Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > Supersports: SS / SuperSport / Supersport 950 > Faulty neutral

[SSTU]

My 96ss will not show a neutral light untill it has warmed up has any body any idea why.

[FiscusFish]

Mine did the same occasionally. Turned out the wires attached to it were loose. Put your hand down to the switch when it's not working, give the wires a tweak and see what happens...

[ali]

Funnily enough I spent an hour yesterday re-soldering the neutral wires on my 96SL.

Easy enough, just run the rubber cover back up the wires (which you've disconnected further up), and use a ring/open spanner to unscrew the switch from the engine casing. Just be careful when unscrewing that you don't break the wires off. The wire cover tends to trap rain so they're nice and brittle at the bottom...

The switch can stick a bit so WD40 the hell out of it and give it another go. I've also seen recommendations that you leave the washer off when re-screwing it back on the engine to give it an extra mm.

If the wires are broken then you'll need to heat the little barrels where the old wires is with a soldering iron and pull the old ones out, the re-solder it.

Good luck,

Ali

[FiscusFish]

I think my neutral switch must be unusual (or modified) in that it has two spade connectors attached to it rather than a fly lead.

[SSTU]

Were is the switch located is it the one near the oil fill cap or the one at the back of the engine?

[ali]

Back of the engine.

Mine has green/yellow & red/white wire on it, but that may just be italians trying to get their colours in everywhere!!

Spade connectors..... I dream of spade connectors. They must've let a german in the factory for 10 mins...

[SSTU]

Cheers mate Ill have a look at that someone sujested it may be water geting in then when the bike warms up the water drys.

[AndyR]

Hmmm, interesting.

I was mad enough to wash mine yesterday and all of a sudden had a neutral light in every gear!

This was an alternative turn of events as it's normally only the alarm that goes off after a wash. You can ride at 90 through torrential rain for 2 hours and have no probs. Wash it using a tiny trickle from a hose and all hell lets loose.

I am hoping that the neutral light side of things will have resolved itself by the time we next go out (as have run out of WD 40 - which didn't work!).

Andy

[ali]

As the entry point for the switch is at the back of the engine it's pretty unaffected by rain, no matter how hard.

The cover for the wires, however, ends before the wires get routed around the frame, and is perfectly positioned to fill up with water every time you wash the bike..... Pull hte rubber grommet off the switch, let it dry out well and fill the lot with grease. Should sort it.

Ali

[AndyR]

Thanks for that Ali, will give it a go. As I say, this is the first prob I've had with the neutral light.
As for the more usually troublesome Datatool Veto Evo - well!
Had a Meta on my 620S which seemed a lot better in all respects.

Cheers

Andy