Cagiva Elefant 900ie

Santa-2512 · Apr 20, 2020

Bem said:
Thats a great project for the next fortnight.
Top tip - as you could not help but start the engine can I suggest you only use the back brake when you take it for a spin round the garden tomorrow as you inevitably will?
I shall take notes as you progress.

It'll be fine, the optional sand anchor

will do its job lol

The Other PaulG · Apr 20, 2020

DING-DONG said:
Chris Tunneruk paint that Elefant it can be found under Paint jobs, post 445.

You are quite right.

And if you look at Gavin's 'Bastardo' page, you'll see another of Chris's exquisite jobs.

Zorro · Apr 20, 2020

Fantastic bike. Looking forward to the updates. :thumby:

Kevin1626 · Apr 20, 2020

Great stuff. Looking forward to this resto

Fluffmeister · Apr 20, 2020

Fantastic, really looking forward to seeing this develop. I had one of these when I was living in Germany, was a lot of fun and I did a fair few trips back to UK on it with only the odd minor hiccup (Reg/Rec packed in and battery sort of "exploded")

John B · Apr 20, 2020

Fantastic bike, I think it is the same engine as the 907e. I always had a fancy for one of these so will be watching for updates, I had a 750 Paso, lovely engine , horrible Weber carb, least you don't have that to worry about! Cheers, :beerjug:

John B

peepingtom · Apr 21, 2020

Santa-2512 said:
I'd order a new chain & sprockets as well,

The orginal is more than likely fooked

I bet it sounds ace when it fires up

that maybe the case im hoping they will clean up a bit. they're not a priority right now

The Other PaulG said:
Oh nice one!

I think you can be hopeful that it will run, given your tests so far.

The really hard to source parts are the plastics and you have all those, so that's great.

As Mickdb1 says, there is a really helpful community, if you can track them down including a fella called Marc in Hull who has a good store of parts.

If you are interested in how far you can push the Elefant obsession, gave a look at Gavin Robertson's site here www.gavin944888.com

Electrics aside, which can sometimes be a bit 'italian' I think the engines are really well engineered.

Mick, did you attend the Treffen in Aachen about 10 years ago? If so, we probably spoke

yes im hopeful and quite confident in it once sorted it will be reliable
I will look Marc up at some point and thanks for reminding me of the gavin944 I remember seeing his site years ago when I had my 750

Micky said:
Will watch with interest

DING-DONG said:
Chris Tunneruk paint that Elefant it can be found under Paint jobs, post 445.

Cook1e said:
There's a comprehensive international Elefant group on FaceAche:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/6449379646/

thanks yes im on it and that's where the bike was

see it is good for something

peepingtom · Apr 21, 2020

Zorro said:
Fantastic bike. Looking forward to the updates.

looking forward to getting it up and running

Kevin1626 said:
Great stuff. Looking forward to this resto

Fluffmeister said:
Fantastic, really looking forward to seeing this develop. I had one of these when I was living in Germany, was a lot of fun and I did a fair few trips back to UK on it with only the odd minor hiccup (Reg/Rec packed in and battery sort of "exploded")

very nice too :beerjug:

John B said:
Fantastic bike, I think it is the same engine as the 907e. I always had a fancy for one of these so will be watching for updates, I had a 750 Paso, lovely engine , horrible Weber carb, least you don't have that to worry about! Cheers,John B

yes I think your right they both have bigger valves than the 900ss ? and made about 10bhp more ?
maybe you got it from Barrett and Lee ?

peepingtom · Apr 21, 2020

Nothing major has happened I’ve ordered the belts and other service parts and polished the bodywork up. It’s in pretty good order with enough character to show it’s has history

peepingtom · Apr 26, 2020

Well my new belts have arrived and I’ve watched a few videos using the marker method of simply putting a dot on the pully and one on the belt. Piece of piss I’ll have it going in no time

WRONG ! ...........On the video the belt simply slides off and slides back on again. No not it my world even with the tension rollers removed I couldn’t slide the belt off . So resorted to a modeling knife that no proper Ducati technician wouldn’t have in his tool trolley.
So belts off new ones have been marked but they are also slightly too tight to get on/off. I can’t think how I can get them on, I feel I’ve tried all methods including swearing. Any ideas ? :comfort

Bloomers100 · Apr 26, 2020

Harry Metcalfe has one off these. In this weeks episode of Harry's Farm he gives some history to the same model. I've put a link to Harry's Garage as well, theres a film of when he took his to the desert.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFNRLTPU9263dTOYgrVcnHw

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIB5XXHNAWWzTOw6guIMYCg

Harry is well worth watching anyway. Good luck with the resto.

peepingtom · Apr 26, 2020

Bloomers100 said:
Harry Metcalfe has one off these. In this weeks episode of Harry's Farm he gives some history to the same model. I've put a link to Harry's Garage as well, theres a film of when he took his to the desert.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFNRLTPU9263dTOYgrVcnHw

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIB5XXHNAWWzTOw6guIMYCg

Harry is well worth watching anyway. Good luck with the resto.

Thanks yes I’ve watch a lot of his videos including the cagiva in the dunes always interesting .
:beerjug:

peepingtom · Apr 26, 2020

It just won’t fir and now my fingers are sore

I’ve there was grooves in that top cam I could slide it on but of course they have an edge to stop the belt from coming off. I really can’t make out how it looks and is soooo easy on youtube but mine are ridiculously tight Agggghhhhhhh . I hate old bikes

And that cam being sprung loaded doesn’t help either I’m not an octopus :comfort

IainMac · Apr 26, 2020

My 93 900sl has the same PITA cam wheels with the flange, you could replace them with later cam wheels as Ducati dropped that flange for later years and it might be possible to remove the flange of the old style ones , though that could be a wishful incorrect memory. My local duc mech swapped my belts and he made it look like a piece of piss even with the flanges on a hot engine while I watched, maybe he has strong thumbs from decades of belt swaps?

squibb34 · Apr 26, 2020

I've watched it done, many moons ago in my MHR bevel days, when waiting for a bay to come free. Memory hazy, but I'm sure the tech merely loosened the tensioner & popped the belt on over the flange. It was done in no time, as #34 suggests.

Are you absolutely sure you have the correct belt?

Good luck with the project. Great old bike, sound fantastic, but I can't say I ever wanted to look like rolling cigarette advert, despite enjoying the exploits of the great Mr. Schwantz.

Tarka · Apr 26, 2020

You appear to have marked the pulleys against the belts, but shouldn't you have marked the pulleys against the casings?

DrFarkoff · Apr 26, 2020

Can you not remove that Idler wheel to get a little more clearance ?

peepingtom · Apr 26, 2020

IainMac said:
My 93 900sl has the same PITA cam wheels with the flange, you could replace them with later cam wheels as Ducati dropped that flange for later years and it might be possible to remove the flange of the old style ones , though that could be a wishful incorrect memory. My local duc mech swapped my belts and he made it look like a piece of piss even with the flanges on a hot engine while I watched, maybe he has strong thumbs from decades of belt swaps?

First answer and it’s the correct one and your memory serves you well. You can indeed take the flange off ( only on the cam pully not the crank one). I asked on the fb group and an Italian guy told me they can be removed with pliers. I’m guessing he ment hammer and screw driver but didn’t know the translation for it

After they were removed they went on easily :bow

squibb34 said:
I've watched it done, many moons ago in my MHR bevel days, when waiting for a bay to come free. Memory hazy, but I'm sure the tech merely loosened the tensioner & popped the belt on over the flange. It was done in no time, as #34 suggests.

Are you absolutely sure you have the correct belt?

Good luck with the project. Great old bike, sound fantastic, but I can't say I ever wanted to look like rolling cigarette advert, despite enjoying the exploits of the great Mr. Schwantz.

Thanks yes correct belt just having problems with a flange ......... :beerjug:

it does indeed sound great

Tarka said:
You appear to have marked the pulleys against the belts, but shouldn't you have marked the pulleys against the casings?

No need to , you simply mark your new belt then count the same amount of teeth back to the other mark and bobs your uncle. The cams can move a little and one with be slightly sprung loaded so you have to be a little careful but it’s really pretty simple.

DrFarkoff said:
Can you not remove that Idler wheel to get a little more clearance ?

That’s what I was thinking but they had a strange nut holding them on and I didn’t think it would make enough difference. The videos I watched made me think that something was very different with my bike as everyone else did it with ease and I’m not that useless

Anyway all done now and Rex the beast breaths again!! :steptoe

I’m very happy and I’ve also confirmed where my oil leak is on the 990 adv and it’s a simple o ring that I already have

All in all a great day

everyone for the imput

squibb34 · Apr 26, 2020

Good news then.

I only asked about the belt spec as I think the 750 2v was just 2 teeth shorter. Something like 70 for the 900, 68 for the 750.

Anyway, do keep us posted on progress. We need some bike oriented interest during lockdown.

peepingtom · Apr 26, 2020

squibb34 said:
Good news then.

I only asked about the belt spec as I think the 750 2v was just 2 teeth shorter. Something like 70 for the 900, 68 for the 750.

Anyway, do keep us posted on progress. We need some bike oriented interest during lockdown.

yes well I know now that the 900 does indeed have 70 teeth as ive counted them......twice

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