I need to know from any of you guys that know the inner workings of the monsters engine wtf is going on with my bike.....here is what happened...
this morning i fired it up to ride it to work....fired up like a charm...no issues at all....rode it to work but stopped at the supermarket to get a drink...turned the bike off...went inside....came back out...turned on the key...tried to fire it up....ALL I GOT WAS CLICKING NOISES! reminded me of the noise a car makes when the battery is almost dead but trying to turn over....kept trying to turn it over...and nothing...so i popped the clutch and drove it to work....got it to work...let it run for about 5 minutes thinking that if it was the battery it would charge a little...noticed that the head light was flickering like crazy....then turned it off and tried to start it again....didnt even get the clicking noise this time....
ANYONE that has an idea as to what the hell happened in those 3 minutes i was inside and the bike was turned off i would love to hear it! i cant imagine even if the bike was in the on position (which it wasnt) that the battery could drain in that amount of time. which scares me making me think that it might be the starter....:( what do u guys think...
Check your chassis ground first. Most likely not the starter, possibly the starter solenoid. Can your hear the fuel pump buzz and does your dash sweep like normal?
well i dont really know where the ground is lol....and the bike turned on like normal....but when i tried to start it i just got the clicking noise...its just wierd because it started fine 10 minutes before that....
if he push started the bike, then i would imagine the batter/stator is fine, no?
i had a bike where the battery really died. but b/c the rectifier was blown, it couldn't charge and thus couldn't stay running. push starting didn't do anything.
my vote would be for the solenoid except the headlight flickering thing. this makes me thing loose connection somewhere. possibly the main ground.
so thus, i vote loose wire. start with the battery cables then follow them and make sure everything is nice and tight.
Check the fuses. Did you recently do anything which could have pinched or lossen any wires?
i just went outside to see if it would start...and when i turned on the key it clicked for the first turn...then nothing....so i pulled up the tank and checked the wires on top of the battery...they were tight....idk where the ground is...but maybe thats it....and the guy that owned the bike before me put one of those bright white halogen bulbs in as the low beam and the regular as the high (this is not the problem because its never been an issue before) BUT the halogen one is the one thats flickering...and when i switch it to the high beam (the regular bulb) that one does not flicker.... so the bikes not clicking....but it is still allowing me to pop the clutch to start it....
i just had a new spring put on the shock on saturday....but i didnt do it myself i had nick from valley ducati do it....
Quote from: MonsterInDark on May 19, 2011, 09:51:40 AM
i just had a new spring put on the shock on saturday....but i didnt do it myself i had nick from valley ducati do it....
Check the ground near the back of the motor since that's in the vacinity where they were working to get the spring out/on. Maybe they knocked it loose. It should be near the oil breather on the right side of the motor.
That ground wouldn't cause the lights to dim, but it's worth a shot since you know someone was working around there recently.
It looks like an older style monster in your avitar, but you say you have 2 headlight bulbs. Did you switch out the headlight?
Check under the seat to see if any wire is pinched. If the ground is making contact with metal, it would blow a fuse. Check all the fuses to see if any are blown.
its a 2001....so if that model only came with one bulb then i guess the last owner changed it out...but i didnt myself no....
Jeez. I read "URGENT" and I figure someone's in the hospital. Well, I guess you do need to get home. That'll teach you to go to work. ;D
Good luck.
lol sorry about that one! and i know that there are alot of die hard DMF'ers in here....but i do believe that if they had met the pavement monster they wouldnt be posting about it on here while they were in the hospital haha!
But yes its urgent because i need to figure this out so i can get home later lol...
The clicking you're hearing is the starter "solenoid" (Ducati calls it a starter relay....both are correct, I suppose). When you turn on the switch and press the start button the solenoid engages to send current to the starter. The starter then draws the battery's voltage down below the solenoid's engagement threshold and the solenoid disengages....once it's disengaged the battery's voltage goes back up and the solenoid reengages....wash, rinse, repeat. Each time the soleniod engages you hear a "click".
This is a symptom of a battery that's undercharged or that is simply "dead".
The headlight flickering is a bit more worrisome. That is a typical symptom of a voltage regulator that isn't working correctly. The three phase regulator works by changing the voltage of the field coils in the charging system, and if it changes it willy-nilly you get flickering.....and if it doesn't work at all, but still passes current you'll see the system's natural fluctuations as a flicker, too. You'll probably want to pay Nick another visit to see if he can remedy your problem. It could be a grounding issue, but it could be more. Troubleshooting this issue is pretty straight forward if you have the correct gear, as I'm sure Nick does.
I doubt anything that was done during the changing of your shock spring caused this issue, but anything is possible.
Have you checked to make sure the battery still has electrolyte in it? If not, top it up with distilled water and have it charged. If the regulator has passed full system voltage to your battery it will boil the electrolyte off very quickly, so that might be another symptom to look for.
Do you have any way to check the battery's voltage? It should be well over 12V DC just sitting still. More like 14V DC would be a good sign that the battery's health isn't suspect....but I imagine it will be much lower. Many autoparts stores will check your battery for no charge (hoping to sell you an new one, of course), so that might be an option if there's one nearby.
Good luck!
Ok guys...i think im might kick myself in the A$$ for this....but my front turn signal on the left side is broken off and i just noticed this today....i saw a diagram that said that the front headlight and the front turn signals are all on the same circuit....do you think these exposed wires on the front left turn signal are messing with the ground in the circuit...draining the battery or something which would be a reason that the front headlight is flickering....? what do u guys think? i literally just this morning noticed that it had broken off....so thats the only thing that has changed sense yesterday i think....
Quote from: MonsterInDark on May 19, 2011, 10:48:25 AM
Ok guys...i think im might kick myself in the A$$ for this....but my front turn signal on the left side is broken off and i just noticed this today....i saw a diagram that said that the front headlight and the front turn signals are all on the same circuit....do you think these exposed wires on the front left turn signal are messing with the ground in the circuit...draining the battery or something which would be a reason that the front headlight is flickering....? what do u guys think? i literally just this morning noticed that it had broken off....so thats the only thing that has changed sense yesterday i think....
I doubt it.
yA...its not them....i just went to check on that and i even pulled the wires out....and its not them....called nick and valley ducati....guna have to take it in there monday afternoon...hopefully it wont be anything major.... :'( looks like ill have to pop the clutch for a couple more days....
if its not clicking at all, i would hold down the starter button and go poke and prod every wire i can on the bike. (using caution as if its a main wire, it could spark). when i hear clicking again, i would inspect that area much more closely. see if any wires are loose or corroded.
this all assumes the battery is not just simply dead. try a different battery. try jump starting with a car battery (car should be off). if that works, then it's probably the charging system. since you have been push starting it, it should be charging the battery but it hasn't.
usually, when the charging system is to blame, its still not the rectifier or stator, but once again the wires. not loose wires, but rather burnt or corroded wires. you would have to pull each wire harness and inspect. but at least this is cheaper than replacing random parts.
Thanks guys....i think that its probably corroded wiring or something linking my alternator to the battery or something like that...i drove it down the road to put some gas in it and to see if the battery would charge at all....and it didnt...but what i noticed was when the bike was at idle the headlight was flickering and then when i revved the engine up a bit the light would come back on steady and strong....so im assuming that it must have something to do with the charging units on my bike...and this morning i had just enough juice for a good crank over....but then once that was used...it was gone which made it seem like it suddenly happend...:( so ill check the battery voltage when i get home tonight and hopefully its just a $hitty battery...but like one of you said...with me popping the clutch to start it...and driving it around...if the recharging elements were working then the battery would be able to charge and i would have juice...:( but sadly i think it is more then that...
Safety selenoid? I had similar issues as you are describing on my 2001 600 and it ended up being the safety/ sidestand solenoid under the seat. Easy check to see if that's the cause, just pull out the black rectangular box under the seat and jump the with a piece of wire. Worth a quick check.
Quick Q:
Is it a Halogen bulb or a Xenon bulb in the headlamp? The bit about "two bulbs" didn't quite make sense to me otherwise.
If it's a Xenon bulb the flickering is a sign of low battery voltage. The fact that when you rev it, it stops flickering would mean your battery is VERY low, but your charging system is working as long as you're revving the bike.
If that's the case the next mystery is what drained your battery...
Replace the battery or put it on a charger for a couple days. If you just drive a short distance "down the street" that's not enough time to charge your battery up. At low revs there's no spare juice going back to the battery.
Since the bike bump starts check charging system output while the bike is running. You should read 13.5-14.5 volts at the battery. Though the bike bump starts and continues to run, as Cloner said, one of the three phases could be out, providing enough electricity to run the bike but not enough to charge the battery. Then check the battery connections and engine ground. Tight does not mean a good, clean connection. Either measure voltage drop* over the connections or remove, clean and reinstall. The ground is by the breather valve. Follow the negative cable down from the battery and you will find it. While doing this work, well, longer than that since it would take 6 hours at 2 amps, charge the battery so you can have it load tested. When you either determine the battery is good or replace it if the bike still does not start (assuming the click is the solenoid) check the connection at the starter. Careful disconnecting it, the lug on the starter is easy to break. If your wrenching skills are bad leave this for Nick.
Oh, when disconnecting the battery, negative first. Reconnect negative last. If you tackle the starter connection, negative on the battery should be disconnected.
*This is for a car, but works for bikes too:
Starter Circuit Voltage Drop (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry68G0C2Fyc#normal)
As a fairly inexperienced Motorcycle troubleshooter, I've found this flowchart pretty darn handy for diagnosing motorcycle electrical problems - might help
http://www.electrosport.com/media/pdf/fault-finding-diagram.pdf (http://www.electrosport.com/media/pdf/fault-finding-diagram.pdf)
Thanks for all the tips guys....i pulled the battery and put it on a charger for about 2 hours and load tested it and it dropped pretty quickly...but the load i was putting on it was alot more then would take to turn over the bike...so i put the battery back in and reconnected....check the solenoid plug to make sure it had a good connection....and then she fired right up....fired up 5 or 6 times...went in to have dinner and watch some TV...then came back about 3 hours later....bike was sitting there dead not wanting to turn over....popped the clutch again to get it home from my buddies figuring that this battery just wasnt holding a charge...and that i would have to replace it...had to pop the clutch again this morning so i could ride to work....then after about a 20min commute to work i turned the bike off and turned the key...hit the ignition...and she fired right up again....figured the battery would die in a few hours because the battery couldnt hold a charge very well....came out about 4hours later for lunch and she fired right up again....drove it to lunch...turned off and on again just fine....so im just going to give it a few days to see if it dies again...and if it does im going to replace the battery...because im assuming with the battery charging up again from a 20 min ride the charging system is working....so it must be the battery...ill keep you guys updated...but it seems like it might just be a battery thats at the end of its life.... :-[
BUT thanks again to all you guys who helped me narrow it down...and at least now if something else ignition related happens....ill have a guide as to where to start...and what im looking for! [thumbsup]