1. Bikes cutting out in rain - Dielectric grease in all connectors
2. Bikes cutting out in dry conditions - check battery terminals, pinched gas tank vent line, kickstand switch
3. Bike won't start - sidestand switch, fuse, chafed wire in headlight bucket
4. Bike runs for a few minutes and dies. Loosening cap resolves problem. - Problem is pinched tank vent usually after something was done requiring tank removal/install.
5. Loss of spark - CDI, pickup coil, or ignition coil(s) see note below
Here's a sort of extension to #4:
Quote:
From: Reido113
here is the post.
http://www.bonnevilleamerica.com/forums/...p;page=0#121342
I'm sure you remember my recent run in with the bike dying in the rain problem, 1300 miles away from home. Anyhow, it for sure was water from the road clogging the fuel vent line. When it happened to me again, I was waiting for it, I loosened the cap and yep, that was it. It started running just fine again. I pulled over and cut the Vent hose at a long angle about 2 1/2" up the line (with the angle and opening facing the rear) and no more problem. I have since thought of a new solution too, Brents vented fuel cap would fix this issue also. As I'm sure you know, you would still need the vent line for overflow purposes.
I hope this saves some others all the headache I had figuring this out.
Reid
#5 Notes: Loss of spark usually is a symptom of a CDI going bad. However, a bad coil may cause the same. Experiance has shown that when a coil is defective, the symtoms usually show up when the coil heats up. Seems the loss of spark is intementant and almost resembles a fuel issue. Spark plug wires age and gain resistance. Spark plugs go bad. The CDI goes bad. Symptom of which are loss of spark on one plug. The Hals effect sensor located under the right engine cover does go bad as well. Member Mike from Minnesota had a spark problem. His was unique in that he lost spark on both plugs simultaneously. Mike diagnosed a defective pick up sensor. Here is his thread and his diagnostic procedure: no spark - what I've found 
