I guess you might be like me and some times guess what the problem is or have a hunch then go for that first. The Ducati 916 bp started to misfire. I have driven it a few times. One day no problems, another day it misfired and I thought am I going to get home as it was so bad coughing and spluttering. Another day it seemed to only start when the engine was up to normal temperature.
It upset me as I thought it was the tps again. As the symptoms seemed to be as when nine years ago when I bought the bike it had a misfire that was very difficult to pin point and was intermittent. It only happened as the engine warmed up. As soon as the normal temperature was on the guage it stated to misfire at low revs. This time though there was two times that it happened like this but once when nothing at all happened.
So today I took a different approach. I took the tank off and drained out all the petrol. As below I used a orange bucket that had been used for cleaning so it was a little dirty but was dry. When you see the petrol in there as I poured it out. There can be seen some water in the base. Also the petrol seemed a milky colour not its normal yellow like look. This was a nice find as it could be the issue of the misfire.
I also took apart the petrol cap and its surround. I cleaned around this area as it was dusty. I also checked that the drain off for water was clear. One of the reasons was that when I put the key in, there was a little amount of water which made me think this might have gone into the tank. You can see that when I took the tank off and the bell mouths are visible. There is some water by the breather. This was the seal to the air box had pulled away. So another quick fix of realign the seal and fix in place.
At the moment the bike is in bits as when the bottom of the tank is taken off, three allen screws the o ring that seals to the tank is always deformed or in this case too large so I have to get parts before fitting it back together.
I hope if you have any issues that you find them quickly. Try going for basics first and work on one part at a time. That way if the misfire is fixed. You know what has cured the issue.
How is your petrol and service items. Plugs, air filter etc?
water in the air box
water in the petrol of the Ducati 916
ducati916bp 