rain-proofing your GS?

[DimitriT]

I had an occassion to ride in the rain today. Not fun.

The bike had sat in the rain for about an hour and took
a little extra effort to get started. Full choke and it came
to life, though.

I also had a little flat spot when I ran up the gears
to 6th at about 55 mph (5k rpm). The bike just wouldn't
accellerate from there. It was raining pretty hard so I'm
guessing the water got into something to cause this, as
I've never had it happen before. It lasted for about 30
seconds, maybe a minute and then the problem just
dissappeared. I'm guessing that the motor got hot enough
to dry out whatever bit of moisture was causing it.

No backfiring or popping.

Should I just go over my ignition cables with a little sealer?
Any other rain-proofing tips?

[Jethro]

[quote=DimitriT]I had an occassion to ride in the rain today. Not fun.

The bike had sat in the rain for about an hour and took
a little extra effort to get started. Full choke and it came
to life, though.
[quote]

I'll bet your wires are bad- are they original? Sometimes you can't see anything wrong with them, but the shielding gets old. Coating them won't be a permenant fix either, and they will only become worse. Some dielectric grease in the ignition switch may help, make sure all the connectors are good and coated with dielectric grease and you might be in luck, but new wires may be the real fix.

[bwringer]

I agree with Jethro -- probably old wires. The bike shouldn't run any differently just because it's wet.

During the SCUBA ride in Brown County a few years back (heaviest rain you have ever seen, lightning, running water on the roads, but we kept riding for some reason...), some of the guys with pod filters had a little momentary trouble when a lot of water got on the foam and blocked airflow. A few throttle blips and they were OK.

[JayH]

Could be water getting into the wires, water getting into the intake, etc. Do you have the original wires, spark plug boots, etc? You should be able to get some replacement boots from NGK.

Did you check to see if any water was making its way into the air box?

[DimitriT]

The wires are only a year old. I hadn't thought about the ignition switch. I will look into that. Airbox is stock. I suppose its possible for a few drops to get in there but that would probably show up as misfires. In my case it felt like it was running on three cylinders - it was smooth but lacked power.

[Road_Clam]

I 100% agree with other comments, a questionable wire/plug end. They are NOTORIOUS for arcing in wet weather. Also when ever I split an electrical connection, it gets sealed with dielectric silicone grease. This paste makes a moisture/corrosion proof connection. Backfiring means water is being ingested into the carbs, through the airbox. Ever hear a modified "bug catcher" air cleaner Harley going down the highway in the rain?????:KAAAPPPPOOOOOWWWW, FART, KAAAPPPOOOWW !!

[GS550joe]

try spraying with wd-40

to dry the wires spray them with wd-40... that was what it was developed for... water dispersing... works on wet car ignitiions also.. I srapy mine after most wet days and washings... it also keeps the wires from side sparking... at least mine never does...

Joe

[Guy]

Definitely HT related. Taylor silicone leads are a good fix. Heat shrink sleeving over the cable and plug cap also works well.

[JayH]

Make sure you look at the rubber HT lead seals.

These seals go on the spark plug lead BEFORE you screw on the spark plug cap. If the rubber is bad on it replace them also as these are seals for the spark plug wire and boot.

[drcoopster]

If one wire is arcing, would that cause all of the cylinders to have ignition trouble--assuming electronic ignition here.

[GS550joe]

sparking/arcing

If one wire is arcing it will kill two cylinders.. (the ones on the same coil) as electricity takes the path of least resistance and will follow the water to ground (head).... if it is in the harness then it could drop voltage to all the cylinders.. ( assuming common return is bad)

Joe

[DimitriT]

So I went through all the cables, removed the rubber covers on the ends of the boots and cleaned out the boot tips. I then smeared some blue RTV sealant around the boot tips before putting back the covers. I rode the bike in the rain yesterday and no signs of trouble so far. I also applied some dialectric grease to the inside of the boots, to be safe. I guess the only other place they could arc is where they attach to the coils. I'll look at sealing those up too, next time the tank is off.

Should I worry about sealing low voltage connection points? Like the horn and lights?