Hello All,
I took a ride today on my new xt (03), it chucked it down with rain the whole ride, and was all going fine until I came round a bend to find several broken down cars next to a flooded road, the 4wheel drives were getting thru so I gave it a go - the depth was around 500mm (truthfully) maybe slightly more and halfway thru she cutout - dead. I turned the ignition off and pushed her out, 2 minutes later I pressed the start and Bingo we were off again ! If anyone has any idea exactly what the problem was then I'd really like to know. If it was electrical then I would of expected a lot of faffing around before a restart - but apart from the cutout midstream she ran fine all day. All help appreciated ( I'm hoping to go to Iceland next year and apparently the fords ther are really deeeeep!).
Thanks in advance Mike

I'd say an electrical something that got splashed and the engine heat made it dry out quickly and there you go...

Agreed. Most likely the spark plug got wet, shorted out then dried out with the heat of the engine.

For more of the same:-
www.wetroads.co.uk

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Dave

Hi,
Thanks for your responses, my last "trailbike" was a yamaha ttr 250 and I regularly forded streams of this depth with no problems, is there anything I could do like use a different HT cap or grease the HT lead ? I think the ttr may of had a bit more ground clearance.
Cheers Mike

Hey Mike,

Maybe this could you, I used to get electricals problem too with water projections or rain.
That the conclusion I found after 5 years under the rain

I identified 4 main problems with the electrics with the XT, the fuse connection, spark plug and the ignition coil, AND THE STARTER RELAY.

As the mud guard is very short all the water goes directlty onto the sparkplug and ignition coil if the wire linking the ignition coil and the sparkclub cap is not tight the slight amount of water causes problem, I would first check that.

I myself covered the all area spark plug to ignition coil with a old bycicle tube, everyting is then dry at all time.

I added an extension to the mudguard to reduce the water projections, you could also get those after market mudguard used on moutain bike and to be fixed on the frame.

Same story for the main fuse should some water get into the fuse box , you will have faulty connection, I too covered this area with an old bicycle tube .

Now the starter relay can get rusty two, when its gets tooo bad even if the outside looks ok you won't be able to start your bike.Now the trick would be to short cut directly the starter with the + of the Battery with a cable if you find yourself unable to oush start the bike with a heavy loads or just because the road is muddy.
As per before . cover the starter relay with some kind of old bycicle tube...

I'm pretty sure that if you do all of that you won't encounter any problem with water or at least have an idea on how to fix them...

Cheers

Gwel

Hi Again,

If the problem comes from the main fuse you will see the neutral light going on and off as the bike rattle
If the light stay on a solid green and you can't start the bike, or the bike rattle then it's the spark plug

hi Gwel,
I reckon the mudguard extension idea of yours could make a lot of difference, the spark plug area was taking a lot of spray, I'll definitely get one of those, I think I'll also get a can of wd40 and see if it keeps the water out any more.
thanks Mike

Hi Gwel,
The bike just cut out midstream, all the lights were still showing, sounds like the spark plug shorting out, the good thing was that the bike started first press after just a couple of minutes so praps it did dry itself off ? Still I'm back out in the rain tomorrow so I'll see how she goes!
Cheers Mike

A comprehensive reply Gwel.

The NGK spark plug cap has a rubber bit on the end which seals against the porcelain insulator of the plug and helps to stop the high tension voltage from tracking to earth in damp conditions.
Worth getting one of those if you haven't one already.

Probably still your spark plug that shorted - it is well recessed in the engine so it provides somewhere for the water to lie + it self-solved itself as the heat got in there after you stopped.

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Dave

Hi Dave,
the engine was hot when it cut out, It looked dry by the time I tried to start it again coz of the heat, the ht cap does have the rubber bit so it must have been the heat that cured it, at least there was no lasting harm done, i'll try to pick up a front mudguard extender and see if that helps.
Cheers Mike

Not sure if this is any help, but you reminded me of a problem with my XT660R that i had 3 years ago.

I bought the bike from new, and i thought that the XT legacy would live through it, and it did - untill it came to the end of summer and the rain came back!

I started having problems with the temp light coming on at random times even when starting up from cold. Then error messages came up on the screen, and best of all the immobolizer started playing up.

Due to it being an intermittent fault it was in and out of the garage several times before i was told that water had got into one of the plugs of the electrics.

Sure, most other people aint had any problems, i guess i was just unlucky.

Mike

Hi Guys,
Hooraagh!! The aquarium tubing mod to the carb' works!!! No question at all. The Thames has burst it's banks in many places with all this heavy rainfall and whilst out this evening I saw a "Road Closed" sign shutting off a flooded back lane, so a quick manouvre round the sign and thru the water, it was deeper than I would have liked ,up to just below seat height and deep for at least 100yards, but the XT never missed a beat, fantastic bike. I was worried that water could have got into the airfilter coz it was so deep, so I took off the side cover of the air filter when I got home with no water inside -phew. Thanks everyone for your imput - I'll try to get a picture in the next week or so to show the tubing mod, and the bike in action. Thanks again
Cheers Mike
PS: I'll also be using copious amounts of WD40 ( water repellent ) to hopefully fend off future dampness/corrosion problems - but hey what a bike !

If you use too much wd40 it will form a greasy residue and make matters worse .
It can cause tracking along the surface of HT leads and you will get a misfire or no spark at all .
Use it by all means but no more than you have to ,there are other products that will dry out electrics and silicon grease can be used to waterproof bike electrical equipment.

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Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light. - Spike Milligan
"When you come to a fork in the road ,take it ! When you come to a spoon in the road ,take that also ."