Sunday, September 21, 2014

Water in the Intake

While riding in the rain on Saturday morning, I noticed a slight loss of power after about 30 miles of running around. No stumbling or missing. When I got back home I pulled out the air cleaner housing as it felt like maybe water may have clogged the air filter or something like that as it felt like it was running rich. The tubes the carry air to both carbs were wet inside and there was still a puddle on the inside of the air cleaner housing. Right now I'm unsure whether it is getting into the housing through the air intake on the bottom of the housing or through the engine breather. The breather hose has some evidence of moisture as there is some milky water/oil mix but only right at the air cleaner end of the hose. No evidence of water in the engine.

I'm thinking that since this only happened while riding in the rain, it must be from the air intake. For now I just cleaned everything up and put it all back together. Maybe I'll look into routing the breather hose somewhere else besides the air cleaner. I've noticed several homemade air cleaner housings that others have built. I don't know if this is a common problem or not. Maybe this bike needs a snorkel.

By the time this posts I'll be on my way to Minneapolis, MN, for the first half of the week for a couple days of meetings. The flight from Fairbanks to Anchorage was on one of the Horizon turbo-prop planes that some are complaining about. I think the flight was ten minutes longer but the plane was quieter. Probably what most are complaining about is no first class cabin…

The Anchorage airport had a couple of new displays such as this moose. I so rarely get to see other parts of the airport as I'm usually on Alaska Airlines. This time the MSP flight is on Delta.

 

4 comments:

  1. Have a good time on your trip.

    As predicted we are forecast for rain from Wednesday on.

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    1. Except for being on the "red eye", it should be a good trip.

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  2. RichardM....the air boxes on URALs have gotten better but still suck water in during rains. On my 2011, I tried re-routing the engine breather hose away from the airbox as you might recall. If you go that route, recommend you ensure the fumes don't pollute the air filter as they did on mine apparently. Lots of variations on this theme, just check on SovietSteeds. What I believe helped more was reversing the air scoop on the bottom of the air box so that the opening faces the rear instead of the front of the rig. YMMV, since you ride in rather more harsh conditions on a regular basis than I do.

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    1. I tried turning the intake around but it didn't sit flat without addind a small spacer which I diddn't have handy. But wondered if it would do any good.

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