Well I finally convinced a workmate to sell me his much neglected Sport.The poor thing has been sitting in a tin shed at the back of his house for the last ten years.Being a Ducati tragic it was breaking my heart to see it slowly rust away.She's in bad shape but I reckon I can bring her back to life with a little love.I'll clean her up first and see what needs to be done.I've got a feeling the clutch slave cylinder has gone belly up.This will be a long term project and things will get done as funds become available.










Cheers
Andrew

P.S. more photos to follow when my camera charges up.

wow, that`s one project, I hope you also got the missing parts.
The clutch slave cylinder will be your least worry. It does the same as the fork, just look at the marks. If not used the seal will stick to the metal and when used the seal will tear and it will start leaking and not building up pressure.
A complete strip down and rebuild is a nice job.

G.

Welcome to the site. Looking forward to see the restoration.
Start with a good coating of WD-40 just to save what you already have. Makes cleaning everything up easier too.

From what I can tell, its an earlier model.
- It has the two ignition pickups, not the single pickup.
- It does not have the diagonal brace at the steering head.

As far as the rest of the bike:
- Rear fender/tray is unmolested.
- Its the first time I have seen the two rubber bumpers for the tank.
- You still have the engine breather/oil separation tank installed. (Keep it, don't be tempted to throw it away)
- Belt covers removed
- Rear hugger gone missing (can use a later SS some modification)
- Nice pipes. Don't know which brand, but they look the part.
- bar end mirrors
- Stock Weber with aftermarket air cleaner (I'm betting the foam filter is dead) See the string on the Paso 750 tab for how to make that carb sing.

I would start by seeing if you can get the engine to run, then follow with the electrics, chassis, etc. I'm sure you know the usual for an old bike/car. Change all the fluids, replace a few seals. Once you get it running, change the fluids again.

Keep us posted and let us know what parts you are looking for. And if you haven't already, read the FAQs and various posts . Looks like a project to me, and pretty much what my bike looked like when I bought it.

Where are you that its so sunny and summery looking?

Cheers,

More photos as promised.










Luckily all the cosmetics were kept inside.




Got new sprockets and chain + oil and filter too.


I'm running out of room





I'll do a rebuild report but it will be slow and not start for a while as I've run out of money and I think asking the wife for more might be at the risk of losing some of my private parts
Anyway I'm heading out to give it her first wash in 10 years.
Cheers
Andrew

P.S. I could'nt really afford to buy this bike but it was breaking my heart seeing her go to waste.At least it's in a nice dry place with good company now

From the looks of your garage, and your collection, your addiction goes deeper than most. Is that a 1978 900 under the covers to the right? With all that you have in your shed, you know quite well what you have bought into. it looks like you have all the parts, now it just needs a bit (a lot) of love. Speaking of love, when your girl gives you the cold shoulder for spending the money, you can spend some quality time in the garage with the other girls.

You'll like the Staintunes a lot more than the stock pipes, unless he had some rare race pipes. For the rarity of it all, and the style points, I propose you stick with the Weber.

G, you can tell that he has the Kokusan ignition because the block off plate above the alternator. The single pickup goes in that spot. Of course you can tell in the photos he just posted too.

Cheers,

Ok,she's had a good wash now and I've come to the decision that I'll drop the motor.As you can see the paint is pealing off pretty easily.




I don't want to pull the motor apart so any suggestion regarding removing the rest of the paint from the motor.Not keen on sand or bead blasting.It's been suggested to use paint stripper but not sure if that will damage gaskets.I've been playing around with soda blasting lately so maybe give that a try?.

The mods I've found so far are floating front discs.


Braided brake lines front and back.


Also braced swingarm.


Staintune pipes.


Daytona steering damper.


Front and rear indicators.



Tomaselli quick action throttle.


Borg Warner filter.


What are your thoughts on powder coating the frame.I've heard it is susceptible to chipping.As much as I like Dukes they'res always plenty to learn and from checking out this site for quite some time you guys certainly know what your talking about so I'll have a ton of questions as I go along.Now it's back outside to give her a hug because I don't think she's had one for a while

Cheers
Andrew

Good news.I just turned the motor over with the starter motor and all was good.I'll get her fired up before I start pulling the motor out.I don't want to waste time cleaning up the motor if it's not running .

Cheers
Andrew

One more thing. If you don`t know how long your rebuild will take let new belts and tires be the last things you get.
Belts are due every 2 years if you stick to the service plan so they may need to be changed again when the bike is finally finished. I know what I`m talking about
Luckily I got new tires a bit later

G.

The Thomaselli quick turn throttle is kinda cool, and I like the way he mounted the steering damper. It took me a long time to get mine in a position that didn't hit fairings and frame. I never tried that position, but will now.

The swingarm brace is stock, as best I remember. I think it was just rewelded. I'm going on memory here, as both of my Sports have modified SS swingarms.

And the other upgrades are nice, such as the braided lines and floating rotors, and of course those pipes.

If you are going to paint the frame, consider putting in the diagonal brace that goes to the top of the steering head that was on the later models. Similar to the brace in the 851 frame.

Oh, and those rear turn signals are as rare as hens teeth. I haven't seen a good pair on a Sport before, except in the original tests of the bike. Actually, I think those are the original front signals, as the rear ones had some reallllly long stalks and broke easily. The ones on the front fairings are aftermarket, and seems to be the most common ones put on the Sport.

Basically all the bits are there. Now it just comes to freshening everything up. Or, ride it as an ugly Duck for while.

Cheers,