Hello I've just recently bought my first ducati after 20 years of riding various Japanese bike. I've opted for the 749 on a 2005 plate, I've noticed it takes a lot of power to start the bike, so I have bought a battery conditioner to keep the battery at optimum. I started it Sunday night and everything was ok, I forgot to put the battery tender back on and to day the battery is at 0v not even a dash board light, I plugged the battery tender back on and after a couple of hours still 0v, could there be a blown fuse?
How have you measured the voltage, multimeter across the battery terminals? If yes, sounds like the battery has suffered catastrophic failure. Optimate is a good idea for your 749, it demands a lot of juice to turn it over so you want your battery in tip-top nick. Secondary earthing of the battery, plus maybe secondary live leads to starter motor and solenoid, are recommended. A chap called Exige is on the forum who can provide really decent kit for this. It's worth sorting out your bikes starting as more success in starting means less unnecessary wear on the sprag clutch. Over to the experts now. And welcome to the Forum!
Thanks Loz, I haven't got it stripped down yet, I'm hoping for a battery failure as there was a puff of smoke from the general battery area the last time I started it, I don't have the red code key or code plate so don't want it to be any thing more serious.
Extra earth lead worked for me. I think loads of us have done this simple mod. Should make her turn over a lot better but you'll need to keep the battery in tip top condition as they have quite some compression as do all twin cylinders machines. I struggled with the cold start when I first got mine. I thought it was a choke leaver at first but it turns out to be a a fast idle leaver. I find it easier to fire the engine into life without any fast idle leaver as a small few revs with the throttle then makes her tick over nicely. I think they all have a servo start on them so you'll only need to thumb the starter switch briefly which takes a little getting use to but will become the natural thing to do in time.
Secondary earth is a must on these bikes, I have put one on all Ducati's I have had. The live/earth leads supplied to Ducati when manufactured are p1ss poor. I just bought an earth from exige of ebay a few days ago.
Battery tenders won't start charging if a battery is completely flat. Try connecting another battery in parralel for a bit with charger connected to fool the charger.
This sounds like a charging issue but its worth bearing in mind that there are separate hot and cold starting fuel maps in the ECU. If either hot or cold starts are troublesome and other problems have been eliminated, these maps can be tweaked.
Hello Here is a long story about leads with mainly banter from the Forum massive: http://ducatiforum.co.uk/threads/leads-additional-battery-earth.32556/ Here is my USA competitor - my full kits to compete with these are available for the 999 / 749 within a week. http://www.motolectric.com/products/electrical_upgrade_kits.html Here is the Ebay link for my Secondary Earths which I probably discontinue when the full kits are available as they will be so much better http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ducati-secondary-earth-cable-for-999-749-Exact-Start-from-ExactUK-/111658751047?ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT :Wideyed:
Picking up a new battery this afternoon and will also order some secondary leads from eBay too, as an after thought, is there any way of getting around the whole red code key and code plate issue? It's not a problem at the moment but I envision it in the future as I don't have either?
Going by the puff of smoke you mentioned, I wouldn't go throwing away the old battery yet as it is possible it was just a poor connection on the actual battery terminal. Obviously if a spare battery isn't something you would bother with then forget it but for me it would be worth trickle charging to see if you can get it to read over 13 volts ( all cells checked/topped up of course) before resting then if it reads 12.5 volts or more a week later then it's worth saving
Red key is only required to code new dashes and keys. More important is the code card as this allows the immo to be bypassed in an emergency. New keys can be cloned from a good key to get round the lack of a red key.
Hi Folks, just wanted to post my tuppence worth in the "starting problems" area. I bought a Multistrada 1000ds with only 10,000 miles on it some years back now...it has always struggled with starting. Listening to advice, I went down the most direct routes of 1. Fitting a new battery (Li-ion) 2. Cleaning all Earth points and upgrading the earth cables especially the one to the starter motor 3. Fitting new timing belts (and watching the valve timing alter as I tightened the adjuster!!) - All made small improvements until the 'main culprit' revealed itself !! The Starter/Sprag Clutch!! - I'd just wheeled it onto the road after another successful MoT...pressed the starter...and Wheeeeee from the starter...but no engine turning over! - New clutch ordered and fitted - What a difference!! Starts straight on the button...every time now!! All the turning, churning, coughing and spluttering before must have been the sprag clutch slipping as it reached Top Dead Centre ...even a few times sending the engine in reverse and sending a smoke bomb out of the air filter!! I was reluctant to blame the clutch after all it had only done 10,000 miles ...but it was wrecked! The Sprag retaining Spring was in a dozen bits and all the sprags themselves were every shape possible! (pics available if required) - The job was quite easy to replace the clutch...only requiring mostly usual stuff from the toolbox...but then either a 30mm DD socket...or in my case 30mm ring spanner for the flywheel nut. Took about 3hrs ...but totally worth it!
