Yesterday fancied a ride out but found the exhaust valve seized in the closed position AGAIN, so I disconnected the cable & lock wired the valve in the open position & just leaving the cable to run freely which was fine till I came back &now the engine management light is on permanently, yet the bike runs fine!!! I have since freed off the valve and refitted cable but the light is still on !! how do I switch it off ?
Quickest method, as used by some on the forum, is to find a suitable st.steel spring and wind it round the end of the cable to then set up a resistance which the cable motor will sense, hence eliminating the eng. man. light. Bradders, on this forum, is an exponent of this method and can explain aplenty! Do a forum search and it'll pop up quite quickly.
The light will stay on for several starts/ restarts. Normally on the forth ( I think) restart after the fault has cleared the MIL light will go out. By restarts this is ignition off leave for 1 minute or so and then back on and start the bike and repeat. I occasionally get MIL lights from the aftermarket quickshifter and this routine clears the warning lamp for me. Good luck
The exhaust valve is just another useless and pain in the neck thing just like the fancy hands free system on Multistradas. After a few cycles (since is back working fine again) the warning light will come off. Do not worry, just make sure the valve is opening and closing when required. The modification that Bradders did, work fine too but you need a proper spring to return the cable back. I tried with a cheap spring and did not work. I kept losing up the valve every week using wd40, engine oil and other paraphernalia but got very annoyed by that, then drilled the bolts that hold the butterfly valve in its shaft and removed the valve. The shaft seizes mostly in the bottom part of the shaft so I used a hand saw blade to cut the shaft too, leaving only the top part in place so the mechanism works freely. Hell of bike, love the torque, power and the way it rides, but a pain in the arse if you just want a bike to ride and enjoy, mainly when you don`t have time or patience anymore in life! Now looking for a way to get rid completely of the hands free system. If I find someone capable to rewiring the whole thing and put a normal ignition key on it, I'll do it. FUCKING DUCATI!
I spent half an hour with a Dremel and ground the tops off the screws holding the valve "disc" in place, and removed it. Nearly 9000 miles on my bike now in all seasons and no exhaust valve issues.
I get that. What's the performance difference? Is it to keep exhaust noise down at low rpm? If it's permanently open does engine run different?
I really haven’t noticed any significant differences. The main reason I did it was so I don’t get any issues with it seizing.
More air box roar as it stays open low revs, but its to stop an issue rather than improve performance.
it’s mainly to meet noise regulations, I have the DucEE fitted and it makes a fractional difference to the power, slightly noisier at low revs and a bit of popping in the over run.
I can reason with those justifying removing the valve because of corrosion seizing. Other than that, In think it's for sound. However,... There are those that give credence that the fuel map is written to compensate for the valve's closure where keeping it open will detract power. Perhaps, but only a "Before and After" on a "real" Dyno chart curve will answer that point of contention. Butt-Dyno's are as close to a POS as you can get. I bought a DUC-EE just for kicks and am looking forward to putting my 1260 on the dyno for the second time for a full evaluation. Last year's dyno pass was for charity and not too detailed.
In the end I left my exhaust valve hooked up. The spring method worked well for me but my inconsistent butt Dyno thinks the bike ran funkier when cold with the valve open. At 25k miles no corrosion problems but I don't ride the bike in the winter.
