Intermitant charging problems - any ideas?
 

Hi all,
My 1998 ST2 leaves me stranded on the odd occasion by developing a flat battery. There is no pattern to this. I've done 4 days away camping and had no problem. This week, a 4 hour trip to Scarborough & home again left me stranded at my local petrol station after refuelling.
I always ride with lights on and no electrics ever fail while the engine is running, so something is working. It had a new battery last winter (which is only 2,500 miles ago).
The bike sits on a trickle charger so always sets off with a full battery (this is confirmed by the status lights on the charger).

Now I know that the 98 model had a particularly poor charging system, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that the system can be upgraded by the home mechanic by fitting better grade wiring to some bits, but I can't remember any details.

Any ideas will be gratefully accepted.

Mike Chadwick

Certainly changing all the earth straps and renewing the regulator/rectifier on my 900ss has made the world of difference on starting - as for a 5 year younger ST2 I'm unsure as to the electrical weaknesses.

I'd perhaps start with checking output voltages from the rectifier at different revs.

Do you have an alarm on the bike that could be failing in some way?

Good luck - Frank

PS - DSC member 'Derek' now has an ST4 and seems to be an electrical wizz, certainly helped me out with a few probs - might well be worth dropping a line:

http://www.ducatisportingclub.com/member.php?u=7468

I added a tech article on upnorth on charging problems, it might be worth a read. the 98 ST2 had a unique charging system according to the last paragraph in that article.

Mike,

My ST2 had a similar problem, which proved to be the voltage regulator.

The symptom was a flat battery but when the charging system was checked everything was OK, I changed the battery but the problem re-occurred, after changing the regulator it ran fine for many more miles.

My conclusion is, that whilst the regulator checked out OK when 'cold,' at higher temperatures (Italian summer) it was failing to produce suficient voltage to charge the battery.

I had exactly the same problems with my 98 ST2 last summer. I ended up replacing the Regulator and fitting an uprated ignition wiring kit from Powerlet (www.powerletproducts.com), I think you can order them from the UK as well from here (http://www.blue-job.co.uk/).
It was very simple to fit and the delivery from the USA was very quick. It's worked fine ever since (Fingers and toes crossed, touching lots of wood and things)

When I had my 98 ST2 in 2003 (so well outside the warranty), I had a new altenator, rectifier and battery fitted at WM Snells and all paid for by Duacti. There was a recall on these bikes so it may be worth checking yours has been done. Call Ducati UK with the frame number and they should be able to tell you.

Many thanks.
 

Great stuff - there's lots of useful info there for me to have a go at.
Thanks very much to you all.

Just in case it is the charging system, here is a fault finding chart that I've found useful in the past:

https://www.electrosport.com/Images/fault_finding.pdf

With thanks to our cousins at:

http://www.ducati.ms

Frank

Now here's a thing:

I've just been on to Ducati UK and even managed to talk to a real person after a long time.
My bike - which is now 8 years old - is due 3 recalls through any official dealership. (Thanks to Chris Q for that brainwave).
These are:

1 Replacement generator (and possibly regulator/rectifier)
2 Frame check (apparently there's a weak point but he wouldn't say where)
3 Front sprocket plate check. The originals were mild steel, not hardened steel, and they wore away and then the front sprocket fell off.
The original (soft) plates were gold. The replacement hardened ones are black, so you can easily check if any of this applies to you.

Ducati UK are still happy to pay for all this work regardless of age.

So - just goes to show that if you don't ask you don't get. But also fairly scary that many bikes similar to mine may never have had these faults rectified. My bike was owned by the same guy from new until last year. He never moved house, but he was never contacted over any of these recalls.

I hope some other people out there benfit from any of this, and many thanks for everyones' replies to my original post.

Mike Chadwick