1980 GL 1100 loss of power during heavy rain

[Davebr]

i have noticed that when there is heavy rain, my bike losses power. This has happened several times and it's frustrating. About 10 min. later the bike starts back up as if nothing was wrong. I have not checked on anything yet (been busy and not riding alot) .. wan to resolve this issue for this year. There is no water in the tank, plugs are fine (new 2 yrs ago). I have noticed that two electrical components look like the epoxy has melted. Other then that, everything is running just grand.

any suggestions.

[Maz]

I suspect your coils are getting damp and 'tracking'. They dry out from engine heat when you leave the bike for 10 mins and it restarts fine. Try using a spray bottle to dampen them with the engine idling to see if this replicates the problem. If so, check the coil bodies for cracks. You can spray them with a water displacement maintenance spray (WD40 here in the UK) to keep the damp out, but if they are cracked, best to replace them.

The two electrical components are the spark units and they pretty much all melt the black goo out of the back! It doesn't affect their operation, but is designed to keep the internal components dry and help with heat transfer. You can pour some electronic potting compound in there and smooth it off before it dries or mix up some epoxy resin and use that (I did this on my CB750 dohc -same units) I also sprayed a bit of black paint into the mix to make it look original.

Maz

[Davebr]

Thanks Maz. I will look at this and see whats happening. I think it would be a good idea to change them out anyway.

[DenverWinger]

'Nuther thing that can go bad on these is the sparkplug caps. I had to replace mine after a couple started snapping sparks from the cap to the head instead of thru the sparkplugs when it was wet.

[Wilcoy02]

My 1100 did that and turned out to be cracked coil. If you have to replace the coils make sure you get the same# that is on the coils currently there. I did not and had problems until I got the right coils.

[CT1100]

The first thing I would check is the easiest and that is to make sure the drain holes are clear in each spark plug well.