[Ducati] Had a bad day

[Bob Marren]

EJ wrote:

> My bike (97' 916SP) just caught fire yesterday.
>
> It suddenly lost power. I let it slide to roadside, and saw smoke
> coming out of the right fairing vent. I know it's the regulator, so I
> took the fairing apart and... I saw fire! right under the battery. I
> put it off with my leather glove, installed the fairing back and
> pushed the bike 3 miles (mostly uphills) home, with all my protecting
> gears on. Almost dehydrated.
>
> I'm glad that I have the Dzus screws on my bike. Without them I
> wouldn't have be able to take the fairings apart and put out the fire
> as fast as I did. The regulator is completely toasted. There is a
> short and the wire started burning because of that. It burnt a hole in
> my battery, and the sulfuric acid kept dripping out on my way home.
> Gladly there is no metal part beneath the battery, only the CF
> fairings.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/f29c3
> http://tinyurl.com/fvf84
> http://tinyurl.com/hnrx6
> http://tinyurl.com/l5q8d
>
> Anyway, it's a terrible experience. Just to remind you guys that, if
> you ever suspect your regulator isn't normal (my GEN light came up
> sometimes in the past two months), replace it. You might burn you
> beloved Duc if you ignore it.
>
> I'm planning to change the yellow wires coming out of the alternator
> (2-wire type), so I'm taking the crank case off. However, how did you
> people who have done this before manage to run the larger-awg wires
> through that tiny hole in front of the alternator cover? Do you guys
> have any suggestions about where else to check?
>
> And a final question. I tried to drain the engine oil. I released the
> filter (smaller one) and the drain plug on the bottom of the engine
> case, but only 2 litres of oil came out. The larger filter isn't
> removed so there might be around 250cc in it, but it's still way too
> less. I'm sure the oil level before I drained it is normal, right
> between the MAX and MIN lines. Is there anything I'm missing?
>
I did not have to drain the oil on my two valve engine when I took
the cover off. All the oil stayed in the sump.
  Bob