Ducati Monster Forum

After washing the bike today, I took a short ride to fuel up before I got together with some friends for a ride.

As I was pulling into a fuel station the bike made a noise (sounded like a little cough) and then quit. I had the clutch pulled in and I was coasting to the pump.

I didn't think too much of it but after fueling up the bike wouldn't restart. Fuel pump worked, and the lights and gauges all work but it wouldn't even crank.

The odd thing is the gauges took about 2.5 seconds before they swept unlike usual when they only hesitate for a second after turning on the key.

 So I called my dealer and they put me on the phone with their head tech and he and we went over all the usual stuff. Battery cables tight? Grey plug on the stater solenoid seated properly, etc? Everything seemed fine. At this point I'm thinking it's the immobilizer.

I pushed the bike to the back of the parking lot to wait for the dealer to come and get me and just for laughs I put the key in, turn it on, and the gauges sweep like normal and the bike starts right up, and has started since. So now I'm really confused. Anyone have any ideas.

I would re check the battery cables, not just that tight, but for clean, in other words, remove, clean, replace.  Do the same with the engine ground too.

 Thanks Howie. I did check them pretty thoroughly. Also the bike is less than a year old and is stored in a climate controlled environment so no need to worry about corrosion etc.

monstermash: okay, this is totally off-topic, and irrelevant, and thread-jackey... but do you have a full-size image of your avatar? i'd really, really, really like to make that my wallpaper!

:)

(when in doubt, blame the whiskey.)

I'm thinking maybe some water got into the plug on the back/bottom of the gauge cluster. Only thing that makes sense to me...

maybe at that particular moment in time .... your Monster enters the twilight zone to visit his other half whose having one hell of a time trying to please her owner .......... ;D

I'm thinking you may have got some water in the ignition switch whilst busy with the suds.

Esp. if the key was in the lock, allowing water to dribble in.

Otherwise maybe get the batt load tested ?

That is a possibility.

Thanks for the replys everyone. I was thinking that it had something to do with water as well although I wasn't really sure what.

Wouldn't it have happened the first time I went to start it though rather than after I rode it down the road?



LOL. Sure, pm me your email address and I'll send it to you.  [thumbsup]

Mash,

check the immobilizer connector located underneath the ignition assy (just in front of the airbox).

If water got in there, it could've disrupted the immobilizer.

blow air in there to make sure it's dry, put some di-electric grease and replug...

tada! [thumbsup]

Q

 Thanks Q.

 It seems to be fine now but I'll check it just to be sure.