Took my 749 for a ride today, started OK took off and got to my destination, switched off, come to start up and go and - the bloody thing won't start!! I've got 12.7 volts showing and it's acting like it's got a flat battery, recently I replaced the right hand switch gear with one from Germany which allows you to switch the lights off, much less drain on the battery on start up. Almost new Yuasa battery as well, but this thing always sounds like it's struggling to start, sometimes it will fail to start and give it a second and the volts come up and it will start, this time it deffo wasn't playing, it is lucky for me that two burly Irish lads on the local building site gave me a push start or I'd be stuck. This isn't very good, I was standing there wishing I'd made the trip on my cheap Chinese supermotard - Sinnis Apache, this piece of cheap Chinese crap wouldn't have let me down why should this fantastic Ducati be so unreliable! It's in good condition and as I say, a near new good quality battery, really annoying. Anyone an idea what I can do to improve the starting reliability, it is regularly plugged into an Optimate but, still can let me down, any ideas please? Thanks.
Is it charging ok ?, do the starter motor cables have good clean connections ?heavy cable earth points to the frame ? starter motor high resistance in armature ? Some things to go at .....
Hi, charges ok, connections are clean, I haven't checked the Earth connection though, I have just seen some posts about heavy earth cables, is this a mod I should do? Thanks for your advice so far.
Second Earth, I've heard this recently in other posts, I'll look this up, this may solve my problem. Thanks very much.
You've got 12.7v at the battery with no load - but what does the battery voltage fall to when you try to start the engine ? If it falls below 9v you probably have one defective cell in the battery (can happen even with new ones). Another indication would be if you get a reading of well over 14v when it's charging (high internal battery resistance will cause this). From your OP, I'd give all the earth connections a good clean up and tighten, then try it again. (Top tip - always do the cheapest thing first). Hope you get it sorted...
Hi jr45, thanks for your comment, I start at no load at 12.7, push the button and It spins but only for a second or so, voltage drops to 9.5 - 8.9, it then recovers to 12.5 - 12.7. As I say, I even replaced the right hand switchgear so I can knock the lights off before I start thus, reducing the load. I'll do as you advise and check all connections, it's not that it always lets me down, it's just that every now and then... One thing I did notice from a comment on this forum was that, the cold starter lever can have a direct effect on whether it starts or not? What happened the other days was, I'd ridden it for about 1 hour, stopped to park up and about 25 mins later tried to start up again and this happened? It reached about 105 or so on the temp gauge but surely I shouldn't need to use the cold starter lever with the bike so hot, I did try after it had cooled to about 70 or so but, at no point did I use the cold start lever? Strange.
I'd try it with a different battery, one that is proved to be good, if you can borrow one... At least that would eliminate it as being the problem...
Hi all, in the end I fitted a second earth, got if off Fleabay, clear instructions, attached to - terminal on battery and the other end to a bolt by the starter motor, now it starts quickly and even when the voltage is as low as 11.7! Wow, another problem solved by the experts on this forum, thanks all of you for your help.
