So I got caught at friends house and my bike had to sit out in the rain.  First time it has had to be in the rain and when I got on to ride home I noticed a incredible loss of power.  It will idle just fine and even accelerate normal but when I am going at a constant speed it will loose power for about 15-20 seconds and then run fine.  IT does this in all gears. Something is obviously wrong and I need help on where to start.  Fuel? Spark?  Unfortunately I was stuck and had to drive it like 12 miles home.  Didn't over heat or even get hot.  It just feels like the motor is constantly lugging and then will get better for about 30s and then go back to lugging.  The cycles were pretty constant. 
Please help and let me know if I need to give more information.  thanks in advance.

Quote from: metallimonster on August 24, 2008, 07:01:20 PM
So I got caught at friends house and my bike had to sit out in the rain.  First time it has had to be in the rain and when I got on to ride home I noticed a incredible loss of power.  It will idle just fine and even accelerate normal but when I am going at a constant speed it will loose power for about 15-20 seconds and then run fine.  IT does this in all gears. Something is obviously wrong and I need help on where to start.  Fuel? Spark?  Unfortunately I was stuck and had to drive it like 12 miles home.  Didn't over heat or even get hot.  It just feels like the motor is constantly lugging and then will get better for about 30s and then go back to lugging.  The cycles were pretty constant. 
Please help and let me know if I need to give more information.  thanks in advance.

Could be water in the tank.

Try some drygas...

and don't forget to check the drain line for the cap area.

Water shouldn't get in there.

It also could be a wet plug wire.

I pulled over really quick and did a quick check.  I pulled both plug wires and they were dry.  I did cover the bike with a sheet so it didn't get directly rained on.  I just gave it a really good once over and couldn't see anything out of place.  I'll try some dry gas and see if it that works.  When you see drain line for the cap area do you mean the gas tank opening?  It did seem to get better by the time I got home (it was dry the whole way) so maybe it was a wet wire but by the way it was acting it felt like it wasn't getting any gas. 

Quote from: metallimonster on August 24, 2008, 07:25:17 PM
I pulled over really quick and did a quick check.  I pulled both plug wires and they were dry.  I did cover the bike with a sheet so it didn't get directly rained on.  I just gave it a really good once over and couldn't see anything out of place.  I'll try some dry gas and see if it that works.  When you see drain line for the cap area do you mean the gas tank opening?  It did seem to get better by the time I got home (it was dry the whole way) so maybe it was a wet wire but by the way it was acting it felt like it wasn't getting any gas. 

Yes the filler area has a drain to prevent water from building up and entering the tank.

Your description sounds like one cylinder not firing intermittently.

Could be fuel or ignition.

I was thinking that it was one cylinder missing when I was riding home.  My feeling is that is more towards the spark side of things.  Something I forgot to add was that it was extremely hot and humid before it rained today and I know that the voltage regulators and coils like to drop out on these things.  Could it be either?  I'm guessing that the bike wouldn't run without the regulator and the coil would either be bad or good not intermittent.

Quote from: metallimonster on August 24, 2008, 08:01:47 PM
I was thinking that it was one cylinder missing when I was riding home.  My feeling is that is more towards the spark side of things.  Something I forgot to add was that it was extremely hot and humid before it rained today and I know that the voltage regulators and coils like to drop out on these things.  Could it be either?  I'm guessing that the bike wouldn't run without the regulator and the coil would either be bad or good not intermittent.

The bike will run until the battery dies...

The new regulators are pretty good compared to the older 2 phase. I doubt that was it.

I'm not aware of any particular coil issues with 620s.

See what it does tomorrow.

Yeah that was what I was thinking I'm going to let it sit overnight and try and take it for a test drive tomorrow before I take it to work.  Hopefully a spark wire was just wet and I was getting some resistance.  It will be hard trying to sleep tonight.  I love this bike and try soooo hard to take the best care of it.  Like I said this is the first time she had even been in the rain.  Other than a 2 minute drive one day.   It rained very hard today so hopefully it will just dry out and get better. I'll post up tomorrow and let you know whats up.  Thanks for the posts tonight ducpainter, I was pretty fing upset when I got home and now I feel much better.

You could try this: 

Start the bike, spray water on the coils and ignition wires with a spray bottle.  Misfire? You found the problem.

Quote from: howie on August 24, 2008, 09:17:38 PM
You could try this: 

Start the bike, spray water on the coils and ignition wires with a spray bottle.  Misfire? You found the problem.

That was going to be my next step after testing driving it today.  Didn't get a chance to this morning but will right after work. 

Does my bike have a  way to read trouble codes?  Does the ecm actually have a trouble codes?

Quote from: metallimonster on August 25, 2008, 05:12:20 AM
That was going to be my next step after testing driving it today.  Didn't get a chance to this morning but will right after work. 

Does my bike have a  way to read trouble codes?  Does the ecm actually have a trouble codes?

Some info is available with the factory scan tool or VDST software, but I don't think it will help.

I thought so, while I was a mechanic for 3 years I worked on Audi's and relied heavily on scan tools for diagnosis and repair.  Obviously I know how things work but I don't want to be shot gunning expensive parts at this thing. We'll see what happens when I get home and go from there.  I post up with some results later.  Thanks again.

Pull spark plugs.

Is one nice and one sooty and black and nasty?

I rode a 2005 M620 in all kinds of rain with no trouble at all.  The bikes are able to function just fine. 

If you're concerned about wet electricals, either shoot some WD-40 all over them and see if it improves.

In all seriousness, a regular bathroom hair dryer is a safe and effective tool to use to dry things out too.  They work well, but they don't generate enough heat to set something on fire or melt plastics.  Wouldn't hurt. 

I would also, as others suggested, drain the fuel tank and use some "dry gas" too.  HEET brand is a good one. 

I'm going to do a close inspection of the ignition system when i get home.  I really find it hard to believe that the tank got water in it.  I did cover the bike and the tank didn't even get that wet.  I know that it has had more water on it when I have washed it.  Plus the bike didn't stutter or stall which is what I think it would do with water in the gas.  I might be wrong though.  I'm going to pull the wires and plugs and check things out and if that doesn't work I'll drain the tank and use that stuff.  I'm really hoping that it will just run fine after drying all day today. We'll see though.

So I checked the plugs and they looked pretty good but I went ahead and changed them anyways.  Also put in  a little Heet do dry the gas.  It now seems a hell of a lot better and is only bogging down or lacking power very sporadically.  Couple of things.  First, I am just past 6k on my bike and haven't done the valve adjustments, second I can see the fuel pressure regulator from the chain side of the bike and there is a nipple that doesn't have a vacuum line attached to it (it was off before the bike started doing this),  and finally I got gas right before I got home on Saturday at a remote place in a small town.  I would say that that I probably drove about enough to get rid of the gas that was in it before I filled up (bad gas?).  Any suggestions?  Should the regulator have a line attached to it?

I also just cleared the drain line from the tank and it was semi-clogged. With bugs not water.  I'll test drive it again and see what happens.

Quote from: metallimonster on August 25, 2008, 04:18:54 PM
So I checked the plugs and they looked pretty good but I went ahead and changed them anyways.  Also put in  a little Heet do dry the gas.  It now seems a hell of a lot better and is only bogging down or lacking power very sporadically.  Couple of things.  First, I am just past 6k on my bike and haven't done the valve adjustments, second I can see the fuel pressure regulator from the chain side of the bike and there is a nipple that doesn't have a vacuum line attached to it (it was off before the bike started doing this),  and finally I got gas right before I got home on Saturday at a remote place in a small town.  I would say that that I probably drove about enough to get rid of the gas that was in it before I filled up (bad gas?).  Any suggestions?  Should the regulator have a line attached to it?

I also just cleared the drain line from the tank and it was semi-clogged. With bugs not water.  I'll test drive it again and see what happens.

The fitting on the regulator is a vent.

Give the heet some time...

water from the tanks where you filled is a distinct possibility.

water can hide in some crazy places.