It’s back together. Once again, major thanks go out to Kari and Juha, for giving a helping hand.

This is what it looked like before cleaning. Can you imagine the amperage…

Here’s the new bushing made by Kari, out of bronze. Inside 10mm and outside ~14mm

Some additional isolation was needed inside the starter. Note the split end of the thread, for helping tightening with a screwdriver.

Wires used to hold the brushes back when re-assembling.
Actually, it can be put together without these.. this was the first try.

hint #1: do not pull the rotor out, (it won’t come all the way out, but enough) oil will come out of the other side of the engine in to the starter.
hint #2: if you have oil in your starter, clean it out before closing the starter.
hint #3: make sure you have all the markings and holes and such lined up when putting it together, it’s much easier that way.

After all was set and done, it started so much differently, we thought someone had unplugged the sparkplugs..

Warning, photoshopping included…

So, after cleaning and looking at the parts on hand a little closer up, I think I figured it out. At least part of it.

Parts #1 together (they’re broken up) should isolate part #2 through the hole on part #3.

Somewhere down the road part #1 got a bit broken up and when the bike was being started, part #2 was close enough to the starterhousing (#3) to maybe have a nice blue arc between them..
Now I have to figure out how can I fix part #1? I guess originally it is molded directly to the starter housing end, because it’s one solid piece, so it can not be put together from, say, two different parts - one from the inside and one from the outside?

cool red numbers.. *bling*

close-up of 1 and 3.
I can use some two-epoxy glue or what ever to put these back together, but that still doesn’t give me enough isolation through the hole.

close-up of 2.
You can see how the bolt has changed colour above the thread from the massive heat generated from the short circuits. The surface wasn’t smooth anymore, too. It looked like it was welded, and in a way, it was.

There’s a spare part for the starter, a brush kit, ducati number 0670.50.815 I’m not 100% sure about the number, there might be a superceding number.. This is not officially a ducati part, but can be found through the dealer. It costs 32 EUR (17.9.2007) opposed to the whole starter, # 270.4.001.1A, 531 EUR. (I guess that’s why..)

As long as I have this thing open (when you look at the liquid-cooled desmo engine, with an oil cooler, you’ll see it was a PITA to get out) I might as well change the brush kit, so that I don’t have to (hopefully) open it up again for a long time!!

More intriguing stuff.
Why is the hole not in the middle? I have to measure, if it really is crooked, haven’t done so yet.

Edit: After looking at this with a little less tired eyes, the hole is nowhere near a circle anymore… –> a new bushing is needed.

Also, I don’t have pics of the parts that are still on the bike, but those need to be cleaned too. Especially the part where the brushes make contact to the commutator.

More to come later. [ early morning edit, for search engines: 27040011A 067050815 ]

After struggling with the on and off starting, I finally started to look deeper in to the problem.

First, a ~1okm ride on a trailer.. then taking apart the starter.

At least one of the oil lines to the oil cooler must be removed, to gain better access to the starter.

The battery is full, the starter relay works, grounding is ok, the wire to the starter is ok, but it just doesn’t start as it should –> starter?

After some swearing and tearing, here’s what we had in hand:

To be continued….

Too much money and too much time? [ Well, neither, really… ] Ha, Ebay to the rescue!

*blingbling*

You should hear how these click and clack, they are fully floating. And cast iron.

Now all I need is the magnesium 5-spoke marchesini’s that I’ve wanted from the word ‘go’. (and maybe a set of slicks’…)

Whoa, this is getting out of hand sooner than I thought…

..maybe I should just concentrate on the starting problem.