[DMCTRUBY]

My experience may be 999 model specific as those are the 3 models I have owned and had the issue on. First was a 2004 base 999, second was base 2005 999 and current is 2005 999s.

All three had experienced "starting" problems. The symptoms were normally the bike would crank right over, but it seemed late in the season they would get sensitive to starting. Some times taking 5 or 6 attemps (push of the start button and cycle thru) before finally kicking over. On all 3 bikes they had the orginal battery. I did voltage checks with a crappy multi-purpose charger, and the charger showed 100% battery. I sold both of those base models before I ever figured out the issue. Last week I replaced my 2005 999s battery. I also got a much better battery tester which showed the old battery was not getting better then 97% of full charge. BTW, all bikes were always on battery tenders when parked.

I have 3 rides with the new battery and starting is far more crisp and no need to every push the button twice. It appears to me that the 999 (even more so when hot) are sensitive to the need for a 100% battery.


On to the clutch. Well known cause (for me) of stalling on all 3 bikes. Master cyl was the root issue, they develop an air leak at the lever plunger and there is no seal replacement kit available to correct the issue. After replacing master and slave on the 999s, stalls were very, very, very rare. I did notice the clutch lever was still going soft. So a quick bleed of handlebar res would fix that for a few weeks. Last week I replaced the clutch line with a better after market line. That was a long overdue change. While the orginal line was not visibly leaking, the lines apparently have a flex life and after 9,000 miles ( in my case) I think the line was doing some expanding VS pushing the slave 100%. So with the new line on the new slave and master....no more issue with soft lever.


I am not advocating new clutch components for stalling or new battery for starting issues as a first step. My bikes were well maintained, freshly tuned, TPS setting checked by dealer and it was after all the basics were check that I started down the route of replacement on parts that looked pretty good on the surface but in the end were not at 100%.

 

[fretka]

Absolutely excellent and relevant info, instead of the all too common "what color should my clutch cover be" threads.
Thanks to you.

Bruce

 

[st2lemans]

Strange, my 2003 999R typically goes the whole winter with no charging (no electricity in the garage), but starts right back up come spring (or late January, as was once the case).

It will sometimes stall if I'm sitting at a light for a while (not something I normally do, I generally avoid traffic lights), but this can be avoided by increasing the idle speed a couple hundred RPM while sitting at the light.

I still have to bleed the clutch from time to time, but this is a non issue regarding stalling, as I don't idle with the clutch disengaged.

Tom

 

[DMCTRUBY]

Do you still have the stock clutch line ? After I replaced my entire clutch master and the slave a few months back I could not imagine where the air was coming from. I found somewhere on a brembo thread the cycle-time life of the clutch line. When I did the math on the number of clutch pulls i had it was right about the design point of the line. When I removed the orginal line I saw no evidence of leaks, but parts of the line felt "softer" or more flexible then other sections (at the middle and slave end). I replaced my stock line with a line from Spiegler, which has a cycle life several times that of the stock line.
The line was visibly larger in diameter as well, and uniform in "flex feel". Will see if that is the final cure for the need to burp the master res. Generally every 3 weeks I needed to do that. I am hoping with 100% of the now sealed system components replaced I won't need to do that anymore.

BTW, after I first installed the line but had not 100% bled the system I could induce a stall by just pulling the cluth lever in, while the bike was in neutral. No shifting, just pulling the lever in. Seems on a less then warm engine, just the drag of doing that was enough to stall. Even on cold startup, once the clutch system was at 100%, just pulling the lever in would not stall the bike. I consider this 999s one of the best running bikes I have ever had, and the very rare stalls in the past I think will be 100% fixed with the new clutch line.

Strange, my 2003 999R typically goes the whole winter with no charging (no electricity in the garage), but starts right back up come spring (or late January, as was once the case).

It will sometimes stall if I'm sitting at a light for a while (not something I normally do, I generally avoid traffic lights), but this can be avoided by increasing the idle speed a couple hundred RPM while sitting at the light.

I still have to bleed the clutch from time to time, but this is a non issue regarding stalling, as I don't idle with the clutch disengaged.

Tom