Just bought an M750! - Help and advice badly needed!

[zxebeast]

Hello all after a couple of months withuot posting.

Last week I finally got my ducati monster, a silver M750, R reg. Thanks to everyone who answered my questions and helped me make a decision! (gary, geoff, bodybag, paivi, ck&ak, milesb, and everyone else!).

As it happens I dont know whether honeymoon period is over or Im just a fool!

There are 2 things that worry me now:

- The bike has started having trouble firing up in the last few days and I think is due to a low/knackered battery. What would you recommend, battery charger or new battery? .... And I guess checking electrolyte level will help...:scratch: ?

- Second thing is that this bike does seem to drink like a monster, I filled her up 67 miles ago and just went into reserve again! Is this normal/common problem? Maybe there is something wrong with the fuel feed/carburation that wastes fuel and messes up with the firing up?

- Lastly I wanna take her to a garage in Reading and Im thinkin of MTC in oxford road, does anyone else who lives near here recommend somewhere else?

Hope to hear from you guys!

Many many thanks!!!!:yoparty:


PS Pics will follow when I have sorted her out and found out about how to post them:biggrin:

[Albie]

Firstly welcome to the fold. I would say battery knackered.Try charging and see if it will hold over some days. My s4 does 125to 135 miles to the tank. It seems you have a problem there.On a track day I get 90 +.It may need someone who has taken them aparts advice. A few on here have.Be patient and someone will be along.:mand:

[nik_the_brief]

You should definitely get better mileage than that - my M900 gives me about 135 to a tank and it's dynojetted and has a K&N on it.

Sounds like it's a fuel mix problem, best way to sort it would be to get it dyno-tested, it'd be worth the £100 or so.

Before you do though it's gotta be worth replacing the usual suspects, air filter and plugs. Starting problems sounds like a combination of possibly over-rich carburretion (sp?) and a weak battery. Check the plugs to see if they appear overly sooty (sign of too much fuel/not enough air) It's gotta be worth a new battery too, if it's bad in the summer it'll only get worse as it gets colder and damper!

Good luck...

Oh - and welcome, you don't have to be mad here etc. (just a little anally retentive at times!)

Should've got a red 'un though - they're faster.

[Pugi]

Hi and welcome!

As a comparison I get 160 miles/tank out of my 750 from -97. Different carbs, but as the people say, you need it sorted out.

[Shandy]

Welcome to the club :cool:

To chuck my 10 penny worth in, I have only managed mileage like that off a tank when my bike had a spate of firing on only one cylinder. In my case this was due to a wire falling off one of the coils but is more often than not caused by the need for new spark plugs. Have a check through the electrics and make sure it’s all doing what it should be. This would also make it a pain to start, tick over and a dog when pulling away from a stop.

Hope you find the problem and get it all sorted.

Cheers,

Shandy

[Gilps]

Welcome. If you don't mind paying dealer prices then Pegasus on Oxford Road get my vote. Their mechanics seem to know their stuff.

[Meteor]

If you need to replace the battery I would suggest looking at an 'Odyssey' dry cell.
I fitted one to my M900 a couple of years back and found it spun the engine up far quicker and as I don't get to use the bike as much as I would like, it holds charge for far longer than the equiv. wet cell.

For more detail try this:

http://www.edirectory.co.uk/pf/pages/index.asp?cid=2267

The only downside is that when fitting, the positive battery lead is a bit of a stretch.

[benson]

Hi the zxebeast - Dave Woods in Aylesbury would get my vote - not sure how far he is from you but he's a top bloke and knows his stuff - and if I wasn't in East London (SO close to Rosso Corse) I'd still be using him too.....

Get a new dry battery - I've had mine a ridiculously long time - 4 years and it's still going beautifully (oh gad - that was probably the kiss of death....)

have fun and hope to see you soon!!!

Benson:on:

[gary tompkins]

50mpg is a good average - so looks like there's someting way off with the fuelling, with possibly other factors like bad engine set-up. If you don't know history of bike I'd recommend a full service and replacement battery, but steer clear of cheapo oneas (ebay) for around £35 as they don't last 5 mins. Spend around £60 on a quality (Yuasa) battery and another £35 on an optimate and you'll be sorted.

Dave Wood Racing also gets a big thumbs up for servicing from me. I've travelled to him at least 3 times from Kent which say's it all really. Pegasus is also on your doorstep and have a good reputation - but expensive.

There are other service centers in the Sussex & Surrey area, and we've recently located a Ducati tecnician that works from home in Kent. Depends on how far you want to travel TBH?

[zxebeast]

Thanks to all who replied for the useful wisdom!

I just learnt that MTC Reading "dont do Ducati", which didnt sound too good to me.

I plan to get a battery charger tomorrow morning from somewhere and since my baby wont even start now a mate on his yamaha xj will give me a lift! (is this the ducati dream!)

I would go to Danny Woods but I aint got the time at the minute so will probably end up at pegasus with a bil exceeding ££££400 ? I dunno :booze:

Im noting down all the good info. More replies are super welcome. Thanks folks. :thumbsup:

[benson]

If you've got AA or RAC you could ask to be recovered to Dave Woods and just let him have a look and get on with the job - and if the battery is as dead as you describe you'd be better off with a new sealed one...The optimate is always a good buy though - the ducati dream can take a while to get started but when it's going it's great.....

[zxebeast]

Hey folks

I got the optimate 3 and put the battery to charge. It's been on for more than 12 hours and still not finished. I just hope it will fix it cause after all this waiting I will kick the optimate to pieces if its otherwise.

As Nik suggested I checked the air filter and found a dead wasp :fou: but it seemed ok besides.

I also checked the spark plugs. The one on the horizontal cylinder appeared to be sooty but I wouldnt know if its too much. It's funny cause the one in the upright cylinder was wet unlike the other one. So im hoping the high consumption is to do with the f@@@ed sp rather than anything else.

I will replace sp's and air filter anyway as soon as i get hold of em and pray for hell it works. Im movin to watford next month to start new job there so i will try Dave Woods then. New battery and full service is def a good idea so let's see what my bank is gonna do about it.

Peace :yoparty:

[benson]

Sounds like the battery's bit the worse for wear...And as for having a wet spark plug - sounds vaguely pornographic IMO!!!:dizzy:

[zxebeast]

IMO there's nothing pornographic about a smoky bit of threaded metal with a hook at the end and smeared with gasoline except for the fact that it has the same shape as a p£%@$! :gay:

As much as i like the performance of ducati twins they dont make me horny unless used to blow the clothes off a good lookin gal :booze:

[Shandy]

Hey folks

I also checked the spark plugs. The one on the horizontal cylinder appeared to be sooty but I wouldnt know if its too much. It's funny cause the one in the upright cylinder was wet unlike the other one. So im hoping the high consumption is to do with the f@@@ed sp rather than anything else.


Putting the porn aside for a mo, the sooty ones probably normal ish the wet one kinda indicates it aint been sparking and its getting a nice wash with fuel every stroke :shocked: Hopefully new spark plugs should sort it out, but i'd check the HT leads and coils connections at the same time just to be sure.

Good luck with it, when there running right its smiles all the way :spin: :spin:

Cheers,

Shandy

[zxebeast]

Charged the battery and replaced the sps and still doesn't start!:banghead:

Have checked the coils but my knowledge of electronics is zero. Im reading the haynes book of lies tho

Will keep ya posted

Peace:booze: