Laverdist exploring Ducati Bevel Single

[MarnixSFC]

After fitting a 50 idle jet the engine fired up at the very first kick and immediately had a slow and steady idle.. Happy!

Now I need to get hold of the prescribed V7 needle instead of the V13 that is fitted, the 450 runs a bit shaky in the needle area..

There really is no valve lifter on the valve cover. Thought only the Scrambles had a valve lifter?

The rear mudguard is a (stainless?) steel affair, not dissimilar to the front mudguard of a Laverda SF and most triples. May use one of those if I can't find the real thing..

Marnix

[Craig in France]

Good news, Marnix!

I remain confused about the presence/absence of a valve lifter . For example, I've got three different 450 owners manuals here:
- the earliest one, dated March 1969, has a photo of a Mark 3 without a valve lifter.
- the middle one, January 1970, has a photo with one.
- the last one, undated but including the Tartarini styled models so it must be later, again does not show one. But then the photo is of a 250 Mark 3 ... and the 250s never had them!



Possible sources for the rear guard:
Phil at Road and Race in Australia http://www.roadandrace.com.au/index.html .
Phil has far more stuff than he shows on his web site, so try an e-mail.

Mario Sassi
http://www.oldracingspareparts.com/
Mario also has loads of stuff. But he's not always the cheapest! :-).

Possibly, Marc Parfait in Belgium (marc.parfait@skynet.be)

And Andy Nienhagen in Germany
http://www.desmo.net/

Or Nigel Lacey in UK
http://www.laceyengineering.com/ducati/ ... -i-22.html

Btw, one of the best sources of generic parts is the Amici dello Scrambler, http://www.ducatiscrambler.com/2006/ricambiitalia.htm

Ciao

Craig

[MarnixSFC]

Hi Craig,

Thanks for the various links, always useful! In November I will be at the Novegro market, who knows maybe I find something there. Clearly the rear mudguard is a hard to get item because I have seen many pics of bikes where the original item is missing.

Re the valve lift, I am going to remove heaps of excessive wires, hopefully tonight, from the bike so when I remove the tank I take a picture of the head.

Marnix

[Craig in France]

Be interested to hear how it goes at Novegro, Marnix.

Last time I went to a mostra scambio was Imola in 2002. You could still find good stuff then (like good condition MHRs for €5,000 ), but I know a number of people - Laverdistis included - are saying that it's getting hard to find good stuff at acceptable prices in Italy ...

Ciao

Craig

[machten]

I think my 450 Mk3 is one of the last batch produced based on engine and frame numbers. Valve lifter can be seen in the pic below.

Kev

[MarnixSFC]

Here's a pic of the engine with tank removed. Nothing there..
Anyway, very pleased that it starts so well now, just putting my (not excessive ) weight on the kickstarter is sufficient to fire up and idle.

Very pretty 450 you got there Kev, does the Spanish Amal function well? 2 of my Laverda SFCs have 36mm Spanish Amals which are a pain to tune, basically all they are good at is going flat out, which great of course, but decent running at other throttle openings can be pleasant too...


Craig, The abundance of interesting material at Mostra Scambios in Italy is over, seems like most of it has found its way to other countries in the meantime, but once in a while you find a gem and sometimes even at interesting prices if the seller doesn't know what it is. Complete bikes are seldomly interesting. I collect documentation such as brochures, manuals, factory pics and what have you and every year I return home with nice additions.
I always see it as a nice weekend out with friends and when I score something, that's a nice extra..

Marnix

[Craig in France]

Very nice machine there, Kev.

I see you've got a horn rather similar to what I have on my SCR. Did you get fed up trying to get a CEV one to work reliably, too ?

A while back, I even bought a NOS one from DomiRacer - and that didn't work either (eventu ... ally got my money back ).

Ciao

Craig

[Craig in France]

Here's a pic of the engine with tank removed.

Yeh, but I see you couldn't resist including some Laverda stuff in the shot, Marnix!

(Oooh, horrible yellow fuel line?! I hope it's not really that colour?!? Go on, put some lovely blue/green (and extremely expensive) Cavis on ... and which you know will go hard and yucky brown in the blink of an eye .)

Anyway, very pleased that it starts so well now

I guess it's still smoking? What's the compression reading?

I always see it as a nice weekend out with friends and when I score something, that's a nice extra..

Yup, good point.

Be interested to hear if you can find any original parts books for the Taratarini bikes. I have a photocopy of some illustrations along with a hand-written list of numbers and descriptions, all for the 450. But that's all I ever seen.

(I see your rear guard now that I look, btw . Part # is/was 0684.72.303)

[Craig in France]

Here's a pic of the engine with tank removed.

Ah, small point Marnix. It's worth safety wiring the exhaust nut on. A particularly useless piece of design as they tend to come loose and then wreck the thread inside the head. This is repairable, but best avoided in the first place.

And one special tool worth buying is the tool for doing the nut up. It avoids breaking the fins. Lots of people sell the tool - Steve Allen for example
http://shop.bevelheaven.com/detail.aspx?ID=988

or the Amici
http://www.ducatiscrambler.com/2006/motore.htm

etc

[MarnixSFC]

Yes, it's almost fluorescent yellow Craig, came with the bike. matches thew paintwork perfectly..
Cavis Benz is just a matter of time..

Right now I'm buzy in the electrical department, freeing the bike of excessive wiring (all kinds of relays, blinkers etc. The ignition switch was mounted on the front frame tube under the tank and is now back in the head light were it belongs.

Measured 0,18 mm play on the inlet valve where the outlet was spot on. when that's properly adjusted I'll do a compression test.

Laverda stuff, well very difficult to take a picture in my workshop without doing that.. That is the engine of my 8000 batch SFC that I'm currently restoring.

Manuals: a good friend has virtually all Ducati part books and only could show me an extremely pretty parts book with linnen cover showing the 1970 models.

Special tools: Yes definitely need that exhaust ring tool. One fin gone and the ring is being locked by a tiny bolt that screws in from the l/h side. I don't like that construction so will definitely use wire or spring to lock the ring..

Marnix

[MarnixSFC]

Oh yes, on the horns topic, mine carries a Voxbell which is pretty OK I think, think these late models had one of those instead of the CEV?

Marnix

[Craig in France]

Oh yes, on the horns topic, mine carries a Voxbell which is pretty OK I think, think these late models had one of those instead of the CEV?

Yeh, I'd stick with the Voxbell, even if we both know what they're like . (Actually, the ones on my Corsa ARE still working and haven't fallen off. But I did put them on using Fiamm springs).

The only problem with the CEV ones is that the contacts inside get corroded, so the horn stops working. Which is not a problem except that the cover is rivitted on with fancy aluminium (?) rivets. Which you can't get. So you end up replacing the rivets with self-tappers, which don't look very nice.

And then the horn stops working again ...

So to get it past the roadworthiness test, you fit a cheap and reliable Japanese one ... and then decide, "Oh well, might just as well leave it on now ... "

[Craig in France]

Manuals: a good friend has virtually all Ducati part books and only could show me an extremely pretty parts book with linnen cover showing the 1970 models.

The most complete parts book for the widecases is the Edizione Definitiva, printed in June 1974 and ostensibly covering 1968-73. It was printed on loose leaf pages and came in 2 ring binders, each with a hard cover. The first volume was for the engine, the second for everything else.

However, altho' labeled Edizione Definitiva, it irritatingly does not cover the Tartarini variations.

Originals do occasionally come up for sale on eBay etc where they tend to get even more money than copies of "750 SFC" . Otherwise, good quality re-prints are available from the usual sources - I know Marc Parfait used to sell them, for example.

Here's a picture of what the ring binders look like (these aren't the Edizione Definitiva btw):


And here are the covers of the re-printed Edizione Definitiva



Also, Ron Verweij has uploaded an early version here:
http://www.ducatimeccanica.com/#manuals

[machten]

Very pretty 450 you got there Kev, does the Spanish Amal function well? 2 of my Laverda SFCs have 36mm Spanish Amals which are a pain to tune, basically all they are good at is going flat out, which great of course, but decent running at other throttle openings can be pleasant too...

Marnix, it was hard to start, so I put a stock VHB setup on it, which improved things significantly.

I see you've got a horn rather similar to what I have on my SCR. Did you get fed up trying to get a CEV one to work reliably, too

It had that horn on it when I bought the bike. I'm not even sure what type it is. The only problem it has given me is the electrical leads vibrating off!!! I had to crimp them up a bit tighter to have them stay on.

Very nice machine there, Kev

Not quite so nice now, Craig. Blew a big end during the Motogiro in July, and is currently undergoing some repairs. Luckily a friend had some spare bikes, so I had to slum it and ride this baby for the rest of the event and in the Dolomites for a week afterwards...what a chore!




Kev

[MarnixSFC]

Was wondering if the big-end is the engine's Achilles-heel just like the twins?

Here pic of the dashboard after tidying, replaced light/horn switch by a replica Aprilia switch (bit flimsy quality, wonder how long it will live).

Also a better pic of the cylinder head where you can clearly see there's no valve lifter. Also note the bolt locking the exhaust ring. Not really a sound idea isn't it?





Marnix