Rain an cuttting out

[Guest]

I was driving along tonight in a most delf-satisifed fashion when I started to cut out in a cold rain.

It was a feeling exactly the same as having partially dirty carbs.
The bike appeared to clear itself a few times but in general was acting like a pig for 15 minutes.

I have little doubt that the symptoms will be gone in clear dry weather.
I know my coils and other wiring is OK. And my igniters work fine.

So is this perhaps the airbox getting a small deluge?

I read some articles about gas caps getting fouled with water and the pressure relief valve getting blocked. This would seem to make sense as the thing acted like it was runniong out of fuel.

Anyone dealt with this in the past? Well I mean dealt with it as in the past is a given.

[DPage]

Rain and electrical problems seem to be related quite often on old bike like ours. This has happened to me, and based on some advice I got, a good thing to do is spray the wiring harness front to back with DeOxit and DeOxit Gold contact cleaner. I did this over the winter, used about 1/3 of the 5 ounce cans doing it. Look for some copper in the harness which has oxidized to green, but clean everything you find anyway. It's time consuming and a pain in the tail, but hopefully it will work. I haven't had any trouble yet this spring, but ask me in a year if this fixes it once and for all.

Another possibility is air intake problems like an over-oiled air cleaner, dirty air cleaner, etc.

[Kaiser Sosei]

Do you have Pod's?

My fathers CB750 Cafe with pods on it will do that sometimes in the rain.

[azr]

I've had that happen before when I had points. Just needed to dry out and all was good. Switched to electronic after that.

[DanTheMan]

Remove the caps on the plug wires, clean completely, screw them back on and seal the top ends with spray on electrical system sealant (Gunk makes some as does Permatex). No more problem. Mine used to do the same thing in the rain.

[chuck hahn]

How old are the plug wires? When the rubber breaks down, small micro cracks will let moisture seep in. The symptoms are usually it will run at a stand still and dry out the wires from the engine heat..then a mile or so down the road it starts to sputter again.. The fix is to remove the coils and completely soak the wires in 100 % silicone spray and let it soak into the rubber..do this about 3 times. The silicone will seep into thje wires and fill in the little cracks and also repel the moisture..then just respray each spring to keep them sealed..

[MAC10]

I solved the same problem by changing the original metal plug caps to plastic well sealed NGKs. Do you have the old style metal plug caps?