Electrical I guess

[sidekick1975]

I'm having problems with washing my XS. After a good wash it spits and sputters until it's dry. I came home with it last weekend after a wash a barely made it home. Does anyone else had this problem? How can I take care of it.

TIA
Sidekick

80 XS1100SG

[ratbyk]

Wet Sputtering

I would suggest that you replace the spark plug caps. NGK make a set of 90 degree caps that are perfect for the XS 11's
Ken/Sooke
78E Ratbyk
82 FT500 "lilRat"

[Jerry]

Gary Grainger can speak to this issue...turned out his coils, when wet, had an electrical short. When the coils dried off the bike ran fine. Cure was replacement of stock coils with Accel units, another frequent topic on this list. Do a search on Accel or Coils to see past posts. The OEM coils are no great shakes to begin with, but the replacements take a bit of 'finageling' to get them to fit in the original coil position.

[wildbill]

This might help until you replace your plug caps,coils or both.Carry a small can of WD40 and after washing the bike sputters and misses,try spraying some on your coils and plug caps.WD40 displaces moisture and in your case might help you out some.Avoid direct pressure washing on electrical parts as well as wheel bearings.In the long run you are better off to replace the coils and plugwires now because sooner or later will get caught in a rain storm and you don`t want your bike to start sputtering and missing in that.