Hi all, I appreciate this is a Ducati site and this may not be the right forum to use...however I have a favour to ask. I have a 1961 3TA that has been sat in my garage for two years with a wiring fault. As simple a schematic it is, I’m embarrassed to say that electrics are not my strong point. I’ve had a couple of goes at it but have since given up while young children take up most of my precious time! It’s looking quite sad in there. Does anyone know anyone in the Bristol area that would be able to help me? Maybe you know someone who works with classic bikes? I really want to get this bike back on the road for the summer. I would of course be expecting to pay. Thanks in advance...
Pasty, as OR has asked what is the problem and do you have the circuit diagram, if so scan it and post it. There are a few on here that assist with electrical stuff Edit, is it this one
It’s such a long story. In short, for a while it was intermittently losing power. My first assumption was a dirty carb. After stripping and cleaning I saw no improvement. A couple of scenarios and a flat bed trailer ride later I came to the conclusion that it was ignition. I replaced a number of embrittled wires but the problem persisted. I then found a loose terminal in one of the switches which must have been the culprit. However with my lack of electrical experience I may have made some errors along the way and expect I have fried the reg/rect. And so I put my hands up, made a second child, bought a Ducati and forgot about it.
Thanks. The person who restored the bike was quite “free” in his interpretation of the wiring. I have searched for schematics online and have not found any that represent it exactly. I would be too embarrassed to put up what I’ve drawn up from tracing the wires myself. Yours is close... It is positive earth and it has a distributor. I’ve been through and can’t find any chaffed wires and the earths are ok. At this stage I feel like I need someone to take over.
Beautiful looking bike, the electrics are very basic on these old bikes, you say it losses power and then stops? it could be something as simple as the condenser, a duff condenser can give symptoms similar to running out of petrol, stuttering then picking up then stuttering again. Is the bike running now or completely dead? if you've found loose wires this could be part of the problem but it could also be throwing you of track. Steve
Pasty, does it run at all and do you have a metre for measuring voltage? Also if you are Bristol area and don't want to try fixing it yourself, just 10 miles south-south east of Bristol between the A37 and A39 at Clutton Hill is Moto Louigi. Give them a call on 01761 453366. Rich Llewellyn who runs it is one of (if not the) best Ducati independents in the UK, he will come and pick up your bike and sort it out. Although a specialist in Ducatis he has a history working on specialist cars and old bikes and will be able to sort out your problem and restore the electrics properly. His service will not cost an arm and a leg.
@Duke of Stow on here owns Motor Cycle Wiring Specialists and is based in Cheltenham. http://www.motorcyclewiringspecialists.co.uk/
My old T21 which was the forerunner of the 3TA used to eat condensers on a regular basis. Cheap and easy to replace before you start going too deep into things.
If it loses power then stops, it could be the tank breather blocked and causing a vacuum. The breather is part of the filler cap. Test is to run it for a while (if it starts) then open the filler cap. If air hisses in, there’s your problem.
Thanks for all of your replies. Yes, I have gone through all of the fuel starvation hypothesises. I’m positive it is electrical. I hadn’t thought of the condenser and the symptoms mentioned above do align.
It appears you can buy a new wiring loom for a 3Ta at a reasonable price. https://www.feked.com/genuine-lucas...mph-3ta-5ta-with-88sa-1963-65-lu54933695.html
That seems reasonable for a genuine Lucas loom. I've never heard of fecked.com So I clicked on the 'about' link Found his dictionary definitions most amusing! https://www.feked.com/about-feked.html
Btw if it was my bike I would have put a live feed straight from the battery to the distributor to check if the engine started and ran ok. If it did that it would point to the problem being in the switch or wiring en route to the distributor . If it still behaves the same, you have at least probably eliminated some of the possible causes. Only take a few minutes to do too.
