So I go to try and turn it over, completely and utterly dead, tried it with jump lead, also deadsy. the battery isnt charging, I dunno if thats cause its some motobatt crap because my mt07 is charging fine. question how do you get teh crank position sensor out? it always seems to hit the heating pipes for me. also in JPdiag, under tests, teh stepper bit is greyed out. But last time I tried to crank the bike I swear it wasn't. does that mean my starter motor is toast?
have you got a meter to check state of battery? if starter not churning even with additional battery then it's worth bypassing the starter solenoid next, and make sure all starter leads and earth leads are tight/uncorroded. If still no joy then it could be sprag clutch and/or starter motor next depending on what result you get .
Battery was around 11.9v but that was when it was jumped. I may remove the battery swap it with another one to see why its not charging cause thats pretty odd For some reason the cable that goes into the starter solenoid has a capcitor going into both positive and negative? I guess tomorrows job is to see if I can hook up the starter motor directly to battery.
There was a diode fitted to early starter relays as standard which was supposed to protect other circuitry from electrical spikes and surges. I think most people remove them so surprised yours is still there!
Do you get any dash lights/fuel pump when you turn the key on now? The low-tension wire into the starter solenoid can pop out, meaning you get no response from the starter button. The crank position sensor can just about be persuaded to come out with the pipes in place -you might need to squeeze the pipe slightly, and try to turn the sensor off-axis as it's exiting the hole. What year is your bike? Where abouts are you based?
Yeah all the appropriate lights are on. Its 2001 and UK, Leeds. I did drop the sucker on the side of the solenoid with no fairings on. But picked her up and she cranked over fine. Two days ago I cranked her again to check and the solenoid started buzzing. So assume it was just super low bat.
Whats annoying is the battery is 4-5 months old at best. Will the bike just refuse to even attempt to crank at that voltage? Its a bit odd because I would of thought with the jump it would attempt to crank. I think the starter solenoid is shot, am going to attempt to refurb the sucker tonight possibly.
It won't crank at that voltage, you need at least 12.5V to get it to crank and that may not be enough. Try charging the battery overnight and see what voltage it holds. If you keep trying at that low voltage it will permanently damage the battery. I'd be wary of jump starting it but start with a good battery and work from there
The batteries been charging for like 2-3 days now but the optimiser/oximiser just is stuck as a red dot. But when I try another bike it charges it fine. Feels like its saying its not connecting.
Probably the battery is too low on voltage for the optimiser, have you a standard charger - or you could connect the car battery to boost it before the optimate? (take it off the bike to boost it)
a charger is turning up today so ill have that on it and try to resurrect it. I may just connect bike directly to car battery, or is that a big no no?
you are right, hence me moving on to starter solenoid. Unless fitted battery is so bad that it's even started to go open circuit then the slave battery would definitely have cranked the engine providing everything else is ok. It's sounding as though there are at least 2 issues here so far. I understand your trepidation re: jump start Harry, and it's always "each to their own" of course but have never had an incident doing this personally with car-to-motorbike. I think main problems have occurred when people connect or remove jump leads with donor vehicle engine running. You should NEVER start car engine even when connected.
I'd sort out a correct battery personally, theoretically a car battery is 12V and it will supply the current required but if something else is not right in the system you may end up with more problems
I had a low battery that my Optimate wouldn't charge, my cheap £10 trickle charger recovered it though, the optimates can be too cleaver at times, having been recovered it is now on the optimate 5 years later. My son's battery showed full 12.7 charge but when the starter button was pressed with a meter across the terminals the voltage dropped to 4v, the battery was knackered although it was showing full charge. Steve
@mgrover this can indeed happen, direct experience here like Birdie, can't stress how necessary it is the battery is in tip top condition, fully charged, can hold that charge and does not discharge at the merest request for power. There's another thread on here where the fella was going down all sort of false routes trying to diagnose a problem when in the end it was just the battery. https://www.ducatiforum.co.uk/threads/1098-wont-start-dash-flashing-and-lots-of-clicking.74536/ IME get a new battery, fully charge it overnight - charge not optimise, then start the diagnosis. Oh, and make sure you keep it fully charged.
It was 13 something voltage and still no dice on the crank so I'll try and bypass starter solenoid tomorrow
Nothing wrong with doing that, and if the car battery is a known quantity, in good condition, then will save some time.
So you get no response from the starter button at all? The dash lights stay on when the button is pressed? I think you're right to wonder about the starter solenoid, but would suggest the starter inlerlock system (side stand switch, neutral light switch, clutch switch, etc) is checked. Are you able to get a multimeter onto the small connector for the starter solenoid - to see if any electricity is coming out?
I can tonight yes, today am refurbing the range rovers lpg reducer I swear when one vehicle kicks off the other does for attention
