Misfiring TL

So on my way to work this morning and halfway there my TLs starts backfiring heavily ...

Pull into hard shoulder and it is running rather roughly at idle ... let it sit for 2 mins and then head back off to see if I can make it to the work ..

On the way there it feels rather unresponsive, like it has about half the power, so I'm guessing I've lost a cyclinder .. ?

Never happened before, what can be the main reasons for this? Last night was really windy and rainy and the cover got blown off the bike (sits outside) so could it be some water in the electrics?

How do I figure out what's happend?

If it's running on one cyclinder should I risk riding it gently 40 miles home of get Green Flag to take it?

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Could be water in the fuel?

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Could be ...

Fual light is on ... need to go fill up.

First option really

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Yeah, water in the fuel or water in the electrics would be the first things to look at.

Do TL's have a reserve tap? If so, and you just switched over, then it's almost certainly water in the fuel. The way the tap works, is it draws fuel from a higher level until you switch the tap. ignore that if it doesn't have a reserve tap!

Drain the tank before filling it, then you can have a look. Buy a jerry can if you have to. You'll readily see any water in the fuel, there's a picture somewhere on here of what water looked like in some fuel I drained out my divvy if you're not sure, but i can't use photobucket at work. Search will get it.

If the fuel you drain looks OK then you should start looking at electrics, maybe something simple like dousing the front plug cap in WD40, if TL's get that issue?? I hate electrics

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I used to be BlessMyCG, long ago in a dark place.
Love, peace and unity!

Pretty sure my TL just had a blinky fuel light to tell you to fill up.

Water in the leccys was always a problem riding 80 kawasakis in the pissing rain (not helped by the dodgy coils) so it's feasible that it's something like that. WD might tell you that that's where the problem lies but may not be a long term cure.

Front cylinder dropping out in the wet is not an unknown problem on TLs, it seems. It'll probably come back when it dries. Diablo has previously mentioned that it happens on hers.

Thanks folks!

tis sat outside the noooooo

shall take it too the local garage for a tank of fuel and then give it some WD40 all over and see what it does!

Shall report back later

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So it was sat outside all day at work.

On way home dropped into garage and filled up.

rode the 40 miles home, in the last 20 miles it fired up again for 1-2-3 secs and then died again 5-6 times ...

Going to put the heavy covers over it for the next few days and take the motor to work, see if it's dried out by sat and then see if it works . if not then get the spanners oot.

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Spray WD under the plug caps. literally pop them off, douse, pop them back on again. No spanners involved on a (relatively) unfaired bike.

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I used to be BlessMyCG, long ago in a dark place.
Love, peace and unity!

Common fault on the Suzuki V twin, water in the front cylinder plug hole which also capilliries up the HT lead. Use a scredriver under the plug lead to pop it out then as already said plenty of WD40 to drive out the water which is allowing it to short onto the cylinder head rather than going down the plug electrode. A small tin of WD40 under the seat hump for future use is a wise move.

Cool. Checking the fiche tha nooooo!!

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Forgot to mention make sure the arrow on the plug cap is pointing down as it is the drain point on the rubber cap. Do not yank the lead off by hand use a lever as it stops pulling the HT lead of the cap.

Ta.

How much bodywork removal does this require?

It's park outside on the road (no drive/garage) and unless I do it in the dark with a torch it's going to have to wait till the weekend ...

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IIRC just the side panel but it has been a while. Worst case is undo the bolts which hold the rad on and it will move down so you get better access. No need to undo any hoses or anything it is designed to move fully connected.