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my falco has an intermitent fault , any advice would be very welcome. When the starter button is pressed it sometimes takes several seconds for the starter motor to engage , sometimes i have to try it several times , sometimes it turns straight away , i'm thinking earth fault but not sure ?

................ and a Happy New Year !

try tightening your battery terminals even if you only get a quarter of a turn.

fastasfcuk wrote:try tightening your battery terminals even if you only get a quarter of a turn.

Before you try shearing off your battery terminals, take them off and give them a rub with some wire wool or fine emery cloth so that there's absolutely no corrosion on them, then when you reassemble use some petroleum jelly or grease on the terminals.

While you have the battery disconnected, take the two terminals off the bottom of the bottom of the starter relay (inside the seat cowl on the right hand side, just behind the main seat. Again clean them up until there's just shiney metal showing and take a wire brush to the studs if required. I repeat: make sure you disconnect the battery before messing about with the starter relay otherwise you will proabably poo yourself when you start making sparks and the engine tries to turn over.

Do the same on the stud on the end of the starter motor and that should make a diffference to the starting. It only takes a small amount of corrosion on one of those terminals to produce a resistance which drops voltage so your battery has to work harder.

If that still doesn't sort your problems you may well need a new battery.

One other thing that apparently makes a difference is to wait until the rev counter does it's sweep when you switch on the ignition, before you try starting.

this was a tip given to me by a guy who only works on aprilia's and race's them, believe me he knows his stuff, every so often i nip them up as it's a common problem, i've never had the problem since.

Thanks for that it seems so bloody obvious ! I'll give it a go !

fastasfcuk wrote:this was a tip given to me by a guy who only works on aprilia's and race's them, believe me he knows his stuff, every so often i nip them up as it's a common problem, i've never had the problem since.

I wasn't having a pop there, I just don't see the point in graunching up the bolts to get a better connection (unless they are actually loose of course) when it would be far more effective to actually sort the origiknal problem out (sooner or later you're going to come unstuck and getting that horrible pinging feeling). In addition i found that the biggest problem on mine was at the starter solenoid, not the battery so best to check and do the job properly.

Just one thing I may have forgotten to mention - it's not a bad idea when you put all of these connections back together to add a an M6 star washer under the nut, this should ensure a good connection.

no i know you was'nt, but over time these bolts as with many others loosen them selves.they might seem tight but that quarter of a turn cured my clocks resetting and the delay on the starter,you only retightening what's slacked off.

I had to dismantle the starter thumb switch and add a blob of solder to the switched contact as it had corroded.

Try squirting the starter button with WD40 they are a little prone to moisture and bad contact problems, mine did this and it cured the problem for me.
Battery connections should always be tight and clean but the falco starter solenoid is also a known problem on some bikes.

Cleaned all the terminals , no change . sprayed the switch, Bingo ! turning over straight away , trouble is it's now not starting , reads DIAG 1 ............ What've i done ? please tell me it means the battery needs charging !

If it's reading DIAG 1 you've put the ECU into diagnostics mode by connecting the wires that are normally disconnected for normal running.

Pull the connector apart and the DIAG stuff will go away.

DIAG 1 refers to the throttle position sensor.

If you want to know more about diagnostics reports - and many other things, look in the workshop manual. Although it's a big download, you can get it from HERE

If I understand it correctly, the TPS should have been adjusted so that it is on the threshold between 0 and 1 - so either of these values being reported are normal.

As for not starting ....

Well I've not much to go on but I was working on mine the other day as the starter motor would often stall on first push of the button - now sorted - contact resistance of relay was the problem - I'll post up later about that. Anyway, once sorted, I couldn't get the thing to start. Tracked it down to fouled plugs. Took them all out, cleaned and gapped them and it's running like a goodun again.
Not saying this is your problem but it's worth a go.

Thanks for the advice , it was the start button causing the delayed turnover and a schoolboy error (putting the fall sensor on upside down) that was the later prob . All sorted now , thanks again.

TIMOVEE wrote:Thanks for the advice , it was the start button causing the delayed turnover and a schoolboy error (putting the fall sensor on upside down) that was the later prob . All sorted now , thanks again.

Well that will teach you for letting a schoolboy anywhere near your bike !