Ducati Monster Forum

Guys, the bike is near 100%cleaned  and polished. New/charged battery,  new fuel, new oil, new gearbox oil, cleaned spark plugs(Slightly carbon fouled, not much though). Bike won't kick over though. Need some help guys.

It just doesn't seem to be 'lighting' up. Front headlight works, so i know the battery is good.  Any advice will be greatly loved.

 co::

Hugh

Have you checked the spark  ???

First check to see you're getting sparks - pull a plug out, clip the lead back on, and hold the metal body of the plug against a solid bare metal bit of the engine, then check its got a good bright blue-ish white spark when you hit the starter.

Air, fuel, compression, and sparks are all you need to kick it over - you just need to find which one isn't right.

I could come over Sunday (or possibly Saturday afternoon) if you've got the weekend off...

big (curse you Vince, you beat me by 91 seconds!)

Im am man of very few words :-X

Big, will give the spark thing a go in the morning. Thinking the fuel may be blocked 'lower' down in the sytem. I know the fuel tank isn't blocked as both the taps run perfectly. Will pull all the hoses tomorrow to see if there is a problem.

I feel it is either the spark or the fuel. Can't see any reason why the air would be restricted, and the engine is in great condition so i don't think there is a compression problem(Obviously a re-build will get more though)

Hope it's just the sparks...

Hugh

PS:Rapid response boys!! Thanks

There you go big you got the credit  wt:

Ooooh, sorry Dock.  Didn't mean to give you the shoulder.

Dock, will try the spark thing in the morning

Hugh ;D

No sweat Lion iv got big shoulders  :'(

and a new bike?

You got that right wt:

Hmmm...chnaged the spark plugs. Still can't get a spark. Is it a matter of just following them back to the source??

Hugh

Have you just changed the plugs or have you also checked for spark like Big sugessted ???

It seems to me that you have to check your coil/points/leads. A shitty coil will either give you no spark or an orange dirty spark, one way to check it would be a resistance test, do you have a multimeter?

Resistance test as well for the leads.

Check if your points are opening and closing, get the back wheel up, put it in the highest gear, and rotate the back wheel while looking at the points.

I dunno what else. :-\

Big, have to work on both saturday and sunday days. I have all of next week from tuesday lunch to saturday night off though

But lots of posts wt:

It's all about the post...

Im a full member already have some respect co::

3 stars read them and weep  :'(

Quite sound advice but, if you are running shitty old plug leads, pull the spark plug caps off and hold the lead about 5mm off the head (keeping clear of the spark plug hole) and give it a kick, if it sparks, the plug caps are buggered, I take it that you have no spark at all, with that I mean on both cyclinders?
OK done all that now go and check points, condensers etc....






                                                                Mmick

Maybe timing? It may be so far out that it just won't fire. I once put the timing back together in a 350 Desmo 180 degrees out - very hard to start - and when it did it almost blew my head off with the backfire.