749 (2006) Won't Start!

[ericducati749]

Hi there Ducati Enthusiast!
I have a 2006 Ducati 749, and I have been riding it with not problem almost everyday, but this morning it refused to start. I rode it yesterday, but this morning when i try to start up the engine, it only gave the initial sign of start. In other words: when I turn the key to ON, the lights work perfectly, and when i press spark it does "spark,"... but then NOTHING! it wont continue to start.

What should i do?

[motolectric]

Originally Posted by ericducati749

Hi there Ducati Enthusiast!
I have a 2006 Ducati 749, and I have been riding it with not problem almost everyday, but this morning it refused to start. I rode it yesterday, but this morning when i try to start up the engine, it only gave the initial sign of start. In other words: when I turn the key to ON, the lights work perfectly, and when i press spark it does "spark,"... but then NOTHING! it wont continue to start.

What should i do?

If you live in Malibu then you are near the ocean and at night it gets pretty cold (for California).

If your battery is a few years old it is affected more by cold weather than when new.

You might just need to charge it up.

It would be best to also measure it's ability to hold a charge before you get stranded somewhere (imagine riding up the coast 150 miles and it won't start when you come out of the restaurant from lunch - now you have a $150+ towing bill to get back home).

Charge it back up,

then remove the charger,

then run the headlight for 30 seconds,

then give the battery 2 minutes to recover

and then measure.

That's the open circuit (no load) state of charge for your battery.

Will probably be about 12.7-12.8, which is fully charged.

When you turn on the key you will usually see it drop to about 12.2 - 12.4 as it feeds current to the rest of the bike loom, this is normal.

If your battery holds a good charge and you still have problems getting the bike to start, I make a kit for your bike.

The 749/999 bikes are harder to start than other Superbikes because they used cheap, thin steel solenoid and starter stud terminals.

Most of the bikes get hard to start after a few years and the Superbikes are the hardest.

Of those the 749/999 are the very hardest.

So try and deal with it somehow before you end up having a very bad day.

HTH

[lakou636]

ducati 749 and 999 have a system that if you dont press the start button in 15 sec fall in some kind of safe mode in order to save battery.
if that happens turn off the key and turn on again and press the start button sooner.


often the battery is need to change...at least mine does.i have sick changing batteries in my 999....

[ZDM]

The Motolectric kit is worth every penny. It's a product that actually works no BS.
You only need to press the starter button and let it go...it will start on it's own. You don't need to keep depressing the button. IIRC the manual says to wait 10-12 seconds in between starting attempts to let the battery recover.
That electrical system is terribly under engineered for the huge HC pistons it has to push.
I found after I installed the Motolectric kit my battery now rests at 13.1, spins my 999 faster even with the 1038cc kit a HC Pistals, recovers quicker.