Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Stalled in the rain and wouldn't start

Hey gang,

Experienced the first problem with my 2008 TBA last night. I got caught in a rainstorm on my way home from work - first time I rode it in rain. After about 15 minutes of riding in a drizzle, the bike stalled as I was stopped at a red light and wouldn't start. I didn't go through any big puddles and it wasn't raining all that hard.

About a half hour after it stopped raining, the bike started right up and I got home. (just as the flatbed from the towing company was pulling up! Saved me about $250 by starting when it did...but still...)

I'm bringing it back to the dealer next week to have them check it over, but has anyone else experienced this problem?

Joe

Sounds familair...next time try unscrewing the gas cap to let it vent a bit.
It happened to Conwy and me on the same ride (it was raining good and heavy) and was easily resolved by unscrewign the cap.

I never did find a pinched vent tube...but then again I tinker a lot.

Just curious! Why would rain impact the gas cap???

The problem with the vent on the bike is it cannot breathe so it stops the gas running into the carbs. Underneath the tank at the front is a pipe, this is connected to the tank overflow and acts as a vent, if it does it again, just unsrew the gas cap and see if it starts up..

Could also of been rain hitting the coils or wiring

Gee, that's funny. My dealer just told me the gas tank vent problem had been fixed for 2008. A Triumph dealer wouldn't tell a fib....would they?

hmmm....did the dealer say how it was fixed?

The Kuryakyn gas cap is vented. Problem solved!!

I ran into the vent problem also, though not in the rain. I think it happened when I went through a puddle on a gravel driveway, at the Triumph dealer in fact! I parked, went in a bought my oil and filter, took off, and a half-mile down the road it was like I was running out of gas. The tube must have been just barely clogged, because the bike would sputter, die, restart, repeat. I had an idea that that was what was happening, but it never occured to me to loosen the gas cap. I just limped the mile-and-a-half home and cut the vent tube at 45 degrees. Cleaned out the tip-over valve to boot. Haven't had a problem since.

Thanks all for your help. Hard to believe that the problem can be fixed so easily - would think that the dealer would have run into this before, or that Triumph would have fixed it permanently...

30% chance of rain on my commute home today, so this is timely help...

Joe C.

I would be surprised if it is a vent problem. More likely there is an electrical problem. If it quits in the rain, it will quit under a water hose. My 06 TBA has 22+kmiles on it with a considerable amount of time in heavy rain. Plus washing with high-pressure washers ie carwashes and being left uncovered in the rain. No water related issues to date. However, if I do have a problem in the future, I'll look at my kill switch on the throttle control, then the interlock switch on the kickstand, and finally the plugs on the wiring harness associated with the ignition system. Beyond that I'll have to get a schematic and get serious with the troubleshooting.
I use my bike for the commute too. It is important that functions rain or shine. Stay on your dealer till he makes it right.

If it is a vent problem, it should consistently occur within just a few miles of a fillup whether its raining or not. There is a system that is supposed to reclaim fuel that spills through the overflow/vent line that might malfunction or be affected by moisture. I don't know the proper name for it but if your bike has that, there will be a black cylinder shaped device with wires and tubes connected to it underneath the air box mounted to the bottom of the frame behind the engine. I suppose if that didn't work right it might duplicate the vent problem.

Prepare to be surprised then...this is a COMMOM VENT problem! most always caused by the vent hose (that exits down the frame in front of the rear tire) getting "blocked" by water as it sprays up ...difficult to simulate with a "hose" or on a dry day! once the vent hose is blocked or pinched, it's like tring to pour gas out of a gas can without opening the vent...you'll get that 'glug-glug-glug' as it burps in air...however your poor little fule line can't burp in as quickly as your gas can can...hence the sputter-stall-die...wait a few an it starts again...air burped in and bowls refilled... it can also happen even WITH the "vented gas cap" (if its raining hard enough...but is SIGNIFICANTLY reduced)...change your cap and CUT the vent hose in front of the rear tire at a sharp angle (increasing the "hole" size of the tube...the Cylinder you refer to "under the air box" is only on bikes set up for CA emissions...
If you've been fortunate enough to put 22K on your bike without ever having this happen you are very fortunate indeed...most everyone else has had this happen...(and as a precaution grease the snot out of all of your ele. connections with dielectric grease

If you run an open air box, it could be coming in from the bottom if you have drilled it out.

I went back to a closed UNI filter, effectively making mine a "stock airbox" again, only with a UNI instead of the TRIUMPH filter.

Stalled in the rain twice, and the rain was not that hard, just wet road and road splash on the highway sogging the lower end of the UNI - it would start back up after a minute or two, but it did not take long to figure out what was causing it. I could see how the bottom of the air filter was washing out, and I had drilled the entire bottom of my air box out along with the bottom of the air filter.

my america would fail to start after washing....turned out to be a kick stand switch that didn't like getting wet.....

Firstly, thanks for this post as I remembered reading it and it kept me on the move today.

I have ridden in heavy rain before and no problems.

Today was exceptional, serious pis#ing down rain, with gale force winds coming from my right. On the edge of pulling over as it was very difficult to control the bike.

Bike started to sputter, very much the same as it does when you need to go to reserve. (Note) found out later I had around 7 liters of fuel left (normally goes to reserve with around 4 liters of fuel left) so that was not the problem. Pulled over and bike stalled.

Cranking OK, lights OK, neutral and sidestand switch OK (no cranking with those engaged). Tried cranking a few times no good. Remembering the trusty forum, opened the cap, cranked it over a and it started up. Went around 5kms, same thing. This time opened the cap right away and it started up instantly. Happened a few more times then the rain and wind let up a little and it was good. Filled up at the next servo and did not have any problems for the next 100kms.

As far as I can tell, the vent line is NOT pinched anywhere, so it has to be an issue with rain and wind combination blocking the vent line. Technically, this makes NO sense to me. Initially I thought electrical, and letting the bike sit for a minute, that the heat would dry whatever electrical problem there was. But opening the gas cap got it going pretty much right away.

I will cut the vent tube at 45deg as mentioned in the forum.

Just another note of thanks to this forum and its participants

This exact same thing happened to me while Gina was in Australia. A slight rain came up as we were riding back to Brisbane on the highway and my bike inexplicably died, only to start and run as if nothing had happened an hour or so later. Of course Gina & I immediately assumed an electrical problem, as did the dealer when I took it in a week or so later. It took them three days to find the cause, and it was a sheer fluke when they did. Turned out to be that vent tube below the bike, which over 4 years had collected dust, oil, etc from the road, and when it got wet the stuff swelled up enough to block the vent tube and took an hour or so to dry out. The take home lesson here is to wash underneath the bike too.

Thanks to everyone on this forum. My bike stalled in the rain on the way home from work today. I remember reading something about this problem but couldn't recall exactly what. My bike sputtered and lost power while I was on the move but still idled briefly before quitting all together. This made me think fuel, not electrical. I had plenty of fuel so it wasn't that, but I still couldn't recall the remedy for the life of me. I waited about 5 minutes, turned the petcock to reserve and she started right up and made it home. I logged on to the site, found this post and went to the garage to cut the 45º in the hose (and reinstalled my snorkel for good measure).
While under the bike, I also found the two hoses from the carbs were plugged with vacuum line plugs from the factory. I can only assume this was to prevent fuel from spilling in transit or leaking onto the showroom floor. It struck me as odd and I pulled them too. (Something you might want to check).
It is the start of the rainy season (on the wet coast) and I thought I'd say thanks and bump this thread to remind those of us with poor memory of this quick remedy.

This happened to me right after I bought my bike. Stalled fired after a few minutes stall again down the road. Got it to dealer next day they put lithium grease @ contacts in headlight bucket 4000 miles later no stalls in rain.

Bravura, those hoses with the plugs are the drain hoses from the airbox...one from the filter area, the other from the area at the carb intakes. Keep those plugs in the tubes otherwise road dust and debris can be sucked up into your carbs. The drains are there to remove any oil, or water, from the airbox...it's part of the dealer's maintenance routine

those plugs blew/fell out oh say 65,000 miles ago. never did get round to replacing them.