Ducati Monster Forum

Moto Board => Tech => Topic started by: corey on April 27, 2015, 12:33:49 PM

Title: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: corey on April 27, 2015, 12:33:49 PM
So my bike (2006 S2R800) fired right up yesterday... but after warming up (and thankfully BEFORE I went on my way), she sputtered out. After trying to restart several times, I noticed that the fuel pump was not priming... I figured, great - fuel pump is dead.

After some research, I learned about this tricky little plug that some artist at Ducati came up with that seems to be a common failure point on these bikes. Out of curiosity, I tried starting her up again today â€" fired right up. This leads me to believe that I am indeed dealing with a loose connection at this plug.

Now I know there is a Ducati part that I can order to replace this plug â€" but I want to be sure I'm diagnosing the problem correctly, and not just "throwing parts at it."

Is there a process I can go through to rule out other issues in the ignition/fueling system? Is there some diagnostic work I can do to determine that this wire is indeed the problem?
Is it possible that it was just a "kink" in the system that will never happen again (he said hopefully)?

Good to be back.
Cor
Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: brad black on April 27, 2015, 04:51:05 PM
need a little more info to know what plug you are talking about?
Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: ducpainter on April 27, 2015, 05:04:54 PM
Quote from: brad black on April 27, 2015, 04:51:05 PM
need a little more info to know what plug you are talking about?
I 'think' this is what he's talking about...

Quote from: CannedIce on September 17, 2014, 04:27:02 PM
We no longer make this kit due to intermittent failure. Use Ducati part number 51020032A that replaces just the wires and plug for about $139! Call your local Ducati dealer and order. Not much online when you search via Google :)

Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: corey on April 27, 2015, 05:48:00 PM
Bingo ^
Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: Jonathan on April 27, 2015, 06:18:43 PM
Check out my thread below. I had the same issue.
Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: corey on April 27, 2015, 08:50:36 PM
Jonathan,
Not seeing your thread pal â€" forget to link?
Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: Howie on April 27, 2015, 10:10:50 PM
The problem is that the problem is intermittent, therefore you need to diagnose while the symptoms exist.  Power to the tank at the connector, pump/sender problem.  No power aty that connector?  FI relay or wiring problem.  Just a starting point.
Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: Jonathan on April 28, 2015, 06:31:27 AM
Quote from: corey on April 27, 2015, 08:50:36 PM
Jonathan,
Not seeing your thread pal â€" forget to link?

My S2R died at a light. It wouldn't start for a day. Then it did. Then it would start but would die with throttle. The problem was intermittent. I had seen a few threads about the wires soldered into the pump flange coming unsoldered.  I needed to replace the fuel filter anyway to I decided to dive into the tank. When I removed the soft epoxy that was used to pot the wires leading to the pump and fuel level sensor they all just fell out. It was an easy fix to solder them back. While I was in there I replaced the fuel lines, filters and orings.  The mechanics here will rightly have a process to diagnose a problem. Just changing stuff is probably usually counter productive. I got lucky.


http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=70534.0 (http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=70534.0)
Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: corey on April 28, 2015, 03:13:23 PM
Quote from: howie on April 27, 2015, 10:10:50 PM
The problem is that the problem is intermittent, therefore you need to diagnose while the symptoms exist.  Power to the tank at the connector, pump/sender problem.  No power aty that connector?  FI relay or wiring problem.  Just a starting point.

Howie,
Thanks for the starting point â€" I can hear the relay clicking (100% positive) when I turn the key to "ON." Can we safely rule out the relay? Or could it be shot and still click?

Would a clogged/gummed up fuel filter cause the pump to cut out?

I guess another obvious question that I should have thought of... could shitty/bad fuel be causing this? I'm working with a tank that has been sitting for 6 months... I used Stabilizer in it, but I've had StaBil fail me before...

Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: Howie on April 29, 2015, 05:33:11 AM
The pump should still operate, but not be able to supply sufficient fuel.  How does the bike perform when it is running?

The relay could be shot and still click, good coil, bad contacts or the coil could be opening at a given temperature.  Also, are both relays clicking or just one?  The relay can be bypassed by running a jumper wire between terminal 30 and 87.  You can also test the relay by placing an ohmmeter between 30 and 87 on the relay, power to 85, ground 86.  Ohmmeter should read close to 0 ohms.  Though I hate replacing parts without finding the problem, but the relay is cheap enough.  Big problem is you are dealing with an intermittent situation, when all is good all will test good. 
Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: corey on May 07, 2015, 11:53:13 AM
Update â€" some temperature experimentation....
First time this issue happened, the bike started fine, but died once it got warmed up.
Last time I tried to start the bike, it was chilly out â€" maybe 40-50 degrees. Fired up fine.
Today it is HOT â€" 89 degrees outside. Tried to fire up the bike, no love.

Could this be a temp-related issue?

EDIT:
Forgot to mention â€" it sounds like only the FRONT relay is clicking.
Does anyone happen to have the part number for these relays? Are they both the same? I can only find one (541.4.003.1A) in my parts catalog.

-C
Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: corey on May 08, 2015, 11:44:40 AM
So I did some poking around with the multimeter...
12.4 Volts at the plug on the brown/white wire and adjacent ground immediately after key turn.
10.2 Volts on the blue/white wire and adjacent ground constant after key turn.
Seems like there is power getting to the plug.

I also pulled the relays and checked resistance... I'm not really that boned up on this part of my multimeter's functions, so here's a pic:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53483651/DMF/fuelpump-relay-test-ohms.jpg)

This seems "pretty close to zero," and I imagine that consider the plug is getting power on key turn that the relays are fine...

So I guess this at the very least narrows down the problem to something inside the tank.
Yay...  :-\

Any info on what I should look at/do while I'm in there? And I keep hearing about some gasket that I need to replace when I pull the unit â€" I'm assuming this is "O-Ring," part number 886.4.049.1A shown here as #6:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53483651/DMF/fueltankdiagram.png)

So I'm curious â€" could it really be anything aside from that stupid wire buried in epoxy?
Is it possible my ECU is a culprit?
Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: iltl32 on May 08, 2015, 12:06:44 PM
FWIW I did not need to replace the O ring on my tank.

If you want to fix this yourself for like $10 you can.  You just need to dig out the epoxy (I used a really small drill bit to break it up and some small picks to pull it out), re-do the solder, and replace the epoxy (I used JB Water Weld.  They claim it's safe to use in fuel.)
Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: corey on May 08, 2015, 12:21:22 PM
Quote from: iltl32 on May 08, 2015, 12:06:44 PM
FWIW I did not need to replace the O ring on my tank.

If you want to fix this yourself for like $10 you can.  You just need to dig out the epoxy (I used a really small drill bit to break it up and some small picks to pull it out), re-do the solder, and replace the epoxy (I used JB Water Weld.  They claim it's safe to use in fuel.)

Good to hear about the o-ring, thanks. I think I might do this regardless of whether the plug is the issue or not. My soldering skills are pretty good, and it seems like if I replace this with $130 factory part from ducati, it's just going to happen again eventually... why bother.

Regarding JB-weld, it appears that WaterWeld only comes in the putty... this doesn't seem like it'd be very easy to fill that little plug with. Did you perhaps mean MarineWeld?

WaterWeld: http://www.jbweld.com/collections/50172/products/waterweld-epoxy-putty (http://www.jbweld.com/collections/50172/products/waterweld-epoxy-putty)
MarineWeld: http://www.jbweld.com/collections/8277/products/marineweld (http://www.jbweld.com/collections/8277/products/marineweld)

Lastly, did you use any special kind of solder? Or just standard stuff..
Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: iltl32 on May 08, 2015, 02:21:07 PM
I used the putty.  Just worked it in there until it was solid.

Another thing to note is the lock washers holding the plastic shroud on the fuel pump assembly.  They're easy to break but try to save them if you can.  I couldn't find replacements that weren't zinc, which can't go into fuel.

No special solder for me.  Just electrical. 

One more note: while you do want to heat the socket up enough to bond with the solder, don't overdo it or the solder on the other side might melt.
Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: corey on May 09, 2015, 11:08:11 AM
Quote from: iltl32 on May 08, 2015, 02:21:07 PM
I used the putty.  Just worked it in there until it was solid.

Another thing to note is the lock washers holding the plastic shroud on the fuel pump assembly.  They're easy to break but try to save them if you can.  I couldn't find replacements that weren't zinc, which can't go into fuel.

No special solder for me.  Just electrical. 

One more note: while you do want to heat the socket up enough to bond with the solder, don't overdo it or the solder on the other side might melt.

Thanks for all the advice â€" I'll let you know how it goes.
This is all hitting at a bad time â€" the folks I rent my garage from have sold their home, and I need to be out by June 15... And I'm leaving next Friday for France/Germany until June 1... Ugh.
Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: cbcanada on May 10, 2015, 04:54:43 AM
This happened to me last summer. You can either get the unit replaced or fix it. The electric wire connection is gone.

If you want to fix

-Empty tank
-Take out fuel pump
-Take out the hard putty that holds wires coming in from outside to inside.
-Resolder them all while you are there.
-Use marine jb weld to repack
Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: corey on June 01, 2015, 02:06:22 PM
Is there any safe way to test whether the pump is working without reinstalling everything onto the bike and fueling? I'd have to have to remove twice if it's not working after I "fix" everything...
Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: corey on June 09, 2015, 06:13:37 AM
It lives.
I replaced the pump and filter, and checked the wiring â€" it seemed fine. I slapped everything back together, but no joy. Upon a second disassembling, I started digging out the epoxy in the wiring bung, and the positive lead just fell right out â€" definitely the culprit.

Running strong again, with no issues.

Thanks for the help as always DMF!
Title: Re: Fuel Pump Issues... Another dead horse to beat.
Post by: skurvy on August 25, 2015, 06:10:14 PM
So after 2 days of looking at all the fuel pump fix threads, this one seems to be the most current. Everything described is exactly what I'm experiencing and I'm about to remove the flange to inspect it. I have an '06 S2R Dark (plastic tank) and just hit 59,000 miles.


Like everyone here, I'd rather try to fix the problem by cheaper alternatives before I spend $1115.09 on PN# 16021351A. I'm just trying to figure out which way to approach it, dig out and fix the connection or replace with the new Fuel Pump Wire 51020032A and add the exposed splice.

Thanks!