so it was about 7am and i had just got off work, everything was foggy and wet including the GS. I tried to start it with no luck, it took several tries in bumpstarting and it finally started in 3rd gear. I had the same problem a couple days ago but it started with just the starter and some gas. does this sound like it was caused by the dew on the bike or was it because my oil was to think( 20-50 and roughly 34F). I couldn't see sh!t until i got on the freeway because of the damn fog, those thumb squeegee are a lifesaver :thumb:. i did get to share lanes with a leo on hwy4, its funny how people move over for him but then try to block me in :mad: it only lasted a few min because he kept sharing when the speed picked up and i didn't see fit. anyways back to my questions... anyone?
Trouble starting when bike is wet could be spark plug wires have come loose in the coils. They are tight in the coils and can't be turned when new. Other possibilty is water getting in the spark plug caps if they're getting old, hard, and loose on plug body.
When bike dries out it starts easily again. Fixes are easy, check them put.
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=34406.msg383441#msg383441
The bike is an 06 so i dont think the sparkplug caps are getting old, but ill take off the fairings and have a look. where exactly are the coils? and what is "loose"?
In my 23 years and over 360k miles of year round riding I have ridden in the heaviest of blinding rains and started many cold wet bikes and never had a problem with anything on them due to the wet except for the spark plug wires. The plug is on one end and the coil is on the other end of the plug wires, two possible places for the dampness to provide an easier path to ground than the combustion chamber provides.
My four Hondas had problems with water getting in the plug caps if the rubber seals were not replaced regularly like every couple years. Had a few years and many miles on the 97 Gs before the same thing happened and a couple rubber seals made it good for the rest of the 80k miles I rode it. Doubt if your 06 has this problem yet.
As described in my link above, my 02 GS developed a loose plug wire where it screws into the coil and was hard starting when wet and actually cut out riding in the rain once. Made it home on one cylinder that day.
The coils are mounted inside the upper frame members above and forward of the engine. It's necessary to pull the tank to see them but this problem can be fixed w/o pulling the tank and the wire can be replaced next valve check. Once you get the fairings off to expose the plugs you can check it. Take the plug cap off and inspect the seal to plug and then grab the plug cap and try to unscrew the wire from the coil. If it will turn a turn or more you have a problem. The wires are bonded into the coils and are like one piece when new. If these dry out and come loose later on it will allow for shorting out when wet. See link above above and be sure to use plenty of dialectric grease when fixing if one wire or both are loose in the coil/coils.
I could have checked this all out on my naked GS quicker than I can type this post with my one finger style, think I'll keep it forever since we can't buy naked in US anymore. :thumb:
I put some dielectric grease around the base of the Spark plug boot for good measure and ill try to have a look at the wires tomorrow and see. if they are loose do you think it would be covered under warranty?
Just an update: is this the wires you were talking about? (bad pictures but its all i had at the time). theres about a 1mm gap b/w the wire and the "cap" on both sides and the do rotate a bit inside. i put a bit of that grease around the gap.
(http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/3527/spha7.jpg)
Hard to make out your picture but that looks like it. Neither my 97 or my 02 GSs had that boot (cap) on them but it is shown on the diagram from the parts fiche, red arrow:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/GScoil.jpg)
Could be the boot was added after 02 because of this problem. On mine the plug wires screw into the coils on a small brass post that's inside there. The wire can be unscrewed and removed by turning counterclockwise and tightend by turning clockwise if the bonding is broken loose. I wouldn't break it loose if it hasn't.
I used a new piece of wire and put a big glob of dielectric on the end this past spring and put it in and tightened it down tight and it was good for another year so far. Will check it when I check valves this spring. When I discovered it the year before it wouldn't tighten so I took it out and cut off about 1/4-1/2" from the wire and put it back in and it tightened nicely.
Ok, well i put some grease on both sides of the wire and on the sparkplug boot. Now i just need a rainy day to test it. Thanks for your help :thumb: