Valve adjust procedure question

9

9103

Well-known member
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Hello everyone
Was just reading in the "suggest someting to watch" thread and saw a few posts on people doing their own valve adjustmemts and belt replacement. I would like to know if you do your own belts and or valve adjust and what/how you set the tention. Please include what bike and year and speciality tools used. When I first started to look into buying a Ducati, I heard all the horror stories about how maintainence heavy and expensive they are to own and the voo doo magic involved in setting the clearances. After 15 years of ownership and over 30,000 miles, my bikes have been just as reliable as any Kwak, Suzi, Yammy or Honda I have owned.
 
When I bought my 999 back 07, it needed belts, tires and all fluids changed and of course the dreaded valve adjust. I rode the bike for about 800 miles on the bike before I decided to take the dive and do it myself. My wife came home from work to see the bike fully disassembled and heads removed, she started crying. She felt I had destroyed my beautiful bike and it would never run again! Well she was wrong. Wrangled a discount on the purchase by not having the dealer do the maint, and got him to give me a spot in their Ducati Valve Adjust seminar with their factory trainned tech. Since I had already pulled the heads off, the factory tech asked if he could use my heads for the class. He did the valves for me while teaching me and the class how to do it peoperly, good deal. I replaced the heads, torqued up and new belts. She ran great for the next 2 years and did it all again but this time, no shims needed to be changed. The reason I started this thread is to see how many if any of my fellow Duc lunatics uses the 10mm wrench system to set belt tension. I dont use any cam locks or anything else, just replace the belt and use the wrench to set tension. I have been doing this since the factory tech told me he raced his 1098 and that is how he set his belts. I did mark the old belts and rollers with paint the first time but since then I have learned how easy it is to time the bike with the factory marks. I do the same thing on my 916 with no issues

2003 999s
1997 916s
 
10mm wrench setting ? New one on me I’ve done tension on the 996 with a 5mm Allen key before
But I’m lazy now so cam tools for 996 and s4r with a sound vibration gauge thingy
Shims I just whip the heads of if needed and take them to a local chap who knows what’s what with desmodromic valves
 
the wrench method must be very similar to the 5mm allen key technique. The main goal is to get 5mm of flex/deflection in both directions(hence 10mm wrench) with a certian amount of pressure on the belt to deflect. I just slighly tighen the roller on the belt, center belt in open end of wrench(spanner?) and push down then lift up applying pressure as you tighten the lock nut for the adjuster. My guess is the allen key takes place of the wrench above and below?
 
9103 said:
the wrench method must be very similar to the 5mm allen key technique. The main goal is to get 5mm of flex/deflection in both directions(hence 10mm wrench) with a certian amount of pressure on the belt to deflect. I just slighly tighen the roller on the belt, center belt in open end of wrench(spanner?) and push down then lift up applying pressure as you tighten the lock nut for the adjuster. My guess is the allen key takes place of the wrench above and below?
Click to expand...
Yup sounds similar
Apparently 5mm defection was correct tension, just a 10mm spanner could be any thickness
But 916 etc are happy if not best with belts being on slack side
998 etc not so
 
Noobie said:
Isn't there something on here about adjusting belts using a decibel app on your phone
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I have tried said app and could not get a repatable result, I work in Audio/Video so I have access to good microphones and laptop software but could not get the phone to give a good reading. That is the reason I asked the technician at the dealer and he showed me the low tech answer and been doing it that way since
 
I do my ST4, only had to check the valve clearances as they were OK, due again so see how they are now. Used the gates app (and others, Fender guitar tuner from memory) for belt tension but my initial setting is a turn of the long section of belt (1/8th of a turn is fairly reasonable)
 

Robbing Guinness imo, his charges are fucking well out of order!! They make there money out of fear, fucking wanker, i would rather take my 996 to a fucking fishmonger!! 🤷‍♂️
 
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Barry Hell said:
I do my ST4, only had to check the valve clearances as they were OK, due again so see how they are now. Used the gates app (and others, Fender guitar tuner from memory) for belt tension but my initial setting is a turn of the long section of belt (1/8th of a turn is fairly reasonable)
Click to expand...
Larry, can you pop round and change the belts on 666 please?
 
Good bunch of responses. Glad to see im not totally red neck by not using a tuning app to set tention. Never used the allen key procedure but it makes as much sense as the 10mm wrench plan.
 
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