I ran thru a water filled gully (not deep at all) with some friends last weekend while out on an all day trail ride. I've got a 2004 400TBX that's never seen that kind of all day torture so I was almost to tears when "faithful" decided to start cutting out on the high-speed romp back home (high speed for me is 51 MPH with my hat tucked just over the speedo). Out of twelve riders, I was the only one this happend to!

Anyway, I backed out the drain screw on the bottom of the carb per a suggestion from another to drain some gas in case there was any water sitting in the lower chamber but that didn't work. If I baby it I don't really get any issues until it's been running for quite a while but I can't rape it by any means or it'll start puking on me. I checked the air filter compartment and there was no water sitting in their either.

Since I'm quite new to tearing these things up I thought I'd run my misfortune past some of you fellas for some advise on what else the problem may be. I thought it could be electrical but I let sit in the sun all the next day and nothing came of it. If you need more info then just ask as I'm subscribed to the thread in case anyone responds. Thanks for reading and tread lightly - God is watching us ride!

 

You probably got dirty water around the spark plug or coil boots and it started arcing and once it arcs it carbon tracks. You don't notice it at low speed because there is enough spark to fire the plug and arc too. At high speed requires a hotter spark and ont enough to fire plug all the time. In a real dark place look at the plug and see if there is any arcing with the engine running of course.. Change the spark plug and use dielectric grease in the plug boot and around the spark plug insulator.

 

Thanks Bear, but I forgot to mention that I did replace the spark plug. My cousing thought it started acting worse after the new plug but I didn't think so. I'll look for any arcing going on outside the electrical system. If all else fails I'll just drop it off at the shop and learn a lesson to never go romping thru water with nothing to prevent this kind of crap from happening. It's not easy finding the exact culprit for stuff like this but I do appreciate the two cents!

 

Did you wipe off the dirt on the spark plug boot and use dielectric grease? If not, the carbon trackining remains and the new plug will not help and it could be worse because of oil off your hands from handleing the plug and boot. You can get dielectric grease at the auto parts store and I highly recommend it for the ATV application. I learned it really helps in a marine (wet) enviroment and water, no matter where it is is wet.

 

I haven't done that yet - and I will. Matter of fact, I'm going grease everything I can to reduce anymore problems like this. My wife doesn't like me running the quad in mud and water but I always tell her it's hard to keep big cats out of the water. I don't like too much mud because I can't stand spending six bucks getting it all blown off at the car wash ;-) Maybe my next purchase will a pressure washer for the home.

Thanks Bear!

 

Yeah, a pressure washer is ever so useful, unfortunately my wife knows some other uses and requires them too. But it isn't all bad, she rides and even washs her own machine off all by herself, even tells me to back off as she can do it just fine by herself and when she have a pressure washer wand in the hand, you back off.