After a recent blast around the Brecon Beacons I power washed the salt off of the wheels and frame. I avoided the engine but I seemed to have got water in the electrics bike is now running like a dog. Any advice on where to spray my tin of contact cleaner. It bogs down when i rip the throttle back quickly but runs OK with slow progression of the throttle. Should I just leave it to dry out naturally? 2016 Multistrada 1200S DVT.
I have got the side panels off I am going to contact clean every connection. Thanks for the advice. Just did 170 miles in freeezing cold weather the day before problem free so can’t be anything serious.
yip, sounds good, i'm no ducati specialist but those symptoms are classic high tension symptoms. water may have got down the sparkplug holes and very rarely dry out without a lil help.
can you park up somewhere bone dry and preferably with air movement? People use "dog dryers" on here, i have one but yet to use. that's an absolute bummer when it happens, hopefully will dry out/faults disappear.
The HT leads for the horizontal head are pretty susceptible to breaking down over time, given their exposure to heat cycles and moisture. They can dry out but the damage remains and there'll be reoccurances on future wet rides with the issue getting worse/more frequent. The symptoms sound similar to those your bike is having, it manifests itself under load as revs rise. The only real solution is to replace the HT leads.
Run the bike and feel around the plug caps, especially the horizontal centre plug, if you get a shock that's your problem, not advisable if you have a pacemaker! Usually where the cap meets the lead, few wraps of insulation tape will cure it short term, I ran it like that for a few months until I got round to replacing the lead.
Blimey, how did you do that?! I’ve been pressure washing my bikes for donkeys years, never had an issue! Sorry, that didn’t help, did it!
Alternatively, rather than find by improvising the defibrillator technique, put the bike in the garage, turn off the lights, start and rev the engine and you should be able to check whether you have fat blue sparks escaping from the leads to ark against the closest metal object earthing themselves.
Horses for courses - I have found that contact cleaner is good for cleaning off oxides and dirt and disappering. WD is better for removing the water and leaving a dielectric coating to give the contacts the best chance if there is still water in the wiring. A side benefit is that contact cleaner is harsh on all plasticised materials (become more bittle /dull with repeated use) whereas WD typically protects or has no effect.
contact cleaner is of an acidic nature, you should only ever use sparingly if it's the genuine article. It can bloom your paintwork, and black plastic can become grey/light grey permanently.
This, dog grooming heated blowers are awesome. I use mine after cleaning and it dries the bike out in minutes.
