Bike dies after ride in the rain

After a carb clean and vac sync my bike was running smooth. Unfortunately the PO ripped out the air box so I have to use cones on my bike (until I take the engine out). all was well until I got caught by a quick shower on my way home from a ride. After a couple minutes in the rain, the bike started puttering like the air/fuel was much too rich and the engine eventually died when I was stopped at a red light. I towed it home and set the air filters to dry.

Now my problem is that the bike has the same too-rich-sputter and die problem when it heats up. I think I found the culprit-after taking my carb apart I realized one of the float needles was broken clean off (it had no tip). No that I write this out I realize that this is obviously one of the source of my trouble but I was wondering if the ride in the rain could of damaged anything else that might contribute to the too-rich-sputter and die. Could the ride in the rain somehow stressed the needle and caused it to break?

Thanks for all your help

Frog

 

the only way water could possible hurt your bike, would be if you let it sit out in it for weeks or months at a time without a cover on it.

CN

 

You should check your coils for the ubiquitous cracks that develop between the humps. Those will let water spray get in there and it's a chore to get them dried out quickly ....... The tiniest droplet can kill a spark. So try and get then good and dry again. Once they're dry and it runs smooth again, seal the cracks or get new coils

 

Use your hair dryer to blow away any moisture caught in your coils.

 

This happened to me about a month ago. Bike ran awful after a short jaunt in the rain, the cases of the coils were both cracked. When I checked their secondary resistance, it was only about 4k each. Threw down some cash and upgraded to Dyna coils. Huuuuuuge improvement.

That said, maybe your problem could be elsewhere. A few weeks ago, a buddy washed his CB500 and somehow cooked the ignition switch when water got into it.

 

I've rescued other Xj-ers from the rain with a big can of wd40....kept spraying coils and wires down til moisture was gone and could get a spark. Got the bike running and once it warmed up enough to dry out, the rain had stopped too, and they were able to head the rest of the way home.

I learned that with an F150 that I used to have..... Drive, rain, quit, open hood and spray the module down with wd, close hood, start her up and continue on.

 

As with all older bikes water/rain causes all sorts of annoying issues, over time the resistance of the outer sheath of a cable drops, add some water and this can lead to the occasional short, especially from spark plug caps, coils, etc etc. so check everything and also insulate/waterproof where possible, I used to live in the Lake District area of the UK - 60 inches of rain a year - so had to make sure switches etc were covered with a layer of waterproof grease, etc. As I understand it WD40 stands for 'Water Dispersant' 40 days, after that it becomes hydroscopic - starts to absorb water - this has been borne out through personal experience, but it is very useful as a short term measure.

 

Of course a can of WD40 is more useful on the side of the road than a hair dryer...

 

I used to have trouble like that- even riding in fog would do it.
I replaced the coils with Accell ones using 8mm plug wires.
No trouble since. Starts up in any weather right away.

Maz

 

Yup, fog can do it, and I know some guys that have even had trouble on sunny days that have record high humidities.....