my Norton doesnt like Rain

I had to ride back in the rain with my new 850 and it seems that my commando did not like it at all.

i got a lot of backfires and it would sometimes die off in idle.

even the next day it ways difficult to start. could that be an electrical issue due to the humidity ? i am running the stock airbox so i am guessing that
the carbs are tight.

My First commando used to do that when it was heavy rain. The misfiring stopped if you sprayed WD40 around the HT leads / Coils area, so that kinda proved it was electrical, although I never found a permanent solution. It did have a small innefective front mudguard though, which meant lots of spray around the front of the engine, perhaps a standard one would have cured it.

When i had a similar issue i spent time with a used Simple Green squirter bottle filled with water aiming in turn at anywhere i thought might be an issue.
In my case the wires entering the back of the points housing were allowing water to track down and short out the electronic ignition.

thanks for the feedback i am going too look at the wires this afternoon.

May have to wait till after dark. British bikes were designed for mostly foul weather. Last event like this for me was my buddy Wes getting 160 miles from home when a gas stop let the front we were racing catch us. We'd wait about 3 hours a stop for it to dry out and ran about 50-60 miles back home in cycles. Wes found his fault deep in wire tangle on a frame ground. Do remember when hunting its too easy to find the original fault yet create another to drive ya nuts. Oh yeah we found 3 faults on the road, Boyer wires, charger wire and a frayed ground connection that we fixed but there was a 4th in a row remaining. Also plugs tend to foul up after missfiring stalling, so may have found and fixed the fault but same symptoms till trying new plugs.
These things are as simiple as pipe organs sent on a tour.

Water gets into points cover where the wires enter the back. I sealed mine with RTV after the same issue, but after washing the bike.

hobot said:

British bikes were designed for mostly foul weather.

Click to expand...

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, good one Hobot. :lol:

An old hot rodder trick, spray spark plug and coil caps with heavy duty hair spary. Fixed the problem on my old flat head Ford. I am to old to try the Commando in the rail, but have it sealed up anyway. Don't forget to put the spray can back.

thanks saber i will try that with the hairspray.

now that i rode back from work the revmeter has died , i am guessing some rain must have gotten inside. there was water in the headlight too , so there are a bunch of thing i have to take care of

Hehe, visit England and tell me all BI cycles not made for foul weather too dang often and long. My bikes are water proof just as they came from the factory. Anyone that knows outdoor wiring knows to leave a loop lower than entery points or funnels water in instead of drip off first. Most water prone thing is the air box filter but that just gets sucked in to help decoke as you go. Water can enter head light switches and lamps but I've not had any issues and have been in too heavy rain to see so pulled over and stood up till front passed enough to ride on, no water in light no trouble starting. Same thing after power washes and water standing in plug holes.

C.R.C. , etc .

pre emptive .

get it in before the water .

We, at N-V , despaired of the problems caused by the "Prince of Darkness" (aka Joseph Lucas). I tried VERY hard to get the company to switch to Bosch electrical gear, but was shot down by the claim that "the Americans don't know who Bosch is". My response was that "they know Lucas produces junk because they've had to deal with it. Why not try Bosch?" Of course , suggesting Japanese electrical stuff would have been close to treason!

Had I succeeded in gettin Bosch generators, ignition systems et al, I think we'd still have been stuck with Lucas wiring harnesses, which were often full of mistakes, but they were simple enough that N-V could've made their own. Two guys full time would have been enough. We spent a lot more than that fixing Lucas QC issues.

British riders spend 80% of their time riding in rain, so someone must know the trick!

When I first learned where the points were and had a manual to refer to I opened the points cover to find a little rag in there, which made me scratch head on why, then in my innocence I thought, oh them cleaver humidity hounded Brits had a simple way to prevent water splashing inside. Then I learned the truth about cam seal by oil stain. I'm pretty impressed with Lucas endurance considering the cost efficiency for road craft but don't forget the Lucas also made world class avionics on their hi end contracts. My Nortons take rain and water crossing and power washing better than my SuVee twin, which has sunken deep plug holes that require a tiny drain that tends to clog then fouling begins then no run at t'all. Also Suzunki's issued SV's with 20K mile life rec/reg, about which time they strand you out of the blue. Signals wires are thread like with tiny connectors that behave like Boyer triggers wires. Some of the most tiddy color coded and gear head pleasing arranged I've ever seen was on an unmolested barn find 73 750 that showed up in Baxters while there for their rally and mechanic lifted the tank and both our eyes widened with the grins as the dust sprayed off for show room new revelation. If they'd just used some better alloy in the bullet connectors they may be the world's best looking most compact and handy road going terminals ever sold. If we can write a chapter in a manual on all of Lucas faults, into the Japan Motorcyle owners club for volumes and volumes of book length complaints recalls and substitutes. Not sure the Italians even bothered as all of it decayed pretty quick.

The most water proof test was done by my bud Wesley, after a rain low water bridge, just a flat slab, had less than a foot flowing over so took off and did fine till he/bike fell into a missing section of concert to the tank level, he nailed it and rear caught traction and lifted him back to grade and only stumbled some then cleared up fine. He still had the old air box which must of had just enough volume and over head air suckage. Wes said water had started to tip him over before clearing the hole, which would of washed him over the down side which was like 4-5 foot deep turmoil of foaming water that is not boyant enough to swim in even w/o the back wash eddie.

On SuVee, I tried an 18" deep river low water crossing, crossing kind of upstream diagonal to flow so could head into the current wth power which did good until just before opposite bank there was a dip in cement and bike started to sweep out from under me and align to current and flush over the edge but rear hit buttom in time to push us on up and out. That was pure stupid but what a lasting memory with water falls of spray parting up over head as I entered at like 40 mph but only 5 by the end. It did stumble some which helped add to the drama. Ah the sounds of headers under water...