2005 GS500F - Won't start after being in rain

[Zethioth]

So I made the mistake of leaving my motorcycle in the rain.   
I know, I was stupid for doing that.

Now she won't start. All she does is crank and crank. I've tried choking
and priming but she just doesn't do anything.

Any thoughts? Has water been known to get into the carbs, tank,
oil, or air filter?

[mustangGT90210]

Is the bike still wet? And are you getting spark?

Stupid question, but is there gas in it? I've cursed my bike many times for not wanting to run right and then stalling out. I put an in line on/off switch on my reserve feed from the tank when I was searching down carb flood issues. Forget about it all the time hahahaha

[Zethioth]

Is the bike still wet? And are you getting spark?

Stupid question, but is there gas in it?

Well, I don't have a garage, so I now keep it under a tarp. It hasn't been rained on in a few days.

Yes Gas, and I'm waiting to borrow an 18mm deep socket as I don't have one.

[ThatOtherGuy]

should be spark plug tool in the bike's tool kit.  otherwise leave the spark plug in, get an old one and just plug it in to one of the leads, rest against engine and try turning over and looking for a spark.

[DrtRydr23]

Your bike should be able to sit out in the rain and still run.  I would agree about checking the plugs, and probably the plug wires as well.  It really shouldn't be a fuel or air issue from just sitting static and getting wet.

[Kiwingenuity]

Hi Guys,

Did anyone find an answer to this at all? my 2k7 GS500F was left parked at an unusual angle in the rain and I experienced the no-start situation (brand new plugs and battery present and accounted for)..

That incident was a little while back, but today it was raining quite heavily on my commute - flat riding, distance from my garage approximately 2km and the bike stalled out when coasting up to a set of lights in 2nd.  Valves and plugs etc are good (I care for it) - so I am suspecting the electrical system.

Would be keen to know if anyone else has had this happen? for now my fix was to start the bike back up (no choke - was warm), hold about 7k RPM (it came up a bit rough then ran smooth), then had to either ride the clutch or pop out of gear and hold the revs above 5k when "slowing down". bike ran fine at 100km/h as long as the revs were above 5k.

I am going to probably have a close look at the wiring harness to see if water can run down on to anything important (like the HT boots / regulator etc). The other area may be the engine kill switch, but I am thinking the HT side of the coils is probably more likely the culprit.

[Watcher]

Be careful, this thread is 4 years old.  Necromancy is usually a shunned practice.

But at any rate, wet running issues are usually related to ignition.  In a car it's a classic sign of a bad distributor.  On a GS?  Bad plug wires/boots?


For the record I rode 3 seasons by bike when I lived in Chicago, and left her uncovered in the driveway for the most part.  It was basically amphibious.  Never an issue.  It's not like these things are hydrophobic...

[Kiwingenuity]

Yeah - I had noted that I was raising a dead post - it is basically still Halloween right?

I am guessing the coils or boots - something on the HT side. There has been plenty of rain here the last few months, today was exceptionally heavy so perhaps as I was slowing down I had a pile of water track down into somewhere it shouldn't belong.

On the plus side, rain has now stopped since I got to work.. typical..

[Arpee]

I'd be willing to take a bet on the coils.
They are in a pretty vulnerable spot up under the tank, and in heavy rain the spray can get up in the coils and cause havoc.  I remedied this on my bike by greasing the spade leads (coil side) well which seemed to shun the water.  Worked great.

[gsJack]

Change the plug seals that seal between the plug caps and the plugs. 

[Kiwingenuity]

So, I can confess to the pointlessly stupid reason - but hey, I will take the win - could always be worse..

Water was tracking down over the top of the fairing between the tank / frame and running over the RH HT lead before pooling at the seat of the spark plug (especially when slowing down quite a bit of water would collect). The right hand plug was juuust loose enough to allow water to be sucked in at a certain RPM.

Changed the plugs and gave everything a liberal dose of Lanolite - seems to be behaving just fine now.

[Watcher]

Cool, interesting to know what the cause was.

Did you have any sign of it running rough from the plug being loose?

[Kiwingenuity]

No other signs aside from the odd occasion (on really hot days) it would sometimes lean out / stall when pulling up to a stop from long periods at 5k rpm - guess that could have been related (will be able to try it Monday and let you know)

No real signs of loss of power though - still doing the ton and not really taking any longer to get there than usual.