haynes book?

[MotoMike]

is the haynes manual for the mkIII and desmo 69-73, a good manual to have. would it be useful for a non desmo 69 450?

[Jon Pegler]

If you are unfamiliar with Ducati singles, the Haynes book is worth having.
It is a bit limited in certain areas as the photo stripdown only concentrated on one model. As this had Ceriani forks and a disc brake, the information on Marzocchi forks and drum brakes is a bit sketchy. Also, if you have an early widecase model, it does not cover the earlier 31.5mm forks. Some of the ignition data and photos may leave you wondering what applies to your machine too.
That said, it is always useful to have as much information as possible at your fingertips. Used in conjunction with a Ducati or Clymer manual it should get you out of trouble , especially if you combine it with some of the information on sites such as this.
My copy is a bit dog-eared now as I bought it when it was first published in 1979, but I still refer to it occasionally.
Jon

[MotoMike]

thanks Jon

[JimF]

All the published books seem to me to be rather short on information, but some information is way more valuable than none.

I suggest buying a copy of all the available service books you find and then referring to them all before starting a particular task. If the information supplied by the different manuals is contradictory or incomplete, you might post to this or another forum to seek clarification.

If you establish that there is erroneous information in one of the manuals you are welcome to post that too.

This topic brings up what was the purpose of this forum at the onset, to help fill the rather large voids in published information regarding Ducati single cylinder engines and motorcycles.

[ccambern]

I have a copy of the Ducati manual that I bought on ebay. The Italian-Engrish is a little confusing, but it's a pretty solid resource. That said, I actually reference the exploded diagrams in the parts book more often. http://www.ducatimeccanica.com/parti_di ... /index.htm

[MotoMike]

Sound advice all around. thanks

speaking of other resources, I asked in another post about the scans in the Tech section that are in the cool iris format. I can't get them to open in any kind of resolution that would allow me to see the detail or read the writing. Does anyone else have this problem, or is it my computer?

Mike

[JimF]

Hi Mike,

Any scans/books in particular? Or all of them?

A large screen monitor helps everything, but I seem to recalll that I used some low-resolution images in at least one of the manuals to save memory resources and speed download times. But if the information is illegible it's of no value, so let me know which book to start with and I will try to replace it with higher resolution scans if I have them available.

A list member did us all the favor of scanning these books into digital format, so I will have to see if I have the higher resolution images or if the list member can send them to me.

[MotoMike]

Hi Mike,

Any scans/books in particular? Or all of them?

A large screen monitor helps everything, but I seem to recalll that I used some low-resolution images in at least one of the manuals to save memory resources and speed download times. But if the information is illegible it's of no value, so let me know which book to start with and I will try to replace it with higher resolution scans if I have them available.

A list member did us all the favor of scanning these books into digital format, so I will have to see if I have the higher resolution images or if the list member can send them to me.

DSA

I just tried it again and realized that it was me that was the problem. I was not clicking on the individual image after they initially appeared. after doing so, they came into clear focus. Sorry for the mix up.

Mike