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Old October 21st, 2021, 10:30 PM   #1
nocturncal
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Engine Keeps Dying In Wet Weather Only

Hey all it's been a while

I'm having trouble with my 08 Ninja 250. Everytime it rains, my motorcycle will not want to start. It turns over, sometimes I can hear it fire a couple times, but the engine ends up dying.

Water I think is somehow getting into my tank/fuel. Everytime this happens I have to drain the tank and then fill with fresh gas, then it'll fire up fine after a couple cranks.

I've had my gas cap gasket changed with oem ones (locks had to be replaced on bike due to someone damaging my ignition so I ended up changing all locks and the gasket) and this problem still exists.

I'm wondering are there any other sources I should look for in terms of water getting into the tank. I don't see or smell any obvious places that water could get in.

I'm about to book a day at MotoGuild on treasure island in San Francisco to try and sort though this problem, so I'm trying to get some other ideas so I can pair down the cause of this
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Old October 22nd, 2021, 05:13 AM   #2
shspvr
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nocturncal View Post
Hey all it's been a while

I'm having trouble with my 08 Ninja 250. Everytime it rains, my motorcycle will not want to start. It turns over, sometimes I can hear it fire a couple times, but the engine ends up dying.

Water I think is somehow getting into my tank/fuel. Everytime this happens I have to drain the tank and then fill with fresh gas, then it'll fire up fine after a couple cranks.

I've had my gas cap gasket changed with oem ones (locks had to be replaced on bike due to someone damaging my ignition so I ended up changing all locks and the gasket) and this problem still exists.

I'm wondering are there any other sources I should look for in terms of water getting into the tank. I don't see or smell any obvious places that water could get in.

I'm about to book a day at MotoGuild on treasure island in San Francisco to try and sort though this problem, so I'm trying to get some other ideas so I can pair down the cause of this
Did you check fuel over flow drain line under fuel tank lock that can be one place it can be get in if the hard line had routed through the steel tube.
One way to check this is with hand held vacuum pump and finger over the other end.
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Old October 22nd, 2021, 05:34 AM   #3
Triple Jim
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Unless you've drained some fuel into a clear container and actually seen water, I'd suspect that moisture is causing arcing somewhere between the spark coils and the plugs, or at the plugs themselves. Sometimes this can be caused by dirt accumulated on the outside of the plugs, but it could also be from cracks in the plug wires or boots.

If the problem were caused by water in the fuel, water will get into the carburetor float bowls before you notice a non-start, and it's not going to go away by draining and refilling the tank.
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Old October 22nd, 2021, 08:34 AM   #4
Bob KellyIII
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Triple Jim is right ...it ain't water in the fuel !
it's wet, in in the interm time while you drained the tank it dried out enough to start again... I expect cracked sparkplug leads and arcing from those leads to ground robbing the engine of spark in the plugs
next time you have the tank off sprey water with a squirt bottle on the spark plugs,head and electricals and then crank it over and see if it will ARC on you
if it does you found the problem ! if no arc is seen and it doesn't want to start
it may well be because of no fuel because the tank is off , but then I would start looking for a short in the ignition system or the kill switch
....
in this case you can recreate the problem fairly simply . try squirting the handle bar controls alone and then the engine head area.... see if you can pin-point the area where the problem is occuring at.
....
that should at least give you a starting place !
....
Bob........
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Old October 22nd, 2021, 09:07 AM   #5
shspvr
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Originally Posted by Bob KellyIII View Post
Triple Jim is right ...it ain't water in the fuel !
it's wet, in in the interm time while you drained the tank it dried out enough to start again... I expect cracked sparkplug leads and arcing from those leads to ground robbing the engine of spark in the plugs
next time you have the tank off sprey water with a squirt bottle on the spark plugs,head and electricals and then crank it over and see if it will ARC on you
if it does you found the problem ! if no arc is seen and it doesn't want to start
it may well be because of no fuel because the tank is off , but then I would start looking for a short in the ignition system or the kill switch
....
in this case you can recreate the problem fairly simply . try squirting the handle bar controls alone and then the engine head area.... see if you can pin-point the area where the problem is occuring at.
....
that should at least give you a starting place !
....
Bob........
I highly it doubt the sparkplug leads or boots they would have anything to do with this as it would have severely cracked for that happen also very little water is going get pass the radiator shroud on to coils let alone the on to boots if was riding or not.
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Old October 29th, 2021, 07:19 AM   #6
nocturncal
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So I finally dived into the bike, didn't end up going to Moto Guud but worked on the bike at a friend's house. Drained the carbs and tank and didn't see any water. Started with a valve adjustment. My timing was off and the valves hey were REALLY loose. Spark plugs changed, synced carbs, coolant flushed... And voila! She runs perfect again. Runs a hell of a lot better than before it died.
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Old October 29th, 2021, 07:44 AM   #7
Triple Jim
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Thanks for the update. I guess after the next wet weather you'll know for sure.
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