Waterproofing

[Poprock]

It's rainy season. When I wash the bike, or it rains even a little bit, my ignition partially cuts out. I have some marine grade silicone sealant. What are likely good places to put this stuff to keep water out of where ever it's getting in?

[bikerphil]

You shouldn't really have to seal the connector plugs, just dielectric grease. If you have old spark plug wires and caps, I'd replace those, they will cause problems. Also the pick up coil wire harness running from the left side ignition cover back and under the bike is vulnerable in wet conditions. JMO

[Poprock]

Thanks, Phil. I hadn't thought of the pickup wires. As little water as it takes to mess with the bike, that's a very likely suspect. Plug wires are in great shape, plug caps are new, dielectric greased on install. Symptoms haven't changes since the caps were installed.

[natemoen]

As poorly as my bike runs and behaves, rain oddly enough does not cause any problems for her. I guess that is one thing that is good about her...I have to struggle for any more positives at the moment

[81xsproject]

I take a different approach. Open up every connector and pump that stuff in there. Re-connect and wipe off the excess goo. The beautiful part is that is doesn't conduct, so you don't have anything to worry about.

[jetmechmarty]

It might be the coils. Try painting them to seal the water out.

[Poprock]

I had to open up the coils to replace plug wires about 4 years ago. Sealed them with RTV. I gave 'em a good coat of this marine grade stuff, nasty and sticky it is. It's the only thing I've found that would seal the edge binding strip back on my fairing. Air tight for a couple years now. I hope it works on this electrical stuff. I put it on the back side of plugs where water might gather. Tomorrow I'm checking out the pickup coil circuit.

[bikerphil]

On the pick up coil wires, there are factory splices in the loom around where the neutral light switch is. Water can get in there and start shorting them out. Also make sure you have a good gasket on the ignition cover. I had the same problem a few years back, after switching the P/U coil harness from another bike, the problem was resolved. I'm sure those wires could be taped up or shrink wrapped with good results.

[CatatonicBug]

It might be the coils. Try painting them to seal the water out.

I had a crack in on of mine. I hit some rain this last spring, and it kept wanting to die on me. I dried out the cracked coil, and smeared some JB Weld on the rack. I then rode 700 miles in the rain with no problems. I'm not saying that's your problem, but it's something to look at.

[natemoen]

Start your bike up in the dark and spray water on the plug wires and coils and see if you see arching.

[planedick]

I discovered

When I wash my bike at the coin op presure wash place, the neutral switch gets wet and it won't run good when you put it in gear. Starts and runs good until I put it in gear to pull out of the wash bay, then misses real bad. Towel drying the neutral switch works.

[Poprock]

I'm pretty sure my issues are in the neutral switch area. I have gooped the wiring liberally with Marine grade silicone sealant. If I can get some goop on it, I'll cover the neutral switch too. We'll soon know if it worked or not. I found a crack and a hole in the plastic sleeve, as well as about an inch of the cloth insulation exposed right out of the pickup housing. Hope this works.

[Poprock]

Thanks for all the good advice, especially about the neutral switch area. I gooped that up real good, along with a lot of other "possible" areas where water might get splattered and interfere with electrical current. It sure worked. I went to the Oyster Run in Anacortes, WA last Sunday. 30,000 bikes, what a deal! Rained Sunday 5 hours. Rained Monday on the way home 5 or 6 hours. Bike never missed a beat. Waterproofing works.

[bikerphil]

I ran into the same problem yesterday, bike loses two cylinders when put into gear. When I shifted back into neutral, all four would fire. This was due to rain exposure with the bike being trailered. When I got the bike down and needed to go, this problem occured. What I did to get her running right away is to remove the wire from the neutral switch and ground it to the engine via the nearby shifter cover bolt. The bike ran fine then (still wet) with the neutral light on constantly and I was able to make the 50 mile trip. I let the pickup coil harness dry and assisted it's drying with compressed air, and have since RTV'd all the vulnerable areas. Anyway, grounding the neutral wire got my @ss rolling in no time without having to wait for the harness to dry.

[skids]

Looks lik a good tech tip!