have a lot of parts, not sure what can be done with them

[amartina75]

hello all, i recently dug out a bunch of old wc and nc single parts my dad has been storing in a shed for the last 30 years (storing very poorly) a lot of the stuff is not useable anymore, sadly. my hope was to restore the two bikes he has, at one time he had a complete 350 mark 3 desmo i think a 68 or 69, and a widecase 450 scrambler. after years of poor storage some parts are junk, here is a partial list of what i think i have; for the 350, a desmo head, useable needs machine work done new seats and guids, plug hole repaired. a frame, wheels need rebuilt, forks needs rebuilt, the engin cases are junk, badly coroded, have most of the trans parts, and gears, bevel drive, cam needs work or replaced. jug needs bored over or sleaved, otherwise nice. other engin case parts useable, all covers inc. tac drive and cover. don't have a useable crank.

for the 450 scrambler, pretty much a complete bike, dont have any fork tubes or springs or internals, have lower legs, two sets, plus two sets of tripples, and a set of unknown forks that were bought 30 years ago to go on the bike, not sure the make, but not ducati. also have a really nice set of akront sholdered wheels with stainless spokes, 3" front 3.5" rear, i think. cosmetically the bike needs fully restored.

spares, had a complete 250 non desmo, NC engin, but some parts a junk, the engin cases are nice but not sure if i can use them because the other two bikes are WC. the 250 head is junk, crank is junk, most of the eng internals are good, the jug is useable if sleaved or bored over. have other misc spares, four sets of hubs, tac and speedo,

can anyone tell me what engin parts interchange, could i use the 250 Nc and the 350 desmo head and jug?
i want to come up with at least one complete bike, and i want to use the desmo head. any sugestions, comments are appreciated, thanks

[fmcd92]

Hi,

Quite the story but the good news is you are committed to building a running Ducati single from the flotsam. Your experience is pretty similar to other situations where competing priorities and the passage of time render piles of used but very much useable parts into nothing. We all know how much easier it is to take an assembly apart than to build it back as new.
Ducatis have always been modular to some extent and fitting bits from various singles is mostly easy. Your 350D head will fit your NC with a few minor details to resolve (beveldrive shaft length, for one example) but WC engines had definite advantages in gearbox bearing integrity, etc. I'd go WC desmo, use a '69 up WC Scr. These are not that difficult to find and the result will be worth it.
The NC 250 is also easy to find the appropriate missing bits for.j
Don't toss those rusty bits straight away unless they are completely focked, sometimes essential little goodies like tacho-drive Oldham couplings hide in boxes of old crap like that. If you have any extra singles desmo rockers let me know before Rocket Rick finds out.
Stay with this, it will be a long road but the results will be magical.

All the best,
Francis McDermott

[Michel Roby]

oh, oh, oh!
There we go now... is Francis worried that Rocket Rick pays a little too much more attention than him?
Well, maybe you should be careful talking to any of these two guys... and talk to me instead... (I have a feeling that Fran is not going to stay too quiet after this shot...)

No kidding, you found the best spot for expertise into putting a single together; these two guys are real dedicated experts. And Fran is perfectly right when saying not to throw anything away unless it looks "real bad".

Where are you located?

Michel

[amartina75]

hi, thanks for the info. since i posted last i finished getting the rest of the parts out. mainly the 450 scrambler. it was still all together except the forks were off. my brother and i took a good look at it , it actually looks prety good. we pulled the head off and looked at the jug and piston. i still need to measure it but it looks really good like it just needs cleaned up honed and rings replaced. the crank is bad though. it needs rebuilt. my dad said that was why he stopped riding it, that was about 27 or 28 years ago.
after looking at everything i think im going to do the scrambler first and keep an eye out for 350 desmo parts on ebay.

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[Reza 916]

Hi
I am interested, if you want to sell them,please let me know
My number is 416-879-6840
Reza

[amartina75]

hello,
so i've been trying to figure out the front end for the 450 scrambler. I'm not sure what to do with the parts i have. I fugured out what the fork leggs i have were, they are betor forks, they are off a 1970-1973 OSSA, i think a stiletto, because that was the only model that came with a 19" front rim. Anyway, this is what i have figured out so far. i have the OSSA fork leggs, they look pretty good but they are missing the fork springs, everything else is there. they are 35mm, the fork tubes measure 55cm long, the scrambler spec is 57cm. I wanted to just use the OSSA forks and front wheel as is, but there are some things i am worried about. they dont have a fender mount because the ossa fender mounts high, under the bottom fork clamp, also i dont have a spedo drive for the ossa hub, they made them for some bikes, but even if i had one would it work with the scramblers factory spedo?
I have the fork sliders and the upper and lower clamps and stem from the scrambler, but because the forks were taken apart 30 years ago all of the internal parts and tubes are totally wasted. i looked at putting the ducati sliders on the ossa forks, it look like it would work, i dont know?
if i was able to switch out the ossa sliders with the ducati sliders then i would use the ducati hub and have the right spedo drive and a fender mount.
ive been looking for parts, or a set of forks to make it all stock but there really isn't anything out there. I'm really not sure what to do.

[fmcd92]

Amartina75,

35mm forks are super easy to find and folks have been fitting everything from the lovely Ceriani GP fork to CB 350 front ends onto Ducati singles. Betor are pretty good and for a street bike project any used spring that fit are fine. Used 35mm Marzocchis are cheap and plentiful and with your front drum and speedo drive the setup is comparitively simple. Not to deny lots of time is necessary to restore old machinery, though. Maybe you could email Rick Covello and I since between us we must have some front end stuff surplus to our projects. Are your front brake bits in good shape?

Sounds like you're on track with this project and foe sure you will be more encouraged once you succeed in getting enough of the main bits assembled to look like an actual mororcycle. Stick with it!

Fran

[eforcey]

I have some fork tubes and a front wheel from a 1973 450 R/T. They are not in the best condition but you may be interested in them for your scrambler project. If you have an extra 450 Desmo head I would like to purchase it, or we could consider a trade for the front end?