Sorry if this problem has already been covered a zillion times... Bimota db2, 900ss 2V air cooled, 1995 ish. Knackered battery so jump leads to friends BMW monster traily to try and start it. Once running, disconnected jump leads, engine stops, won't restart. Battery voltage 2.4, that explains it. Fast forward a few days, new battery but no life at all: no spark on either cylinder. Fit new plugs and new ht leads and caps. Still no spark. There's over 12v to coils and to ignition control boxes (kokusan with dark blue resin filler). Coil resistance is on spec and so is pickup coil resistance. Any ideas? I'm guessing that taking off the jump leads with the engine running and a duff battery have damaged the ICU s, but don't see how. If that's the case will go for ignitech box. Thanks for reading this.
Riding along one day on my '94 900SS (probably same or very similar wiring loom to your '95 DB2) and the engine died. By the time the AA arrived I had got as far as discovering there was no spark. With some good advice from Nelly at Cornerspeed and a bit of shed time I soon found a corroded connection on the kill switch circuit. All i'm saying is that mine was running fine and stopped for no apparent reason, yours may be related to the dead battery issue but it may be worth switching your focus and running through the basics before you start buying new stuff you may not need.
If there is over 12v at the coils and control boxes it's unlikely that the kill switch is at fault. A friend with a '96 900SS managed to kill both ignition modules by trying to jump start his bike from a car. In this case, if the battery was really dead and not taking a charge at all, i.e. drawing no current from the charging system, on disconnecting the donor battery the voltage from the regulator without the battery to stabilise it would contain a lot of high voltage spikes that could easily fry both Kokusan units.
Thanks both for your replies. I checked the kill switch, when off there's no power to the coils, when set to "run " there is, so that seems OK. I agree, never jump to conclusions with electrics, but I think Derek is probably right. Unfortunately I'm at my place in France and don't know anyone with a 900ss that I could swap parts with. Not knowing any way to test the ICU s (?) I think I'll have to go for the ignitech box which seems to have excellent reviews in any case. Thanks again guys, if anyone has anything else to add please do and I'll post the results when I get my baby running. Long live the Ducati brotherhood.
I've found that Reg/Recs can be very sensitive when jump starting. I fried the reg/rec in a VFR800 jumping from another bike battery once. I know 90s Hondas are famed for fragile reg/recs, but if you could get hold of another one it might let you test that at least. A dead reg/rec would not actually stop it providing a spark, but it would make it run shit. A
Thanks for that Ascalon. I'm ordering an ignitech programmable box from our friends in Czechoslovakia (who've been v helpful via emails) so I should know soon if the boxes were the problem. Maybe a case for a new section in the forum: "Owner's experiences - things never to do with your Ducati"? The Bim is undergoing a bit of a makeover into a " canyon racer" with street bars and no full fairing, should be fun on the empty mountain roads here in the Pyrenees. In any case the db2 makes fantastic use of the 900ss mill, which is surely the 90s equivalent of the bonnie/commando twin from the sixties. Any Duke owners coming down to this part of France (south of Toulouse) let me know and we can meet. Take care all. Kit
Just an update: the IGNITECH box duly arrived from the Czech republic after a few emails to the very helpful guys there, all pre-fitted with the right connectors, plugged in in about 30 seconds and hey presto we have sparks. So it seems the Kokusan units were fried, almost certainly when the donor battery was disconnected with the engine running and a totally knackered battery unable to absorb power from the alternator. Lesson learned but at least it enabled me to upgrade and at less cost than original units (160 Euros all in for the IGNITECH). Thanks again for your input and maybe our paths will cross one day. Kit
