I am looking at buying a 2003 suzuki eiger 400 from a friend of mine and he tells me that when you go through water,not high enough to go in the vent tube,the bike stalls and when you get out of the water it sarts right up. Any ideas why it would quit then start right up as soon as it is out of the water? Thanks

 

maybe a wire is shorting out when it hits the water?

 

Buy some water proofing electrical spray and give the wires and connections a good going over,and see if that helps.

 

I read online somewhere that it could be that water gets into bottom of the carburetor . I see this one doesn't have a hose on the bottom of the carbueretor. Could it be that it needs a hose that comes out of the bottom of the carburetor and runs above where water levels might reach.

 

Water can get into the carb from the hose that attacts at the top of carb and is router up by your airbox. This is NOT your problem because it still would not start until you drain the water out of the carb. The hose that is 'missing' is just a drain line for draining the carb. bowl. Both of my Eiger's do not have the drain hose.-- not needed.

It does sounds like it is shorting out like Jacob stated. Does it quite when going through small water holes? Like at foot pegs or lower? Or just when it is close to seat level? You might be able to pin it down some to try going into different water levels to see when it dies out on you and then you'll know the water level where at could be shorting something out.
Is the drain plug on bottom of air box installed?--

 

Get some dielectric grease and coat all of your electrical connections...even put some in the sparkplug wire cap and snap it back onto the plug...you are getting a temporary short from the water hitting a connection

 

I will try it out in water to see how deep i get b4 it quits and get some dalectric grease and try that. I just bought it from a friend at work and he tried to describe how deep he got it b4 it quit,it was below the seat was all he could be sure of. He took it to the dealer and they sprayed it but couldn't get it to quit, I also noticed that the pull cord handle doesn't seal tight over where the cord comes out on this one like it does on my Polaris. I could definitely see water getting in there.

 

water in the pull cord housing/cover wouldn't affect anything electrical would it? the magneto and stuff is under another cover sealed under the pull rope cover isn't it?

 

Not sure about a Suzuki but on a Polaris,if water gets in the recoil thought the rope hole ,you can submerge your, Stator,pulse coil,flywheel, and Bendix drive in one shot.

 

The pull rope is NOT a sealed unit on the Eiger. The housing is not sealed at all. The stator, flywheel, ect is all inside of engine cover.