Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Ready for my next ride in the rain

The new spark plug cables came today from RockyPointCycle.com for Brigitta, my 1987 R80 who has had "issues" when riding in the rain, specially if she's sat in the rain for a while getting soaked.

I did some research on the airheads archive site, posted questions on the airhead list and the consensus seem to be to replace the existing spark plug cables with new ones. After all, I had already replaced the cracked coil and ignition control module. Those were usually the culprit of rain-related sputtering/failing to hold idle issues on these Airheads.

The new cables were $16 so it's a cheap thing to try and make Brigitta scoff at rainy days. I used dielectric grease on the connectors for the new cables, on the plugs themselves and the coil towers as well. Anywhere I saw exposed wire on a grounding point, I covered with dielectric grease as well.

This should leave only one issue that arises when I ride the R80 in the rain, somehow water is getting under the gauge lenses and fogging them up a bit. However, if that's the only thing that happens untoward in the next rainy day, I'll be happy.

3 comments:

Derek said...

Good luck. Hope your efforts solve the major part of the problem.

irondad said...

Are those the cables that come with little umbrellas attached?

redlegsrides said...

Irondad....why yes, they are....German engineering at its best! ; )