Getting started in the rain....problems

con1982

Hi all,

I have a six year old Bandit 600. I park it on the street with no cover. Having problems starting it recently with all the rain. Battery is fine.

How much of a difference does putting on a cover make? Anyone had similar problems in the past?

Conor

faceman

From my experience, a cover is really only protecting the paint work on the bike. Ive never had excessive rain hinder me starting the bike or a hinder performance. But then again that's just me.

nedned

i have a bandit 600-10 years old.i have mine under a cover.and one morning last week after a night of rain.when i started it i cloud hear ht arking.which caused it to nearly stall.after a couple of minuites it ran fine.but i did notice when it gets wet it can be harder to start.

Hotblack Desiato

It's a fairly common problem on Bandits parked out in the rain. There's a drain hole in each spark plug well which runs down and towards the front of the engine. If any rain gets into the spark plug well, the hole is supposed to let it drain away, but it often gets blocked. Solution is to unblock the holes with a little piece of wire, or compressed air if you have it. The left hand cylinder is where all the water flows towards when the bike is parked on the side stand, so that's the one most likely to give trouble. You might have to take the plugs out to clean them if the insulators are manky. Just make certain there is no crud in the spark plug holes before taking the plugs out, otherwise it will fall into your cylinders...

Steffano2002

ninja900 wrote: »

It's a fairly common problem on Bandits parked out in the rain. There's a drain hole in each spark plug well which runs down and towards the front of the engine. If any rain gets into the spark plug well, the hole is supposed to let it drain away, but it often gets blocked. Solution is to unblock the holes with a little piece of wire, or compressed air if you have it. The left hand cylinder is where all the water flows towards when the bike is parked on the side stand, so that's the one most likely to give trouble. You might have to take the plugs out to clean them if the insulators are manky. Just make certain there is no crud in the spark plug holes before taking the plugs out, otherwise it will fall into your cylinders...

Excellent advice there ninja900! Will be carrying this out on my Bandit myself seen I lose cylinder 4 when it rains profusely (which is far too often these days)!

con1982

Thanks fo that.

When i lifted the spark cap the inside was very wet. Dried it out now. Seems to be working fine.......

jambofc

if its wet inside plug cover ye need new plug caps and ht leads
spray the whole area with wd-40 and it will get ye going for a while

Limerick Bandit

jambofc wrote: »

if its wet inside plug cover ye need new plug caps and ht leads
spray the whole area with wd-40 and it will get ye going for a while

Why not just put in new plug caps
are they not just thread in?

thebandito600

I have a bandit as well and i find havin a waterproof cover stops the rain gettin into the plug caps in the future.With all this beautiful weather we're having it might not be a bad idea

jambofc

Limerick Bandit wrote: »

Why not just put in new plug caps
are they not just thread in?

i think de bandit is a sealed ht-lead and plug cap and there very expensive for wat they are