you get to be an old geezer like me your fingers and wrists don't quite work so well in such small spaces and the carpel tunnel experience was one I could have done without
. Once balanced, the idle was up to almost 2,000 RPM. My appologies to the names I was calling the synch screw. I guess the fast idle screw heard me because, although it looked like it would be easier to reach, not the case. The fast idle screw was too far in creating the high idle even before the air bleed screws were turned out. And of course with the engine running while doing all this (in the garage for a good dose of carbon monoxide) every time you try to turn the screw, the throttle is pushed and the dose of CM increases. This caused some new swearing, but the bike was no longer a fart'n and a cuss'n.The job is now done and with a short blast around the Island (it's slow over here - I can even get a speeding ticket on the Spree), the Duc is a beatiful thing!
Makes you kinda wonder about those boys at RM. If they just had a copy of LT's book they could have learned how to adjust the fuel system, which is probably all this bike ever needed to be back on the road. Oh well, I now have what should be an almost good as new Sport Tourer.
I'm meeting a buddy in Horsehoe Bay in the morning and we will head off towards Whistler to see how this beasts is on the highway at speed. Don't want to be too cocky but I'm not worried and backing my bag for California on Thursday.
SUMMARY:
I'm on the road and happy!
"Ding Dong the Butchers of Richmond are Gone!" Anyone who used those guys will be happy to know that there are real mechanics out there - find them and rejoice.
Many thanks to Josh and Brian at Sport Cycle in Calgary. They are a pleasure to deal with and seem to know what they are doing. Well worth the shipping costs.Well, gotta go. It's gettting light out and I might as well wake up the neighbourhood.
] are newish. Over 6 years they should be replaced and check new ones are in fact recently made as I know of riders getting new tyres and finding they have sat on a shelf for over 6 years, very dangerous. off my soap box.