900ss woes and in desperate need of help and advice - Page 2

**Imola Duke** · 11 Jan 07, 06:11 PM

Hi Mark

Link to a site which will be useful if you fit the emulsion tube's and jet kit yourself
http://www.buschandbusch.com/ducatisuite/jetkit.html

Regards

Steve

**markm** · 13 Jan 07, 07:06 AM

Cheers Steve, excellent link! Much better than Haynes! Just have to wait for my new emulsion tubes to arrive now and i will go ahead and fit them.

by the way: have put a dollop of Pro FST in the petrol and it has made a difference. Off to work in a moment so the bike is going to get a good blast up the Golden Valley bypass to confirm yesterdays run to Newent wasnt a fluke.

Bike a lot better but still "rough"-ish at low rpm, am convinced now after all the reading i've done from links and advice supplied here that this is one of the 2 culprits (the iother carb icing) responsible for the problems i have been having.

Just have to sort an electrical problem out now (all warning lights and indicators dead! changed fuse, no luck), put the standard exhaust cans back on and take it for MOT at end of month.

regards
mark

**markm** · 15 Feb 07, 05:54 PM

Hi to all who have helped!

have fitted pro factory emulsion tubes and the bike is running on a mixture of a petrol and pro fst! It has improved and at least i'm getting to work and back now without too much hassle, the only problem being a smidge of carb icing the other week when it was really cold and snow in the air and the bike spat and farted a few times.

Just seen a spair set of carbs for sale with carb heater kit on them.
Anyone have any experience with these?
Anyone got a diagram on plumbing them up?

Thanks for all your help guys, you've been great!

regards

Mark

**Pax** · 15 Feb 07, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markm

Hi to all who have helped!

have fitted pro factory emulsion tubes and the bike is running on a mixture of a petrol and pro fst! It has improved and at least i'm getting to work and back now without too much hassle, the only problem being a smidge of carb icing the other week when it was really cold and snow in the air and the bike spat and farted a few times.

Just seen a spair set of carbs for sale with carb heater kit on them.
Anyone have any experience with these?
Anyone got a diagram on plumbing them up?

Thanks for all your help guys, you've been great!

regards

Mark

Glad you are getting it sorted now mate, do not worry too much I have a tendency to spit and fart myself on occasion

**AdrianK** · 17 Feb 07, 01:00 PM

Hi Mark,
I've got a '96 900SS with the factory fitted carb heaters. There is a 'winter/summer' tap which routes oil up to the float bowls or bypasses them in the 'off' position. The kit seems to work very well as evidenced by the time I left the tap in the 'off' position and after coming off a fast motorway run and closing the throttle had a combination of a very high idle speed (presumably ice holding the slide open) followed by bad misfiring. Selecting the tap to 'on' rapidly cured the problem and I have left it 'on' thereafter and never had the problem recur in the last 9 yrs.
The outside air temperature and humidity affect the problem: in essence the temperature drop in the venturi has to bring the temperature of the intake air into the 'icing range' i.e to a temperature when the water vapour in the air condenses into water droplets which then freeze. Surprisingly on occasions it can actually be too cold for carb icing!
The Factory Pro emulsion tubes work very well. I changed mine at 20000 miles and the old tubes had a noticeable 'tear drop' shape due to the needle chattering against one side of the tube.
Good luck!

**NedLudd** · 17 Feb 07, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdrianK

I've got a '96 900SS with the factory fitted carb heaters.

(Must be an MY97 bike then, right?)

**AdrianK** · 17 Feb 07, 04:04 PM

Hmmm....MY97....you may well be right...first reg Aug '96, I bought it in '97 from a Ducati dealer with 1500 miles on it...it take it MY97 was the first to have the heater on as standard? Although I thought I remembered (or read somewhere) something about a 'recall' where you could have the kit fitted for free?

**NedLudd** · 17 Feb 07, 05:43 PM

Good point, ie yes, they were fitted from MY97 but maybe some had them retro-fitted. I've owned my MY97 750ss for 6 months and am still trying to find the taps..

**Imola Duke** · 17 Feb 07, 06:42 PM

You will find the tap/valve......................................

**AdrianK** · 18 Feb 07, 11:36 AM

The tap on my 900ss is just behind the oil cooler on the lower left side oil hose. The plastic lever that operates the valve is held on by a screw which can vibrate loose and hence you can lose the lever! That might explain why you're finding it difficult to locate?

**markm** · 06 Mar 07, 07:23 AM

heres an update:

for those of you that have followed this thread: I think i've finally found the culprit in the misbehaving bike!
without repeating symptoms and whats been changed etc etc here goes:
The float height!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
of the endless list of things changed swapped the only thing i didnt check was the float height!

therefore much too much petrol sloshing around in the f/bowl chamber which would account for the bike going rough when slowing down, i.e. town, after a blast where the bike would be running on main jets..... and always on the same cylinder. Having swapped/replaced all things electrical (the lot!) that really does only leave one thing doesnt it?
well, we live and learn so maybe this might help someone in the same predicament.
I feel like a right prat

mark