Saturday 26 November 2011

Ducati common electrical problem Rectifier wires

Its not nice to have issues especially if they are a known problem. On the Ducati the two wires from the mag (stator) supply two wires to the rectifier. I had issues with mine and fitted a rectifier off a suzuki tl1000. This has worked fine and only today I had a leak of oil which I will explain in another post. I stripped the fairings off and had to disconnect the rectifier to get to the oil pressure pipes. When I disconnected I could see in the block connecter that it had started to burn out. I have read that the wires from the engine are not man enough for the job and need to be larger wires so there is less resistance passing. This causes it to heat up and the pictures below are good compared to my previous and some I have seen on the net. A further search on the net and there are a lot of bikes that are affected by RR issues of either over charging or under charging. There is also talk of the RR over heating and that in the later models the fairings have larger vents and the RR are upped on amperage. The heat issue could be correct as the first picture shows a blob of shiny solder. I only noticed this on cleaning the connecter. The current passing through must have been so hot it melted the solder so that it dripped out as in the picture. Something I have to consider in what happens next.

Vinnychoff
 Two yellow wires from the engine. If you look close you can see what looks like solder. This is the start of it burning out.
The rectifier side is good but the connecter is starting to blacken.

Saturday 19 November 2011

36899 miles on the Ducati 916 bp

A pet hate is to pull up and see oil drips under a car or bike. This started to happen on the bike. I also noticed i had used 500ml of oil in the last couple of thousand miles. This seemed strange as it had not used oil before. A discussion with a mechanic and talk of piston wear or my thoughts originally was the breather was blocked and the oil was blowing out of the breather. A thorough clean and trying to trace the oil leak. I cleaned above the exhaust where it seemed to be leaking on....Then with the fairings off and the bike ticking over. I found the leak. From the oil filter cooler the top hose where the union joins with the guaze was leaking. With the bike ticking over after a few minutes, I cleaned the leak and it re appeared. This made me happy as a new pipe is easier to replace then pistons...
If you do suffer a leak...have patience.
regards Vinnychoff

bulb holder on the 916 for neutral, low fuel, indicator, high beam and low petrol.

I noticed the light was always on the low fuel light on the dash lights. After taking out the tank sender unit and cleaning it with Harry. The unit seemed to work ok. When i put the tank back on the bike and in gear. The light still stayed on. After a few miles the light for the low fuel switched off as it should but i could still see in neutral that the fuel light was still on but not as bright as it normally was. Below you can see the reason why. the plastic has melted and allowed for the light when in neutral to bleed into the other bulb light.
A new or second hand one is needed.
Vinnychoff