Troubleshooting the Ducati Ignition
You’ve lost fire in your engine. No matter how hard you pull nor how much you crank the starter motor, you can’t get a pop. With the price of parts being what it is, just replacing components to troubleshoot your system is not only foolish it can be down right expensive. It never ceases to amaze me how often operators will miss-diagnose an engine problem and then spend major money to replace perfectly good parts. This month we’ll show you some simple checks you can do to test each of the components in your Ducati ignition.
With the use of an ordinary ohm meter you can systematically find the faulty part. Testing for Spark: Before you jump to conclusions, step back and consider a few things. First the Dual Ducati ignition is very difficult to defeat. Make absolutely certain you have no spark. At less than 250 rpm the Ducati system produced no spark at all (not a weak spark, no spark). Be sure to pull your cord with a brisk full 6 to 8 foot stroke of the rope. Pulling from between your legs in the cockpit will probably not get it. Also consider if your battery is weak, old, cold, or too small (less than 18 amp/hours) you may not reach the minimum rpm to start. Of course the more you crank the less rpm you’ll get from your already drained battery. Even at higher cranking levels the spark is too weak to see in the direct sunlight. You must be in a darkened hanger or under a blanket to see the spark. If you still convinced you have no spark, grab the electrode end and see if you get bit, yes! It hurts but you won’t die. It will hurt a lot less than chasing a non-issue.
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