I posted about the idling issue in the Technical forum but since I posted i have noticed the headlight issue and am hoping the title might attract the attention of someone who has had the same issues before i pull my hair out!! The bike: 2007 1098s with 12000 miles, just had belts, oil and filter, plugs etc. full termi exhaust system with ECU and filter The symptoms: Bike will start as normal and idle Ok for a minute or 2 and then will stall, it is then hard started for a few seconds before starting again when given throttle, it can run fine again for a minute and repeat this again. It also seems to always stall at lights or when coming to a stop in neutral unless revved. At the same time I have noticed the headlight (only the headlight, parking lights, dash lights, rear light etc. stay on) will switch off for a second before coming back on, it usually goes off when revving the bike from idle, I have had a multimeter on the battery when this happens and voltage appears stable, around 14.1 volts What I have done: Measured the voltage which seems fine, 14.1 v at idle and no more than 14.6 v when revved which would suggest the RR is fine and charging system is healthy, battery never fails to crank the engine but I swapped it for another known good one to be sure, didn't make any difference I cleaned all connectors around RR and checked for corrosion and sprayed WD40 contact cleaner on all connections behind headlight and under tank, all connections so far looked fine. Jiggled all connections to headlight and relay for loose connections - nothing! So I am at a loss, next stop is bring it to a dealer but nearest one is over 2 hours away and i need the bike this weekend, any suggestions and i would be grateful?
The symptoms would suggest a R/R issue. The Connector on the yellow wires coming from the R/R are prone to heat damage. Check it out. You can replace the connectors completely or another solution is to solder the wires together.
I inspected the connection and it looked okay, is it possible the RR could be faulty even when it doesn't appear to be over or under charging the battery? Also when the engine is running is the headlight powered by the battery or the stator? as if it is by the battery as I suspect i can't understand how a faulty RR can effect the headlight, although it seems to from my search it can, can anyone explain the workings of this to an electrically challenged ducati owner
@Denzil the Ducati is really the man for this sort of thing, maybe now he's pinged he'll chip in. I would suspect that at idle most of the power for the bike is coming from the battery. Sounds like there is something causing the voltage to dip, the lights going out sounds like the lights relay is momentarily dropping out, which I'm thinking could possibly be caused by a sudden volts drop. How is the earth from battery to engine, clean and tight? I doubled up on my all my battery cables as it can be an issue. Unless the reg/rec was somehow causing a momentary drain on the system, but I don't know the internals of these things and their failure modes to comment. Usually headlights dropping out, flickering dash etc: are a sign of the reg/rec on its way out or as @chrisw stated the output wires from the alt to the reg/rec. I'm no expert though, just trying to think what would cause these symptoms.
Thanks for your reply, it was suggested the earth may be loose or corroded on another forum so I doubled up the earth cable also without success What has me stumped is I had a volt meter on the battery (and the read out on the dash as reference) when the headlight flicked off and voltage did not move by even a tenth of a volt I did unplug the headlight and used the meter on the connections and that read a steady 12v plus except every now and again it dropped off, never to zero but down to around 2 v, i'm assuming this is when the headlight would switch off were it plugged in
I'm really not sure, 2V would certainly cause the relay to drop out and kill the lights. Your meter might also not be showing you the whole picture. If its a high speed event as in some sort of electrical transient then you'd need a scope on it to get an idea of whats happening. If the relay dropped out it will take time to come back on and the lights to fire back up, a very short time I know but the "event" electrically may be very fast indeed and what your seeing time wise is the system reestablishing itself Its also possible if the event is a transient you just won't see it at the battery as its over before your meter can register it.
ok, thanks for that, I think it may be time for process of elimination, I have already changed the battery so next I suppose should be the regulator rectifier , should I stick with oem or are there any good aftermarket ones I should consider?
I think the general consensus it to try to get one with Shindengen Mosfets. The video shows the type but you may have problems sourcing them. There was another thread about it here 1098 - Intermittent Headlights, Indicators & Dash Idiot Lights Loss? | Ducati Forum Hope that helps, I wish some others would chime in
Thanks for that old jock, Alright, I had another go at this evening, the problem seems to show itself more when I play around with the cable running to the vertical cylinder coil, I'm thinking that may be the problem, bike intermittently running on 1 cylinder causing it to stall, is there any reliable way to check the coil with a multimeter?
Don't forget to check the coil/injector/fuel pump relay. It is on the right hand side of the battery box. Bit of a pig to get at. There are two relays, the first is for the fans and the second the C/I/F. This relay is prone to Verdi Gris and water ingress. It causes no end of electrical gremlins and costs £1.99 off eBay.
well, you were correct, I managed to access these relays and the outer one had a lot of green corrosion on the spades which I cleaned off and prayed the connections with contact cleaners, I was sure this was it so fire up the engine.....still the same I swapped both relays for the light one behind the headlight, still no luck
What I did find is the main loom running above the battery between the coolant hoses obviously had something hard wired into it as about 6 wires were soldered in and wrapped in insulating tape, then whenever it was removed the cables were snipped and the ends left exposed, very rough looking job, I was hoping this may have been the cause of my problems but I seperated the cables and tried again, still no dice, light still flashing and engine stalling. At least I can sort this section of the loom with shrink insulation before it causes other problems
Good Grief what a bodge job, heat shrink on, twist and solder then cover with the heat shrink Possibly some amalgamating tape round the whole thing on the outside? Master a perfect inline wire splice everytime
I was thinking it may be an alarm alright, their choice of location for tapping into the loom was questionable as it is nestled between 2 coolant hoses and subjected to a lot of heat and instead oh heatshrink tubing insulation tape was used which had started to melt with the heat. I am going to bite the bullet and get a Regulator as mine doesn't appear to have aheatshield as per the recall, although I did ring Ducati and they said that there weren't any recalls outstanding on the bike
Check the security and integrity of the main fuse and the others. If a relay was showing sulphate around the pins it is the copper corroding, best replace them as a matter or routine and make sure you check the master relay and any safety relays if the bike has them. The rr will fail to high voltage or very little, before it fails it will get very hot. If you have a meter try measuring across the battery whilst the power drop out is occurring to see if the problem can be detected there, if the RR is failing it sounds like it would be failing to earth intermittently so you will feel it getting very hot quite quickly, however your voltages seem spot on to me. For what its worth it looks more like an intermittent earth issue to me and they can be sods to locate.
I have done checks on both RR and stator with multimeter and all seems good, also I rang Ducati dealer and they said the RR was replaced under recall in 2010 so I'm confid pot I have checked the RR and stator with a multimeter while the bike is running and with engine off and all seems normal, I have also since checked with a ducati dealer who ran my VIN, turns out the RR recall was done in 2010. I'm fairly confident at this stage that the charging system is fine and that you (Denzel) are correct, it seems like a faulty connection or earth. I have removed all plastics, tank, and battery holder and pulled apart every connection in sight and cleaned with contact cleaner, no obvious signs of corrosion anywhere apart from the relays mentioned earlier. I have also removed and cleaned the earth strap from the battery and where it earths to the engine and same with the ECU earth. I don't see any other separate earth points on the bike although i'm sure there are more, can anyone point me in the right direction?
Yeah, turned out to be the flywheel. The nut had completely backed off and the flywheel was loose on the end of the crank
