Frame is nearly apart, only a couple of bearing holders and the centrestand to come off, the pivot nut on the stand sheared so I'm not sure how to tackle that yet.

I'm sure the bearing cups just push out but I'll check that before bashing away with a mallet first.

The engine is now out and on a bench, a juggling act involving a car jack and short length of wood to manoeuvre the engine out through the right side of the frame, once it had released itself from the rear mounts it was a relatively straightforward task, it's not heavy just awkward.

Surprisingly light though it will need a clean, the flywheel nut has been cracked, I'll do the belt change and that side of things later, I'll also need to sort the clutch side where a little oil leak had started to show, that'll need the clutch out first, all in due course though.

The rolling frame was then rolled out.

I then power washed the frame to get the worst of the greasy grime from it and will tackle the swing arm and forks next. It'll all get recoated in time but cleaning it now makes handling it a lot easier in the meantime.

Wheels are now at the side awaiting further attention.

The flywheel nut is undone.

Not an easy one man job I have to admit, thats why I asked for help holding the flywheel while the nut was
undone with a breaker bar!
A simple yet irritating job thats awkward if your on your own.

That gunky covered thing in the sprocket well appears to be fibreglass, probably put there as a bodge it fix when the chain snapped, quite what it was meant to achieve there I'm not sure, the only benefit would appear to be muck proofing the cam belt and generator..
I can either extend the metal separator on the crankcase to cover the gap or I can rebuild it with a chemical metal compound, neither will prevent damage if the chain were to break again but it may keep the grime out of the generator area a bit more effectively than loosely packed fibreglass matt held in with congealed chain lube.

Mundane tasks chip away at the whole thing in small chunks, the right crankcase cover was unbolted and the chain was split and removed. My first half hearted attempt to get the flywheel off didn't work, I'll need to wait until I have more time and room to move as the working area is quite cramped and awkward when the bike is fully back in the garage. This weekend I'll be able to get it out a few feet meaning I can get a decent purchase on the flywheel holder while undoing the central nut without trying to balance over a couple of kids bikes.

There was an odd piece of debris(or so I thought around the front sprocket, I pulled it out with pliers, it may be plastic or light alloy I haven't bothered to clean it to find out. but looking at where it came from around the sprocket Looked a bit odd to me, so after a cursory wipe with a paraffin coated rag I notice the castings were rough in a couple of places.

Definitely broken, I've seen this on Ducatis before and its a sure sign to me that the chain has snapped on this bike at some stage in the past, it will have bunched around the sprocket breaking the metal at the front and will have whipped up breaking it directly above the sprocket. On an air cooled Ducati like mine that would have burst the crankcase but fortunately it seems less terminal here. You can get strips of steel that bolt on as protection on the Ducatis but they have convenient bolt holes in that location to attach it to, I think I'll just have to live with this.
Interesting evidence of the bikes history.