Along the same lines i think the customer /PR and design, bascically the whole of the non racing side of ducati is suffering from the amount of money they are ploughing into moto gp and its development and also the seemingly desperate measures they are using to keep the twins competitive in WSB including trying to get the rules changed for next year

[Edited on 6-9-2005 by Nigel C]

Welcome to the joys of ducati ownership.. done 27000 miles on my 748 and its eaten 18 rockers, got the first 9 under warranty after a dealer admitted it was not serviced correctly at 6000 miles, never even looked at them.. consequently i lost the remainder of my warranty due to the fact i
used an independant workshop..

not looked at my track bike yet, but buy all accounts it should not be as bad
its an older 916 the tolerances are tighter which stops the cams bashing the rockers to bits.. I HOPE....

Well thanks for the advice guys, seems it's something we've got to live with, but I've sent a letter to Ducati UK anyway though I expect the usual brush off as once out of warranty it's been serviced by KJ Performance then Baines, worth a punt anyway :rolleye:

Judging by your experiences there seems to be roughly 1500miles to a rocker :barfy:

So how often should they be inspected, since I will only do about 2-3000 miles a year, I was under the impression that this sort of inspection is only required every 2 years, is this correct??

it can be done at any service interval if you ask just bumps up your labour costs as its not a quick job !!!

Weve been over this a number of time and its one of my big moan points about Ducatis!!

All the four valves bikes have the problem. Its not only the 748. My ST4 (916) has had three rockers.

Checking the rockers isn't part of the official Ducati service schedule so a "full dealer service history" could mean that they havent been checked since the bike left the factory. Some main dealers still won't admit that there is a problem.

Spot on valve clearances, good oil, warming the engine before thrashing it etc appear to help.

If my bike needs any this time then its getting put back together as it is and part exchanged at the nearest dealer!

Just wondering but what's the net effect of not changing a worn Rocker?

1 - you'll accumulate fine particles of chrome in your engine that swirl around with all the moving parts in the oil. Once it starts more and more chrome will flake off.

2 - I guess it could also have a knock on effect to the rotating shaft and ultimately affect the overall timing as it get worse and worse.

???

[Edited on 7-9-2005 by ziggi]

Quite quickly it will damage the cam shaft which will need replacing. So sixteen rockers and four camshafts and your looking at the thick end of £2K for parts alone!!

Not strictly true Paul. The testastretta engines aren't supposed to suffer from rocker issues.

Thats right Tony, i couldnt think of the name for the non 'stretta engines so i left it out!

Yes, as far as i am aware non of the 'stretta engines have rocker problems, its very rare on the two valve engines and i doubt if they have sold enough of the three valve motor yet.