1098, battery, electrical grimlines and melting patience!

[Jaw]

A bit baffled by my duke as of late so thought I'd throw it out there, see if any the gurus could gimmie any pointers!

The garage that had her for a while for the new engine didn't tender the battery so a week after getting her back she never started again..

I bought a new one today and gave it a charge for a few hours. Slammed it in and she fired on first time..

except she dies on idle.. which I'm assuming is a seperate problem, it did this when I had it running last month on the old battery...

shut her off, turn it back on and now it won't even turn over. just a click and death, almost like a short.. So I'm looking around for a short now which might explain why the last battery couldn't start it when it got to a certain point?

so a few questions..

1) Where is the main engine earth? Want to check that its clean and firm, as the starting is almost how it'd be with a dodgy earth
2) am I missing anything obvious? All fuses I could find seem ok, a few plugs slightly gunked but nothing major
3) I forgot what I was going to ask here.
4) Any ideas on obvious answers re the dying at idle?

Old battery was dying to 10v with starts; new one maintains a steady 12 (although I only started checking it once it wouldn't start - on the charge again now and will try tomorrow)

I love my duke. I do. Next step was going to be a panigale, but I'm coming so close to trading in for a BMW with the constant fiddling! :o

cheeers!

[potato]

did you fit the new engine?

if you didnt,it might not be warranty work, but i'd be asking said garage if they could have a looksee.

[Nero Diablo]

I'd try completely disconnecting the regulator and see what happens. Ideally you need a current clamp however if you can carefully get hold of the main positive wire and try and crank it if it gets hot very fast then you have a short if it doesn't do much then you have a poor connection. Easiest way to find the main earth is trace the negative wire back. Dying at idle is usually lack of battery power to keep the ECU happy no ECU = no fuel injection or spark.

[Weed]

The main engine earth connects to the motor at the starter motor mount. Do your headlights dim when the motor is idling?

[Stephan]

The main engine earth connects to the motor at the starter motor mount. Do your headlights dim when the motor is idling?

Bit hard when it's not starting...lol...have you charged up the battery again? Obvious things like kill switch, side stand checked?

[Jaw]

did you fit the new engine?

if you didnt,it might not be warranty work, but i'd be asking said garage if they could have a looksee.

To be honest I want nothing more to do with the garage that fitted it, poor service and felt they were just taking the mick tbh!

The main engine earth connects to the motor at the starter motor mount. Do your headlights dim when the motor is idling?

Ill have a look. From memory they didnt but it was quite bright! When it died it started once or twice after.. now the battery is too drained to kick it over so back on the charger until tomorrow. Today it wouldnt start. Cranked but the battery seemed to discharge quickky..

Bit hard when it's not starting...lol...have you charged up the battery again? Obvious things like kill switch, side stand checked?

Yup all good - it turns over for a split second when its at its worst rather than gets stopped from turning if you know what I mean?

I'd try completely disconnecting the regulator and see what happens. Ideally you need a current clamp however if you can carefully get hold of the main positive wire and try and crank it if it gets hot very fast then you have a short if it doesn't do much then you have a poor connection. Easiest way to find the main earth is trace the negative wire back. Dying at idle is usually lack of battery power to keep the ECU happy no ECU = no fuel injection or spark.

hmm ill give that a try, do I run the risk of a bang with the rect out though? The pos and neg terminals do both get warm after a few attempts not overly though.

Voltag3 drops from 12v to 11.8 and holds just now. Dips to a steady 11.3 if I go high beams. Up to 12.4 and holds when the lights go off.

Thanks for the replies so far guys

[Nero Diablo]

11.3 with the lights on, I'd be taking the battery back and asking for a load test you should only see about 0.2-0.3 of a volt drop lights off to on. They do get duds from the factory every now and then.

[Falcore]

Btw regulator has already been changed once.....

[Weed]

AS well as the main earth, there is also a loom earth that goes to a bolt on the alternator cover.

[Falcore]

Also hold the earth cable while cranking. Shouldn't get overly warm. If it is then might be a bad connection inside the cable.

[Jaw]

Btw regulator has already been changed once.....

Ah cool I'll put that to the back of the list of possibles for now then

AS well as the main earth, there is also a loom earth that goes to a bolt on the alternator cover.

Also hold the earth cable while cranking. Shouldn't get overly warm. If it is then might be a bad connection inside the cable.

Nice one will try both.i guessa dodgy connection could accou t for the drop in volts? Fully charged battery and its showing 11.4 max with lights on..

[Nero Diablo]

Ah cool I'll put that to the back of the list of possibles for now then



Nice one will try both.i guessa dodgy connection could accou t for the drop in volts? Fully charged battery and its showing 11.4 max with lights on..

Quick silly question is this a voltage display on the dash or what a meter reads across the battery? The dashes often lie, if it is across the battery the battery has a dead cell. The other thing to do is test between the battery positive and a bare metal earth on the bike and battery positive to negative. There should no difference 0.1 may be differences in your cheap crappy meter anything over that is a bad earth.

[Jaw]

hmm interesting - the volts are displayed on dash, but thinking about it like you say if that's reading from the whole system it probably is no good for fault finding.. I'll try find somewhere selling a cheap meter now and go from there.. so you're saying test one on the positive terminal one on some bare metal, then test across each terminal?

as you can tell, I'm a pro with electrics

cheers

edit::

thinking about it, the problem got terminal when I bought the bike back from having it rego'd - things got very hot during the trip due to misfueling - I wiped the bazaz map as it was setup for a slip-on I Think, but hadn't tried it since.. I wonder if some wire insulation has melted somewhere causing a short? not seen anything obvious yet..

But it started lots of times from picking it up and taking it about 40 mins for the pits.. had to run around and get some last minute bits done, plus it stalled a bit (the exhaust was glowing red and the tail melted ever so slightly from the overfueling!)

in other news, pulled a couple of relays and there's a bit of corrosion inside so will have a bit of a clean up there too..

[Jaw]

mmmm.. So I cleaned the terminals of the relays.. now when I turn the ignition they click. a LOT. niknikniknik. god damn is it painful to the ears..

and the bike flags some error codes now.. Pump was one of them... I think the relays are for the fuel pump and lights from memory (situated on the left near the battery). So I guess these need to go.

weirdly the harness terminals seem pretty clean. the relay terminals are green as grass..

Will try find some replacement relays from 'catti.

Wierd fact : I found a connector block on the bike that is a BMW part??

annoying fact: I bought a multimeter from Repco. It does not work.

had to order a new swingarm, if the relays don't help I'm going to order a new wiring harness Getting itchy and can't wait to go for a spin again!

[Arwon]

the new Panagali looks nice.

just sayin