My bike hates rain

[madmax-im]

I just returned from a 900 mile weekend ride with my ST brothers and sisters in CT. 3 days of blissfull riding and weather, food and partying. However my return ride home today was in solid rain all the way home. In places it was rather heavy...I was thankful nothing of an electrical nature reared its ugly head...however in the heavier rain I noticed while cruising along that trying to give the bike alot of throttle that it would stumble but if gently throttling it would eventually accelerate to the desired speed... I attribute this stumble to the pod filters as they were prolly sucking in water into the carbs..it only did this in the heaviest rains. So the question arises..short of returning to the stock airbox(which I dont have anymore) is there a way to shroud the pods so that they dont suck in rain?

[stoked]

hehe, check my thread about coils or pods a few days ago. I had the same issue is a down pour. I'm not second guessing you, but what I ended up finding was one of my plastic caps holding the high tension wire into the coil had come loose. Yours may not have come loose, but I suspect in a down pour water can seep down those threads and get into the connection itself and cause a little havoc until the heat burns the water up once the constant flow stops. That tunnel under the tank seems to be in a direct shot for wind and water.

Edit: I don't even know what kind of coils you have and can't remember if the stock ones have the wires connected in some other way. But I do seem to recall threads of past with issues with the stock ones in the rain also.

[madmax-im]

I have stock coils...could be an issue...not sure what i might do,but another more modern bike is due in the stable. I hate using this bike as my sole ride in any weather...I have put over 6k miles on it this year

[mro]

water can seep down those threads and get into the connection itself and cause a little havoc

I'm an all weather rider but now only ride in the wet on one of my XSes with a Vetter. With one XSeption all are pretty much stock and have no issues with water. A little Dielectric Grease goes a long way and be sure your connectors are good.

This works very good:
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com...ct.do?pid=8196


mro
BTW, a little water running thru the top end will clean out the combustion chamber, constant amount will clean out the oil on cylinder walls and may cause XSive wear.

[trbig]

Look elsewhere.. your pods are not the problem. It's an electrical problem.


Tod

[Ken Talbot]

I've had some similar experience that turned out to be water getting inside of the cover which houses the pickups and vacuum advance mechanism.

With age, the insulation on the pick-up coils wires breaks, especially right close to the crimp connector that grips the four wires just before they exit the case cover on their way to the TCI. Water gets inside the rubber grommet around this wire bundle and shorts out one or more of the wires with cracked insulation.

The effect is the same as a broken pick-up coil wire - sudden, intermittent loss of two cylinders. Sound familiar?

[madmax-im]

Well Thanks for pointing me in the right direction...looks like I will go thru the whole electrical system...I am relegating the bike to dry weather riding only until the issue(s) are found and dealt with. Soon I hope to have a new(er) bike that will see the bulk of the mileage and weather riding...

[dbeardslee]

Randy had a pretty good suggestion for Stoked last week. He suggested checking the connections where the flexible pickup coil wires are connected to the main harness. The connections are inside the gold colored sheath that runs along the lower left side of the motor about 8" back from the timing cover. If water gets inside the sheath it can cause shorted connections there. Course if you're running the old coils, checking the high tension wires would be my first stop.

[randy]

As you know, well, maybe not , that is where the neutral switch lead joins the harness. Great place for water to seak in.

[yamahansolo]

funny... i got stuck in a downpour and it was the pods. they were soaked both outside ones. if they get a little wet they are fine though. i sat my foot down at a stop sign and my water came into the top of my boot! i installed the mikes xs coils and coverend the connections very well. if you want to trouble shoot to see if it is the pods wait till it's dry and then saturate the two outside pods and try to start it...