dropping cyclinders in the rain

Got caught in a flash storm yesterday. Not an extreme downpour. Not even heavy rain. Enough to soak my clothes in a few miles though... the front half anyway.

As I'm rolling the engine starts to bog heavily dropping 1 or 2 cylinders. I make sure to keep my speed and rpms up, but another mile down the road I'd swear I'm down to 1 cylinder. Starting from a red light i had barely any power, almost started kicking.. I did make it home, but just barely... my town is hilly & those last few hills were pretty sketchy getting up..

Dried her out and everything is fine today.

Ive ridden light rain before & this usually isn't an issue.. Though, I've avoided the rain like the plague since this happened once before on a longer ride in the rain.

Not sure if I'm looking at an electrical issue, or water getting in the intake, or what.

ideas? Suggestions?


Thanks!

 

You very likely have one, or all of the following conditions.

Cracked Spark plug cap(s).

Cracked spark plug wire(s).

Cracked coil(s)

One it's all dried out and running well you can check in one of two ways.

Start the bike in the dark and look for a mini-lightning storm.

Use a spray bottle of water and selectively douse the above components unti the problem reoccurs.

You can solve the problem by replacing the faulty parts. In the case of the coils they can be repaired with epoxy. In the case of the wires they can be cut and new wires spliced in, or they can be dug out of the coils, new wires installed, and the coils sealed with epoxy. You can also simply replace the whole shebang with new, and have easily replaceable plug wires.