Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > 998 / 996 / 916 / 748 > Rockers and servicing in general

[ben998]

Yep, that says enough. I bought my 998 from Ducati Ashford - about 100 miles each way.

[Nigel Booker]

Keith,
Never heard of that many shims needing to be changed at a 6K service.

As the 748R is as close to a race engine on the road as you can get are the tolerances tighter?


On my 1997 model 748bip I only ever had a couple of closing shims in 21K and the 996bip has covered 12K and never needed any changing.

Perhaps I don't give it enough stick, or just lucky.

[keith_mann1959]

Hi Nigel
I don't think the tolerances are tighter, an expert might know better than me. I think the girls on that shift in Bologna that day just shimmed it loose. Perhaps my dealer likes to shim them tighter than modern service spec's expect. They do race a lot themselves.
I don't understand why the modern engines can't be shimmed with a zero closing clearance like the good old days. Thats a large part of the benefit of a positive closing mechanism anyway.

[Lily]

Should I be expecting to have this problem on mine then?

its going into JH in 10 days for its 2 year service, but dont recall any of this for its first year service.

Hoping they will check it all out before the warranty ends to make sure rockers etc are ok. Is this standard?

[Nigel C]

my 748bip had shims changed at 6000 ml service i thought that was part of the 6000ml service

[keith_mann1959]

I wouldn't expect JH to skimp on checking rockers, wish i had taken mine there instead. Checking shims is part of the 6k service( and therefore 12k as well) and would need to be done i think if the cams were removed to check the rockers anyway.
I had my rockers checked this way and happily did not need any. I paid for the labour to do this work so its not all roses.
I would expect that once all shims are set correctly then they would not need doing at each service.
i dont see the need to change a lot of shims at a service as a problem in itself, and i am confident that (although i have paid more than i was quoted for the service) they have done a good job.
Roll on the warm weather, lets get revvin'
keith

[DJ Tera]

Keith have you asked them to justify the 250 pound price hike?

I think its time to name and shame mate, as far as I know they have to contact you before any work is done that raises the agreed price

[Edited on 9-2-2004 by DJTera]

[keith_mann1959]

I did question it on the day. I was led through each line item and got the feeling that they were saving the grand total until they had shown me every thing they had done.
Unfortunately i didn't get the quote in writing from the person i spoke to when i booked it in. Lesson learned.
The have a good reputation and have looked after my bike well but i won't go back.
The reason i bought from them in the first place was because of the time their man rob spent talking through the various models and options with me on a day when i just dropped in. He was busy but still spent 45 minutes chatting.
Shame really.
The clued up among you will know who they are.

[DJ Tera]

Yeah but what about those who aren't so clued up, we don't wanna make the same mistake you did - U2U me and I''ll name n shame for ya if you're scared

[keith_mann1959]

No problem with naming them
Pro Twins