Occasional nothing when ignition switched on

[JuZ]

From time to time my 96 M600 does nothing when the key is turned and usually after a few seconds the ignition lights come on and all is well... although today I was waiting ages!
It's never cut out while riding it's only ever when I'm starting it.
I don't think mine has a cut out switch for the side stand, just the warning light.

Any ideas?

[slob]

Main relay (little yellow box under the seat) on the way out?

[JuZ]

I'll give it a feel next time and see if it's working.

[PETE.AKO]

Tap the relay with something and press switch at the sametime if you have the little black relay tap that as well hope that will help there not very expensive the yellow one was £9
and the black one was £5 !!

[PaulR]

I had the same thing - turned out to be a fuse! It wasn't blown, just cracked out of sight. I only discovered it when I put a test meter on it. (and I'd already changed the main relay - surprisingly cheap for a Ducati part, only 3 or 4 times what it should cost...)

[JuZ]

Cheers mate, I'll chuck some new ones in there :)

[utopia]

Might be worth a squirt of wd40 (or your preferred alternative..I like GT85) down the ign switch, if you haven't already done so.
More likely the relay though, I would guess.

[JuZ]

Thanks mate, as you predicted I've tried that already :)

[Dukedesmo]

Had the same thing happen on my 916 - Main (yellow) relay was the problem, and as yours is 17 years old it's done well really.

You may find one at a motor factor but they are not the conventional 'changeover' relay, rather they have 2 NO contacts, however they're not expensive from Ducati either...

[JuZ]

General consensus is leaning to relay then...

[Wildfire]

I will add my 2 pence and say I had a similar thing on the project bike. It was the now infamous yellow relay. Not worth getting it from Ducati though.

[Karl_h]

As last years most photographed Monster:chuckle: left me in a similar situation yesterday at the MOT centre, it could be, as it is in my case, the loom breaking down. Initially RAC guy re-earthed the relay which seemed to be the main culprit then further testing pointed towards further breaks in the loom, primarily in the section behind the carbon side panels. I'm now left with the Dilemma of new loom from Ducati (not cheap, but 100% fix), one of eBay (another unkown 20 year old loom) or a repair and waiting to see if anything else goes in the future.
Hopefully yours is just the relay and a nice easy fix.

[JuZ]

I was just the relay :)

[utopia]

Karl ...if you end up doing a repair to your loom, I recently came up with my best method to date of splicing single wires, in which you may be interested.
I soldered my broken loom, but both the local heat damage to the insulation, and the resultant stiff section which promotes further failure, were undesirable.
I've tried, without success, to get hold of some of the micro crimp connectors that they use when making up looms. They're only 5mm long, or so, and only a couple of mm dia.
But I recently tried cutting the crimp section off a bare, round terminal, which was about the same size, and used that.
It worked a treat, really neat and tidy, and fully sealed, insulated and supported, when covered with a short length of very small dia, glue-lined heatshrink.
I didn't even need to buy a crimping tool ...just used a combo of pliers and hammer/punch.