Xt600E - River crossings - Bike stops

[mcgrath86]

1 month of ownership into my XT600E and im loving it. She's not perfect, but is solid and hasn't caused me any major headaches.

Here's my questions, which I haven't been able to answer anywhere else.

Went for a ride the other day and did some river crossings. First was maybe a quarter up the wheel, no issues. Second one was about at the top of the front hub and the bike stopped mid river.

I re-started, gave it some throttle, traveled about a bike length, stopped again. Walked it out, started it, it stumbled but gave it some throttle and all good.

Here is what I cant work out. From what I can see, the water wasnt high enough to enter the airbox and no water came out of the exhaust. Why is it stopping? I was with a XT660 Tenere and a G650GS, and they had no issues.

From reading something online, the only thing I can think of is maybe water was getting on the spark plug? Could this be my issues? And how do you fix it? Silicone grease?

Appreciate any thoughts

[Jens Eskildsen]

Do you have a breatherhose running down low ? That might be the issue. You can cut of of so its not so lang, or put in a "T" and run an additional line up high on the bike.

Make sure you dont have airleaks at the carb, thesse can also draw in splashes of water. Make sure the cable down to the sparkplugcap inst missing any insulation and thus shorting to frame.

[zandesiro]

Maybe your front wheel through some water above the engine to the air filter and get inside the engine intake...
Use less speed and buy the front fender extention to send less water to the engine!

[*Touring Ted*]

Does the bike start right up again ?

[turboguzzi]

a simple tip to find the guilty part:
when you are back home, start the bike and hose the engine area with plenty water starting from bottom towards top. if it stops at one point, it might help you to single out the problem.
Thats how i check that my road race bikes are "rain resistant"

but we dont have any water crossings in the circuits

[*Touring Ted*]

If you're only axle deep I can't imagine it being anything to do with the motor, air intake or even breather hoses.

It could be your side stand switch shorting out.

[shu...]

Originally Posted by *Touring Ted*

If you're only axle deep I can't imagine it being anything to do with the motor, air intake or even breather hoses.

It could be your side stand switch shorting out.

Ted's got it!

I rented a Yamaha XT600E in Kyrghystan about a year ago.



It did exactly the same thing- ran fine but on some water crossings it would die. Finally it died as we were trying to get over a 15,000 foot pass in a cold,wet, sloppy snowstorm. I was not happy.

It was the sidestand switch- wires rubbed bare by the rider's left heel.

We found the problem exactly in the way turboguzzi has advised: with a garden hose.

a simple tip to find the guilty part:
when you are back home, start the bike and hose the engine area with plenty water starting from bottom towards top. if it stops at one point, it might help you to single out the problem.

.............shu

[Jens Eskildsen]

Sound advice, didnt think of that at all, since all mine are bypassed.

Atleast you get to chek a few things

[mcgrath86]

Damn Ted, why didnt I think of that!

And I'll also take turboguzzi's advice and try to work it out with the hose. Man, you gotta love forums!

She's getting some love this weekend, so ill report back on what I find shortly

[mcgrath86]

Well...bad news. The hose trick didnt work , and I had such high hopes! In some ways I think I need to actually emerge it in water again and try leaning the side stand switch out of the water. Wont be able to try this until I go for another ADV ride though.

Today's test, breather hose

[bacardis]

hello, mine also stops, everyone I know stops.

in a workshop here they tried everything with an xt and they could not solve it

[Jens Eskildsen]

The bike in the video had poor idle even before the water was poured.

I never had a problem, and i love myself some water...
https://youtu.be/jxEm85zMTEc

[dzl]

Originally Posted by bacardis

hello, mine also stops, everyone I know stops.

in a workshop here they tried everything with an xt and they could not solve it

Hi all just to relay my experience with my 3TB XT600 cutting out on water crossings. I have done many water crossings as have taken my XT on a number of treks to far northern oz where there are many rivers/ creeks to cross. This was a big issue when I first started using this bike.

Im not sure what they are trying to prove in that video. Presumably to see if water is drawn into carb tubes at idle. The fact they are testing at idle/ no load conditions isnt proving anything as it isnt real riding conditions and likely a lot less vacuum as compared to loaded/ high rpm engine conditions..

I have found there to be a few issues which will cause the water crossing stalling.......

When I first took my XT through deep muddy water I found that the carb bowl overflow must have a slight vacuum under loaded conditions as it sucked up muddy water right up into the bowl. I know this as the clear tube was full of muddy residue and I had a fuel bowl with mud in it! Not fun pulling carb out on a remote rainforest track when being rained on. After this i screwed a small bolt into that overflow tube and no problem with that since. The other carb breather tube I ran to top of airbox rather than it hanging down.

The placement of the spark plug on XT's puts it in direct line of water thrown from front wheel and in deep crossings. You need to have a tight fitting spark plug cap that is also well sealed onto the high tension cable. The stock plug cap fits too loosely allowing water to get inside particularly when submerged. The spark will then go the path of the moisture and not via the spark plug! I replaced mine with a better plug cap and also used silicon to seal plug cap onto cable and also silicon on cable entry into ignition coil.

I can now take bike through very deep water up to battery height with no problem. I still have side stand connected and no problem with it. Also check and ensure the bungs are in place on airbox drains. Mine were missing when first got the bike. Obviously not good. See parts 39 & 37 here

https://www.partshark.com/oemparts/a...c78b04c/intake

[Walkabout]

Originally Posted by dzl

. After this i screwed a small bolt into that overflow tube and no problem with that since. The other carb breather tube I ran to top of airbox rather than it hanging down.



https://www.partshark.com/oemparts/a...c78b04c/intake

I had similar modifications when I owned a TTR600 - breather hoses need to be able to breathe.


The link probably needs some form of log in to display data = 404 not found.

[sushi2831]

Originally Posted by mcgrath86

Went for a ride the other day and did some river crossings. First was maybe a quarter up the wheel, no issues. Second one was about at the top of the front hub and the bike stopped mid river.

I re-started, gave it some throttle, traveled about a bike length, stopped again. Walked it out, started it, it stumbled but gave it some throttle and all good.

Hello

Same problem in 2002 with a rented XT600E.
Once the motor got wet it died.
Had to wait a few minutes and pull the choke and started again like in cold weather.
Not such a good feeling when all I could think about were salties.

sushi