Matt Lovering's Ducati 916 valve adjustment recommendations:
1. Check the rockers, check the rockers, check the rockers. I had two bad ones. They were fine on the surface where the cam lobe rode, but off to the side they both had a small chip out of the chrome that is indicative of the failing rocker problem. The guys at Monroe Motors were nice in getting them covered under good will warranty (YMMV).
2. Changing the belts is easy. Following the directions on Chris Kelly's site made the job a snap. In truth ALL THE MARKINGS ARE ALREADY THERE (at least on my '95). Just look closely and you will find them. Marking the new belts makes it even easier (but you don't even HAVE to do that). I had the luck of changing my belts before something bad happened, but these were the ORIGINAL BELTS! Yikes! I set both belts to a 5mm deflection with moderate thumb pressure. This may seem loose to some who recommended 3mm, but it is close to what the old belts were, and was close to the adjustment rec'd. by others.
3. The easiest puller to use to get those little rocker shafts out of the engine has got to be the $9. bondo dent puller with appropriate size screw in the tip. Easy and fast. I appreciate the design using the deep socket and bolt, but as far as I can tell the puller is the way to go.
4. If the valve is out of adjustment, change the half-rings first, then re-measure. I was amazed at how one of the two valves that was out came right into spec. with just a little ring change. This is standard fare for Ducati mechanics. Also filing off any of the little burrs on those cheap little half rings helps get an accurate measure (the quality control on those little pieces of crap is really bad). Truth is after seeing how those little half rings affect the valve clearance I am sold on replacing them with those special half ring replacements by MPB (?). Also if you didn't know, each single half ring cost $4. (ie. $8 per valve) at the dealer.
Good luck, and I'll post more info and photos when I get better organized.
