Less than two weeks of Ducati ownership and I am rediscovering previously lost electrical skills. I quickly found the starter solenoid and how to make it work with the help of a fifty pence coin, the cooling fan now starts albeit with the manual intervention of a toggle switch wired in parallel to the thermostatically controlled open circuit switch originally supplied. A home made LED battery voltage monitor gives me the reassurance of being able to call the RAC in plenty of time to make it home for Corro'. The Optimate helps, but can they do a longer lead ? Ahhhh ! Italian electrics :smile: Roy
Thanks, but I was thinking about a much longer lead than that, about 150 miles long or so would do. Roy.
Don't forget the standard upgrade/fix for the battery-solenoid, solenoid-starter and battery-earth cable upgrade and good contact cleaning. standard cable is around 12sqmm (iirc), so either upgrade, or, as I have done, run a 16sqmm in parallel (Stretta, on here, took it even better and used 35sqmm flexible welding cable) - makes a world of difference. I also ran an extra earth to one of the fixing bolts for the starter. lots of debate on solder vs crimp, but if you get a decent crimp it should be enough, if you have the time and inclination, then crimp and solder would give a lower resistance joint.
My local Maplin store and Ducati Dealership are about 5 doors away from each other on the same block....................coincidence?
Thanks for that, bought a couple of metres of 20sqmm starter cable and a pack of ten connectors today (they came in packs of ten), just over a tenner. I know the starter solenoid is disassemble-able (everything is), but is it reassemble-able with any prospect of it working again ? and Is it worth while giving the com and brushes of the motor a quick wipe down with an oily rag ? Time and inclination I'm not short of, so I usually solder, lots of experience of Joe Lucas products taught me that. ta Roy
Two T140's a T160 and a Mk.3 Commando. Did you know you can get as much as a 12volt drop between two perfectly good Lucas connectors. Roy
5 amp wire from the Japanese cooling fan to the connector on the Ducati harness, bell wire to the Ducati. Is Japanese wire that bad ? Roy
My 998 was a pig to start, need to catch first time, or I was reduced to a jump start off a car. the parallel cables and extra earth to the starter made enough of a difference to not need to do anything else. personally, I would leave the starter brushes and solenoid well alone (just in case the odd spring decides to set itself free durng disassembly) unless the heavy wiring doesn't cure your ills. pete
Job done, quite easy really. starts much, much better now. crimped up the pins on the solenoid connector a bit and gave all the connections a coat of WPJ. ta Roy
Next job before you put the soldering iron away is to move that reg/rec to the rear and keep it a bit cooler, like this. Overheating is a known problem. Steve
