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Another Mille wont start...

Dolestar

Dolestar

Joined Nov 2007
173 Posts | 0+
Newport, UK
Right, ive had my Mille for about a fortnight now, and am dead chuffed with her.

Over this last week it been struggling progressively more and more to start (i do 4x 6 mile journeys a day during the week - not the best for charging no doubt). Yesterday i was getting just a 'click' from the start button - a problem im familar with given my last 2 bikes were a Cagiva Mito and a Ducati 748 (damn these italian electrics). A little wiggle solved it yesterday, but today it simply will not start.

Ive followed the advise of other threads - no throttle at all and turn the fast idle all the way on, and it turned but wouldnt catch. after a couple of attempts it wouldnt even turn, the revometer ticked and for some reason the odo reset itself and changed the total mileage back to kmh.

So... i took the battery off, called work for 30 minutes grace, and charged the battery for half an hour (no where near enough but i hoped it might do). When i put the battery back on it was much more powerful trying to turn the engine over but again wouldnt catch.

ive got a bus to work in the end and thought ill try charging the battery tonight (ive no idea how long the spyball backup battery would last and a dead/faulty alarm is the last thing i need).

I have noticed that through the week the battery voltage was between 15-17. Today it was a smidge under 12.

So do you guys think a charge will solve it or could this be symtomatic of something worse?? :confused
 
Firstly you'll need to sort your battery out. It sounds like it could well be goosed. Buy an optimate III SP and see if it puts some life back into your battery. If not then buy a good quallity YTX14BS battery instead of the standard YTX12BS. You'll get more cranking amps and therefore easier starting. Do not try using your new battery until it has been fully charged overnight by the optimate. You'll only get about 80% charge out of it otherwise. Now for those who think an optimate is not up to the job, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS! You need to switch the optimate off before and each time you reconnect it to the adaptor lead that's connected to the bike's battery, to reset the charging circuit. If you don't it won't charge the battery !!

Now once you've sorted the battery out, try starting the bike using the cold start lever open to full and NO throttle. If it turns over fine, but won't start, try closing the cold start lever and open the throttle fully. Now try starting it, but be aware if it starts, you'll need to shut off the throttle pretty quickly.

If you still can't get it going, you'll need to do the checks on the starter solenoid and also can you hear the fuel pump priming when you turn the ignition on? My bets it's the battery though.

Keep it hooked up to the optimate and you shouldn't have any probs
 
Last edited:
thanks guys. it would be tricky keeping the bike permamently hooked up because the bike lives in the street (i dont have any frontage). Ill try charging the battery tonight, if that doesnt work ill get a new battery as suggested.

really hope that is it!

thanks for your help

PS the fuel pump is priming, but it keeps re-priming after a few failed attempts to start.
 
Sorry to hear of your troubles dolestar , hope you get it fixed soon :thumbup. Hopefully its just a replacement battery you need but i've had similar problems on an older bike and putting it on the optimate recovered it totally so worth a go :thumbup
 
LEGS said:
Firstly you'll need to sort your battery out. It sounds like it could well be goosed. Buy an optimate III SP and see if it puts some life back into your battery. If not then buy a good quallity YTX14BS battery instead of the standard YTX12BS. You'll get more cranking amps and therefore easier starting. Do not try using your new battery until it has been fully charged overnight by the optimate. You'll only get about 80% charge out of it otherwise. Now for those who think an optimate is not up to the job, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS! You need to switch the optimate off each time you reconnect it to the adaptor lead that's connected to the bike's battery, to reset the charging circuit. If you don't it won't charge the battery !!

Now once you've sorted the battery out, try starting the bike using the cold start lever open to full and NO throttle. If it turns over fine, but won't start, try closing the cold start lever and open the throttle fully. Now try starting it, but be aware if it starts, you'll need to shut off the throttle pretty quickly.

If you still can't get it going you need to do the checks on the starter solenoid and you can hear the fuel pump is priming when you turn the ignition on, but my bets it's the batttery.

Keep it hooked up to the optimate and you shouldn't have any probs
Click to expand...

Spot on, if you keep trying to start it with a slow battery it will also knacker the solenoid switch, my money is the battery as well, if your battery is in doubt with a twin like this, don't mess about, buy a new YTX14BS as LEGS said:biggrin
 
I always find putting the key in the ignition and turning it on is a good starting point :lol:lol:lol
 
i have similar experiences with starting. Had problems , because did not know the starting procedure, now when i don't touch the throttle with cold start lever on it comes on every time , but if the battery went a bit weaker it did not had enough kick and i kept trying anyway, i managed to flood it or something, last time it took me few hours to get it started. Had to take out the spark plugs and dry them. It does not seem to be like a bike that is designed on short distance travel to work.
 
thanks for all your help guys.

I charged the battery up last night, plopped it back in, tried to fire her up with the fast idle but she still wouldnt take, so i tried what someone suggested and pulled the throttle fully open with the idle switch off, and she barked back to life!!

Thanks again, Merry Christmas everybody!
 
Maverick_RSV said:
i have similar experiences with starting. Had problems , because did not know the starting procedure, now when i don't touch the throttle with cold start lever on it comes on every time , but if the battery went a bit weaker it did not had enough kick and i kept trying anyway, i managed to flood it or something, last time it took me few hours to get it started. Had to take out the spark plugs and dry them. It does not seem to be like a bike that is designed on short distance travel to work.
Click to expand...

You're spot on with the last comment......stop/start/stop/start etc.. is not something these big twins like to do and as has been mentioned in another thread...it apparently takes 10miles of riding to replace the power taken to start the bike up...!! I experienced this in the height of the summer (yes it did get sunny on a few days) after popping into town to a couple of shops...she didn't want to start, which shocked the crap out of me but makes sense when you take into account the above info.......what we need really is a battery made out of Kryptonite to power the bike :devious
 
Glad you got it going dolestar :thumbup, take it for a long ride to re- plennish the battery and keep putting it on the optimate, if it still struggles to start i'd replace the battery :yes. If you have to open the throttle fully on every cold start then something must be amiss , i just open the choke fully and press the start button and she fires into life without any throttle .
Good luck m8 :thumbup
 
Fits fine if your bike is a pre 03 model, the 04 on needs some modding to get it to fit.

Remember to get a 14AH and not a 12AH battery
 
Last edited:
gaz said:
what happens if its an 03 then like mine :D
Click to expand...

The 03 model's were built on Fridays by pissed Luigi's,as a result they were fitted with a rather fine bottle of Chablis instead of a battery, if you are lucky it will still be uncorked:yumyum

Hope that helps:thumbup
 
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