[gatorcog]

So I got caught in a real heavy Florida rainstorm on my Wee the other day, usually no problem, but it was a really really heavy downpour. I get wet, no problem. Sometimes the engine spurts while I'm in these things, but it comes back - water in the air intake, right? This time though, the engine lost power and it never came back, felt like about half power, and felt like it would quit at any moment. I could maintain speed with more than usual throttle twist, but it had very poor acceleration; kept the throttle high at stop lights to make sure it wouldn't quit.
Got it home okay. Idle was about half what it should be, about 8 - 900 rpm instead of the usual 1300-1400. Exhaust appeared normal, no unusual colors, but one of the cylinders sounds like it's just slapping into the firing chamber and not firing.
I let the bike sit over night an dry out. So about 24 hours later, starts right up to 1400 rpm starting idle, then after a minute goes back down to 800-900 rpm, slapping noise starts again, and it quits.
I'm thinking something electric in the ignition got wet and shorted, and I think it might be a coil, but I haven't looked in the manual yet to see what else it could be - sensor? I know the old CV carbs had jets that would clog, but this bike doesn't have those.
Any suggestions form anyone here on this board would be appreciated. Anybody else come across this before? Should I start with the coils or could it be something else? Thanks -

 

[wingnut11]

spark plug drain hole

What you describe seems to fit the classic clogged spark plug drain hole.The spark plug well fills up with water, then shorts straight to the engine instead of through the spark plug. So find the little hole on the side of the head and poke a stiff piece of wire or a pipe cleaner through there. Then take the plug wire off and blow it out with compressed air. Check the spark plug and connection for corrosion. Use some dielectric grease on that when you put it back.

Edit: It's more likely to be the front cylinder.

 

[brokeagain]

Seconded. If the drain hole doesn't work, pop out the front plug wire and use some rolled up paper towel to wick out the water from the front cavity. The first time it happened on my dl1000 I was perplexed (this was after washing it) and I noticed one exhaust getting really hot. Drying it out worked like a charm.

 

[OydnaR]

Insects like the protection of the drain hole to crawl into and make a nest or hide, next time you ride the bike and heat the cylinder up, you cook the insect and clog the drain hole

you should run a pipe cleaner thru the drain hole regularly

the other thing that happens is not getting the rubber cap seated properly when you reattach the spark plug wire after removing and reinstalling new plugs, then the cap becomes distorted after a few heat cycles and never seals properly again

while dielectric grease works, water should never get in the spark plug cavity if you get the wire on properly to begin with and water shouls never build up in the cavity if you keep the drain clean



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[notacop]

Do we have to take the bike apart to get at this plugged scupper?

 

[gatorcog]

There seems to be a consensus here on the spark plug area, thank you, I'll check that out. I'm wondering though how water would get in there since there's this huge gas tank and plastic around the top of the engine? And would this have dried over night already, or maybe not?
I should add that at the time this happened, the usual three-bar normal operating temperature fell to two bars. And a cursory listening after restart last night, it sounded like it was the rear cylinder that wasn't firing.
Thanks for the input, I'll try drying out the spark plug areas first. Maybe even after work this evening :yesnod:

 

[OydnaR]

Do we have to take the bike apart to get at this plugged scupper?

in the right and side of the bike toward the bottom of the head, you will see a 1/8" diameter hole

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[brokeagain]

Do we have to take the bike apart to get at this plugged scupper?

I can't speak for the 650, but on my 1000 I was able to just remove the radiator bolts and swing it forward enough to get to the plug cap off and do the deed.

 

[gatorcog]

Huh, thanks for the visual randyo. I thought I'd noticed everything after all the time I've spent staring at the engine, but a drain hole such as that, I have not noticed. So that's a spark plug drain hole? And it should be open and not clogged, eh? I'll be checking that out - if it's clogged and I unclog it and water runs out, that should fix it? Probably need to remove the tank, etc. and clean the plug areas too.

 

[yesbut]

There's something here I don't understand. My 09 650 does not have this hole anywhere that I can see. And it appears to have two plugs, one of which is so placed that no way is it ever going to fill up with water.

 

[gatorcog]

Excellent, I unplugged the little drain hole and it ran perfectly, in the garage anyway. I think the problems's solved :hurray: Idles' at the right rpms and gets good gas. I put a piece of paper towel under it and dug it out and some stuff came out. ran up rpms dried it out and got normal 3-bar temp indication.
Thanks robyo and everyone's input here.
If it screws up on the road I'll be back:furious: