Water still causing trouble

[drwgblanks]

I don't know wtf is going on. Every time I run my quad through a creek that we have to go through, it causes problems. It's a pretty steep incline in and out of the creek. The water is about a foot deep. I take it easy through it. No water gets in the airbox that I can tell. The cdi appears dry, which was my problem before (cdi connections not tight). WTF? It runs fine and then when I get out of the creek, a few min's later it spits and sputters and sounds as if it's missing or not getting gas. I can't find any place where water might be getting in anything. Any ideas? BTW, when it happens and the throttle will let me, I can rev the throttle (while in neutral) up to redline or so, and drop it immediately down to idle several times, and then it will run fine for a few min's. Could it possibly be my rings? Maybe water is cooling my quad too fast and causing problems?

 

[wie1086]

forget the water cooling down the engine to quick or rings. The water is making you aware of a problem that will most likely get worse. The electrical is shorting out somewhere. With it being an intermittent problem it may be hard to find. I would inspect the harness, especially back under the rear plastic. Also, clean out all harness plugs with contact cleaner and apply some di-electric grease

good luck

 

[courchaine]

it might be your spark plug wire or spark plug cap......My scrambler 400 did the same thing last winter.....

 

[yamarider]

The best way i've found to locate electrical problems caused by water is to idle the engine and drench the thing with a garden hose one area at a time until it acts up. But if it's doing it a couple minutes after it gets wet, and just makes it sputter, not shut off completely, i'm not sure what to suggest other than to start inspecting all the electrical stuff one by one. First I might try slathering some dielectric grease in all of the electrical connections if you haven't tried that already, sometimes waterproofing those plugs is all it takes.

 

[drwgblanks]

Thanks you all. I think I'll try the grease on the cdi connections, along with zip ties like I have it now. I guess it's still possible they are getting wet or coming loose. That was a problem a while back, they were ever so slightly coming unplugged and causing it to run like crap. I know they're tight already, but maybe water is the culprit.

 

[jasonp]

Some where between the coil to the spark plug is getting wet and cause all your problems. Look closely it you'll fine it. Just a guess!

Also a little wd-40 goes a long way here. If you spray it on the spark plug boot it will help keep water out.