Got the replacement parts in. Of course, it didn’t go smoothly. What on EARTH the Ducati engineers were thinking when they decided the appropriate process for replacing a bent gear shift lever was to require you to take off fairings, completely remove all senors, gear shift linkage and then rearset is beyond me. The whole thing could have been massively simplified by using a nut so you could undo it without having to remove the whole linkage.
Anyhow, long story short, that bolt that couldn’t be undone from the side of the bike, was stuck. I ended up having to cut the whole ball joint off with a Dremel aftering failing to undo the bolt with hex keys/attachments, and then after trying to dremel a new groove into the head to try and phillips it out, meaning I now have to order some replacement parts. Hopefully they turn up quickly. We’ve got a trackday in a couple of weeks (apparently, you would be forgiven to wondering if we’re mad, considering the weather atm).
Anyhow, here’s some garage hackathons:
Ducati Engineer, why is that ball head hex bolt facing the swingarm, WHY???!
A nut would have been better, so it could be undone from slipping a spanner inbetween the swingarm and ball joint. Mark on the fairing is from the gearshift lever when the bike fell over.
Removing the rearset to enable more access to the ball-joint.
Have to remove the lower fairing to remove the rearset. REALLY?
Cleaning the rearset up before touching it.
The offending ball-joint hex bolt is now accessible.
I’m frustrated. Various hex attachments and the impact driver do not release the bolt. It’s now somewhat rounded.
Somewhat rounded.
Post-mortem. Ball joint now removed. Evidence of extreme bodgery evident.
The remainder of the offending bolt and sacrificed ball-joint. Sorry ball-joint, blame your partner, the bolt.
The other crash protection on the bike protected it.
