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Has anybody ever tackled changing the belts on the ducati engine? If so how difficult is it.

if you have the right tools - piece of piss

(I assume you mean bevel belts....)

you do need the right gear though... i borrowed a couple of specific spanners from the Uk Ducati Owners club

Nope. The timing belts.

blinkey501 wrote:Has anybody ever tackled changing the belts on the ducatti engine? If so how difficult is it.

Nope - I've never even tried it on a Ducati.


What do these ducattis look like?

Aladinsaneuk wrote:if you have the right tools - piece of piss

(I assume you mean bevel belts....)

you do need the right gear though... i borrowed a couple of specific spanners from the Uk Ducati Owners club

Methinks sir is confusing his generations of Ducatis. The bevel drive cam Ducatis were from the era of the the Mike Hailwood replica etc. The bikes with the toothed belts driven by pulleys started with the 600 Pantah and have continued on until the present. My 888 is of this type and the belts need changing every two years or 10000 miles, whichever is the sooner.

I wouldn't say 'piece of piss', I'd say doable if you're careful, have the workshop manual and a couple of special tools. You will also need some way of measuring the tension of the belts; the preferred way now is acoustically; i.e twanging the belts (really!) and measuring how many Hertz the belt resonates at. Using a guitar tuner is the preferred way, I think. The Ducati special tool is just a very expensive way of doing the same thing.

I did it on my 750 sport - and I did have the right gear

(I hired stuff from the Ducati owners club....)

Iirc the tension - when I did it - was a series of measurements on the belt at different points - it was 10 years ago!

I do remember the belts came off a Renault ? Twingo....

And bearing in mind jay has already done a sprag or two / i do think with the right tools he would find it a piece of piss....

mangocrazy wrote:You will also need some way of measuring the tension of the belts; the preferred way now is acoustically; i.e twanging the belts (really!)

Aladinsaneuk wrote:
I do remember the belts came off a Renault ? Twingo....

Would that actually be a Twango then?

Not knocking Jay's mechanical abilities at all, but it's fiddly and awkward and potentially catastrophic if it all goes Pete Tong.

As for using any belt other than an approved one - I wouldn't do it. The belt width and tooth spacing might be the same, but Ducati ones are specially constructed to cater for the sharp radius turns they have to operate with. The belt pulleys are much smaller than your average car (and the Twingo is a very average car) and the bend radii are much sharper.

Having looked on youtube there is instruction using the acoustic method that Graham describes.
I think I would be capable of doing the task.
Thanks for your assistance again folks.

Fair words graham

My 750 was produced as cagiva were buying out Ducati..... And even though the bike was a superb handling bike the assembly was laughable. The electrics were a joke - even by Ducati standards and the parts used were cheap - 35w Bosch bulb for a main beam anyone

For my specific model I was told by assorted folk in DOCGB what to buy belt wise - though I do recall the service interval was 6000 miles or annually....

Oh - mine was an original F1 750....

Damn glad I do not have to source front tyres for it now!

A mate of a mate was quoted £900 by an indipendant mechanic specialising in Italian stuff.
The job was done by a mate of a mate in a shed for a lot less than £900, using everyday tools

Yes, some Ducati dealers just take the piss when it comes to belt changing. I suspect sufficient mystique has grown up around the task that it puts a lot of people off and unscrupulous dealers regard it as a licence to print money.

Ducati did go through some dreadful periods of quality control in the 80s. The kudos from Mike Hailwood winning at the TT kept them going for a long time, but what saved their bacon was the 851/888/916 and WSBK coming along at the right time.

Belt change intervals have lengthened as the belt specification has improved. But getting them done every 2 years is still a right ball-ache...

Aladinsaneuk wrote:Oh - mine was an original F1 750....

Damn glad I do not have to source front tyres for it now!

Hmm that's a problem I'd like to have.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ducati-750-F1 ... 232c480a17

Oh that makes me drool and I don't even ride a bike let alone a sportsbike!

When I win the euromillions..........