Running issue today when wet

[Kentish]

On my daily commute today heavy rain, bike started feeling like it was running on 3 cylinders. wouldn't pull of clean, engine hesitant and felt like it was going to die. idle was rough also.. when i started it 10 hours later after it had dried off it was fine...bizzare..

so what gets wet on a fzs 600 foxeye to cause that?

[andybesy]

Rubber seals around plug caps might have gone, or high resistance within caps combined with water could cause a cylinder to arc to head. I'd check that area.

[unfazed]

Plug caps.

Quick fix, Wip them off and give them a good dose of WD40 top and bottom.

More Pernament fix, Dismantle the caps and check for internal corrosion which will be made worse by water ingress. Clean up any corrosion internally and seal the boots on the top of the caps with some silicone dielectric grease.

or

swap the caps for NGK straight ones which is what most owners do.

[Kentish]

thanks for replies. I never new they were problematic to be honest. I will have a look for these ngk ones. it was deffo a problem in that area. it felt like a spark plug had gone down.

[fazersharp]

Cou

thanks for replies. I never new they were problematic to be honest. I will have a look for these ngk ones. it was deffo a problem in that area. it felt like a spark plug had gone down.

Could be a good time here to also bring up the debate ----- "do you have your flaps out".

[Punkstig]

As unfazed said, I find once the caps start breaking down in heavy rain then they will continue to have this problem in future wet situations- pound shops sell the tiny cans of wd40 which are very useful to have under the seat.
Also on top of the wd40 completely caking them plug caps in thick grease will help for future!

[Frosties]

There's also a rubber flap that sits just in front of the plugs. This should be set so that the flap directs any spray down the front of the engine and not into the plug wells.

[Ferg]

Id go with ACF50 over WD40 but longer term get the caps replaced.

[darrsi]

There's also a rubber flap that sits just in front of the plugs. This should be set so that the flap directs any spray down the front of the engine and not into the plug wells.

Actually they're s'posed to guide the water down to the drainage holes, whilst closely covering the plugs, I'm not keen on the idea either but I'm pretty sure that's what they were designed to do if I remember correctly.
Need to make sure your drainage holes are clear though to expel the water, and use air if possible to blow any collected crap around the plug area.

As discussed here before:      http://foc-u.co.uk/index.php?topic=5636.0

[Kentish]

Sorry to sound dumb!! Where would I find the drainage screws!

[andybesy]

Not screws, just little holes in the cylinder head around the area of the spark plug wells so that those wells can drain and don't become water logged. The holes can become blocked, just check they're clear.

Andy

[Kentish]

So...my bike makes a kind of chatter when accelerating and pulls off slow and hesitant,rough idle..

I cut the ht leads back about 4mm blew the caps out with my air gun. then greased them on the outside and put them back.....Rode to work in the dry and after around 30mins of riding it was playing up again.. :'(

So I stopped at halfords on the way home...only 3 plugs in stock..bought them...fitted them...same so i changed the last remaining old one for one of the other i took out.. it was better but did the same thing a little. So i stopped at the garage as the tank was near on empty..I filled it with a load of that STP fuel injector cleaner...(my bikes carbed btw) I didn't put any fuel in the tank and just took it out and gave it some stick.......Its seemed to have done the tirck...it feels fine now???

Odd