748 battery flat
 

Hi all looking for help on my breakdown today. Out on my 748 today and covered 60 miles no problem. Stopped bike for ten min then it would not start. When pressed starter button nothing but clicking from a yellow box on right hand side behind fairing. I switched the lights off and the clicking stopped. The i relised my battery was flat. RAC attended and put jump leads on and bike started first time but rev counter was eratic jumping from 1000 to 3000 revs. Checked with volt meter and it was reading just over 12 at tickover but reduced to 6 when reved. Got bike home on trailer and put battery on charge and cleaned wire connectors from regulator.
Can anyone tell me if its my battery or regulator thats goosed or what the problem could be.

Thanks in advance Doug

Should be reading around 14.4 volts at idle and stay around there when revved although you will see it fluctuate a bit as the reg/rec does it's bit, so it sounds like the reg/rec rather than the battery - although you might also want to check the charging fuse.

Hello Dougi748

maybe of some help.

http://www.ducatisportingclub.com/sh...ad.php?t=78401

TopiToo

not sure what the problem is. put battery on charge today and it started first time tonight and tickover was sitting just under 1000 and steady,

Thanks Guys for your replies which has been very helpfull.
I fully charged the battery cleaned the conector block behind the battery leading from the regulator and gave it as good old clean with WD40. I have not been out on it yet as I was wanting to check the battery and charging system with a multimeter first.
The reading at tickover is 14.06 and when reved goes up slightly to 14.10.
Does these readings look correct and do you think the problem was the dirty contact from the block connection to the regulator.
I will give it a run on Sat and hopefully it will be okay

Yep, sounds like it's in the right ballpark.

Pay attention to that Shazaam! article though, if the connectors have got a high resistance they'll get mighty warm, mighty quick

WD40, Dielectric Grease and Electrical Connectors
 

WD-40 has no place in electrical connectors or components.

WD-40 is composed of 80% Stoddard Solvent (that is similar to paraffin), 20% light lubricating oil, and a bit of fragrance. So, I advise against using WD-40 in any part of an electrical system because it leaves an oil residue.

Use an electrical contact cleaner instead to remove any grease and oil that is causing conductivity problems. Sticky relays should just be replaced because in the long run they’ll probably fail when you least want them to.

On a wet bike that won’t start, I recommend first using a leaf blower to dry everything out and let it sit in the sun for awhile. It'll start eventually. Then waterproof it.

Waterproofing Your Ducati

Motorcycle electrical systems are more exposed to the elements than cars so it’s important to keep the system sealed against water infusion to avoid corrosion of the electrical connections.

In particular, the electrical connection between the alternator and the regulator carries a very high current, so corrosion there will lead to overheating the connector and adjacent wiring. I recommend eliminating this connector entirely using solder and shrink-tube insulation.

Another problem area is the rubber boot on the electrical connection to the starter motor. It leaks, collects water and corrodes the connection. Here, you need to clean the connection and then seal it watertight with silicon sealant.

Every instrumentation, power and ground connection on the bike is a potential problem. So the best approach is to prevent water from reaching the connections whenever possible and to reduce electrical resistance at each connection.

Care should be taken to avoid forcing water into the connections so set your wash hose nozzle on spray (not stream) and avoid using the high pressure commercial wash/steam systems on your bike.

The connectors are designed to be waterproof, but over time seals will harden and eventually moisture will get in. Some owners make it a practice to using dielectric (non-conducting) grease to keep water out of connectors that don’t get hot enough to cause the grease to liquify.

For connectors that stay cool enough to let the dialectric grease to remain thick, use it to seal the male-female seam so as to prevent water from entering the connector. Don’t put it on the connecting pins themselves. Use in connectors that get hot runs the risk of the grease liquifying and getting on the pin surfaces.

Using dielectric grease on connector pins can be a source of unwanted high resistance. Ferrari used to put dielectric grease inside all of their engine connectors (that will see water) but they eventually found out that it caused problems. They issued a service bulletin that advised cleaning out all of the grease and to use instead a contact enhancing product called Stabilant 22.

http://www.stabilant.com/appnt20h.htm

When applied to an electrical connection Stabilant 22 becomes conductive. The manufacturer claims that it is as good as a soldered joint.

VW, Porsche, BMW and Ferrari all recommend the use of Stabilant 22 on electrical connectors. You can buy it at your local VW parts department. Don't be shocked at the price, a 5ml tube is around $40.

A 15 ml bottle of Stabilant 22 costs $61 a NAPA stores. It's packaged under NAPA's Echlin brand, so when specifying the part number the "line" is ECH and the part number is CE1.

There are some other specialty products that try to address the connector protectant issue. Deoxit for example:

http://shopping.netledger.com/s.nl/c...00f4c50d0dcc64

Another is Boeshield T-9

Thanks for this reply Shazaam, some excellend advice here. I thought you could use WD40 on electrical parts but now I know different.
I will have another look in the morning and attempt to renew the connection as it was in a poor state before I attempted to clean it. Thanks again for taking the time to reply and your sound advice.
Doug

Well i was out on bike today and after 24 miles it died again. Same as last weekend battery flat. Bike now in Ducati Glasgow. I will update once they ave diagnosed the fault.

Hello Dougie748

sorry to hear about your day,:(

I had a simular problem charged the battery went out for a spin
then the bike died, the problem was the battery was not
charging, turned out to be the wiring to/from the regulator so after thicker guage wire was fitted as suggested by Shazaam.
All was running fine, but as you do you get paranoid it will happen again, so for a month or so
I fitted a small LED 12v battery monitor as here
http://www.lascarelectronics.com/panel-meters/
just to keep an eye on what the battery was doing.

The bike is in safe hands now.

Good luck;)

TopiToo