2.5 not starting after washing

[Devildawg]

Blown fuses after washing a bike always concerns me... What happens if you end up riding the bike in a heavy downpour???? Obviously the water allowed something to ground out blowing the fuse. Can the same happen while riding?

I hear you on that. I had just gotten back from a 2000 mile to South Dakota and Colorado (the day before). We were rained on quite a bit. There were no issues with the electrical system. But, now I will probably wonder every time the bike gets wet.

 

[Devildawg]

Carry extra fuses
Lol

Hahahahaha. I have a bag of them now

 

[HarryBo]

Hahahahaha. I have a bag of them now

Is there a recommended spare fuse inventory?

 

[TURBO200R4]

Did it ever start

 

[atomsplitter]

Blown fuses after washing a bike always concerns me... What happens if you end up riding the bike in a heavy downpour???? Obviously the water allowed something to ground out blowing the fuse. Can the same happen while riding?

Being the atom splitting nit picker that I am, please everyone note for future reference that water cannot 'ground' anything. Water has VERY poor conductivity. What can cause grounding is stuff IN the water like soap, minerals, salts and a raft of chemicals. The 1240 Megawatt main generator at Wolf Creek used water to cool its stator windings. The conductivity of that water was measured in micro-mhos (inverse of ohms (i.e. resistance)). Typical value of this coolant was around .007 micro-mhos, that's equavalent to 7E9 ohms (basically an insulator). Just my way of adding click bait.

 

[TURBO200R4]

Being the atom splitting nit picker that I am, please everyone note for future reference that water cannot 'ground' anything. Water has VERY poor conductivity. What can cause grounding is stuff IN the water like soap, minerals, salts and a raft of chemicals. The 1240 Megawatt main generator at Wolf Creek used water to cool its stator windings. The conductivity of that water was measured in micro-mhos (inverse of ohms (i.e. resistance)). Typical value of this coolant was around .007 micro-mhos, that's equavalent to 7E9 ohms (basically an insulator). Just my way of adding click bait.

Never gave it much thought over fifty years.
My friend had a 58 corvette and every time he went through a puddle the distributor (with points capacitor rotor and cap ) would crap out out do you have an idea on what happens?

 

[atomsplitter]

Never gave it much thought over fifty years.
My friend had a 58 corvette and every time he went through a puddle the distributor (with points capacitor rotor and cap ) would crap out out do you have an idea on what happens?

Likely the distributor wires were leaking assuming the distributor cap was water tight. If you pop the hood open with the motor running in the dark (at night), with very old distributor wires you can watch the wires arcing to ground some of the voltage (dazzling little light show) due to cracks in the wire's insulation. The motor runs, but if you arc enough energy to ground it stalls out. Now hitting a puddle under those conditions the arcing to ground has a better path through the ions in the water on the wires and the motor stalls. Just a hunch based on what I know about the coil power on older car systems and aged HT leads.

A higher probability is water hitting the points under the distribtor cap. The points have to open in order to collapse the coil field to power the spark plugs. If the cicruit is not interupted by the points gap opening then the coil field does not fire the spark plug. This happened to me with my first Yamaha XS650. I gave it a bath and it wouldn't start. Pulled the points cover off and sprayed some WD-40 on the points to displace any water/soap and the bike fired right up. If the points are worn any that exascerbates the problem.

 

[TURBO200R4]

i still tell a few customers to look under the hood at night to see the fireworks
ps sometimes you can hear it.

 

[Tripps]

Funny, many, many years ago, still a teenager, I think, I had a car that wouldn't start, an older friend who had a garage told me it was plug wires, I told him no way, it ran fine one day, wouldn't start the next. He opened the hood for me at night, lol, lotta purple lightning.