Bike cutting out in rain

Last night I was riding my kawasaki KH 125 in the rain, it began cutting out after a mile or so of riding and would splutter and completely stop like it was stalling. I'd then leave it for a second and it would start again and continue down the road only to do the same thing. It eventually cut out completely and wouldn't start again. It's still not starting today I have checked the spark plug is sparking and checked all of the ignition coil and system and couldn't see any signs of water damage, just wondering what it could be/what I should take?

Sounds like water getting around your spark plug from road spray while you are riding. The only way you will replicate that is with a hosepipe, you could have a strong spark, but only once you start spraying water at it it starts cutting out. Does the chamber your spark plug screws into have a weep hole? If it does that might be blocked stopping water draining out. Are your HT leads rubber perished or cracked?

Try a good clean and good spray with WD40.

I changed the plug and gave it all a clean and sprayed with some WD40 still no luck, I'm not entirely sure I'm a bit of a newbie where would it be located? HT leads are all good though checked over the ignition system and everythign was in order, I was maybe thinking some water/dirt got into my fuel tank? would this have this kind o affect?

Also checked the air filter but was dry as a bone, Thank you for the reply btw

Check the ignition coil, if it's cracked/broken water will get in when wet and cut out. Then as it dries it will start again.

I had the exact same thing with an old car.

Check your carb (carbed bike right?) to see if it has a breather hose which is angled up rather than down. If water gets in it will not allow the carb to breath and give symptoms like you mentioned.

Ignition coil is fine, and the bike has dried out and is still not starting. it is a carbed bike I will check if thats the case what should i do?

A spark plug chamber weep hole will be in the side or front of the cylinder head, but if you've had the plug out and there was water lying in there it's now gone into your cylinder head. Don't worry it'll be a tiny amount and will boil off next time your engine reaches operating temperature.

Could be water in your fuel, we've had some ridiculously heavy driving rain in the past few days. On most bikes the filler cap is not watertight, under the filler cap is a gutter which has another weep hole, connected to a rubber tube which will allow water that gets in the filler cap to drain away. If that's blocked it can't drain away and spills over into your fuel tank. Shouldn't contaminate bad enough to stop the bike running, but could if the tank is nearly empty or the bike was sitting out in the rain for a long time. The only way to sort that is drain your fuel tank (pull off the hose which goes from tank t carb) and drain your carb bowl (there will be a drain screw on the bottom), then put it back together and refill with fresh fuel. Just stick a litre in in case you end up draining it again.

Check your airbox for water ingress or a blockage / very dirty filter also. I once opened an airbox on a bike that wouldn't start and a mouse jumped out!! It had made a bed out of the paper filter.

I'm going to ask a really stupid question, but you'd be surprised how simple things can trip people up, do you have a fuel tap? Does it just need switched to reserve tank?

Remember Spark, Air, Fuel, Compression

I'm going to ask a really stupid question, but you'd be surprised how simple things can trip people up, do you have a fuel tap? Does it just need switched to reserve tank?

 

I was also going to ask the stupid question of is there definitely fuel in it Because I've ran out of fuel and it was exactly like you describe (luckily I have a reserve tank and was about 100m from a petrol station )

thank you baloo will check and get back to you, I kind of figured it was fuel as i have a replacement cap on the tank atm and there is a very weak seal thank you for pointing me in the direction of what to do though! hahaha I'm pretty newbie so no worries, but yeah have switched it to reserve with no luck and yes there is still fuel in the tank. first time I rode the bike I had no idea what a kill switch was and that caused some problems lol

Because I've ran out of fuel and it was exactly like you describe (luckily I have a reserve tank and was about 100m from a petrol station )

On a Spanish motorway, just over 100 miles since leaving the ferry at Santander, engine dies, that's strange, usually have at least 120 miles before needing reserve. Switch to reserve, bike fires back up. Can't have filled up at Portsmouth properly, or maybe some fuel spilled with the rocking on the ferry overnight. Just passed a services a few miles back, and there's a junction coming up, but that would leave me on the wrong side of the motorway and backtracking until the next junction to get turned around again. My next scheduled stop was for fuel after 23 miles anyway, and I never get less than 30 on reserve, so I carry on.

20 miles later I'm pushing a fully loaded XT600 down the hard shoulder.

I didn't think about the fact I was fully loaded with luggage, panniers changed the aerodynamics, and I'd climbed through the Picos de Europa mountains against a strong headwind. I had filled up properly at Portsmouth and I hadn't lost any on the ferry, my fuel consumption had gone up by a third.

Thank god it was flat desert terrain, and when it came to the slip road 3 miles later, it was down slope not up to get to the petrol station forecourt.

I'd pop a new plug in it and go from there.

I bet the rain thing is just coincidence...

It's deffinately not the spark plug, put two new ones in thinking it was, I dunno if this means anything but my bike does smell quite rich of fuel when i kick it over

It's deffinately not the spark plug, put two new ones in thinking it was, I dunno if this means anything but my bike does smell quite rich of fuel when i kick it over

Fairly normal when you're kicking over a bike that won't start, your chucking in fuel, but not burning it, so you'll smell it instead.

I'd first remove the fuel line from the carb, switch the petrol on, and make sure there's a good flow of fuel. Assuming that's OK I'd remove and dismantle the carb, check that the jets are clear, float is working correctly etc.. It might sound daunting but it's pretty simple. It's sometimes tricky to get the carb away from the manifold from the airbox but take your time, don't force it too much, you'll be fine. I've taken mine off 5 times now, dirty fuel problem, I can now take it off, dismantle, check, put back on, in 20 minutes. I'm certainly no expert.

It's deffinately not the spark plug, put two new ones in thinking it was, I dunno if this means anything but my bike does smell quite rich of fuel when i kick it over

New coil then. Fuel obviously getting in and not igniting.

I had the same problem, turns out the water was cooling the engine because of the cold water. Plus my air fuel mix was rich so the engine would cut out and flood the engine with small amounts of fuel after I fixed the air fuel mix it never happened again

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Emptied tank and check the fuel line, there was water in the flaot bowl of the carb so cleaned it all out and put new fuel and gave it a kick over it deffinately wanted to start and kind of did but there was a weird kind of gridning noise in my engine, there is oil so I'm not really sure what it is and it didn't properly kick over/ still hasnt, any ideas what it could be??