Help! She didnt want to start

[Frankt07]

Let me start on friday night. i was talking to my uncle about the combined wattage i had between my headlight (80/100) and my light bar (55w ea.) so i started up the bike to show him the light output. she wasnt real cold because i had put her away a couple hours earlier. she was only on a couple of minutes but she started like she normally does without a problem. she had a couple hiccups and would turn off, but im guessing it was because she was fairly cold and i hadnt pulled out the fast idle to start her up
Skip to this morning when i was getting ready for a ride. i took her out of the garage and was getting ready to leave when we got hit with a pretty good rain shower. she was stuck outside because we were going to go anyways once the rain slowed down a bit. once it did, i jumped and tried to start.......nothing. she would turn over and over but wouldnt start. after several attempts with and without the fast idle i brought her back into the garage and began looking to see if i had a blown fuse and even checked for fouled plugs. when i pulled out the plugs i noticed they were wet. i blew the intake side plugs dry with the air compressor and re-installed them........nothing. kept turning over but no crank.
Fast forward tothis afternoon (4:30pm) when i came home from an outing and i tried to start her up again. after a couple of attempts, she fired up!
alot of black smoke (im thinking from being fouled earlier) but she fired up!
can anyone help me figure out what could've happened? i really dont think it would be from sitting in the rain. she has been caught in the rain before and no problems.
Thanks for any advice

[QKENUF4U]

sounds like you may have a connection that got wet and NO MORE SPARK. and yes your right the black smoke is from fuel that was being sucked into the cylinders but not being burned from no spark.
not everythign is water-proof on a bike

[MFolks]

Wet aircleaners will make it run rich. Corrosion on both battery terminals reduces the starting current. Take a brass bristle brush to the battery posts and check the connectors (the bullet type and the square or rectangular type) for the green crud corrosion. A spritz of electrical contact cleaner(not WD-40, don't ask me how I know) will improve starting next time.

[Frankt07]

im hoping i think i may have run into what happened. as i settled in, i decided to go out into the garage and pull all the plugs. they were all black and smelled bad. i cleaned them real good and re-installed them. added some seafoam and ran her for a few minutes.
i think what happened might be a part of what looks like a design flaw. im thinking water filled theexhaust side plug holes and since the plugs have 17K miles on them, water seeped in between the porcelain and the threaded metal part and might have shorted out the plug. im also guessing this short caused the ignition coils to not have sufficient power for a proper spark.
looks like i will be replacing the plugs real soon. i think its about time anyway

[QKENUF4U]

you found your problem. had nothing to do with the plugs per-say just the water in the holes taking the spark away from the plugs and grounding them out.

[zedx11]

did you make sure the drain holes were clear?

[Frankt07]

Originally Posted by zedx11

did you make sure the drain holes were clear?

what drain holes?
i also noticed when i had the throttle body cover off, she would spit out water from what appears to be a crankcase breather

[A2rider]

Hold on, he'll be here in a minute!

[QKENUF4U]

hmmm check your oil and make sure its not milky. if it is then your gonna have to change that and figure out how the water got in there.

there will be small drain holes on the side of the head that lead up to the spark plug wells. they are meant to drain off water.

[zedx11]

what he said

[Frankt07]

ok. if i remember i'll check it tomorrow evening. its too late now and i've 1 too many coronas. if i start looking, i'll start taking cr*p apart that i wont know how to put back together...LOL

[LoudFastUgly]

Just for clarity's sake, I thought I'd add that I'm pretty sure Frankt07s' not talking about Corona:

discharge, frequently luminous, at the surface of a conductor or between two conductors of the same transmission line, accompanied by ionization of the surrounding atmosphere and often by a power loss.

I think he's talking about beer folks.

[Frankt07]

i checked the weep hole and it was draining good.
in talking with a reputable mechanic at the shop i bought the plugs at he said th epossibility lay in that it was raing so hard that the water came in faster than it could drain out filling my plug boots with water causing the spark to fail.
i replaced the plugs and filled the boots (on his recommendation) with dielectric grease. i just put 400 miles on her this weekend and not a problem. even getting caught in a couple downpours.
fill those boots up with dielectric grease folks. a couple dollars on atube is nothing compared to a bad time getting stranded due to a litte water

[A2rider]

Thanks for the update, glad everything worked out.