Strada Camshaft Oil Ways

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Duccout
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Location: Essex UK

Re: Strada Camshaft Oil Ways

Postby Duccout » Sun Dec 27, 2020 4:51 pm

Thanks George. I'm not sure whether the fuel level in the tank will be higher than the carb when the fuel level is low; the Strada tank has sort of panniers tanks each side that sit lower than the carb, so although the fuel will be higher when the tank is full, when the level gets low it may not be.

blethermaskite
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Location: northern ireland

Re: Strada Camshaft Oil Ways

Postby blethermaskite » Sun Dec 27, 2020 5:11 pm

Yes I see what you mean, (not used to the Strada) can you put a bit of clear pipe on a fuel tap to see exactly where your fuel level is with a nearly empty tank.
Cheers,
George

Duccout
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Re: Strada Camshaft Oil Ways

Postby Duccout » Sun Dec 27, 2020 5:23 pm

Yes, that's what I'll have to do.

themoudie
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Re: Strada Camshaft Oil Ways

Postby themoudie » Sun Dec 27, 2020 10:49 pm

Aye Duccout,

Same problem as with the pannier tank on the Yamaha SRX singles, both twin shock and mono frames. The fuel tap sits on the underside of the main tank, not at the lowest point of the panniers either side and consequently there is 1.5 litres of fuel on both sides of the tank that with ethanol fuel can sit above a quantity of water and sludge.

I allow for the lesser amount of fuel available when topping up and also use Briggs & Stratton 'Fuel Fit', after syphoning both panniers of the tank before the winter reduced use period. The orange coloured liquid can be worrying, but if regularly dealt with the tank appears OK and the fuel system doesn't gum up.

Sorry to read of your woes with the 'Mickey Rooney', I am still having problems with my Amal MKII 2932 on the '74 450 MKIII. There may be a solution soon that I will publish in the "450 desmo carb" thread on this board.

Good health, Bill

Duccout
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Location: Essex UK

Re: Strada Camshaft Oil Ways

Postby Duccout » Mon Dec 28, 2020 1:04 pm

I did expect the Mikuni to work straight out of the box, with a bit of fine tuning, but the bike won't start with the choke (cold start jet) on, which suggests that the jet is too rich, and it just dies when I open the throttle which suggests weakness. If it were a Dell'Orto or Amal I would know what to do, but Mikunis are a mystery. I'll have to ring Moto Carb next year and see what they suggest, but it appears to be way off.

The jets are way different to the ones that others with Mikunis are using, and I don't know if that is because mine is a 28mm, as opposed to a 32 or 34.

blethermaskite
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Location: northern ireland

Re: Strada Camshaft Oil Ways

Postby blethermaskite » Mon Dec 28, 2020 1:25 pm

This is maybe an obvious point......but make sure you are not opening the throttle during your choke on cold start with the Mikuni, they have a special little air bleed passage for rich starting mixture, if you open the throttle it stops this system working, if you know this just ignore me :roll:
Cheers,
George

Duccout
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Re: Strada Camshaft Oil Ways

Postby Duccout » Mon Dec 28, 2020 3:28 pm

Hi George, thanks for that; I had already read it on a Mikuni tuning site, but all advice is welcome!

I have partial success! Today I figured that the pilot system was too rich, which would explain why the bike starts and ticks over from cold with no choke, so I opened up the air bleed screw a couple of turns and started the engine with the choke on; it ran for a bit them cut out, but after turning off the choke it restarted and I was able to tune in the tick-over mixture. The air screw is bonkers, angling upwards at 45 degrees so that the tank is in the way, as well as the frame. I have to raise the tank up on blocks of wood to be able to get a screwdriver anywhere near it. Anyway, I got the engine running, but it backfires through the carb when the throttle is blipped, so I raised the needle one notch and almost cured it. So it appears that I need a, a richer needle or needle jet, and b, a weaker cold start jet.

The Mikuni is superbly well-made and has a lovely screw top that is easy to get on and off, and a hard-chrome slide; with it the engine ticks over like a watch, so I hope that I can sort out the problems. It would be much better with a curved manifold to bring it down to horizontal and lower it, which would cure all the fitment problems.

George
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Location: Essex UK

Re: Strada Camshaft Oil Ways

Postby George » Mon Dec 28, 2020 8:12 pm

Hi Colin sorry to read about your latest woes, Strada is putting up quite a fight. I don't know anything about Mikuni carb and how it fits to head but I have a spare angled inlet manifold if it helps to level and lower your new carb. Let me know if its of any use and I will measure the bore
George Essex UK

Dan C
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Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2020 12:52 am
Location: Armidale, NSW, Australia

Re: Strada Camshaft Oil Ways

Postby Dan C » Mon Dec 28, 2020 10:19 pm

Hi Colin,

What model and size is your Mikuni? I run a VM30 on my 350 and the settings were mentioned earlier in this thread. I am puzzled by the difficulties you have accessing the air screw as mine is not angled up at all. Even with a straight manifold (meaning the carb is angled upwards) there is oodles of room between the screw and the bottom of the tank so the Strada tank must sit very low.

Since those settings were published it did develop a bit of surging at just off idle throttle settings. Following Phil Hitchcocks suggestion I removed the air jet (in one of the orifices at the inlet end of the carb) to make it a bit leaner, which has improved it but not entirely eliminated it. Before you go down a size in the pilot jet that might be worth trying?

I've not had any difficulty starting. From cold my drill is a kick with choke on and it usually fires first kick but wont run, flip choke off, hold throttle open a slight whiff and another kick and it goes. From warm no throttle and kick.

And yes a curved manifold makes the fitment a fair bit easier and neater. I have one on the 450 which really needs it so that the airfilter can squeeze to the inside of the frame gusset. When I find another one I'll fit the 350!

Cheers
Dan

Duccout
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Joined: Wed Feb 05, 2020 1:20 pm
Location: Essex UK

Re: Strada Camshaft Oil Ways

Postby Duccout » Tue Dec 29, 2020 2:17 pm

Hi George, hope that you had a good Christmas. That is very kind of you to think of the manifold, although I imagine it would be too small a bore and possibly the stud spacing will be smaller too. I need 28mm bore and 52mm stud spacing. Thanks for thinking of me.

Dan, I hope that you also had a good Christmas. My Mikuni is 28mm and the settings are quite a bit different to yours; I will list them sometime for future reference. I 'm not sure if I need a richer or weaker pilot jet - in terms of pick-up it looks like a richer one is needed. I've done a bit of research and apparently the bike not starting with the choke on is common, so that may be a red herring, I just hope that a new slide is not needed. I think that now maybe I should have gone for a Dell'Orto - possibly Eurocarb may have had a manifold that fitted the Ducati stud spacings - but even if I had gone for an Amal I would have had to file out the stud holes to get it to fit, and there is the problem of the rigid mounting and the body distortion. All may be OK with just a bit of fiddling.


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