What to do with a drowned bike! – OLD Bull Trailriders

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May 30, 2009 at 10:37 am #96500

Trent
Member

Hey guys,

My brother laid his 250excf down in a pretty big puddle/lake today and he’s not sure if it stalled before he went in or not and we couldn’t get the spark plug out so we chose not to chance it and he just called it a day. He tipped it up on the back wheel to drain it for a while but when he took the air filter off there was a fair bit of water in there.

So being the nice brother I am I’ve offered to pull it down for him so that it can be done asap since he wouldn’t get to it till next week and our mechanic is on the road with his race team.

I’m going to buy a spark plug socket tomorrow and pull the plug and drain the carb and I think from there I can give it a kick and see if there are any signs of water? If there is I’m expecting that I should take the top end off and give it a dry and spray down with WD40 then check and see if anythings bent, jammed or broken and if it has then I’ll be boxing it all up for the pros. If not ?????

Any tips for me guys? I’ll have a google search when I can to see if there’s any write ups but I’d like to hear what you guys have to offer or even be able to ask questions mid pull down if need be.

Cheers guys.

May 30, 2009 at 10:45 am #137369

Trent
Member

Ok not off to a good start – I just googled to find out what size spark plug socket I’d need and it seems that you need to have KTM hard parts thin walled socket to get to it

May 30, 2009 at 10:52 am #137370

Wayne
Member

If it hasn’t been laying in the river for an extended period of time or you haven’t tried to clutch start it down a hill, then, there wouldn’t be any need to pull it down.
I’d just put it on the back wheel and drain any water out of it. Then, just take the plug out and spray the plug and lead with WD40 or eviquivelant, then kick it over. Stick the plug back in, then take the air filter out and try to start it.
Note: for some reason, Dr D’s ktm300 started the strongest every time on the manual kick start, not the electric leg!
Things should be fine.
Crash

May 30, 2009 at 10:57 am #137377

glenn
Member

Austblue wrote:

Quote:

Ok not off to a good start – I just googled to find out what size spark plug socket I’d need and it seems that you need to have KTM hard parts thin walled socket to get to it

would one of them mower/whippersnipper tube spanners fit it?????
they seem to a fair few plugs

May 30, 2009 at 11:00 am #137371

drew
Member

as for the plug socket, if you know what size it is a cheap one from an auto shop.

the type like a piece of tube that has been formed to make a single hex. usually with 2 sizes. 1 each end, the have 2 holes in the middle and a short rod to turn it.

or a chiansaw shop will have similar stuff as to what i’m thinking of. but have the rod welded to it.

or you could buy a cheap impact socket in the size you need and grind the wall down until it fits.

May 30, 2009 at 11:04 am #137378

Wayne
Member

Plug spanner should be in your bum bag before you go bush fellas!!!!!!!!!!!AND A SPARE PLUG!!!!!
Crash

May 30, 2009 at 11:11 am #137379

glenn
Member

He`s right, had a mate that knew I carried one and the day his DT 200 shat a plug he just thought he would use mine and then discovered it didnt fit. long push back to the truck for the sake of a spark plug spanner…

As for the drowned bike . as long as it wasnt being used as a boat anchor, you should only need to drain the pipe,air filter box,carby and force any extra out of the plug hole, give it a spray with water repelent and away you go..

May 30, 2009 at 11:46 am #137381

Dean
Member

The latest ADB has a story on how to dewater your bike.

Not having a proper spark plug spanner for your bike is dumb,especially if it holds up 15 or so guys who want to keep riding,Happened at Wauchope last ride I was on,luckily rider x who was leading doubled back and got ol mate sorted.
Ballards do spark plug spanners for $15 dollars,yamaha ones have a hinge,not sure about KTM’s

Basic step by step procedure.

1 remove your airfilter to allow inspection of carby throat.
2 remove seat and tank to get to spark plug.remove plug
3 Tilt bike vertical,to drain exhaust,use starter to pump any water out of spark plug hole,replace plug when no more water comes out
4 remove carby drain plug,the correct spanner here also helps:(
5 wipe out any remaining water,between airbox and carby
6put tank and seat back on,try to start bike with filter off.
7.use clean rag and try and dry filter as much as possible.
8 put all remaining bits back on bike, keep roosting.

May 31, 2009 at 12:23 am #137387

Trent
Member

Ollie wrote:

Quote:

Not having a proper spark plug spanner for your bike is dumb,

Yep. Thankfully for me it wasn’t me that learnt the hard way but I have learnt anyway. I’ll be kitting my pack up before the next ride.

May 31, 2009 at 4:18 am #137408

Anonymous

I drowned my WR250 up at Sugarloaf once. Got it going again by doing all the above.

The main thing when I got it back home was the oil. There was definatly water in the oil and it took me 3 oil changes to get rid of it.

Make sure you change the oil before trying to fire it up and then check it again and change it as many times as necessary to get rid of any water.

old al

May 31, 2009 at 4:28 am #137439

murph the surf
Member

Good advice Al
Ive never drowned one “yet” but it would be very important to change the oil a number of times if neccessary if you wanted a full life out your machine.
Cheers
Murph

May 31, 2009 at 4:41 am #137372

drew
Member

heat will also help get rid of any water residue in the crank case.
as long as it’s not too much it will evaporate. without compromising the oil.

maybe once you get it ready to fire up again= fresh oil etc., pick a nice day, take it for a long but gentle ride with the filler plug out.

but you will need to tape a cloth or similar over the filler hole to stop dirt getting into the crank case.

i’m not sure how you’d go sitting a heater under the bike once the oil is drained to see if it will move any moisture???.

anyway my 2 shillings worth.

May 31, 2009 at 9:20 am #137440

Trent
Member

I bought a 16mm extended socket today and its not thin enough so I’ll have to pick one up from ktm tomorrow.

June 1, 2009 at 1:43 am #137458

Eric Smith
Member

What is this “water” you speak of? :huh:

Nah, actually it is pissisting down here today! I have not ridden in really wet conditions since about 1990, when we did the Harvey Ranges and the entire way was at least 6 inches of water! Luckily I had my stylish riding attire on at the time – overalls and gumboots! I did wear a helmet though! :laugh:

All good advice there, and we should all carry enough bits and bobs to get ourselves going in such an event. It is a looooong push home after all!

June 1, 2009 at 2:01 pm #137548

Trent
Member

The good fellas at KTM Newcastle were kind enough to lend me a spark plug tool since they didn’t have one they could sell to me so I went at it tonight. If you guys got to see my current work shed you’d laugh your arses off but its what I’ve got at the moment so I have to laugh. Its wide enough to get the bike in and just close the door but you couldn’t switch sides then and theres enough room to squat down on either side of the bike but that’s really tight.

Anyway so I pulled the plug and had already pulled the carby drain out then I drained the oil. I gave the starter button a hit and my arm was reached across the bike to get to the button so when the spray of water came out the spark plug hole it gave me a fair surprise

I kicked it a couple of times letting the water spray out then topped the oil back up and kicked it a few more but could here some swishing so I decided to pull the exhaust off. I’ve taken the exhaust off before so there wasn’t too much trouble there and when I got it off the header had about a cup of water in it still. With that off I gave the button a press for a while and used some tissue paper to absorb any water misting out still.

I figured it was time to give it a go since I wanted to take the spark plug tool back tomorrow so I put the plug back in and put the exhaust and rear shock back on and attached the fuel. It took a few kicks but it turned over then konked when I turned the choke off. I was still paranoid so I pulled the plug back out and took a look at it then sprayed some wd40 on it and into the hole. Since the air filter was off I decided to leave the choke on and after a lot more kicks I got it going and it sounded good so I shut it down. I took a look at the oil sight window and it was milky so I packed everything up then dropped the oil again and now I’ve left it to drain over night.

I took a look at the oil from the first dump and it had a bit of shit in it and when I first got the bolt off it pissed out water. I’ll try and find some cheaper oil tomorrow so I can do a few changes without it costing me a fortune throwing away the good motul stuff.

Has anyone heard of “cleaning oil”?
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