philfingers
Just got it firing!
So I finally got my project 2009 Stelvio on the road last week. MOT'd and now the problems start
The bike has been pulled apart, new rear suspension bearings, head races, fork oil, all the seized bolts removed and sorted, exhausts bolts and nut sorted, wiring tidied and gone through. upper and lower sump gaskets. throttle bodies and airbox out, new TB linkage connections with rubber seals to stop dirt ingress. I balanced the TB's, reset the TPS. new neutral switch. new injector boots I did a bit of testing on the starter whilst it was out the bike, interesting findings and more on that another time and why it is prone to blowing the main fuses. Alternator belt was a proper headache and the 2.5 hours i spent carefully trying to unseize the adjuster with the gas torch was solved in under 30 mins by pulling the front cover off the engine. a hex bolt with 13mm head and 13mm lock nut is a much better option than the stock button head. At least your can reach it with a 13mm ratchet ring and no risk of rounding the stock button head off
All a bit more delays after I bought a ZZR1100 (ZX1100) and ZXR400 to play with too, both non runners, both up and running now
Before you ask (Scott
) I've done lots of searching and reading!
So as the bike has been stripped right down I went over all the electrical side. Cleaned all the connectors I could find with a brass brush or terminal file. Same with fuses and relays. Tested the relays for function. Used ACF50 on the connections. Pulled out the extra relay which had been fitted to the bike close to the starter. I make starter cables for Ducati's. I want to start from scratch, as the factory built it and see where I'm at, the problems it exhibits and then once i'd run it a bit how I planned to solve them.
Right at the start other than a bit of jiggling with the start and injection relays in the bank of four it fired up and idled like it had run only the day before. Not run for 5 months
I noted that the alternator output was 0.5v higher than at the battery. I know about the wiring mod to alternator but I wanted to see the effect it had first and resisted messing with it, tho I wanted to!
So the run down the to MOT test was uneventful, bike passed with flying colours. rides well, fuels ok, handles ok, suspension was better than i expected for it's 47k.
I had a few days of short trips where it started ok, idled and ran as it should. The one evening an hour after it had run it wouldn't start, click no start. I pulled the injection and start relay and replaced them again and it ran. Then worryingly at 60 mph a few mins later it cut out and coasted for a few seconds then restarted and resumed
Following morning it wouldn't start, more messing with relays and it started and ran fine for 10 miles.
I spend an hour trying to get comms with the ecu. ignition on and off during this time. First trip out with the girlfriend and it stopped and cut out 3 times in 250yds. Click no start. Eventually i got it home. I spent a good amount of time swapping relays as I had a bunch of them with the bike. even what appeared a brand new relay wouldn't energise and on the bench with the power supply it wouldn't either!!
It was pretty obvious the (new) battery didn't have enough charge after the hour of messing with the comms to the ecu, coupled with the fact that the alternator wasn't fully charging the bike and I resigned the fails to low voltage at the battery due to ignition on for a good while and lack of correct charging
Left on charge for the afternoon and I took it out for a good run of 20 miles or so that evening and it never missed a beat. I kept an eye on the battery voltage and it started at 14v and slowly dropped to 13.3v ish- clear indication of charging issues due to voltage drops/ high resistance. I stopped for a beer on the way back. 30 mins later it turned over fast but took a second or so to fire up. The engine then cut out for half a second or so riding home, electrics inc lights stayed on, then it resumed ok.
Today having been on charge for two days i started it up and rode it 2 miles into town, it ran perfectly. Stopped at my mates, open the gate and 30 secs later tried to restart and it would fire, run for 5 secs and then stop. the injection pump was running constantly but the bike wouldn't run consistently. It was still showing near just below 14v so it wasn't battery voltage. it did this multiple times but trailer home was the only option!
My plan going forward is:-
Replace the main injection relay connectors, they're both damaged and some slightly longer leads would help with being able to help troubleshoot
Replace the ignition switch wiring connector with a waterproof one, it's quite corroded
same with RH switch wiring connectors
Tandem high current alternator to battery feed
Upgraded battery cables (it's what i do for Ducati's)
a starter solenoid solution of some description to solve 'click no start'
I'm still mystified as to why the low beam is two H4 low beam filaments and then high beam is just the addition of one H4 high beam filaments but WITH the two low beam filaments on too. Most automotive lights in this situation would switch to two high beam filaments and drop the two low beam ones
The bike has been pulled apart, new rear suspension bearings, head races, fork oil, all the seized bolts removed and sorted, exhausts bolts and nut sorted, wiring tidied and gone through. upper and lower sump gaskets. throttle bodies and airbox out, new TB linkage connections with rubber seals to stop dirt ingress. I balanced the TB's, reset the TPS. new neutral switch. new injector boots I did a bit of testing on the starter whilst it was out the bike, interesting findings and more on that another time and why it is prone to blowing the main fuses. Alternator belt was a proper headache and the 2.5 hours i spent carefully trying to unseize the adjuster with the gas torch was solved in under 30 mins by pulling the front cover off the engine. a hex bolt with 13mm head and 13mm lock nut is a much better option than the stock button head. At least your can reach it with a 13mm ratchet ring and no risk of rounding the stock button head off
All a bit more delays after I bought a ZZR1100 (ZX1100) and ZXR400 to play with too, both non runners, both up and running now
Before you ask (Scott
) I've done lots of searching and reading!So as the bike has been stripped right down I went over all the electrical side. Cleaned all the connectors I could find with a brass brush or terminal file. Same with fuses and relays. Tested the relays for function. Used ACF50 on the connections. Pulled out the extra relay which had been fitted to the bike close to the starter. I make starter cables for Ducati's. I want to start from scratch, as the factory built it and see where I'm at, the problems it exhibits and then once i'd run it a bit how I planned to solve them.
Right at the start other than a bit of jiggling with the start and injection relays in the bank of four it fired up and idled like it had run only the day before. Not run for 5 months
I noted that the alternator output was 0.5v higher than at the battery. I know about the wiring mod to alternator but I wanted to see the effect it had first and resisted messing with it, tho I wanted to!
So the run down the to MOT test was uneventful, bike passed with flying colours. rides well, fuels ok, handles ok, suspension was better than i expected for it's 47k.
I had a few days of short trips where it started ok, idled and ran as it should. The one evening an hour after it had run it wouldn't start, click no start. I pulled the injection and start relay and replaced them again and it ran. Then worryingly at 60 mph a few mins later it cut out and coasted for a few seconds then restarted and resumed
Following morning it wouldn't start, more messing with relays and it started and ran fine for 10 miles.
I spend an hour trying to get comms with the ecu. ignition on and off during this time. First trip out with the girlfriend and it stopped and cut out 3 times in 250yds. Click no start. Eventually i got it home. I spent a good amount of time swapping relays as I had a bunch of them with the bike. even what appeared a brand new relay wouldn't energise and on the bench with the power supply it wouldn't either!!
It was pretty obvious the (new) battery didn't have enough charge after the hour of messing with the comms to the ecu, coupled with the fact that the alternator wasn't fully charging the bike and I resigned the fails to low voltage at the battery due to ignition on for a good while and lack of correct charging
Left on charge for the afternoon and I took it out for a good run of 20 miles or so that evening and it never missed a beat. I kept an eye on the battery voltage and it started at 14v and slowly dropped to 13.3v ish- clear indication of charging issues due to voltage drops/ high resistance. I stopped for a beer on the way back. 30 mins later it turned over fast but took a second or so to fire up. The engine then cut out for half a second or so riding home, electrics inc lights stayed on, then it resumed ok.
Today having been on charge for two days i started it up and rode it 2 miles into town, it ran perfectly. Stopped at my mates, open the gate and 30 secs later tried to restart and it would fire, run for 5 secs and then stop. the injection pump was running constantly but the bike wouldn't run consistently. It was still showing near just below 14v so it wasn't battery voltage. it did this multiple times but trailer home was the only option!
My plan going forward is:-
Replace the main injection relay connectors, they're both damaged and some slightly longer leads would help with being able to help troubleshoot
Replace the ignition switch wiring connector with a waterproof one, it's quite corroded
same with RH switch wiring connectors
Tandem high current alternator to battery feed
Upgraded battery cables (it's what i do for Ducati's)
a starter solenoid solution of some description to solve 'click no start'
I'm still mystified as to why the low beam is two H4 low beam filaments and then high beam is just the addition of one H4 high beam filaments but WITH the two low beam filaments on too. Most automotive lights in this situation would switch to two high beam filaments and drop the two low beam ones
