had a big smile , now gone

hello to all , after a few years off the bikes , i decided to get back (not quite a mid life crisis) on them. a couple of weeks later , i found myself the new owner of a matt black monster 600. the noise the envious looks i was a very happy bunny (these smilies are great). i live in ireland and have the only monster in my town , great to a certain point but very recognisible as well which is not always great if you catch my drift. all was going well , started to do the lottery again , (well i felt that lucky with the duke that i had to have a good chance) until yesterday . i went to start martha and she was dead as a dead thing i had been warned about the electrics when i bought her , but scoffed at my mate (R1 devotee) , now i can't even talk to him for fear of getting i told you so. So here i am cap in hand asking for help . the symptons , lights work (so am assuming the battery is ok) but push the ignition button and nothing , am getting a clicking from a relay under the seat when the side stand is put up and down , but can't hear anything when the go fast button is pushed. all fuses are ok. if anyone can offer some help to get martha back on the road , prayers shall be said. cheers k

Firstly, welcome.

Mine refused to start when I first got it. The lights were on but it was dead when I hit the starter. I put a new battery on it and it fired up without a problem and has done ever since.

I'm sure that there will be some more qualified suggestions coming along shortly and I don't suppose it will be much to worry about.

I had a similar thing happen on my 695 - got it trailered to my local garage and after an hour of tinkering they found that the ignition switch itself was at fault. It was a fairly simple thing to put right (for them!) What confused them initially was you would switch it on and clocks would do their whizzy thing, lights would come on, you would here the servo's doing their thing and then when you hit the ignition you would here a little click and it would turn itself off. They thought it might be the imobiliser or alarm that was at fault but luckily not as that would have taken longer to sort out.

Good luck!

This has happened on many bikes including my old monnie. In most cases it is the battery there is enough charge to power up and run the lights etc but not enough to fire it up. After charging with an optimate mine would fire up and go but would not hold a charge. Changed the battery and never had the problem again. Try that first with a replacement and if it fixes the problem buy yourself a new one if not then look at the switches etc for the fault.

Good luck

[Nickj]

Go with the battery, check and see what volts you get from it. Needs to be over 12.5.
If you only use it occasionally this is more than likely to be the problem, the battery is just old and the charge decays away. Either mask the problem by charging and using an optimate kinda beast or get a new battery.
Probably worth a squirk of contact cleaner into the switch gear to clean the contacts too.
The motor on all the Monsters is a big lump to turn over

[CK & AK]

do a search for starter motor relay, tis a common prob in the older ducati's

http://www.ukmonster.co.uk/monster/s...earchid=934789

C

Originally Posted by CK & AK

do a search for starter motor relay, tis a common prob in the older ducati's

http://www.ukmonster.co.uk/monster/s...earchid=934789

C

second this. had exactly the same issue not so long ago.

Hi, on my m900 it was the alarm that seemed to drain just enough to stop it starting, i put a new battery on it and it was fine for 6 months, removed the alarm and a year later no problems. The m900 seems to turn over very slowly compared to jap 4's and even the triumph 3's. Always gives my heart a flutter, waiting for it to get over the compression point (top dead center)

well thanks for the responses , this is great. however further news , the bike wont start on a push , not even a slight grumble . would this rule the battery out? under the seat the relay that is clicking when the stand is lifted up and down is wrapped in tape , as there is no cover on it ,so the coil is exposed. looks like it has broken away from a plastic mounting that holds 2 other relays , (1 of which is yellow). is this the starter relay? it is the smallest of the 3 relays. i know diagnosing by description is difficult so thanks for all the suggestions and your time folks , k

Do the lights stay bright when you press the starter button? If they do then it is unlikely to be the battery.

You can locate the starter relay by following the big thick black wire comming from the starter motor (the black cylindrical thing bellow the front horizontal cylinder).

Chris

[yantheman]

hi, i had similar problem when I first had the bike. All the lights were on and the fuel pump primed but when I pressed the starter button, nothing happened and the relay was clicking...

I asked the previous seller and she suggested the battery was old and couldn't hold the required charge to start the bike. So I bought a brand new gel battery and never had any problem in starting since.

And I was told by her mechanic that becasue its a twin and needed a lot of torque to turn over the engine. A slight drop in voltage means the battery does not have enough power to turn the engine over.

cheers guys for the ideas , i have ordered a starter motor relay from ducati dublin anyway , will be testing the battery tonight so i'm hoping to get this sorted soon , thanks for all the help will let ya know how things go , cheers k

Could just be the solanoid? Mine did it a few weeks ago had two other bikers come and try to help, other half fiddled with it, wouldn't bump or anything, zilch, had the usual "F'kin Ducatis" from his nibs then she decided to start and has been fine ever since. Mine was just a manky wire so have a fiddle with that before forking out pennies.

the battery tested fine , i have wiggled , jiggled , poked and prodded , (enough about me and back to the bike) the wires and relays but nothing so hoping the new relay might come tomorrow and will give that a shot. fingers crossed i hear the noise again soon much love to all who offered help cheers k

complete newbie myself - found Ducati John's web site very informative and what he says falls right in line with the help above. at least it's a consistent failure - the worst ones to find are intermittent ones.