[Camilo Moreno]

So my 3600 miles brand new Ducati 959 started to experience an issue with the clutch where at the beginning of the day, everything would be normal for like 10 minutes, then to shift gears it would take me two, three, or more attempts and other times the foot lever would feel harder to move. The bike has never been dropped, and I have been the only owner. I took the bike to an authorized center and this is what they told me, that this has been a common problem, specially in Europe. Believe it or not, the solution was not to replace any component but instead to sand a component in the clutch system that with the heat was overexpanding and interfering with the proper function of the other components. They did fix it like that and the clutch improved dramatically, every once in a while the problem repeats itself but nowhere like before. Luckily for me, this happen during the last month of the warranty so I didn't have to pay anything. But I found it very disconcerting, that a brand new bike would give me such a **itty problem whereas my Ninja 300 is the queen of reliability. The shop had to contact Ducati to request instructions in how to proceed.
I can't remember the name of the component that had to be sanded.
Has any of you experienced this type of problem? If you ever do, you don't have to replace anything, you have to modify a component instead.

 

[zorchdave]

Probably an air bubble in the clutch line. You can bleed it from the top.

 

[Ian996]

Sanding a component in the clutch??
I have owned Ducatis with wet and dry clutches for over 20 years and I have never heard of sanding a clutch component.
Cleaning the plates or the contact surface of the pressure plate to remove some sort of film might be required but I can't think of anything else.

 

[Dingo]

Never heard about this either. With this being such a big job, you'd think the OP would remember which part needed to be "sanded".
@Camilo Moreno do find out which part and what's been done to it in detail, please.

 

[Camilo Moreno]

I’ll contact the shop, is in Washington State, where I live. This happened in early December I just got busy with life and forgot to mention it earlier in this forum as I intended to do it.

 

[wilman]

For a quick temporary fix, you can do the following.
Remove the rubber nipple from the clutch lever.
place a rag around the clutch lever.
Pull the clutch lever in, and hold it.
Loosen the nut on the lever slightly for a minute, while continuing to hold the lever in.
Tighten the nut.
Release the clutch lever.
Put the nipple back on over the nut.
This should get rid of the air bubble in the line.
You can find a video about this on YouTube.
For whatever reason, air in the clutch is a common problem for the 959.

 

[Camilo Moreno]

Hello guys

Sorry for the delay. Well, a tech rep for Ducati in North America, contacted me this week to follow up on this issue. Not long ago, I got a survey email about my experience with the bike so far, and I explained in very detailed information the situation. Their call was a good thing, in my opinion, and they had contacted also the shop where the work was done. Keep in mind, I am not complaining about the shop, they did a good job.

Anyways, I asked the tech rep what was the repair that was done and he said something like this:

”The holder or button (he called it both) of the magnet at the end of the shift is made of Nylon and when is warm, the holder swells and does not have enough clearance against the cover. So the holder (or button) was sanded 0.5 mm”

He also said, this is not a standard problem (but it has happened before) so that is why there are no recalls about it. I asked about that.

Since I live in Washington State and is snowing, cold, and icy, I had to put my bike in the garage so I won‘t be able to continue testing until April.

Any clutch experts out there who can give an opinion?

 

[Camilo Moreno]

Never heard about this either. With this being such a big job, you'd think the OP would remember which part needed to be "sanded".
@Camilo Moreno do find out which part and what's been done to it in detail, please.

I answered below.