Some stuttering in the rain

[north-aurora]

I just came back from a circle tour of Lake Superior. Fantastic trip and lots of fun on 2,300 miles of riding. I only had one problem with my Valkyrie, and it was 200 miles from home on the way back. I rode through a pretty bad rain storm and afterwards the Valkyrie would stuttering when I try to accelerate. I would be able to keep it at around 60mph, but every time I tried to go faster it stuttered and almost felt like it might stall. It felt a bit like when you're running out of gas.

After a while (maybe 50 - 100 miles) this problem went away, and now she rides like she never had a problem! I assume that something got wet and caused the stutter. Is this something I should worry about and try to fix, or keep an eye on when I ride through rain. Has anyone experienced a similar issue?

[Robert]

I just came back from a circle tour of Lake Superior. Fantastic trip and lots of fun on 2,300 miles of riding. I only had one problem with my Valkyrie, and it was 200 miles from home on the way back. I rode through a pretty bad rain storm and afterwards the Valkyrie would stuttering when I try to accelerate. I would be able to keep it at around 60mph, but every time I tried to go faster it stuttered and almost felt like it might stall. It felt a bit like when you're running out of gas.

After a while (maybe 50 - 100 miles) this problem went away, and now she rides like she never had a problem! I assume that something got wet and caused the stutter. Is this something I should worry about and try to fix, or keep an eye on when I ride through rain. Has anyone experienced a similar issue?

I would check the wires since there is a resistor in the actual boot of the wire that may be starting to go bad. Take some water and spray it on just one wire at a time and see if you can duplicate the problem.

[Steel cowboy]

Check to make sure there is tee fitting installed half way up your tank vent hose. The tee does not connect to another hose but simply is there and it's purpose is to stop any vacumm from forming in the tank in a driving thru rain or a puddle when the bottom of the vent tube gets water in it.

[Skinhead]

Check to make sure the drain holes in the spark wells are open, if they clog with dirt, your plug wells will fill with water when it rains and short your plugs out.

[Patrick]

The vent line form the fuel ends near the swing arm. Cutting a couple inches from it has helped with the 'sputtering'. As mentioned make sure the vacuum break [ plastic T] is open] clear] to the atmosphere.

Also as mentioned make sure the drain holes in the cylinder heads are clear.  Make sure there is no water in the holes before removing the spark plugs. The drains can be reached from the bottom.

[Ricky-D]

Water, sitting inside your float bowls will do that until it is finally drawn out to where it can be no longer drawn up through the main jet. That's why there are drain screws on the bottom of each float bowl. To drain the accumulation out every now and then. You ask, where does the water come from - gas tanks in gas stations that are not well tended.

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[spongebob]

I have an 2003 STD... IF I go through a light rain for about 10-15 minutes mine will drop one cylinder at a time until she quits...... have to sit for about 30 after it quits raining..... Then she will fire right up...
I can then run 100"s of miles and never spit...... but that next rain..........she will quit...
I have sprayed the old gal with water when it is running........she  just keeps running with no problem....
Interesting to say the least......... The cuss words??....... well lets just say.... it ain't the least amount...

[Six Guns]

What Steel cowboy said.     It happened to me. My bike was torn apart, painted, and put back together. When putting it back together we forgot to install the plastic Tee and it quit on me during the first heavy rain. Had to open the gas cap to get it started to get me back home. Installed the plastic tee and have not had any problems.