Time to get the part out so that I can order a new one. In order to get the part out, I need to separate the engine body halves. The disassembly starts with the remove of the cylinder head. That is pretty straight forward. After the cylinder head is away, the manual instructs to disassemble the left side first followed by the right side. Once some nuts and gears are removed from the right side, the two halves just come off after the bolts keeping the sides together have been removed. The kickstart shaft comes out very nicely after that.

Now that the part is out I can order the replacement part. There are several places to find spare parts. Ebay obviously, where I actually found a part that looked to be in good shape with a good price. So that should be arriving in August. I also found two sites which look really good. Now that the engine is open I will have a good look at the parts and order other bits I might want to replace. Gaskets for sure. The sites I found best are www.ducativintagestore.com and www.ducaticlassics.com.

I packed all the separate units making up the engine into to plastic bags. That way everything stays clean and I don't have to reassemble the engine but I can still easily put the engine into storage somewhere and free the workshop for other stuff until the spare part comes.

I have some printouts and a book on the old Ducatis. I couldn't quite figure out from the figures how the kickstarter shaft is located so I decided to open the one side quickly and check how much of the engine I need to disassemble. Looks like I need to take the whole thing apart. I haven't worked a lot with engines. In fact I have only taken this one to pieces before. But I do remember always wondering how clean they are from the inside. And it should stay that way. Before I open the engine further I need to clean up the engine from the outside properly. I really should have done that before opening it this far...

Quite frustrating that I need to take the whole thing apart. That's what I feared. I don't really have space for everything in my small workshop. Especially if I want to continue building Cello #2 at the same time.

I have an old Ducati from 1971. I got it over 20 years ago after it had burnt badly in a garage fire. That time I  got the frame and fuel tank repainted, re-did the electronics, the seat and got it back into working order. The last time I tried to start it, the kickstarter shaft broke. That is also already years ago. Replacing the kickstarter shaft requires the engine to be taken apart, I think. It's a big job which I haven't wanted to tackle. I took the seat and the fuel tank off already last year. Now is the time finish it off. So the engine needs to come off.