Hey guys, first post, so bought my first Ducati, also my first twin, late last summer. Rode as much as I could, even in to the winter, & about 5 months ago I was out in the rain & it died, lights kinda twitched & flickered a bit first & then everything went dark, luckily I was close to home so pushed it the last half mile, locked it up & chucked a cover on it. Not had a chance to look at it since, as I'm going through cancer treatment & couldn't even think about riding, but hopefully I've turned a corner now I'm keen to get back on the road. Previous owner had warned me the battery was naff, & sure enough it let me down a couple of times if it went more than a few days without being ridden, so I've replaced it with a new decent brand, checked the fuses, one looked moody so changed that but still nothing, turn the key & not a sausage, no clicks or dash lights, no pump priming etc. While I've worked on my bikes going back to my teens, I'm a bit rusty of late so any tips or pointers as to what I should be looking at would be much appreciated. Cheers Mark
Blimey Chris, thanks for the ultra fast reply, would that part account for the complete lack of ANY electrics, it's literally as if there's no battery fitted. PS forgot to mention there was some condensation in the dash just before it packed up, dunno if it's relevant. ?
Could also be the main fuse if there is completely nothing Give the Reg/Rec wires the once over whilst you have the panels off The relay is worth changing every year as they cause all kinds of electrical gremlins
Thank you mate, I did give them the once over & all bar one looked intact, I'll sort a tester & be a bit more thorough. Thanks again Mark
Welcome Tackle, glad you are on the mend, almost goes without saying. Your lovely early Multistrada was renowned for instrument panel water ingress and had I known what happened I would have suggested you remove it immediately* to check/dry out considering your breakdown circumstances. Hopefully by slowly going through connectors for damp/corrosion you will get some signs of life and hence symptoms to try and work out what's happening. Chris has put a link up on a similar thread for the relay (on EBay) and priced very reasonably for starters. *had 3 1000DS bikes, and always removed dash if i'd been out in torrential rain or bike left out too long in the winter plus rain. I would just prop them on a radiator in the house. If you are handy at stripping, it might be worth carefully splitting the dash casing to check for circuitboard corrosion (the lowest parts usually), and then re-assemble with a light smear of petroleum jelly/rubber or silicon grease around the casing periphery.
