Hi there, let me start at the beginning of the story. On November the 3rd some idiot reversed into my bike. and i found it lying on the ground on its side. picked it up, and i drove it home and thats that... it was left outside for a good 2 weeks straight in rainy conditions, couldn't put it in a garage cause we had no garage, it was getting built along with our new build house. once it was built, i put it in there and it slept there... it is now almost May, and my insurance have finally decided to take action by giving me 2 grand cheque to cover damage costs. Now... here comes the main problem, i left it sitting without starting the bike up, not even once since i put it in the garage. And today i tried to start the bike, and the battery was low...which is fair enough, so i got my oxford trickle charger out and charged it over night. And noticed that the battery wouldn't charge over 12.2V...so the battery is dead... i went and got a new Battery, charged it up prior to installation, (it came with 12.7v) so i charged it to max which topped up at 14.2V...i installed it, turned the ignition on, everything switched on... the pump primed, the ecu works along with my power commander. everything looks good... except the voltage gauge on the bike showing 12.5V...i tried to start, the engine turns over, but at a very very slow sped.. obviously its not firing up..why is the bikes voltage gauge showing 12.5V when the trickle charger showed 14.2V on my new battery? i took the plugs out, they were quite wet. i torched the tips of the plugs to get rid off the excess fuel, now they are dry as a bone, i tested each spark plug with both ignition coils, and there is nice clean spark on both plugs, i put them back in..but before i tried to fire it up this time, i got my dads car, a set of jump leads and connected my dads battery to my bikes battery and now the voltage on the bike gauge shows 14.5V but again.... the engine turns over very very slowly.... i am now out of ideas.. and i dont know what else to do.. anyone got any ideas? Much appreciated... thanks!
The earth/battery lead is not man enough on these bikes. Extra earth from battery to starter motor bolt or complete set of leads via @Exige will probably sort it.
Xivlia, firstly the voltage on your dash is not the battery voltage across terminals, it is the on line voltage after it has been through the dash and everything else when you switched on the ignition, the dash reading is not an accurate indicator of the actual voltage of the battery (it is however quite a good indicator of the state of the charging system and should indicate around 14-14.5v with the engine running which means the alternator and regulator rectifier are working well). The voltage you see on your charger is the charging voltage and it is normal for it to get as high as 14.5v whilst charging, if it gets much over 15.5v then you need a new charger as it is likely to cook the battery at any higher voltage. Your new battery should have a voltage of >12.7v up to 13.1v across the terminals at rest after its commissioning charge after you fill it but the voltage takes up to a two to three hours to settle after disconnecting the charger or turning off the engine. Any reading prior to it settling is also not a good indicator of its state of charge or condition (unless it falls very quickly below 12.6V which is bad). For your old battery, the worst thing you can do is leave a battery in the bike with a low state of charge over winter, to do so will ruin a new battery if the weather is bad enough and the battery is <50% charged, you did the right thing by replacing it. Your slow starting problem is most likely deteriorating contacts on the various earth and + starter cables to the solenoid and starter motor, which is a well known issue with the bike affecting just about every one who owns a 749 or 999. It can be fixed with cables from Exige on here or you can try cleaning the cable terminations from the battery to the starter.
@Denzil the Ducati and @900streetfighter thank you for your help with this, but i feel like a total idiot actually.... i was rushing too much and the only cause of the not starting problem was because when i installed the new battery.. i connected the Power Commander the wrong way..... i connected it to the positive terminal, whereas it should of been connected to the Negative terminal... as soon as changed the polarity. the bike started up without a problem...the only REAL problem was the old battery was dead and the plugs were wet... i feel like an idiot
me too actually, it was weird, the pc3 still came on, and the tps on the pc3 was indicating fine as well, but as i pressed the ignition the lights on the pc3 would go up and down like normal but then they would freeze. and @Old rider i will look into the cable kit thanks.
Best money I've spent on my bike and my cable-kit is the inferior and much more expensive American one. Sadly, @Exige kits weren't available when I got mine...
Hi again! so i thought i fixed the problem.... but apparently not.. there is something wrong with the electronics, there might be a voltage leak somewhere.. but i dont know where and i dont know how to isolate the problem.. the new battery has been on trickle charge over night.... i take the charger off and then turn the ignition on.. and the dash shows me 11.3V but when i disconnect the battery from the bike and use a MM on the battery it shows me between 12.9v-13.2v. obviously with it showing 11.3v the bike doesnt even want to turn over... it just clicks or sometimes it sounds like it spins for a split second and then cuts off again.. i cleaned the grounding point on the engine casing and the + and - terminals on the battery side, i also cleaned the starter motors power lead just in case and still no joy.... one thing to note... when my bike was left in town for several weeks, me and my dad tried to jump start the bike with his car, but that was with the old battery.... and i thought i ruined that battery because we tried to jump start it a lot of times... but now im thinking thats not the case but..could i have damaged the entire wiring harness from trying to jump start it too many times? can anyone help?
I would recommend getting the cable kit that everyone is saying is so vital on these bikes. Also, replace all your relays with nice new ones and take out all your fuses and make sure they are all flat and clean. The other thing is to make sure the ecu earth is good Start from there.
i have started my 749s with a jump from a car a few times and never done any damage so dont worry about that ,, also fitted the exige leads ( and fuel relay which is inside the electrics box and really best to do so when the box is off, only cost a few qd )) and found that makes a big difference in the turn over...
if i was going to keep the bike, then i would buy the cable kit for sure... but all i want to do is to get it back to its pre accident condition and sell it on, i dont plan on spending extra money on the bike cause a cable kit is something i cant really charge extra for when selling it on. but, i will check what you mentioned above and clean all fuses etc and hope that fixes it all, the relay behind the battery box was once faulty, and i replaced that. i heard they go bad quite quick, ill need to check that again also.
Usual recommendation is to relocate the relay to the top of the battery box, where the crud and heat have less effect. A bike that starts well is going to be much easier to sell than one that doesn't, so the kit is likely to be a worthwhile investment anyway.
TBH when i went to see / buy my bike unless i had previously listened to / viewed a few UTube vids on 749s i would have been very scepticle about the start up/turn over sound, it really does sound dreadfull, as if the battery or starter motor is goosed,, the new leads make a big difference to initial impressions
The insurance company have given you £2k, even a damaged hard starting 749 should fetch £1500. all up together you'd struggle to get £3500. if i was going to sell anyway i think i'd just sell on as is.
A very interesting/revealing thread, I hope OP manages to fix/resolve as appropriate, at least insurance coughed up.
You can use Halfords cables. Install a parallel earth from battery and that should help - it did on mine. They only cost a fiver or so.
