Ducati 250 Desmo Rebuild

Connected up all the front brake pipes today and bleed the system

The pipes are as close to original as I could get. You can't really see it but the one original part is the rubber collar between the clamp and pipe fittings. It was really good, no sign of ageing at all so I cleaned it up with a tooth brush and reused it
 

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Now to bleeding the system. I'd heard filling from the bottom was a good way to go and as I’ve struggled in the past I thought I’d give it a go. I got a syringe from a local cook shop, connected it to a plastic pipe, sucked up a good amount of fluid straight from the bottle and pushed it in via the bleed nipples. It was really successful. Once the pipes were filled all I had to do was top up the master cylinder and push some more oil back down to bleed the system. I had a few weeping joints but I’ve gently nipped them up and at the moment it’s all tight.

So far I've only used around 300ml of oil and some of that was waste. I've never use so little oil to fill and bleed a front brake.
 

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Another day, another nipple. The new universal clutch cable kit came at lunch time from Venhill so I made that up after tea.

This is the home-made nipple for the clutch end of the cable before it was soldered on.

The new cable is a super smooth, well worth the effort in making it up.
 

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Only £2.25, even I was suprised

Be interested to know if the brake fluid affects the rubber in the syringe.

Is it still on the stand or have you pushed it about testing the brake?
 
Be interested to know if the brake fluid affects the rubber in the syringe.

Is it still on the stand or have you pushed it about testing the brake?

The bike is still on the stand and I haven't done a big squeeze test yet ether :eek:

I’ve looked at the syringe and it’s fine, the rubber piston is like new and working fine :thumb2
 
..........

I’ve looked at the syringe and it’s fine, the rubber piston is like new and working fine :thumb2

Like you, I use syringes and you're right, they work fine over time.............just never remove the plunger, the rubber swells and you won't get it back in..........

Andres
 
Today I’ve been soldering flat terminals onto the fuse board and headlight switch. I must admit I was surprised that back in the day the wires were soldered directly onto the boards. I bought a 100w Antex soldering iron just for this job and It was perfect. Large bit and loads of heat, as soon as contact was made the solder was flowing. I’ve soldered up all the riveted links on the other side so electrics at this point should be quite reliable
 

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Today I’ve been soldering flat terminals onto the fuse board and headlight switch. I must admit I was surprised that back in the day the wires were soldered directly onto the boards. I bought a 100w Antex soldering iron just for this job and It was perfect. Large bit and loads of heat, as soon as contact was made the solder was flowing. I’ve soldered up all the riveted links on the other side so electrics at this point should be quite reliable

Ha ha, I remember Ducati elctrics!

Keep up the good work ebbo! :)

Simon
 
Ha ha, I remember Ducati elctrics!

Keep up the good work ebbo! :)

Simon
I’d been tipped off about the riveted up construction and to solder over them. It’s no wonder Ducati had reliability issues with the Micky Mouse switches :D
 
A box of wire and sleeving turned up today so I'll start the rewire next week. Not at all sure I’ve bought all I need, I’ll find out next week, this will be fun :thumb2

Big thumbs up for Vehicle Wiring Products, very smart and fast delivery
 

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Just got my KPH speedo back from A Gaggs, Nottingham who have converted it to a correct 1600 ratio MPH speedo (was 1000 ratio). Ducati had put an MPH sticker on a KPH speedo of the wrong ratio and sent it off to blighty :rolleyes::blast Anyway, chuffed to bits with this, 60mm Smiths speedos of this style are super rare. Even if one did show up on ebay it would likely cost a bomb

Btw, it is the same instrument pod made of hard rubber. I’ve cleaned it up and made a pair of bushes for the mounting bolts (8mm) and rubbed a little silicon grease in to it.

Before and after pictures
 

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I finally bit the bullet and bought a pair of indicator lamps for the headlamp shell. Red for generator, white for high beam. These are a close match to my originals but for some daft reason they have LED’s in them :rolleyes: Hopefully the generator light will work ok, if not I’ll have to add a dummy load and try that.

New ones on the left and all I have of the originals on the right
 

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Instrument pod came up a treat Ebbo,looking good mate :thumb2

Kimbo

Cheers Kimbo :thumb2 T

here are some minor age/stress cracks in the rubber above the mounting holes but it doesn't sag as some old ones do so I'm keeping it :thumb
 
Just got my KPH speedo back from A Gaggs, Nottingham who have converted it to a correct 1600 ratio MPH speedo (was 1000 ratio). Ducati had put an MPH sticker on a KPH speedo of the wrong ratio and sent it off to blighty :rolleyes::blast Anyway, chuffed to bits with this, 60mm Smiths speedos of this style are super rare. Even if one did show up on ebay it would likely cost a bomb

Btw, it is the same instrument pod made of hard rubber. I’ve cleaned it up and made a pair of bushes for the mounting bolts (8mm) and rubbed a little silicon grease in to it.

Before and after pictures

Your 60; is now where your 80 was; it's now bang on.:D. Very nice by the way.:beerjug:
 
Your 60; is now where your 80 was; it's now bang on.:D. Very nice by the way.:beerjug:

Cheers Snelly, unbelievable how bad it was. Even Gaggs hadn’t seen anything like it before and they have been in business 119 years :D

Clocks mounted up and idiot lights fitted in the headlamp shell
 

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