Unexpected Ducati Project

You had me at petcock.

So unsurprisingly this has gone nowhere so far. With it being cooler in the basement than the direct sun in the driveway I decided to get something done. 

First off I noticed some evidence of previous rodents in the center tunnel (hard to see in picture) so I was going to clean it up with the shop vac. None of the attachments were small enough so I moved on. I'll tape a hose to the shop vac at some point so I can reach in there. 

I need to replace all the cables, or so I thought (I didn't look at it too hard before). I was going to start with the shifter cables since they were still routed but not hooked up at the ends. After digging around I found both ends and it turns out they both moved freely and seemed ok. I decided to just hook them back up instead of dealing with pulling the new outer cables through the bodywork. 

After that was done it now shifts into all three gears. 

Next up is throttle and clutch cables. Unfortunately those were already removed when I got it so I have to figure out how to route them through the tunnel without the luxury of pulling them through using the old outer sheath. 

I forgot you had this one.  Can you give us some Ducati engine porn?

In reply to Stampie (FS) :

Not much to look at right now and the lighting is terrible in that corner or the room but here are a few. 

In reply to EvanB (Forum Supporter) :

If you ever get to it I'd love to see some Ducati valve action.

Not from that one you won't, it's a two stroke 

Error 404: valves not found.

In reply to EvanB (Forum Supporter) :

WTF now I need to see the holes in place of the valves.  That just blew my mind.  Ducati without some wild valvetrain.  They went so wild they removed it entirely.  So is it a Ducati built engine or did they buy them off another manufactor?

It was made by Ducati and used for some motorcycles and scooters. They did 2-strokes from 50-100cc but there isn't much information that I can find. Apparently they didn't sell very well. 

Trying to run the cables through the body has been extremely frustrating so far. They get blocked about half way through and nothing i have tried has worked. I have ruined one cable housing when it got caught and ripped the outer cover of pulling it out.

The next thing i am going to attempt is pulling the front fender to see if i can get more access/view through the hole the forks pass through.

   You might try first running a string thru, use a air gun to push the string thru.   If you can get a little air flow, the air will pull the string thru.   Once you have the string in you might be able to use it to pull the cable thru.

In reply to TED_fiestaHP :

I'll give that a shot. I was trying to fish mechanics wire through it and was running into the same issues. I put a borescope into it but couldn't really see much of anything. 

Turns out removing the front fender was the key. That gave me enough extra room and angle to get the cable all the way through. 

I got the clutch cable through then realized that the outer sheath was too short, of course I waited until after I had it run to check it. The old sheath wasn't great but it works enough to run the new cable through it and get it going for now. 

Throttle cable is the last one, the sheath I have for that is also too short by about 8 inches. Unfortunately the old one is too bad to use. I'll have to order some new outer sheath and cut it to fit. 

And since I forgot to take the gas tank to the radiator shop earlier to be cleaned and sealed it is there now. I have about 2 weeks until it is done to get the rest buttoned up.