I have a starting issue on my M1000ie project which I’ve not seen on a Ducati before, but did have on an Z1000H years ago. But It’s not sure the same fault that’s causing the issue. I press the starter button and it turns over slowly as the battery needs replacing and I’ve not changed the starter cables yet, but when I take my thumb off the button it sometimes carries on turning over on the starter until I turn the ignition off, or flip the kill switch. I’m concerned of course that with the noise of the engine etc I won’t know when it starts if the starter motor is still running or not. This is puzzling me: It’s not the switchgear, I’ve already swapped the righthand switchgear for a set from a Multi 1000 which has a proper lightswitch(Off-Side-On) rather than a blanking plate and permanent on lights. That didn’t make any difference. If the starter Solenoid was simply sticking on, then turning the ignition off or flipping the kill switch shouldn’t stop it turning over as there would still be a direct path through the Solenoid to the starter motor from the battery. I do have a replacement on the way to try anyway. The circuit to the Starter Solenoid has +ve to the Solenoid all the time the ignition is on, but the grounding for the Solenoid comes from the ECU. So the ECU is obviously deciding the starter needs to keep turning, which I’m not sure it should be doing. My 1000SSie doesn’t do it and it’s basically the same bike in that respect. Unless the Solenoid is shorting to earth somewhere internally. Any thoughts? Thanks Nasher.
i have had that happen a couple of times cold starting my old s2r800 when my battery was on its way out iirc. if you are confident the solenoid & switch are not sticking, it could be the voltage drop when cranking is enough to cause the ECU to glitch out. maybe a fresh batt and cleaned contacts is all it needs. i have also seen a solenoid that appeared to work ok but its corroded internal contacts just turned lots of energy into heat depriving the starter motor and the rest of the electronics of current. you could also have a short in the switch circuit the cables around the headstock but less likely
stating the obvious here, and haven't spent much thought on what could be happening here, but is it possible that by fitting a different switchgear you have completed the circuit that is std on an early aircooled Multistrada whereby the starter switch does remain pressed until the motor starts (or not)? I know this means that this ability must also be present in your current ECU, but wonder if it is present within many ECUs of that era and merely made redundant on some models.
Thanks Chris, but the issue was there before and after I changed the switchgear. However, you could be onto something with the auto starter thing, I'd forgotten the Multi1000 had that slightly odd function. I wonder if the M1000ie being from the same time has it too. I'd best consult the owners manual. Nasher.
When starting either my Multistrada 1000 or 1100 all you did was jab the starter button and release it, the starter motor would turn the engine over till it started - it was a feature of the starting procedure. Is that the same thing?
yes, and what I found hard to get my head round is that it is enabled within the ECU, so pretty clever stuff, well, to an electrical layman anyway.
