So just my luck we finally are getting a stellar weekend and i went to ride to work today and the bike does not turn over. The headlight was a bit dim. I"ve put it on a trickle charger and it's been on it for about 4 hours, i've tried to start the bike again and the lights are brighter but now im' getting a click click click sounds when i try to turn it over? Is it the battery or the starter ? The bike is on it's original battery 2002. I haven't' ridden in 2 weeks, doesn't seem long enough for the battery to be dead? Thoughts ?
Quote from: MonsterDark on October 09, 2008, 07:34:26 PM
So just my luck we finally are getting a stellar weekend and i went to ride to work today and the bike does not turn over. The headlight was a bit dim. I"ve put it on a trickle charger and it's been on it for about 4 hours, i've tried to start the bike again and the lights are brighter but now im' getting a click click click sounds when i try to turn it over? Is it the battery or the starter ? The bike is on it's original battery 2002. I haven't' ridden in 2 weeks, doesn't seem long enough for the battery to be dead? Thoughts ?
My bet is the battery.
Four hours on the trickle charger is not enough. Since the battery was close to dead, divide the amp hour rating of the battery by the charging rate of the charger. This is the amount of time it will take to recharge your battery. If it still doesn't start you need a battery. Smarter idea would be to follow ducpainter's advice and get a new battery. Even if it is still good today it will fail soon. Six years is a long time on a battery.
Quote from: howie on October 09, 2008, 08:06:53 PM
Four hours on the trickle charger is not enough. Since the battery was close to dead, divide the amp hour rating of the battery by the charging rate of the charger. This is the amount of time it will take to recharge your battery. If it still doesn't start you need a battery. Smarter idea would be to follow ducpainter's advice and get a new battery. Even if it is still good today it will fail soon. Six years is a long time on a battery.
I bought the bike used a few years ago, i'm only assuming it's the orginal. Is there anyway to tell ? Still no luck, it's still making the click click sound, but the lights and gauge cluster look bright enough. How can i tell if it's the starter? Can i just go to any bike shop and pick up a battery or is it Ducati specific battery?
thanks
You really should diagnose the problem before you buy parts.
Do you have a voltmeter? If so check battery voltage.
It should be about 12.5v with the key off.
Turn the key on the voltage should remain above 12.
Hit the starter button...if the voltage drops below, I think it's about 11v, the battery is suspect. Howie has all those numbers on the tip of his tongue.
When you hit the button does the headlight dim?
you should definetly troubleshoot before buying things. your battery could be just dead, a trickle charger is just that, it slowly charges and maintains your battery. I would leave it overnight, and check it tomorrow. check the voltage with a multimeter, if ya don't have one, go get one. decent ones can be had for 30$, and they are invaluable if you want work on your bike. check the voltage like ducpainter said, because the gauge cluster and headlight don't really take a lot of amperage so they won't really tell ya if the battery is toast or not. also I would connect your bike to the trickle charger if its going to sit for awhile
Open cell voltage (what Nate is talking about) is 12.8 V for a fully charged battery since your battery is an AGM battery, otherwise the number would be 12.65. Nate is correct, though, 12.5 should certainly crank the bike. There is no official spec for cranking voltage, but 11 is a good number. Best thing for you to do is charge the battery as I instructed before, if the battery does not reach at least 12.6 after removing the surface charge it is toast. If it does reach 12.6, take it to a shop and get it load tested. If the battery now reads about 1.2 V, your battery is at half charge, 11.16, 1/4 charge, 1.12, almost ready to drink. Assuming your charger has a rate of 1.5 amps and the amp hour rating of your battery is 10 amps, then it will take 6.6 hours to charge. Or, if your charger has a light for fully charged, when the light comes on. Do I do all that? Sorta, in my head. Once you establish the battery is good then we can worry about the rest of the starting circuit.
Sounds like a knackered battery without the omph to trigger the solenoid - the clicking sounds like the starter relay.