I have finally received my heads back, all cleaned up with a valve job, etc. and ready to go back on the bike. I am heading for California next week and I would really, really like to take the 907. Problem is, as I was getting ready to install the heads this morning, the guys who did the work didn't send back the little locating dowels. Of course they are closed and off riding today...and they are in Calgary and I am in Vancouver. Anyone else in this area dealing with Ducatis are also closed today. I have new o rings to go around the dowels, just no dowels. My question is, how important are these dowels anyways??? From what I can see, they are locating dowels but with the lip from the cylinders and the four head studs, I should be able to locate the heads pretty accurately on the cylinders without the dowels and the o rings should seal things up.

Should I carry on and install the heads or have patience and wait until the weekend before putting this bike back together with the dowels. It will take that long to get them from Calgary.

Randy

Randy , you already know the answer. I think that the dowels also help the o rings retain thier shape as the head is tightened down.
I feel for you mate , there is nothing worse than not being able to get on with the job because of a stuff up like this ,wait till you have the part and you will spend the next few years feeling better knowing the job was done properly

Also the belts don't like twisting. they will run to one side of the pulleys.
As McTool already stated, the dowels are responsible to hold the O-rings in position and asure the amount of pressure on the O-rings is OK.
besides; a head moved to one side due to lost dowels is a bad idea. you can loose your squish partly, causing the piston hit the head.
you can try to find a machinist who can provide some temporarely dowels.

bertus

Okay...Mc tool is right. Called the shop this morning and my dowels were in the ST2 heads that I sent along with the 907 heads to be rebuilt. I will have them tomorrow. Put the bike together tomorrow night and set the TPS on Thursday night and with any luck have it on the road Friday. That will give me almost one week before heading for California.

I am now very curious to examine the dowels. I still do not see their use for positioning the head on the cylinder. With the lip of the upper cylinder, the heads cannot slide sideways and with the head studs they cannot rotate, although I guess they could rotate a degree or maybe two if the stud holes are much larger than the studs. The dowels do seem to be in an oil passage and if I recall they may have a small hole on one side, which would indicate they may have a use in metering oil flow.

I did call the local Ducati dealer and they cost 50 cents each, are not in stock and must be ordered in quantities of 10 (giving me 8 extras for future f#!* ups) but they will take three weeks to arrive. If that means they are coming from Italy, what I am learning with this bike is that one week here = one month there.

Many thanks for the replies.

Received the dowels today and put most of the bike back together. As I thought, the locating dowels have much less to do with locating and much more to do with metering the oil flow to the head. Best not to try to go without them.

This may be old hat to those that have changed their belts, but for other newbies like myself, put the the rear belt on the lower cog, close to the engine where it is supposed to be. Then, while holding the cam cog on the timing line, bend the belt over the cog. Once I did it this way, it really was not that hard. Of course this was after trying to first put the belt on the cam cog, then the lower cog (that was a swear fest that didn't work ). The rear cam cog is a bit of a pain as the inlet valve is open at the timing mark and the cam is working against the spring at the timing mark. The front belt was a piece of cake. On the front cylinder the timing mark is at top dead center and the valves are closed so there is no resistance from the cam cog.

Tomorrow the fuel injection goes back on and I will set the TPS. Hopefully Saturday it will be on the road