Dead in the water

[01ps]

My 85 250es has been working great. Took it into some deeper water today, and when the water got to the side covers, about the level of the main fuse, it died instantly, like I turned the key off. No missing, nothing, just died. The trike electrics were totally dead, neutral light would not turn on, nothing. My winch still worked fine, it is wired direct to the battery.

I got pulled back to the bank, checked my oil, spark plug wire, airbox, etc and found nothing abnormal. Held the throttle wide open and turned it over in 30 second bursts, and about the third try it fired and ran, but missed badly (maybe becasue it was flooded, but sounded more like an wet ignition miss). Held the throttle open a bit, kept it running, and in 3-4 minutes it was fine, worked perfect the rest of the day.

Any idea what might cause this type of problem?

[Russell 350X]

Sounds like you just got some connection somewhere wet, let it run for a few mins and it dried out. Mabey a coil wire??

[Erics350x]

Wet spark plug boot

[WaimakRydah]

lucky it started back up for you coz when i drowned my 200S i made the mistake of letting off the throttle while the exhaust was under water...

[01ps]

Why no battery power until I got it out of the water though. A wet ignition wire explains the miss, but there must be a short somwhere in the 12v system? Is there a circuit breaker for the main fuse?