Swarf...

[Blah blah]

Just dropped the oil from my newly acquired M750, (P reg with 8800 miles on the clock), left it dripping overnight as you do, and was somewhat concerned to find a couple of sizeable lumps of alloy in the bottom of the bowl. They looked like swarf (hence the title), were about 2mm wide, and seemed to be machined off as opposed to have broken off.

The oil was not 'cooked', but it has the usual emulsion in the site glass, and in the filler cap, otherwise looked like used oil (black and smelling of oil). The engine isn't (wasn't?) making any unusual noises or vibrations.

I did about 120 miles last weekend, and the oil light flicked on at one point, then straight back off - as I had been sitting, sweltering, in traffic, trying to fill up at the time, I put it down to getting a bit hot. Also, I've missed a couple of gears and hit false neutrals between 4 and 5th, which I put down to not being positive enough.

I stuck my finger into the drain hole, and you can feel a tube in there that's moving about abit, dunno what that is, but as far as I can tell, it isn't free to disappear around the engine.

Any ideas what could be machining bits of alloy off the inside of my engine??

[jerry]

Crank galley plug

[crust]

Have a read

http://www.ducati-upnorth.com/tech/sumpplug.php

May well be worth having a search on the Ducati Sporting Club website.

:)Crust

[Blah blah]

So... if it is the crankshaft gallery oil plug, which it seems like it might be, can it be done without splitting the crankcases ??

I'd better go and get a copy of the Haynes jobby...

[Rockhopper]

I've never heard of the gallery plug being an issue on the smaller engines but it does rather sounds as though thats what gone wrong in this case. Eventually the remains of the plug will drop out and the oil pressure will instantly vanish.
It could just be bits of swarf from when the engine was made, at 8800 miles it might have only ever had a couple of oil changes if that, especially as you say the oil was black!

I guess the only way to be sure is to strip the motor. To confirm the problem you need to remove the vertical cylinder, pull up on the connecting rod, and look to the left of the rod. If there's a dull silver part of the crankshaft touching the outer race of the crankshaft bearing, you got the problem. The plug should be flush or slightly inset. The cases need to be split to fix it.

[Bodybag]

I'm probably completely wrong here but isn't there a chance that if the alternator nut isn't done up and loctite'd then the washer that sits behind it can get all chewed up by the gears and spit fragments everywhere?

I'm not saying thats whats happened cos I'm not that mechanically minded but someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

[Rockhopper]

Thats a possibilty however i think that washer will be steel and should be magnetic. You might want to test the swarf with a magnet just to check.

[Blah blah]

Definitely alloy, and non metallic...

[crust]

I'm probably completely wrong here but isn't there a chance that if the alternator nut isn't done up and loctite'd then the washer that sits behind it can get all chewed up by the gears and spit fragments everywhere?

I'm not saying thats whats happened cos I'm not that mechanically minded but someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Been there done that :(

The washer gets broken up into segments,

4mm wide by about 1mm thick curved steel segments.

Are the fragments like hairs? or granules?

:)Crust

[Blah blah]

Definitely wasn't a steel washer, the 'biggest' bit looked like a walkers quaver, but somewhat smaller. About 1-2mm wide and 2-3mm long and a dull alloy colour, it was very brittle, and fell apart easily.
Might be worth having a look at the alternator though (and anything else I can easily find) cos I've just been quoted around £600 plus VAT and parts to rebuild the motor...

[Rockhopper]

Give Neil a ring at www.cornerspeed.co.uk and ask his advice before you get into spending that kind of money.