new here, hope someone can give me some insight.

Drove my 2001 yamaha kodiak 4x4 sunday through some mud, and hit some water pretty fast afterwards, to get most of the mud off the under carriage before driving home. Did not want the black mud to dry before I could wash it off.

Ne way, almost home about 2 miles later, the engine starts to sputter, I thought low on gas, switch to reserve, but it continues to sputter,and then just dies. Try to restart, and just spins and spins like it is getting no fire.

I check the breather, and no water, so I figure I got water in an electrical connection that is keeping it from firing.

After sitting about 20 mins at my friends house, I try it and it starts and runs for about a min, then all of a sudden starts to die out again, and slowly dies. Try to re-start, and nothing.

Any one ever had an electrical problem after playing in the water, or is there something else I am missing? Could water in the belt housing cause this type of trouble?

Notice most say take out the drain **** to let water drain off the belt, but I pulled my cover and there was all kind of stuff in there like grass and stuff. But this was on another occasion not related to this one.

Help me please..

 

Hello and welcome to ATV connection.

I can only make a comment on one part. I've had water in the belt compartment and never has my atv tied out. When you take your plug out do you have fire when you make the atv turn over?

 

Could water have gotten into your gaz tank through a loose gaz cap or through the breather???

 

Take off the plug wire on the spark plug and check for water, dry if necessary. Reinstall the wire but coat the top of the plug wiht di-electric grease first to prevent water from getting in there.

Next find the coil (what the other end of the plug wire is attached too and see if its wet. There should be at least 2 small wires going to it, take them off, dry if needed and reinstall with some dielectric grease on them.

Next to check is the bowl of the carb. A single drop of water in there will cause the motor to sputter and stall. There should be a drain valve on the bottom of the carb somewhere, open it and drain the bowl (shutting off the fuel first) leave the valve open and turn the gas on and off a couple times to let a little more gas in to wash out the bowl.

If none of this works, you may need to take off the bowl of the carb alltogether to clean it and the jets out.

 

This was my next corse of action, and will be taken tonight. Just talked to my buddy, and he said it is running fine now, and has no problems. So that means it basicly has to be a wet connection of some sort...


Any other advice for playing in the water. Preventive things I can do to head off any other problems that could present theirselves?

What about the breather tube for the belt drive, any mods to keep water from trying to go down that tube?

Breather tubes, re-route them to somewhere else???

Silicone around the breather box???

 

Depending on the amount of water you go through you might want to do the snorkle thing. One thing to keep an eye on is your 2 tube that vent you belt compartment. After alot of riding they may get loose.......mine did.

Later

 

Funny you should mention that, I took all of the fenders and stuff off the front last night so I could get to all the electronics to put some di-electric grease on everything electrical, and got to looking and found that that pipe was loose, I am going to find a longer piece of rubber hose for it today, so that it does not have the tendency to come lose, as I think that is why it came loose, because it is just not enough to hold it.

Gonna try and get it back together in the next couple of days, as I don't plan to ride any in the next week, and taking the opportunity while it is naked to clean up some stuff.

 

Di-electric grease is one of your best freinds for playing in the water...dont forget to clean and coat the battery terminals too...along with every electrical connection you can find.

I extended every vent line on my forman to the upper headlight, as its the highest point on the bike...now I have a snorkle too. Run all your vent lines to the highest point you can and a snorkle is a great idea if your always playing in deep water.

 

I am thinking about coming up with a pressure valve box that I can vent all the vent tubes to, that will pop open at a certain psi and let off pressure. The valve would be a one way valve that would only let air out, and if anything tried to come in, it would not be able to.

I have been trying to work up some rough dimensions, plus get up a parts list of the things I will need. Really just need to find the appropriate blow off valve, kind of like a waste gate for a turbo'd diesel. And get the setub going. it would have to be a small one, cause I am pretty sure that not much pressure is let off by the three or four vent tubes...

 

THat happens to my Bruin everyonce in a while when I come up on some water too fast. It sputters and does act like its running out of gas. I just keep playing with the throttle and keep going. It usually cleans itself out after a little bit. It does sputter for a while though till its clean.