Ducati Monster Forum

Hi everyone was riding home last week in the heaviest rain ever and bike came to a spluttery stop. Thinking it was water in fuel drained the tank, fuel filter and drained the carbs to best of my knowledge. I then filled it back up with fresh petrol, but she still doesn't start is there anything I am missing out ?

If you're convinced it is fuel related try a little dry gas to get any remaining moisture. It will hide in little pockets.

I would check to make sure I had spark, and the general condition of the plugs too.

yeah i am pretty sure its the fuel, after draining the water was sat at the bottom of the bottle i used, with the petrol kind of sitting ontop of it. will i have to take the carbs out and clean etc ?

Thank you very much for the reply !!!

Also sorry what is dry gas ? thanks again

Dry gas is alcohol that absorbs water in fuel.

Where are you located?

I'd still check your plugs. When the thing stopped running they had stopped firing from the water and may be wet.

okay awesome, im located in devon in the u.k. i will try and get hold of some asap until then its staying in the garage. one thing ducatis aren't built for is u.k winters lol

Also (if you didn't already) drain the carb float bowls and change the gas filter.

yeah i undid the little screw nuts on the carbs and  drained it. i also drained the filter will i need to prime the line at all or anything of that sort its an m750 year 2000.

thanks for the replies this site is awesome lol !
 

Fuel filters are cheap and also can trap water.

If you still have the vacuum petcock, which you probably do, it's hard to prime the system without a bunch of cranking the starter...hard on the battery.

Those vacuum petcocks can fail in either mode...on or off...and can also fill the cases with however much gas is in the tank...

Better to get a manual petcock with 5/16" inlet and outlet and end the suspense while the bike is down.

If you were in the states I'd recommend a unit from parts unlimited that closely resembles a Pingle valve.

Not sure what is available to you.

A drop or two of gasoline down each carb will get the bike started.  Yep, a manual petcock is a good idea.

ok so if i buy a manual petcock (i assume this is the same thing  as a fuel tap) does the vacuum fuel filter become invalid or do i just need to buy a new one ?

cheers

The stock vacuum fuel tap/petcock is under the tank hinge bracket.

The filter is in the line before that.

You still need a filter, and you'll most likely need a length of 5/16" fuel line to locate the manual unit where it is accessible.

It can go anywhere between the filter and the pump.

You'll also need a means of plugging the vacuum line/port from the intake runner to the vacuum petcock.

Here is mine:

(http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm276/hlep2890/bike/IMG_0422.jpg)

Here is a source:

http://www.bikebandit.com/motion-pro-inline-fuel-valve (http://www.bikebandit.com/motion-pro-inline-fuel-valve)

 :)  [drool] [drool] [drool] [drool] [drool] [drool]

okay cheers guys i will look into getting some dry gas online now

Is there anyway that there could be water / moisture in the combustion chambers ?

would it be an idea to do an oil change and [bow_down] flush the engine through   as there is a little condensation on the sight glass ?  [bow_down]

Condensation is a normal by product of combustion.

It isn't unusual for some to show in the sight glass as the temps cool in the fall.

Do your oil change when scheduled.

The condensation will correct itself when you get to take the bike for a nice long ride and get it warmed up

in response to howie where is the best place to put it if i take the air filter casing off and put it down th two air intakes would that do it or is that a really really bad idea ??? this is why im asking cos im a super newb lol.

also went to my local bike store  to purchase some new spark plugs, fuel filter, oil, fuel conditioner and engine flush but my card was refused cos a cheque has not yet cleared so will have to wait a few more days bummer.

On the upside though i have a new K+N air and oil filter on the way also gunna buy some new belts when the dolla is there to be spent

One Last lil question would anyone know if my model has a dry clutch is there a way of telling ?

your bike is an 00 M750, which should be a wet clutch...

I unfortunately have a bit of experience with water in my 2000 M750 gas tank.  It is surprisingly hard to get it started after you've drained the fuel system out completely.  While trying the dry gas and such is probably a good idea, I think that if you've already drained the system completely, it probably won't be a miracle cure. 

I think the problem that you're having (and the problem that I had both times that I had to drain my fuel system to get the water out) is that there just isn't fuel circulated yet, and like others have said, it takes a bit of cranking to prime the system.  Gas in the carb throat like howie suggested may do the trick, but I haven't tried it personally.  What I did was use starting fluid instead. 

Here's how that goes (after fully charging the battery and filling the tank with fresh gas)
1. With the air filter off, open the throttle and spray a good bit of starting fluid down the throat of the carb. 
2. Close the throttle
3. Turn the choke completely on to get as much fuel in there as possible when it does start flowing
4. Start the bike. (you might have to open the throttle a bit while thumbing the starter to get it going (contrary to what usually works when it's gasoline that's igniting rather than starting fluid).
5. If it doesn't start, repeat steps 1-4 until it does.  Sometimes it takes a bit of starting fluid to get it going.
6. Let it idle.  It will idle at probably around 3-5k while it's going on the starting fluid.  If it starts to slow down drastically and sound like it's about to die, it probably is.  Spray some more starting fluid in there and give it some throttle.  Don't keep this going for excessively long, because the engine is going to start running very hot if you do.  It does, however, take longer than you might think for everything to start flowing properly.  The idea is that the vacuum from the engine while it's running on starter fluid will suck the gasoline through with the vacuum fuel pump. 
7. After a little bit of running on starter fluid, it should start to calm down a bit, and start to sound a bit differently when it starts running on gasoline again.  I would describe the sound difference as a deeper sound when it's going on gasoline, but maybe I'm crazy and it sounds the same.  When it gets to the point where you can rev it with the throttle, then you're probably good to go.  Let it sit there with the choke on for a little bit for good measure, then slowly disengage the choke until it's idling like usual.
8. Fix the clogged water drain in your gas cap area so that this doesn't happen again. Compressed air might work, but it might take more than that.

Good luck! I feel your pain!

That will work, not too much though.  Keep your face away in case you get a backfire through the carbs.  The whole problem is the engine doesn't produce enough vacuum while cranking to fully open the vacuum shut off.  I am personally not a fan of starter fluid except for extreme emergency.  The stuff is ether and has an octane number probably approaching zero.  Another alternative is open the vacuum fuel shut off with a hand held vacuum pump.

arg i was hoping to put a wickid barnett cluctch kit onit, are there any alternatives ?

okay i will try  that sounds like a plan !!!

Starting fluid can be very hard on rings.

If you use it just a whiff at a time...

Didn't know that. I do usually try to avoid it, because it seems like a rather indelicate tool, but I didn't know of any other way.  I'll have to try just using a few drops of gasoline next time instead.

Barnett makes wet clutch plates too, used them on my M800 and they work well

Hello everyone so I drained the fuel tank again, I had to put a low fuel level sensor in anyways, put a new fuel filter in and drained the carbs again, I thought a would also clean the spark plugs off for good measure. And put some super fresh fuel in and its running !!!!!!! like a beast ! I thought I would film it so here is the link (url)[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fGCSfYWZTI&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/url]

I know I shouldn't have been on the throttle so much but I got a lil excited.

Thanks all for the awesome advIce !

 [thumbsup] Glad to hear that it worked out!  Now don't forget to work on un-clogging the drain hole under the gas cap, since that's probably what got you into this mess. 

By the way, for future reference, here's another way to get it started after draining the tank that is probably easier on the engine (after ducpainter and howie pointed out that my starting fluid method that I've used is not ideal).  I don't think that using starting fluid judiciously once or twice is going to cause any noticeable wear, but better safe than sorry.  Howie alluded to using a handheld pump, and it got me thinking about this.  I'm not sure if it's exactly what he had in mind, but it works well, so I thought I'd give some instructions.

1) Get a hand siphon pump from your local auto parts store, walmart, whatever.  It should run you $2-$4, and look like this (in my experience, the more expensive ones don't work anywhere near as well as this type)
(http://i44.tinypic.com/ofq78m.jpg)

2) Locate the vacuum port on your fuel pump:
(http://i43.tinypic.com/1567gbd.jpg)

3) Take off the vacuum line, and replace with one of the ends of the siphon pump
(http://i40.tinypic.com/sp82ep.jpg)

4) While covering the free end of the tube with your thumb, pump the fuel through by hand.  You should be able to hear the fuel going.

(http://i40.tinypic.com/25u1y87.jpg)

5) Take the siphon off, put the vacuum line back on, and start it up.  You shouldn't need any sort of starting fluid or extra gasoline to get it going, since the carbs will be full of gas already.

NOTE: This may not (probably won't, but I haven't tried) work if you have a vacuum operated petcock that still works.  I have a manual petcock, so it does. If you had a friend and/or two of these pumps, I'm sure you could figure out something along the same lines that worked in that case.

Anyways, just wanted to put that idea out there for anyone reading this post with the same problem in the future. This worked really well for me; the bike started right up afterwards, and I didn't have to take anything apart to spray starting fluid in there or anything.

If used correctly starting fluid is OK.

It is very easy to use it less than correctly and that's where it can do damage.

I don't know what the OP was spraying in his video, but if it was ether, that's not an ideal method.

Another point about the starting procedure used in the video. The Monster with Mikuni carbs has no accelerator pumps, so all the twisting in the world does nothing.

Also, the fuel enrichment circuit has no pump, the system lifts a small plunger that allow extra fuel in. Push the thumb lever and leave it.

I did contemplate using a siphon ibwas going to use a foot pump for blow-up matresses and stuff but noticed the easy start can in my local garage so bought that. Also to combat it happening again I purchased a can of non flammable compressed air to blow the drain line free, I think the gunk is not all out yet so will try to blow if out again before taking it out in the rain !

I've never seen a gas tank that drains directly from the bottom of the tank. Fuel is always sucked from pick-up tubes that stick up 2-3" from the bottom. That allows water & gunk to settle below the good gas.

To get it out use a suction device with the suction hose end wire-tied to the end of a stick to get to the very bottom of the tank. I do this every fall on my boat. Acceleration/deceleration can cause that pool of water to spill over into the pick-up tubes. That can cause sputtering and will also form new pools of water in your float bowls.

On carby Monsters the fuel comes from a threaded fitting about 1/2" from the lowest point on the tank.

It's Italian...remember? ;D

Oh...........yeah...........
The theory's the same, though.
Gotta' suck out that last half inch (I had a girl tell me that once...........still don't know what she meant!  ;D)