Here's the deal, a buddy of mine got a warrior a few days ago. Its been pretty beat up for a '98. It runs good though, well until today. We rode around in the mud today for a good hour at least, through some good water, all kinds of nasty stuff. On our way out, his Warrior just died, wouldn't start back up. So we pulled him home. I thought maybe just water in the carb, so we cleaned the carb, the airbox, which had a little water in it, and even drained the oil. Upon putting everything back together there was no spark, although I swear before tearing it apart that was the first thing I checked and it had spark. Either way it won't start now, and without spark it never will, I can put my finger in the plug wire, and nothing. A few things about this bike, the wiring is all funky, has some issues which I've found already. The starter selenoid is shot, so we short across it to start it. Since I have a Warrior as well we switched selenoids and still wouldn't start with the button telling me something is wrong with the switch. Took it apart and found nothing wrong though. Either way the bike ran great today, so I'm guessing it was the water. Is there anyone that can help me out and tell me what to check next or how to trace down the problem. I know its not gonna be easy when its an electrical issue. The only thing I know to do is start swapping parts, but I hate taking 2 bikes apart.. thanks for any help you guys can give me...

 

How long did you wait before you tore it apart? You make it sound like you towed it home and started pulling parts off even before you gave it time to dry out.

Something easily could have gotten wet. The ignition probably got soaked or something, or you sucked some water in. Either way if it's running fine now it probably dried out.

 

Well I pretty much tore it apart when we got home, but that was just to get the water out of the carb mainly, figured since the air box had a decent bit in it, that was the problem. I mess with it a little more today, maybe that is all it was, just needs to dry out some, although I always thought everything was really sealed tight from water.

 

Okay..update...took and switched everything we could from his bike which is not running to mine and each time mine started right up no problems. Even switched the stators and it worked fine. The only switch we haven't swapped is the clutch switch/parking brake. Everything else was swapped and worked fine. The only thing left is the wire harness, is there any good way to test this without swapping, that would be such a pain, a big pain and something I really don't think is necessary. Any other help would be grateful..thanks