ouch.. major service!!
 

put my 748 in for major service this week and was told i needed new rocker arms as they were flaking and scratched.Now looking at a hefty bill . Has anyone had similiar experiences? :(

DO NOT GET ME STARTED ....

My bike is the Ducati equivelant to Triggers broom on Only Fools and Horses.

I'm just glad I have Nelly looking after me as if it were a main dealer I'd be applying for a remortgage .... so its some :( and some :)

been told i need to renew 7 of em!!! went to look today before giving ok to carry out work.

only 7 .. still a couple short of my worst day .... look on the bright side .....

Seven! Jesus, you have my sympathies. I flinched when I was told that 2 of mine had to be replaced on my 18k mile service. I flinched even more when the £1,200 bill came through (granted, this did include a full clutch pack).

I will pray for your bank balance!

Incidently, are the 748's more prone to rocker wear than 9*6's? Is it me or are most of the people on here with the wear problem 748 owners?

Does £90 each sound about right ?

Rob, yeah ... usually about £85 plus vat for openers and about £100 plus vat for closers .....

make sure whoever is doing the work makes sure he gets the new rockers with the latest part number, call Nelly to check if you have to, as there are still some old ones out there .... chuffing chocolate shite and I don't care who from DUK is reading ...:flame:

thanks for that mate will ring my man up and check he's ordered said parts. Just out of interest what is worse case scenario of damage neglected rockers can cause?

death to the engine as they continue to flake, break up and deposit chunks of rocker into the engine .....

I could be blunt but i think the above covers it nicely !!!!

Rob> We had a big thread on the subject a while back. Most (and I mean most) had suffered to a greater or lesser extent. Dibble was one of the more unfortunate.

From the decent-sized sample we had, there was little evidence that 748's are better or worse than 916/996's , although the testerretta head motors seem largely OK.

Even folk who changed their oil every 1000 miles and religiously warmed their bikes up carefully before use so weren't exempt.

That's not to say that regular oil changes and warmimg up aren't a good thing, although I believe that there's little to be gained by 1000 mile oil changes.

My two-penn'orth is that regular use is the best thing for rocker wear: it's all about mantaining an oil film on the contact surfaces.


Worse case scenario is clapped-out cams = more expense.

Fallout from leaving the rockers is most likely to be damage to the cam shafts which will then need replacing (possibly all four plus 16 rockers - you do the maths!!)
Correct valve clearances are vital.

Sorry to hear that mate. just lifted the heads off my 916 for its 25k inspection. luckily mine was A1 infact better than i imagined.
1 rocker was just starting to go, cams are mint, valves also are mint (but getting replaced while its apart)
I bought my 1995 916 over 3 years ago with 8.5k on the clock. now with 25k it has been "used".
oil changes every 2.5 - 3k, belts every 12 months / 6000 miles, and clearances checked every year.
I am lucky enough to have a good mate and independant to look after it for me, and if the clearances start to tighten (still within limits) they are set exactly.
Billy has done me proud on this motor even if it can take a while.
I have full faith in the motor on the 916 again, more than can be said for the dog poo electrics.

aaah, is that the same Billy that looks after Gary Watts race bikes ???? nice falla, one of JPMs pals I believe ..... and if you've seen one of Garys bikes go you know he knows his stuff ... also your 95 916 isn't within the year range that the chocolate rockers were fitted so you'll always be better off ...

Same one dibble. it can take a while as it's often at the back of the queue but he does a good job even if its a pesky old road bike.
Yes garys RS is tasty, but i have to say he has just built a rather awesome RS for a customer using a 998R motor but keeping the RS electrical system and injection system. I know because guess who had the task of all the computer work and trying to work out the marelli mapping software and getting it to talk to all the sensors !
The old DOS based software needs a crappy old laptop to run it with a serial port. Billy is not the most computer literate person in the world so jugling round with numerous laptops was doing his (and mine) head in. so i bought him a new HP laptop, and it runs XP as the OS, but has a virtual PC running windows 98 and all the naff old marelli software all on one machine. everyone's a winner (well i will be when i get my bike back anyway)

rob sorry to hear that mate. the majority of us have had the same experience,maybe not as many as seven though! are they all openers or is there any closers damaged? if you are interested and its not to late, i have used ones in excellent condition that you can have for £35.00 each. i also have camshafts to suit .

thanks for the offer sheeny but new rockers have been ordered. Just gotta wait now!!! its killing me as i will be without the bike for about a week. :(

guess I was lucky with just the 3 then

...somebody told me recently about a replating service but I can't find the details now...make sure you get the old ones back, may be worth investigating the cost savings & quality of this for future services.

- anybody have any experience of it?