Wet Coil connections or Water in the pods

[stoked]

So I'm riding home Monday in a record setting rain fall. As I'm burrowing through peg high water with the wake slapping at my shins I keep loosing cylinders. My connections at the coils are not exactly insulated so I'm thinking this is a likely suspect with to much moisture. But then I've heard people before say pods are bad in the rain. You think enough rain could be getting through my cheap pods to actually cause a cylinder to missfire?

[dbeardslee]

If you were riding through water that deep I would suspect wet pickup coil assemblies. The other thing that frequently happens, if you have the stock ignition coils and wires, is that water on the top of the engine can short the wires out. If you get the bike running in a relatively dark place, throw some water on the high tension wires and see if electricity arcs from the wires to the valve cover or motor. If it does you know your plug wires are shot.

[Ivan]

While I have never played submarine with my scoot, I can say that I have been in some rain that might be considered a deluge, with no problems on my pod filters. When its time to clean them, I use the high pressure washer at the car wash and hose them down. She starts right up, no problem. The issue comes when I really get on the head light, and I think the spray makes its way down the tunnel and too the coils, then she will miss for a while.

Also, when i was wrenching cars, I had worked on several that thought they had a landing craft from D-Day, and the customers said they never started running rough until the really loud clank, which was usually the rod sticking out the side of the block. So, by my estimation, if you have enough water to start making it miss, you will probably be experiencing sudden catastrophic engine failure soon.

[stoked]

hmm, I guess it could of crept in that hole for the wires. I have new wires and coils from Mikes. Put the wires are hard to keep off the valve covers. I'll need to investigate that with some water at night.

[dbeardslee]

If you've got new wires and coils, I think I'd make sure the pickup coils are dry. While you've got the timing cover off, it would probably be a good idea to check your pickup coil wires. I've seen them get up against the timing plate, which can remove some of the wire sheat exposing the wire underneath. If that condition exists and it gets wet it can short easily. Just spitting out words to see where they splatter .

[randy]

There is also a weak spot in the harness from the pickups, about a foot away there are splices where the flexible wire transitions to regular wire. They're hidden inside the tubular rubber sheath. I had experienced misfires when going through puddles, puddles that weren't deep enough to wet the coils, that's how I found the trouble.

[stoked]

Wow, I guess I need to mist it pretty good all over to see if I can find it. Might try the car was tonight. Thanks for the tips.

[dbeardslee]

Wow, I guess I need to mist it pretty good all over

Around here, we call that washing it . Seriously though, be careful if you take it somewhere with a high pressure wand - there's other stuff on these bikes that doesn't like water. Throwing water on the high tension wires will show sparks if there's a short, but depending on the mikes coils you've got there's somewhere between 30k and 75K volts going through 'em. I'm not sure there's anything else on the bike where water is going to yield sparks. I think Randy had a pretty good idea regarding the wire splices, but it's more a case of take it apart and carefully inspect it. My $.02

[trbig]

I remember on old cars, they had the plug wire insulators.. basically a cover for the wires made out of asbestos. I'm sure you can't find asbestos covers any more, but does anyone know of a substitute? I tried the ribbed plastic stuff and it didn't take the heat at all. Mine is doing this after I wash it also.. or get rained on for a while.


Tod

[dbeardslee]

Tod - On the coils I've grafted new wires into I just reused the sheath that's on the factory wires. Do you have factory coils on yours? As far as other sheathing, kevlar is pretty heat resistant. Don't know how waterproof it is, though. Might check this.

[DGXSER]

Around here, we call that washing it .

Oh come on now Doug, around here WE call that waRshing it..

[stoked]

Well I hate to be over confident, but think I found the issue. The pickup coil area was bone dry and I've replaced those wires a little bit ago due to an intermittent miss. So took tank off the look closer at my connections and one of the caps holding the hight tension wire on had backed off half way down the thread onthe coil. That probably explains my intermittent miss and moisture issues. I've put 100 miles on it since finding that and it's running smooth as butter. We'll see when it gets wet again. Thanks for help.

[dbeardslee]

Stoked - Glad you found the gremlin. If you've got the black mikes coils, I've found that a little WD-40 on the end of the high tension wire before you put the donut on will allow you to hand tighten the cap all the way down, and it won't back out. If you put them together dry it tends to be an issue. JAT

[stoked]

Stoked - Glad you found the gremlin. If you've got the black mikes coils, I've found that a little WD-40 on the end of the high tension wire before you put the donut on will allow you to hand tighten the cap all the way down, and it won't back out. If you put them together dry it tends to be an issue. JAT

Dang, why didn't I think of that. That's how I get the carbs back on. I'm gonna hit all 4 of them with that. Good tip.