Saturday - bike warmed up nicely in garage, couple hundred yards to main road, accelerating away from junction, bike died. Coasted to road side. Turning over, no sign of firing up. Neighbour cycled up - Termi's :smile: had alerted him He had heard it cut out and was checking nothing nasty had occurred. Bit of a head scratch then pushed it back home (full leathers, bit warm, glad only 600 yds or so) Quick think suggested either side stand relay or fuel pump. For the former, on a paddock stand, clutch in, first gear, should start. Fools the ECU into ignoring the relay. Not the solution in this instance. So then started a hunt for the fuel pump relay. Quick call to Moto Italia in Lincoln (ace chaps btw) - suggested under lhs fairing and it is visible on an 8" pig lead. Stared at it for a while and not having workshop manual couldn't see anything. So flying lead etc. is not on the 2005 black swing arm bike. To get to it you have to remove the battery box. Not immediately obvious. Surprised there hasn't been a thread on this, but the sequence that works is: - disarm immobiliser/alarm - fairing panel off - battery retaining bracket remove - battery out - battery box - three allen head screws - clip cable tie holding cable to back of lhs radiator fan - disconnect two connectors top left behind fan (one is the fan, other one not sure, it's red/yellow) - battery box will fall forward sufficient to access heat shield screws - very gently undo the four self tappers - rear of battery box exposed - fuel relay is front, lowest position - around 25mm x 25mm x 12mm (just forward of the ECU) Couple of things - this whole area was wet and mucky - Ducati use material webbed tape around loom bundles. This was a sticky mess hanging off most cables - looks to me like road dirt/wet is blasted from front wheel in and around oil cooler and gets into this cavity. No way for it to dry out or get clean. Quite a black hole - I was expecting a corroded relay - this wasn't the issue. Relay connector has four wires coming in, (one of which is brown) and a short 45mm loop of brown back into the connector. Mine this loop had chafed through so i had two short pieces of wire sticking out the back and the incoming brown wire insulation chafed back exposing the copper. Bizarrely as the brown loop had chafed on the brown incoming, even when copper on copper it had still worked. Until it finally broke apart. - having convinced myself that that was the issue, fitted inline bullet connector to rejoin - encased the relay in the finger of a rubber glove - spent a good hour or so throughly cleaning this area out. It's fiddly to access - re-assembled with washers under the self tappers to spread the load around the holes in the ally heat shield Not the most impressive bit of design I've seen. Has anyone done the work to relocate relays somewhere more sensible? Alternatively has anyone replaced lead battery with lithium and used the space to create a different battery box, better shielding all these relays from the road dirt? I can see how this would be the source of stranding many at the road side. btw I'm not really into wet riding for fun, but have had several wet track days. Also do wash the bike, wonder if water collects in here. Finally, one forum post I found had an intermittent problem - a radiator hose clip was loose and when under pressure was squeezing coolant onto electrics. Couldn't be seen when bike was cold and not running.....look for corrosion signs/source Here endeth my weekend wisdom :wink:
Figures.....I've never fiddled with wiring looms before. I'm going to have a real think about how to weather proof this area....
I relocated my Injector/Coil/Fuel pump relay to the top left of the battery box. There is a nice square rubber retainer in this loctaion into which the relay fits. Applied ample dielectric grease to keep moisture at bay. There is sufficient wire on the relay to relocate it to this position as well. Saves having to take the battery box apart in the future. Your next mod should be running an auxillary earth lead from the -ve terminal of the battery to the bolt for the starter motor.
Not really on topic but I purchased a roll of selfamalgamating tape & use it to tape up these loose ends & seal portions of the loom that get damaged when the adhesive goes, makes a nice waterproof seal. Tha tape Ducati use looks nice but when it gets wet or cruddy it just peels off shreds. John
Thanks for the info about moving the relay. When I'm in the mood to tackle that battery box of tricks, I'll move the relay. I have the time on my hands but I just hate those bloody self tapping screws which locate the box heat shield etc etc etc. What a shocking design. I was dreading that relay going pop sometime. Suppose if it's made accessible when the side fairing is off, carrying a spare would be the way to go. Ta!
I know the rubber retainer that you mean. Will certainly do that mod as I dont want to be taking that heat sheild off again. Sorry to be an electrical thickie, but what current rating for the earth lead (and er, why is it needed?)
The non-starting of 749/999's has been covered a few times on the forum. With age comes an earthing issue on the 749/999 that manifests itself as reluctant starting and then not starting at all. The bike will turn over but not start. Running a heavy gauge wire with ring terminals (or as I have, an old earth lead) from the negative battery terminal to the starter motor bolt solves this problem (for now). I say, for now, as ultimately the crimped on terminals and poor heavy gauge wires need replacing to ultimately cure this problem.
In the original location, the relay gets a lot of moisture thrown at it. New ones are sealed units so shouldn't suffer but mine's in a grease-filled finger of a rubber glove, just to make sure. A few years ago it left me stranded at Silverstone in biblical rain. Never again!
Oh and it's identical to the headlight relay so a decent swap in a daylight emergency. I'm positive all this info is on here already..... ***Update*** search for 'fuel relay' and it's all there, wiring diagrams & all sorts.
One word of warning about self amalgamating tape, it goes to goo if in contact with petrol. Just done the earth lead mod on my Multistrada 1000 and it now starts perfectly. Got the lead from Halfwits cost a fiver. Duke
