Water around front plug = run like crap!

[filthyboatguy]

My SV sat outside in it's first rain shower today. About 4 pm I started it up, it never needs choke, and as it was idling it died. Funny I thought?

Started rolling down the road, low fuel light blinking, and it started to run really rough at low rpm (3000 and less), so off to the gas station I went.

Filled up the tank and it only took 3.2 gallons, not out of gas I thought.

Started it up and, POW, massive backfire!! Blew the front carb off the rubber intake boot!

Parked it, call the Wife to bring the tools, put the carb back. Started it up and it still runs like crap. Then I noticed the front spark plug seal wasn't seated correctly, this jogged the memory.

I read on SVrider.com that water seeps around the front plug and causes the SV to run poorly. Solution, run the bike and evaporate the water or blow the water/displace it (WD40) out.

I rode the bike for about 15 minutes and it started to run better, still had a low speed miss. Pulled the plug boot and shot some WD40 in there. Problem solved.

Any naked riders ever have this happen? I heard it dosen't happen on the SVS due to fairing protection.

Jeff

[bwarbiany]

Never seen it on the SVS... Heard about SEVERAL people on the naked that it happened too...

Seal the front plug with caulk/silicone around the opening. You'll never have a problem again.

Brad

[filthyboatguy]

Doing the 4000 mile service this week. Changed oil, cleaned K&N, washed chain in kerosene and waxed it.

I have the shop manual and it says to pull the front plug you need to disconnect the thermal time switch, the owners manual says nothing about.

Do you need to disconnect this when you pull the radiator forward to get to the plug? If so where does it plug in, under the tank. I haven't put alot of effort in tracing the wire obviously.

BTW the problem I was having (Weird acting SV posts), I now believe to be electrical vice bad (water in) fuel. I washed the bike today taking special care to avoid getting the front plug area wet, still got it wet, must have a really poor sealing gasket. Bike fired up and ran crappy, same symptoms as before. I pulled the boot, dried it out, a squirt of WD-40 and the bike was back to running perfect.

Gonna clean that plug area real good and dab some di-electric grease in the boot and around the gasket, should take care of it. It's a pity Suzuki hasn't done some sort of recall to fix this annoying problem!

After going back and forth for the past few months I have decided to sell this bike. I have a KTM Supermoto I enjoy riding much more than the SV, I don't need 2 bikes. E-mail me if interested, $4800 with lots of extras.

Merry Xmas everyone,

Jeff

[filthyboatguy]

Thanks for re-hashing my earlier misfortunes, seems I'm a slow learner.

Back to the purpose of my original post:

Do I need to disconnect the thermal time switch lead to get to the plug? Shop manual and owners manual disagree on this.
Don't wanna tweak the wires.

Jeff

[bwarbiany]

I've never disconnected that switch to change the front plug. I do recommend removing your horn, so you don't screw up the radiator when you pull it forward, but I've never had a problem with the switch.

Brad

[Reddog99]

The shop manual also says to be sure that the little triangle molded into the cap is pointing at the exhaust.

Pat

[cowgirl]

Does anyone know what happened? I was going about 85-90ish and all of a sudden my throttle just died. It went down to 60ish and I had trouble keeping it at that. I pretty much had to open the throttle all of the way to get it back to 80 for a few seconds and then it started wigging out on me and going in and out of power. The RPMs stayed at about 5-6 even when I went up/down in gears. When I stopped the bike it wouldn't start again unless you held the throttle continously. It wouldn't even really work when I opened the choke. The exhaust sounded puttery and there was no power.

And yes, there was gas in it. Can anyone help? I was stranded for four hours, I can't afford for that to happen again and I still don't know how to fix it!?

Any suggestions? I'd be very appreciative!:sad:

[orangetrak]

Was it raining? If so, your front spark plug got wet and you were probably running on 1 cylinder. Maybe some dielectric grease around the boot to prevent water front getting in? Some one also makes a front fender extender to prevent this. Hope that helps...

Cheers, Doug

[cowgirl]

yeah, it was pouring, we were trying to make it to the Long Beach show. We'd already been in the rain for an hour.

How long would it take for it to dry out. I started it up again after about 5 hours of sunshine and still had the same problems. I will try to do that tomorow and see how it goes...

Thanks! Hopefully it is that easy! Some of the guys think it might be somthing clogging the gas flow?

[Guzzigirl2000]

that totally sucks, glad you didn't have an accident
well my first thought was the gas but you covered that
so wow could be alot of things - bring it into the shop
unless you work on your own bike you'll be doing that anyways

[twf]

take spark plug cap off and blow hole with compressed air.also dry spark plug cap.

[orangetrak]

Originally posted by twf
take spark plug cap off and blow hole with compressed air.also dry spark plug cap.

What he said. The water gets in there and the spark shorts to everywhere but the plug. I'm pretty sure thats what it is. When it dries out you should be fine. Riding from LOMPOC? :eek:

Nice try anyway...:cool:

Doug

[tmonroe]

hmmm the spark plug <i>would</i> make it run weak, but it would still run.

Not out of gas by any chance, are you?

[twf]

no,because spark will happen at cap and water and not at spark plug.

[dnakase]

I'd go with anything Zoran (The SV GOD) says.

That and even if it was dry it sounds like a inginition problem. I had a similar problem with a vary low battery.

[filthyboatguy]

You got the plug wet. Happened to me all the time for some reason (cursed).

Pull the plug cap, spray in some WD-40, spray in some compressed air, put dielectric grease on the end of the plug and around the sealing boot. Pray for sunshine.

JT

[cowgirl]

Thank you everyone! We got it up and running again! Did what you all said and then put that grease stuff on it, so hopefully it won't happen again anytime soon. And no more trying to ride to Long Beach in the rain! Erg!
I don't understand why it was such a pain in the rear to get that dang spark plug out! Thank you all for your help...I would have been lost!

[wlk12]

Don't know if Vaseline is a dielectric grease or not, but that's what I smear around the front plug cover, etc. - seems to work.

Bill K.

[bling_thing]

Vaseline will probably eat away at the rubber.

Sex Ed 101.

[ridley]

I changed my plugs and noticed a large amount of water had been in the plug hole (HE HE). None when I changed it though just the plug was stained. I never had any problems so I guess everyone with a naked bike needs to check the seal between the plug and head. When you change it make sure its threaded correctly etc. I really don't have any thing to add except its been a while since I have been on the board and I wanted to add something.

[slogo]

I just picked up a 2000 sv650 and it is running terrible. It rode the 50 miles home just fine, but today I was riding it in the rain and the power started shorting out like i was running out of gas. Then it turned off when I stopped at an intersetion. I tried starting it and it was it took several times before I got it running. When I tried to twist the throttle it was like I had the choke all the way on, it just cut off. Then it started back up, I gently twisted and made it home.

The power was very limited on and off the rest of the ride. Anyone else have this problem, or some advice? I had a full tank of gas and the choke was all the way off. Thanks

[Smith]

Sounds like your front plug got wet..