Running weird

[pnkrkr4lif]

Let's see how well I can confuse everyone...

*backstory* on a nice rainy morning I broke a throttle cable which left me on the side of the road for 4 hours waiting for a tow. To remove the old cable I took out the air intake box and all required components to do that. I replaced the cable and put everything back together. While waiting for the new cable to show up i decited to pull off the nose and check S8 and S7 plus a few other things. S7 was melted and gone... I contacted Brodie and got the info I needed to make his grounding harness and then did so, just not to the full extent he did. S8, S7, S6, and S4 are all now grounded to the battery which fixed some other issues I had. A week of riding and the bike is doing fantastic, then it rains.

The bike starts choking out with a power drop and pitch change but no popping or coughing out the tail pipe. It would do it all gears at all throttle positions. But if I gave it more juice the bike would run like it was missing a little but then run fine like it was trying to burn something out of it.

So I put in a new fuel pump and filter. When I pulled the old one apart the filter screen was full of debris. Put it back together and it ran fine, until I rode in the rain.

Pulled the tank off to look at the intake tubes and noticed #4 wasn't on all the way. Fixed that and replaced the spark plugs while I was there.

The bike runs fantastic. Rode in the rain for a hour the other day with no problems. Rode in the rain home yesterday and had a problem. This time it was only 5th gear and a fast roll on that made it run like it was being choked. If I rolled on slower at 65mph in 5th it was fine or if I was in a different gear and high rpm it was fine. But this happened after 20 minutes of riding in heavy rain on the hwy.

Safe to think I have a intake leak somewhere allowing water in or should I start trying to troubleshoot other things?

 

[RossKean]

You're right - a bit confusing. Lots of things that COULD be wrong.

Did you check to see if there were any stored codes using the Diag. function?

 

[SLK50]

Upon removing my airbox ( to adjust the cold idle ) I discovered

one of the intake boots was never seated properly ( from the

factory ).

Check your work.

 

[pnkrkr4lif]

The plan is in the next couple weeks tear down for the annual maintenance I do. In the mean time I'm thinking of doing the carb cleaner trick just to try to isolate an area

 

[Geezer]

In my experience, when rain affects the way a motorcycle engine behaves is has always been the spark. Verify that all of your plug wires are connected properly to the plugs. Look carefully at the coils to make sure they are not damaged such that water can affect them. If there is a crack then you may be able to seal it with silicon.

Other than that verify that the air filter box is installed correctly so water can not get in. A wet air filter will quickly reduce air flow.

 

[pnkrkr4lif]

I actually have a new set of coil packs, wires, and plugs in the mail right now. Gonna give that a try as well. Just looking for other things to trouble shoot.

 

[RossKean]

Check out the electrical - spray a water mist over coils, wires and plug caps with the engine running. Honestly haven't heard of real coil problems although they have been suspected lots.

You didn't answer about whether there were any stored codes. Intake air sensors have been known to cause problems but will throw a code (usually). A few reports of the lines getting plugged.

 

[pnkrkr4lif]

Ross, I haven't run a code check yet and really don't remember how. This problem only started after everything was taken apart for a week. Battery out and ecu unplugged.

 

[RossKean]

Sometimes an issue with the connection between plug wires and cap assemblies. The caps can be unscrewed from the wires. Trim 1/4" or so from the end of the wire and screw the cap back on. The contact is a fine sharp threaded spike in the cap.

Check the diag. Codes if you can. Method and interpretation is in the Service Manual.