Fuel Issue or Electrical - Can't Ride In The Rain

[Goose]

OK, so this is really ****ing me off. I can't seem to nail down this issue. I thought it was electrical, but now I'm not so sure. Here's what happens:

I'll be running along just fine, when it starts to rain. As long as the rpm's are up, like running down the freeway, everything seems to be fine. But if I come to a stop, as soon as I let off the throttle it stalls. If I hit the starter button, the starter turns normally, but it won't fire. Every once in a while, if I just bump the starter without any throttle, the motor catches briefly. But it usually won't idle for more than 3-4 seconds before stalling. And if I try to give it gas, it kills it right away.

Tried to duplicate the problem yesterday by warming up the bike, then letting it sit at idle. I sprayed the bike all over with a strong salt water solution. No affect. Then I hosed it down with the garden hose. Nothing affected it at idle. But when I twisted the throttle it died and wouldn't start again until I let it dry out. That took about 45 minutes to an hour. Then it seemed to be just fine.

WTF???

[relic-rider]

I had a similar experience a few weeks ago as I got caught in a downpour. I was cruising along , but had to stop because I couldn't see. The bike idled low and then died. I cranked and cranked. I had to full choke it to get it to fire. Everything was back to normal when it dried out. Someone on here mentioned that the gas cap vents get water in them and thus the fuel stops flowing. Also, you could check the hoses on the carb vents, to see if they get water in them.

[nabrams]

There are two possibilities:

1. If the air is REALLY humid then the air-filter can get clogged with water vapor. When the RPMs are high the bike can suck through it fine, but at low RPMs there's not enough air coming through.
2. There's arcing happening at the plug wires due to poor insulation (old wires can have this problem) - arcing gets worse when there's a lot of water vapor in the air. You can try to visually verify this, but sometimes the arcing electricity is hard to see. At low RPM, the bike's charging system is not putting out enough juice to compensate for the loss of spark (at the plug) due to the arcing, and the bike stalls (spark is too weak).

[bonanzadave]

My 82 GS1100E dont like the car wash and I think its orig ( bad, cracked )plug wires. Good luck...
Dave

[Goose]

Thanks, guys. I've been wondering about the plug wires. They are, afterall, 23 years old.

[rek]

Rain?? You Got Rain??

[bwringer]

Pod filters clog up in heavy rain, while bikes with airboxes can handle any downpour. One of the airbox's functions is to keep the air filter protected...

But you're just asking for problems by continuing to use plug wires old enough to drink. If you're very cheap, you could try just installing new boots if the wires appear to be flexible and in good shape -- the boots just unscrew from the wires.

Or install a set of Dyna coils along with any decent brand of spark plug wires, and you can forget about the issue for many years to come.

http://z1enterprises.com

[Steve]

I think the coils on my 850 are stock, and I was pleased to find that the plug wires can be removed from them. I went to Auto Zone, found some universal-type plug wires that fit. The wires for cylinders 2&3 have straight ends at the plugs, the wires for 1&4 have a 90 degree angle.

Have not ridden in the rain enough in the last coule of months to see if there is any problem, but I figured that while the bike was down for paint and polish , I may as well do something functional as well.


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