Ducati elite
Rear spring/damper units
October 2020
Now that lots of other jobs are finished, I decided to turn my attention to the Ducati again - it's years since I did anything of note to it. The rear Marzocchi spring/damper units seemed a good place to start as they had been daubed with silver paint and looked quite tatty.
This was the state of the dampers with dented shrouds, rusty adjusters and badly pitted lever
The component parts ready for sorting - I turned a couple of pieces of bar so that I could planish the dents out before polishing in the lathe.
The 3 balls fit in the holes on the left cup and are held in place with the right hand cup which sits below the lower shroud
This shows the ball track on the lower part of the body - the 3 balls are the only parts which hold it together!
The levers were really rusty and would have been too thin when cleaned up, so I sourced some 4mm stainless and made new ones, the cups themselves cleaned up well enough for me to zinc plate and clear passivate.
The result is quite pleasing and well worth saving instead of buying aftermarket ones. The damper rods were perfect and still had damping effect. Rubber bushes and washers are still available - as are copy decals.
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