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IGNITION MOD FOR FAST STARTING

Posted: Thu May 29, 2014 11:22 pm
by kiwi47
1982 Darmah.
With a simple relay from the auto store, some nice wire and appropriate connectors.
Mount the relay somewhere and connect the main wire from your relay to the relay to the Battery side of the starter relay with a 10 amp inline fuse. Connect a wire from the coil side of the starter relay (goes to the starter button)to the coil side of your new relay. If your relay needs a coil ground, supply one to it.Pay attention to the starter button polarity. If the starter button grounds the starter relay, make it ground your relay. ( I will double check this and edit a correction later) (your new relay will now close when you press the start button). With an appropriate collection of connectors, you now make up a harness to supply power to the coil side of the Ballast Resistors. You can chop/splice the original loom if you wish. I chose not to.
You are finished.
Next start, the bike will start on the first compression.

The coils get power by a very circuitous route, then the power runs through the Ballast (dropping ) resistors to the coil. With a good 12 volt battery and the engine cranking, the coils are seeing about 6-7 volts or less. When the bike is running and the alternator is charging at 13 volts, the coils are running at about 10-11 volts.
Its all dependent on the accumulated resistance along this power path to the coils that runs through your RH handlebar (kill switch).

By adding the relay, you bypass all this resistance and the Ballast Resistors and put battery power right to the coils. The cranking starter will draw the battery down to around 8-9 volts and the coils will be right there at the same voltage. These 2-3 extra volts on these coils makes an amazing difference !

As soon as it fires, you release the starter button and the system reverts back to normal.

Wish I had done this years ago. Would have saved a lot of starter and starter drive wear and tear..
I was going to make a drawing but cannot figure out how to upload it to this forum....
Cheers

Re: IGNITION MOD FOR FAST STARTING

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2014 1:53 am
by Donald
Hope you can do a drawing as it sounds like a good one

thanks

Re: IGNITION MOD FOR FAST STARTING

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2014 4:13 pm
by BevHevSteve
uploading a file is EASY. click POST REPLY, scroll down just below the 3 boxes "save draft / preview / submit" look for the 2 tabs on the left OPTIONS and UPLOAD ATTACHMENT

click UPLOAD ATTACHMENT then click BROWSE to find the image you want to upload. Then click ADD THE FILE.

Easy - Cheezy `-*

Re: IGNITION MOD FOR FAST STARTING

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2014 1:14 pm
by gioto3
Hi,
has anyone else tryed this solution?
Seems quite interesting.
Gio

Re: IGNITION MOD FOR FAST STARTING

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 9:20 am
by 427man
Hello -

I was told by a highly reputable Ducati Tech that I should remove the ballast resistors on my 81 Darmah. I am not finding anything here on the forum regarding that. Has anybody done/recommend this? My ignition system is entirely stock except for the replacement of the rotten pick up wires. I was also told by the same source to gap the plugs down to .020. Any input/advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks

Re: IGNITION MOD FOR FAST STARTING

Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 10:39 pm
by kiwi47
Hey Zak. Here is the sketch. You can get everything from NAPA.

Check the bikes quick disconnect plugs at the coils and get males and females the same size. Ring terminals and inline fuse is simple. The relay is basically anything. Not much amperage is going through it. It just isolates the coils from the starter when its running. Make the wiring tidy. Do nice crimps and crimp the "strain relief" onto the insulation as well as the conductor.

Build it on the bench. Its plug and play, so you don't touch the factory wiring.

Re: IGNITION MOD FOR FAST STARTING

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 8:07 pm
by petnic111
sss

Re: IGNITION MOD FOR FAST STARTING

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 8:06 pm
by kiwi47
It doesn't take the load off the ignition switch only. It routes power DIRECTLY to the coil from the battery. This is important as the power goes forward through the fuse's, into the headlight, to the ignition switch, back to the headlight, to the RH handlebar kill switch, back to the headlight, back under the tank, through a dropping resistor and into the coil. What could go wrong here, especially when the starter motor drops the voltage significantly when cranking? Its a pretty sad spark that needs the mixture just about perfect to light off. Over rich, or a tad lean and you will be cranking, further dropping the voltage to the coils.......
Once the starter is off, the voltage is fine. Hence the anomaly of magically starting the moment the starter button is released. The engine has momentum to carry it over TDC, one good spark is now available and it will catch....