Erk. Ducati exhaust £££

After having tried, and failed, to remove the seized-on silencer on
the Duke, I threw it at my dealer. They had to remove the entire
downpipe assembly, discovering in the course of doing so that the
front pipe's exhaust collets were rusted away and it was blowing from
the manifold slightly (hadn't noticed that).

Long and the short of it is a new forked manifold section is neede -
one of these: Ebay item 270170692531. This one is actually being sold
by the dealer doing the work, but it's from a later FI 750SS, and yes,
it's different. Shame, because a new unit is £223.17 plus the VAT. Oh
spiffing.

Oh well, at least the cans were cheap. And I suppose ten years and ten
winters is pretty good for an OE Ducati exhaust.

 

Mark has one tucked away. £80 + postage to an address of
your choice - I can get them sent Next Day delivery tomorrow
if you want?

 

Brilliant. Thanks, Ant.

 

Get rid of that ancient 2v POS for a proper 4v FFS man. A 996 or 4S
depending on your tastes. They are too affordable for words.

 

Under £4k?

 

6 and up, probably always will be!

 

Get thee behind me, Satan.

Right, in the last couple of days I have learned *a lot* about Ducati
header pipes.

I remember being told, no, assured, a few years ago that Ducati 900SS
cans don't fit on the 750SS, for some reason to do with the headers. I
assumed it was the diameter.

In the past 48 hours or so, I have been offered three header pipe
sets, with the assurance that "they'll fit, yeah, they're the same
diameter an' all..." But the part numbers are different, and in my
experience, different part numbers usually mean the bastard things
*won't* fit.

And now I have it from the horse's mouth. The 750SS and 900S have the
same diameter headers, yes, but where the header branches to feed the
two cans, that's where it differs. The 900 runs a slightly wider
swinging arm and rear tyre (which is one reason why it doesn't steer
*quite* as well as the 750), and so the headers extend further out.
Which means that while 750SS cans will go onto the headrs all right,
there'll be a gap between mounting brackets on the cans and securing
bolts on the frame.

Quote: "I've seen people make 'em fit, but it takes a helluva lot of
heating things up and hitting them."

So it's £223.17 for a new 750SS header set after all. Oh well. Plus
new split collets, mounting bolts, and labour. Plus the cost of the
cans themselves. Call it about £500 when all's said and done.

 

Nah, you just make new mounting brackets! We did this
as the 900SS headers fitted the 620SSie engine fine,
and the 900SSie carbon cans went into the 900SS headers
just fine, and cleared the 900SS swingarm bolted to
the 620SSie engine in the 600SS frame ... but the
brackets didn't line up. Besides, it would have been
a fucking miracle if they had, given the above
bastardisation of parts.

I think we ended up using the mounting to the pillion
foot pegs, but I'm not sure.

 

So you should have traded up weeks ago in other words.
<smugness>

 

Well, I've ordered new headers and, this evening, right on cue, there's
a set of carb model 750SS headers just appeared on Ebay.

Ain't it always the way.

 

That's probably fate's way of telling you that you may need to buy two
sets...