In the low 50's this morning in Nashville, on my ride in to the city, my take starts twitching, and going out all together. Sensor? Roll those suggestions out this morning gentleman.
weird, my horn/lights are effecting the twitch. Noticed on the ride in the
My guess would be either the main relay (called the ignition relay in your owner's manual, #4 on the wiring diagram in back of your manual) or a bad connection at terminal 30 where the relay plugs in, which delivers power to the fuses that power the two circuits in question.
multimeter? How much is a main relay?
Id check all the connections, make sure they are tight... esp on the back of the inst cluster
I don't understand the question "multimeter?", but, yes, one would be helpful and you should have one in your tool box anyway. A cheap Radio Shack digital is fine. I just reread your post. Since the bike does not cut out the relay is not the culprit. I think I had two poste mixed up in my head [bang]
could be a weak battery/charging system. the tach will be one of the first things to go when things start losing adequate power.
yeah the battery did lose charge while in the shop, we recharged, but she has been acting a bit goofy. May be time for a new Yusa. Is this the model for my bike:
http://fatbikez.com/yuasa-maintenance-free-motorcycle-battery-yt12b-bs-fits-ducati-motorcycles-except-1098.html (http://fatbikez.com/yuasa-maintenance-free-motorcycle-battery-yt12b-bs-fits-ducati-motorcycles-except-1098.html)
That is the correct battery
good deal too heh? Cheapest I've found
Replaced battery, better. But tach is still not working at lower RPM's, I hit about 2K, and it's working. The twitching when I use the turn signals is gone. So I guess it's a bad sensor, relay.
Any condensation in the gauges?
A little.
I take it back, tach is out almost always now, and it still twitches with the turn signals.
Go see Alain at Corse. [thumbsup]
yeah I was there Friday. Man this bike is a money pit. I have no clue what these gremlins are, but I wish we could work them out for once and all.
You could just rip all that nonsense out and put in some aftermarket gages ;)
it's not the battery. I just put the Yusa in Wed. This morning, battery is dead. So I'm guessing alternator etc. It never ends with this Duc. I'm taking it to Alain, telling him to keep it till we figure out what electrical demon is in this bike. I'm tempted to sell it, but I'd maybe get 3K right now. Any suggestions as to what electrical may be going on here? I've tried to describe the symptoms in detail. [bang]
Can we rehash the symptoms:
You ride it, it performs fine?
While riding, the tach was twitching, or failing to register below a few thousand RPMS
Then the Tach just quit?
Sounds like wiring to me. Possibly corroded? And either some short, or moisture in some connections that would trigger the blinkers/tach. I don't have an S4 to go look around at to help you, since its quite a bit different in cluster setup than my M900 (which didn't come with a tach, and I had Alain put it in before i decided to start doing things myself, getting it wrong, and then having him fix them [cheeky])
rough start, odd idle, exhaust sounds odd, tach issues, rough power band. And of course now, my new battery is dead.
charging system, and/or pickups not picking up the revs would lead to poor tach output / horrendous idle. Like if one went out, bike might run on one cyl, tach act funny, etc.
Good thing is its in capable hands, for sure. Bad things is that sometimes odd problems come from places that don't immediately jump to mind.
Pick ups?
Yeah, for the ignition. To tell it to go bang.
Ah young chap. Alain even thought maybe ECU.
Might be worth finding one on another bike to swap in just to try it.
i had a very similar situation on my former monster. i really am suspecting wiring to the coils because the tach is no worky and the tach runs off one of the coils. and it would explain the roughness. now, it definitly could be pickups as well, good call on that ato memphis. if it was the altenator, i would suspect the bike would run fine for a bit and then die as the battery lost charge. so i doubt its the altenator since the bike just plain sucks at all times. also, check if your rectifier/regulator is working. take a multimeter and check the voltage at the battery terminals with the bike not running and then when running. it should spike to around 14v running.
my problem had the same symtoms... and it was a loose/corroded connection on the bottom of my left coil. it caused no tach, rough running (one cyl), and would occasionally ground out and kill my battery.
darkduc, great info, ATO, thanks as well. I'll pass on to my mechanic. I don't have a multimeter, too many irons in the fire at the moment. Rugby, trying to buy a car, work schedule etc. But thanks for the great leads.
your regualtor should be hot/warm to the touch too, that means youre getting charge from the altenator system, and that will kinda rule out that variable.
also, remember Alain likes a good cigar.
Quote from: ato memphis on January 05, 2010, 05:50:08 AM
also, remember Alain likes a good cigar.
Did not know that. I will have to go by Liquid Smoke and pick him one up
Andy does too, but he's not there as often, and alain always did my work.
Never met Andy, Phil was there, but he's gone now. He's got some beautiful bikes in now. Makes me ashame with my old beater. ;D
Def a electrical issue. Battery has been on tender for a week, cranked right up, tach operating normally. But as I rode, tach started twitching. I don't think the battery is charging.
Ok, I would start by checking out the alternator and its wiring. There is a bit of an issue here, since your bike is watercooled, in that you can't just yank that side cover off as simply as on a 2V, not only is there oil to deal with, but also the coolant.
Do any of the wires look worn or corroded? Wondering if its a bad connection preventing it from charging whilst you ride.
meant to update this. The problem just seem to go away. I have not had it on the charger in over 2 weeks, starts, rough, but starts. So the issue I have now is rough start, and a low idle. And the oil blow back from the breather valve. Other than that, running like a champ. I'm guessing it may have been water in the tank.