Timing belt change on 916

I need to change the timing belts on a 916 (I can’t trust my wife to do it for herself) and while my natural instincts are telling me to go for genuine parts does anyone have a recommendation regarding another manufacturer?

For what they cost compared to destroying the engine it should be a no brainer but it’s worth asking the question. She’s almost certainly going to sell the bike as soon as the belts have been changed and it’s got a nice new mot pass but I’m not going to cut corners then sell it and not care about the next owner.

AndyB_11 said:

I need to change the timing belts on a 916 (I can’t trust my wife to do it for herself) and while my natural instincts are telling me to go for genuine parts does anyone have a recommendation regarding another manufacturer?

For what they cost compared to destroying the engine it should be a no brainer but it’s worth asking the question. She’s almost certainly going to sell the bike as soon as the belts have been changed and it’s got a nice new mot pass but I’m not going to cut corners then sell it and not care about the next owner.

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That's rather sexist

I'm pretty sure there was something in this months RiDe on a 916 after market belts which are superior to oem.

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Exactfit sell California Cycle works belts which are cheaper than Oem. If you join the Ducati forum for a fiver he’ll give you a discount. http://www.exactuk.com/about-exactfit-cam-belts/
https://www.ducatiforum.co.uk/forums/

I had this dilemma when I bought the 888 SP5 and ended up letting the dealer do it over the winter when their workshop was quiet The cambelts were £51.77 each but I figured using genuine belts and getting the Ducati dealer to replace them was good value and if it was to grenade itself if a belt was to snap then it's back to the dealer for repair under the parts warranty

My Multistrada is fitted with Dayco timing belts. They are on the WEMOTO web site for around £50 for the pair, and similar on Ebay. Not too difficult to do them yourself, and there are easy to follow instructional videos on Youtube.
Also remember to check the rollers on the tensioner pulleys are running free, replace if not happy with them.

I reckon the way forward is to sit and watch a few YouTube tutorials and make Mrs B decide on which belts she wants to buy. She’ll save a couple of hundred of our finest Sovereigns by getting me to do it and as long as I display previously unknown levels of patience it’ll be job done.

I changed the cam belt on an old MKIV 2.0 Cortina about 35 years ago so I’ve got previous experience to fall back on

If you try a Gates belt dealer they should be able to match them if they don't know the size etc already. They supply a lot of manufacturers with belts including Ducati. Talk to John at Baines Racing Silverstone https://www.bainesracing.com he may have them in stock.

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Update:

The belts are here and I don’t even have to fit them, a friend of ours who has changed numerous sets of belts on Ducati’s is coming over to do them in a week or so then it’s new battery, new mot and she’s probably outing it.

They’ve finally been fitted

The friend came over and gave the bike a full service including clutch and brake fluids, removed the brake calipers and serviced them and generally did everything you’d get if the bike went to a main dealer for a major service but he certainly wished he’d never said he’d do it. The oil filter refused to spin off even with a proper steel banded filter removal tool and eventually the ultimate nightmare occurred and the canister part ripped off the backing plate that screws into the sump

I’d left for work just before he arrived and 6 hours later he was distraught because that was the first time he’d had it happen though he had heard of it happening to others. He tried to chisel the backing plate away but it wasn’t having it so when he spoke to me on the phone I said send me details of how far back into the sump it was, what the hole spacings were on the plate and any other info he could get so I could make a peg type tool to get the plate out.

I made said tool and last Friday was the first time I’d been home so I attacked it straight away. First problem was that the holes on the new filter were 5mm closer together than the filter in the bike so it didn’t fit. Not a problem, I used a Dremel to slot the holes in the spanner and in it went. I’d used M6 screws as the pegs so screwed them into the holes as if they were self tappers and had a go. The bastard thing wouldn’t move and I ended up bending the spanner. Well at this point I was preparing to use the Dremel to cut slots from the holes across to the hole in the filter backing plate and weaken it’s hold then have another go but I decided to carry out a further modification to the spanner so it fitted adjacent holes rather than use holes opposite each other which meant they’d be closer together and hopefully be a bit less inclined to twist.

I wasn’t too confident so had a 4lb club hammer handy to hit the spanner or the bike if I got really pissed off but lo and behold it came out. Very slowly at first because it was tight but eventually it was sitting on the garage floor and massive sighs of relief were released. All I need to do now is fit the new filter, top it up with oil, fit the battery carrier and fire it up.

I’ll post a couple of pictures showing the old backing plate as it ended up and the flexible tool that eventually solved the problem. I think the person who was most relieved was the poor guy who’d volunteered his time to do the job and had offered to foot the bill if the engine had to be removed to sort the problem. He’s a top bloke who knows what he’s doing on these bikes so certainly didn’t deserve the hassle.

That bike is going as soon as the wife can get it advertised

Here’s the guilty filter backing plate next to a new K&N one and the hastily made peg spanner that eventually removed the plate.



For the uninitiated, the filter screws up into the bottom of the sump in a recess about 40mm deep so you have to fit the filter wrench a long way back from the threaded section meaning there’s a high potential for the thin skin of the filter to twist and then foul the sides of the recess making the problem even worse.

I think the problem was made worse by the fact that he didn’t start the engine and warm things up before trying to remove the filter but the bike hadn’t been started for about 2 years and he didn’t want to risk snapping a belt.

Why do belts on bikes last a fraction of the time? Many car belts go on for 100k miles so why don't similar belts on bikes?

SteveC10 said:

Why do belts on bikes last a fraction of the time? Many car belts go on for 100k miles so why don't similar belts on bikes?

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They probably have a much harder life with tighter runs than a car so if Ducati recommend changing them at a set interval it’d be a braver man than me to ignore their recommendation.

If it was an oem duc filter that was stuck I’m not surprised. The current oem ones seem to bottom out before the seal is made hence they get overnightened and are bastards to remove. I’ve swapped to mahle oc5 filters (needs a check for correct pn) and these seal great are slightly longer so easier to grip with a strap when removing.

I’d not had time to put fresh oil in, replace the battery and fire it up until today and even that was a bit of a pain. It didn’t want to fire up at first so I gave it a sniff of Easystart and it would fire, run for a few seconds then die so I was starting to think it had gummed up injectors after being left standing a couple of year but before going mad I checked the obvious and opened the filler cap. Because it’s on a factory stand the back end is up in the air and what little fuel that was in it was at the front so I threw 5l of unleaded in it, cranked it over and it started straight away

The wife has lost about 6 of the Dzus fasteners since the fairing was removed but they’re easily sourced so I’ll order a few then she can give it a clean, get a ticket on it and sell it.

I am sceptical about the need to change the belts purely on an age basis if they have done few miles. I changed the belts on a Monster I had a few years ago and the feel and flexibility of the old belts was identical to the new ones. If I had kept it I reckon I would have left them longer and just inspected them more regularly. I remember watching youtube guides before doing it and using an allen key (5 or 6mm?) as a means of checking the tension. It was a really easy job.

The ones taken out have definitely developed a ‘memory’ and look deformed as in when put on a flat surface they don’t even start to resemble a circle. If the bike had been used or even just started regularly I wouldn’t have worried about them but not having been spun over for at least two years they had to go.

MarkShelley said:

I am sceptical about the need to change the belts purely on an age basis if they have done few miles. I changed the belts on a Monster I had a few years ago and the feel and flexibility of the old belts was identical to the new ones. If I had kept it I reckon I would have left them longer and just inspected them more regularly. I remember watching youtube guides before doing it and using an allen key (5 or 6mm?) as a means of checking the tension. It was a really easy job.

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You can slide a M6 screw between the belt and idler on a 2 valve Ducati to gauge belt tension, not sure about 4 valve models.

My neighbour used to have a nice 949(?) and another broken engine where it had snapped a belt that wasn't changed on time

I think the belts are better now though.

Found this guide to a 916 belt change in my old ie favs http://www.tassell.co.uk/belt_change.htm

fatal said:

Also remember to check the rollers on the tensioner pulleys are running free, replace if not happy with them.

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+1. Certainly on the 2 valve motors, I think the rollers are as likely to fail as the belts. If there is any notchy feel when you spin them (with the belts removed) they should definitely be changed.