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Re: Cleaning the crankshaft of widecase engine
Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 2:34 pm
by Rocla
Hello again,
The meccanic who is repearing my Scrambler engine told me two statements I would like you to assess:
A) even if it is theoretically possible to clean the centrifugal oil filter without dismounting the engine (just the cylinder), it is practically impossible.
B) the best way to proceed is to empty the oil while the engine is very hot and the piston on its lowest level (that means the best position to drain the duct inside the cranjshaft).
Do you agree with A and B?
Re: Cleaning the crankshaft of widecase engine
Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 4:39 pm
by Buster
From my experience the centrifugal filtering in the crank shaft / flywheels is such that it will be nearly solid. The only way to clean it out properly is a complete stripdown. Trying to remove it insitu as in A will not remove all the residue and will disturb bits that could enter the big end.
in B no matter how hot the oil is and at what position the crank is it will not remove anything from the crank.
Are you sure it needs a stripdown? It all depends on the mileage since it was last stripped down AND has the oil been changed regularly in the past? I presume that is not known.
Buster.
Re: Cleaning the crankshaft of widecase engine
Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2019 4:06 pm
by Rocla
Anyway, I would like to emphasize on this method: to drain regularly the oil when the engine is very hot and the piston on the lowest position (while in addition the motorbike is inclined on the right size to favor the oil flow) seems to be theoritically the best think to do in order to delay a complete engine dismounting.
What is the opinion of Ducati specialists about that trick?
Re: Cleaning the crankshaft of widecase engine
Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2019 7:20 pm
by Bevel bob
The motor does hold onto its old oil. I tip it over to the right side and then prop the back of the bike up to get the oil down into the sump.I also have a magnet on a wire that I work around the sump. If you study some photos of the case inereds you will see that oil can be trapped.
Re: Cleaning the crankshaft of widecase engine
Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 7:35 pm
by Rocla
Ok, I will check on the pictures. Many thanks for your trick
Re: Cleaning the crankshaft of widecase engine
Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 11:55 pm
by themoudie
Thank you for the insights George and Nigel, it appears to be a wee cracker.
Regards, Bill
Re: Cleaning the crankshaft of widecase engine
Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2019 12:35 pm
by Scottish888
Not only the crankshaft, you can also clean the alternator rotor. In the process of rebuilding my 250 engine and it took a bit time to clean out all the magnetized particles picked up inside the alternator rotor.
I don't suppose the particles would go anywhere but I did clean out a fair bit, took a while before solvent washes ran clean