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A tip for bikes that stall when they ride through water. Instead of re-routing the carb vent hoses to the airbox you can fix it for good. Get a T-Joint at the hardware store for a buck and some extra vent hose. Try and identify which line(s) are vents and which are overflow lines by simply blocking them with a finger or sticking them in a cup of water one at a time till the bike dies. On most carbs there's only 1 line that does most of the work. Splice the t-joint it in to the vent line at least 4" (10cm) away from the carb (keeps dirt from getting up into the carb from the vent line) and run one line to ground and another up near the headstock. You shouldn't have any issues with stalling when getting wet and randy anymore.
This is helpful advice. I had issues with the breather hoses on my mikuni carb. Riding in rain could clog the hoses for a while. I cut them in an angle at the end and it solved the problem.
Excellent video! I haven't drowned a bike in 40+ years, and back then it was sooo much easier to access the spark plug, carb, fuel lines that we rarely actually got water inside our 2 strokes. We usually just pulled spark plug, drained carb and kicked the engine over. If there wasn't much water, we put in one of the spare plugs. you always had spares because they fouled a LOT! Then we put bike in second gear and had buddies push until it started. Terrain wasn't as technical back then either. Ahh the simpler days.
@@crosstrainingadventure Yes, and my knuckles still bear the scars of open end wrenches slipping on the cylinder bolts and splitting on the sharp casting tags of the cooling fins. Ahh, the good ole days 🤣🤣
A good hack is installing a water drain plug (bolt) at bottom of header pipe. Weld a 10mm nut on header pipe drill an 8mm hole through the nut in the header pipe insert 10mm bolt through nut to seal hole. I think that's is how to do it. Water in exhaust. Remove bolt to drain water
As always, great advice. I learned my lesson about underwater obstacles. I tried to wheelie across a deep, muddy water crossing. At about ten mph I t-boned a hidden ten pound rock with my rear wheel. After that I had no problem checking for underwater obstacles. Great video for riders of all levels.
Pre-prep: put *dialectic grease,* NCP2, or similar on all your electrical connections. Stuff the connectors full from both sides if you can and consider taping over them afterwards. Added plus is that you will almost never have to scrap your battery terminals again if you did a good shiny cleaning and coated them with this. FYI: Fancy expensive "irrigation" wire nuts rated for submersion are just regular wire nuts + dialectic grease + some kind of tab to mostly keep the grease in. No reason we can't steal that knowledge and use it to our advantage.
Agreed, but to add to this, dielectric grease prevents water to get in electrical connectors, but also it potentially can prevent water to come out if water did got in. But I generally agree with this trick.
after the hours I lost yesterday greasing the swingarm and rear suspension on my 690, I'm 100% positive that I'll avoid water/river crossings as much as possible....
Good stuff, I've always refused to accept the fact that (I) could drop my bike in deep water so I've never prepared myself for the outcome. I'm going to my shop now and rethink my tool kit selection now. Thanks again!
I swamped my mighty bush pig last fall. Hit a large rock, lost footing and fell over. Thankfully the motor died beforehand. Drained the airbox, rang out filter, pulled a plug and cranked over to clear cylinder (that was a sight to see.. was a huge geyser). I had to ride it a little over a mile as the terrain was rocky and hilly and we weren’t pushing it. Only thing I wish we would have done was drain out the overfill of the case. It was way over the sight glass and then some. At home flushed with many filterless oil changes. Someone also recommended overfilling the case with diesel BUT NOT STARTING IT and dumping it. Diesel doesn’t strip the internals of lubrication. I did that twice and after 7 oil changes. It ran clear. Surprisingly my carb was pretty clean. A little bit a dirt around the slide but that happens naturally anyway. Also I changed my plugs. Glad I didn’t kill the pig. Rode it the next weekend on a 150 mile ride through a forest at a sanctioned event.
Good points but I'd add that it's easier to dab when sitting, (valuable when you hit unseen objects) your center of gravity and balance is better/lower when sitting, (more important on faster moving streams where angling downstream isn't possible) and most newer riders are more used to sitting. Hence I'd suggest for newer riders to sit.
@@pollepost Have you? Would you prefer conductive grease in an electrical connector? Dielectric (nonconductive) grease is; depending on manufacturing specs the correct prevention method. It's not supposed to be part of the circuit but an insulator around connections. It's waterproof, resistant to corrosion, and thermally stable up to 500°F.
@@crosstrainingadventure I just posted the same thing above before seeing this. I'm a mechanical engineer, spent half a life as a commercial fisherman in Alaska, and now work as a skilled machine repairman. So I think I've enough qualifications to say *that is the right thing to do.* You won't even be able to measure the difference in connectivity on a fluke multimeter, so unless you are building nano scale circuits like a cpu... But you can *certainly measure the resistance of corroded connections* which this near totally prevents. As I said in my other comment, this is all the submersion rated "irrigation" wire nuts are: ordinary wire nut + dielectric grease + some tab or way to keep the grease from getting scooped out. Personal testament to NCP2 (dielectic + some anti-acid & corrosion inhibitors): In AK, I used to have to deeply scrape clean aggressive corrosion on all the fishing vessel's battery connections *3-4 times a summer!* Not only did that take a bunch of time, but you had to crawl into a tiny space across the acid leaking batteries to do it. Not a fun way to spend an hour. (the air on the sea has atomized salt in it, and the heavy load and charge cycles made batteries breath more). I got frustrated and cleaned them all really well, then tried coating them in NCP2. If it even added a week to the cleaning cycle, it would have been worth it. A year went by with no problems. I went to clean them the next year as regular prep, but they were still bright and shiny. As an experiment, *all I did was add a little NCP2 coating on top* to keep the connection from running out. *4 seasons later,* I wire brushed them just for the sake of being thorough, but *they still looked fine.* I started coating all the vessels electrical connections in them and we had noticeably way less failures. It saved so much time wire brushing and tracing connections all the time. When I stopped working there, the captain didn't realize how much of a difference that made. His new workers would skip that. He noticed that all the new electrical connections tended to fail in less than a year, sometimes half a season. Then he understood why I was so insistent he buy a new pint can every year so we would never run out. And he adopted the policy.
@@andrewstambaugh240 I was just going to comment I'm an industrial electrical apprentice, I use permatex brand for washdown-corrosive connections up to 480.
A good trick is to turn the engine over back wards..put it in gear and push the bike backwards or rotate the rear wheel on the stand..this weekend we had a drowned wr 450 yamaha and no deep spark plug socket to remove the plug..we first drained the water from the air box and exhaust (until I could be gently kicked over) by lying the bike down both sides and then the reverse technique to clear the intake and exhaust of water...then full throttle with kill switch activated(engine off position) and cranked on the starter to get some petrol.into the cylinder..then kill switch off(run position) and the bike started straight up on idle after the 3rd short crank...bit of water in the oil but rode the rest of the day..ps not my bike but someone on the ride....saved a long tow back to our base camp and worked a treat..the owner is getting a tool kit with a plug spanner for the next ride just incase...I hope
@@crosstrainingadventure I did! I'll be back in Morocco from April 27 to Mai 10, and it's there I had my wildest water crossings, although in Madagascar I had the most epic ones!
Had a 1986 TT 250 that would cut out in a long river crossing , it was the drain pipes that I think affected the atmospheric pressure in the carburettor ( please don’t send me hate mail if Ive go that information wrong ) anyway a T piece was inserted half way to allow take in air pressure under the seat but allow fuel to drain down wards.
My 11 gasgas 300 has a crank drain bolt. Such a great feature and I wish more bikes included it. Suck water into the engine? Undo the crank drain, kick it s few times, put the bolt back in and you're good to go.
My WR250F used to stall all the time after crossing, until I noticed the hoses running down the right side of the frame behind the rear brake lever, rerouted them on top of the air box and no more problems. Always thought I had a wank bike 😅
After doing the 20-ish river crossings from Nundle to Ellerston via Barry rd, I don't think I'll be doing any more any time soon, good fun but exhausting/daunting for a newbie like myself. Perrsonally I found picking a line and putting your head where you want to go worked best for me with rocky crossings, not once did I put my DR under water even with my ass planted on the seat, but I did wash out a few times coming out on the other side. Good tips tho, will be sure to use them in the future.
Great riding through there. We attempted that after floods and one of the guys got swept of the road on the second crossing, we eventually rescued him as he was clinging to a rock. Very dangerous in retrospect as he hadn't been riding for long.
If you get muddy water in your engine no amount of flushing will clean it, requires a full rebuild. lots of areas around and in bearings that will trap dirt forever. Don't ask me how i know.
A cigarette lighter kept in the waterproof plastic bag can be used to heat/dry the wet spark plug before attempting a restart. Use an inner tube - foot peg to foot peg to tow a unstartable bike. Much better than a rope that has no give.
Are y'all riding in waterworld!? I'm able to get Mobil 1 5w50 by the gallon at Walmart cheaper than I can get the cheap stuff go figure ! I was cruising down a gravel road at about 60 MPH after a thunderstorm last year and blasted across a concrete wash over ONLY it was washed out DEEP I barely hydroplane across it it through me up in the air but I kept rollin' baby!! fun times!!
Fast reaction time, Mark! Butt to the rear and gun it, I assume? I've occasionally come across a sheet of water at speed, my main issue is the force of the water usually knocks one of my feet of the footpegs.... a bit hairy.
@@crosstrainingadventure you bet Barry that water is a force to be reckon with I've got a place about a quarter mile long on a gravel road that stays flooded a lot of the time From Creek runoff I just love blast through it as fast as I can! ass to the back of the saddle like I'm in a horse jumping competition ONLY you have water trying to blast your feet out of the stirrups 😅👍
My YZ250X makes a vanilla shake every (knee high) water crossing. I think it's the power valve rubber gasket letting it in. Can't imagine it's sucking that much water thru a breather tube.
On my 2017 yzx it was a breather tube. Rerouted to airbox and it fixed the problem, but it may spit gear oil when hot so don't point the tube to air filter :)
I just become a fucking submarine. The enduro I did saw me go into a one way with roughly 2-4 bikes and going downstream on big ball rocks (it wasn't a crossing, it was river road), one - two bike bike ditch with 3m below on either side of us. I'll never forget the kindness of the guy behind me... legitimate guardian angel. I will also remember the asshole who rode over my head whilst underwater.
Subscribe for weekly adventure & dual sport vids!
English not your first language? Many subtitles...
Safety & protective gear vids bit.ly/3BmKeGE
Our dual sport & adv ride vids bit.ly/3HTdvvl
Bike & product reviews bit.ly/3BrnVjq
The more bizzare side! bit.ly/34ZschR
The more philosophical side bit.ly/3v9nKYX
Riding across Vietnam bit.ly/3pej9Rt
DR650 project vids bit.ly/3gQEStP
Check out our other channels too...
Cross Training Enduro bit.ly/3Jncax4
Cross Training Trials bit.ly/3uUjwEm
A tip for bikes that stall when they ride through water.
Instead of re-routing the carb vent hoses to the airbox you can fix it for good. Get a T-Joint at the hardware store for a buck and some extra vent hose. Try and identify which line(s) are vents and which are overflow lines by simply blocking them with a finger or sticking them in a cup of water one at a time till the bike dies. On most carbs there's only 1 line that does most of the work.
Splice the t-joint it in to the vent line at least 4" (10cm) away from the carb (keeps dirt from getting up into the carb from the vent line) and run one line to ground and another up near the headstock. You shouldn't have any issues with stalling when getting wet and randy anymore.
Great tip, Jensen!
all the advice you give is great thanks mate. ive been riding since i was 16 . im near 60 now have learnt alot of stuff from you that i didnt know.
Great to hear, Gary!
This is helpful advice. I had issues with the breather hoses on my mikuni carb. Riding in rain could clog the hoses for a while. I cut them in an angle at the end and it solved the problem.
I had an Husky TE610 that would just give up halfway across wide creeks, until I realised it was the breather hoses hanging too low.
Excellent video! I haven't drowned a bike in 40+ years, and back then it was sooo much easier to access the spark plug, carb, fuel lines that we rarely actually got water inside our 2 strokes. We usually just pulled spark plug, drained carb and kicked the engine over. If there wasn't much water, we put in one of the spare plugs. you always had spares because they fouled a LOT! Then we put bike in second gear and had buddies push until it started. Terrain wasn't as technical back then either. Ahh the simpler days.
So much space around the engine too... very easy to access everything. Pull a two stroke cylinder head off? Two minutes work.
@@crosstrainingadventure Yes, and my knuckles still bear the scars of open end wrenches slipping on the cylinder bolts and splitting on the sharp casting tags of the cooling fins. Ahh, the good ole days 🤣🤣
A good hack is installing a water drain plug (bolt) at bottom of header pipe. Weld a 10mm nut on header pipe drill an 8mm hole through the nut in the header pipe insert 10mm bolt through nut to seal hole. I think that's is how to do it. Water in exhaust. Remove bolt to drain water
As always, great advice. I learned my lesson about underwater obstacles. I tried to wheelie across a deep, muddy water crossing. At about ten mph I t-boned a hidden ten pound rock with my rear wheel. After that I had no problem checking for underwater obstacles. Great video for riders of all levels.
I know the feeling Marty! The only reason I wheelied in the preview pic was it was a concrete causeway and I could see there were no obstacles.
Pre-prep: put *dialectic grease,* NCP2, or similar on all your electrical connections. Stuff the connectors full from both sides if you can and consider taping over them afterwards.
Added plus is that you will almost never have to scrap your battery terminals again if you did a good shiny cleaning and coated them with this.
FYI: Fancy expensive "irrigation" wire nuts rated for submersion are just regular wire nuts + dialectic grease + some kind of tab to mostly keep the grease in. No reason we can't steal that knowledge and use it to our advantage.
Agreed, but to add to this, dielectric grease prevents water to get in electrical connectors, but also it potentially can prevent water to come out if water did got in. But I generally agree with this trick.
after the hours I lost yesterday greasing the swingarm and rear suspension on my 690, I'm 100% positive that I'll avoid water/river crossings as much as possible....
Same here, Raphael. I'll do them if I have to but won't go looking for them!
Thank you for the tips. I will do my best to avoid unnecessary water crossings!
Good stuff, I've always refused to accept the fact that (I) could drop my bike in deep water so I've never prepared myself for the outcome. I'm going to my shop now and rethink my tool kit selection now. Thanks again!
Glad the vid was useful, Terry!
I swamped my mighty bush pig last fall. Hit a large rock, lost footing and fell over. Thankfully the motor died beforehand. Drained the airbox, rang out filter, pulled a plug and cranked over to clear cylinder (that was a sight to see.. was a huge geyser).
I had to ride it a little over a mile as the terrain was rocky and hilly and we weren’t pushing it. Only thing I wish we would have done was drain out the overfill of the case. It was way over the sight glass and then some.
At home flushed with many filterless oil changes. Someone also recommended overfilling the case with diesel BUT NOT STARTING IT and dumping it. Diesel doesn’t strip the internals of lubrication. I did that twice and after 7 oil changes. It ran clear. Surprisingly my carb was pretty clean. A little bit a dirt around the slide but that happens naturally anyway. Also I changed my plugs.
Glad I didn’t kill the pig. Rode it the next weekend on a 150 mile ride through a forest at a sanctioned event.
Wow, seven oil changes! Better safe than sorry. Glad she survived. 😊
@@crosstrainingadventure fast forward to 4:40
ruclips.net/video/iG1tMooiXh8/видео.html
Good points but I'd add that it's easier to dab when sitting, (valuable when you hit unseen objects) your center of gravity and balance is better/lower when sitting, (more important on faster moving streams where angling downstream isn't possible) and most newer riders are more used to sitting. Hence I'd suggest for newer riders to sit.
Water may be more dense than oil, but I'm more dense than both 😉!.. Great vid & info!
🤣
I think a better electrical prep is to undo the connectors and fill them with dielectric grease prior to exposure.
Have you considered what dielectric means?
@@pollepost Have you? Would you prefer conductive grease in an electrical connector? Dielectric (nonconductive) grease is; depending on manufacturing specs the correct prevention method. It's not supposed to be part of the circuit but an insulator around connections. It's waterproof, resistant to corrosion, and thermally stable up to 500°F.
I've seen a few online debates about this. I haven't come across cases of it preventing a connection, but keen to hear if it has.
@@crosstrainingadventure I just posted the same thing above before seeing this. I'm a mechanical engineer, spent half a life as a commercial fisherman in Alaska, and now work as a skilled machine repairman. So I think I've enough qualifications to say *that is the right thing to do.*
You won't even be able to measure the difference in connectivity on a fluke multimeter, so unless you are building nano scale circuits like a cpu...
But you can *certainly measure the resistance of corroded connections* which this near totally prevents.
As I said in my other comment, this is all the submersion rated "irrigation" wire nuts are: ordinary wire nut + dielectric grease + some tab or way to keep the grease from getting scooped out.
Personal testament to NCP2 (dielectic + some anti-acid & corrosion inhibitors):
In AK, I used to have to deeply scrape clean aggressive corrosion on all the fishing vessel's battery connections *3-4 times a summer!* Not only did that take a bunch of time, but you had to crawl into a tiny space across the acid leaking batteries to do it. Not a fun way to spend an hour. (the air on the sea has atomized salt in it, and the heavy load and charge cycles made batteries breath more).
I got frustrated and cleaned them all really well, then tried coating them in NCP2. If it even added a week to the cleaning cycle, it would have been worth it.
A year went by with no problems. I went to clean them the next year as regular prep, but they were still bright and shiny. As an experiment, *all I did was add a little NCP2 coating on top* to keep the connection from running out. *4 seasons later,* I wire brushed them just for the sake of being thorough, but *they still looked fine.*
I started coating all the vessels electrical connections in them and we had noticeably way less failures. It saved so much time wire brushing and tracing connections all the time.
When I stopped working there, the captain didn't realize how much of a difference that made. His new workers would skip that. He noticed that all the new electrical connections tended to fail in less than a year, sometimes half a season. Then he understood why I was so insistent he buy a new pint can every year so we would never run out. And he adopted the policy.
@@andrewstambaugh240 I was just going to comment I'm an industrial electrical apprentice, I use permatex brand for washdown-corrosive connections up to 480.
A good trick is to turn the engine over back wards..put it in gear and push the bike backwards or rotate the rear wheel on the stand..this weekend we had a drowned wr 450 yamaha and no deep spark plug socket to remove the plug..we first drained the water from the air box and exhaust (until I could be gently kicked over) by lying the bike down both sides and then the reverse technique to clear the intake and exhaust of water...then full throttle with kill switch activated(engine off position) and cranked on the starter to get some petrol.into the cylinder..then kill switch off(run position) and the bike started straight up on idle after the 3rd short crank...bit of water in the oil but rode the rest of the day..ps not my bike but someone on the ride....saved a long tow back to our base camp and worked a treat..the owner is getting a tool kit with a plug spanner for the next ride just incase...I hope
Great tip, Peter
Awesome guide, very comprehensive! And very nice vids of water crossings!
Glad you enjoyed it Franck!
@@crosstrainingadventure I did! I'll be back in Morocco from April 27 to Mai 10, and it's there I had my wildest water crossings, although in Madagascar I had the most epic ones!
Very good advice👍
Glad it was helpful!
Had a 1986 TT 250 that would cut out in a long river crossing , it was the drain pipes that I think affected the atmospheric pressure in the carburettor ( please don’t send me hate mail if Ive go that information wrong ) anyway a T piece was inserted half way to allow take in air pressure under the seat but allow fuel to drain down wards.
Excellent survival vid, some thing for everybody. And..... entertaining. Thanks for sharing
Our pleasure!
Super Valuble Info / Thanks!!!!
My pleasure!
My 11 gasgas 300 has a crank drain bolt. Such a great feature and I wish more bikes included it. Suck water into the engine? Undo the crank drain, kick it s few times, put the bolt back in and you're good to go.
My WR250F used to stall all the time after crossing, until I noticed the hoses running down the right side of the frame behind the rear brake lever, rerouted them on top of the air box and no more problems. Always thought I had a wank bike 😅
After doing the 20-ish river crossings from Nundle to Ellerston via Barry rd, I don't think I'll be doing any more any time soon, good fun but exhausting/daunting for a newbie like myself. Perrsonally I found picking a line and putting your head where you want to go worked best for me with rocky crossings, not once did I put my DR under water even with my ass planted on the seat, but I did wash out a few times coming out on the other side. Good tips tho, will be sure to use them in the future.
Great riding through there. We attempted that after floods and one of the guys got swept of the road on the second crossing, we eventually rescued him as he was clinging to a rock. Very dangerous in retrospect as he hadn't been riding for long.
After a couple of interesting river excursions i now identify as a U boat commander.
😂
Excellent 👌
I learned something from this, thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
Excellent!!!
I drowned my kx250 and a buddy showed me a trick, take the carb off, if its gunked up you cant help clean it out with a splash of fuel and a lighter.
If you have a Kickstarter you can slowly turn it over to check for water in the cylinder
If you get muddy water in your engine no amount of flushing will clean it, requires a full rebuild. lots of areas around and in bearings that will trap dirt forever. Don't ask me how i know.
A cigarette lighter kept in the waterproof plastic bag can be used to heat/dry the wet spark plug before attempting a restart.
Use an inner tube - foot peg to foot peg to tow a unstartable bike. Much better than a rope that has no give.
Good tips, Simon!
Are y'all riding in waterworld!? I'm able to get Mobil 1 5w50 by the gallon at Walmart cheaper than I can get the cheap stuff go figure ! I was cruising down a gravel road at about 60 MPH after a thunderstorm last year and blasted across a concrete wash over ONLY it was washed out DEEP I barely hydroplane across it it through me up in the air but I kept rollin' baby!! fun times!!
Fast reaction time, Mark! Butt to the rear and gun it, I assume? I've occasionally come across a sheet of water at speed, my main issue is the force of the water usually knocks one of my feet of the footpegs.... a bit hairy.
@@crosstrainingadventure you bet Barry that water is a force to be reckon with I've got a place about a quarter mile long on a gravel road that stays flooded a lot of the time From Creek runoff I just love blast through it as fast as I can! ass to the back of the saddle like I'm in a horse jumping competition ONLY you have water trying to blast your feet out of the stirrups 😅👍
"Dead meat on the seat"
LOVE IT!
😁
My YZ250X makes a vanilla shake every (knee high) water crossing. I think it's the power valve rubber gasket letting it in. Can't imagine it's sucking that much water thru a breather tube.
On my 2017 yzx it was a breather tube. Rerouted to airbox and it fixed the problem, but it may spit gear oil when hot so don't point the tube to air filter :)
I just become a fucking submarine. The enduro I did saw me go into a one way with roughly 2-4 bikes and going downstream on big ball rocks (it wasn't a crossing, it was river road), one - two bike bike ditch with 3m below on either side of us. I'll never forget the kindness of the guy behind me... legitimate guardian angel. I will also remember the asshole who rode over my head whilst underwater.
Yeah, for some guys it's definitely each man out for himself lol. Thankfully we don't have anyone like that in our group... or not anymore.
Very appropriate time to post this video old mate 🤣
A good reminder for me too, Derek. I haven't drowned a bike yet but we've had a lot of rain and some flooding around here. 🤔
I would suggest that Lanolin (Lanotec) is far better than WD40
I hope you all listened, now go get on your dirtbike.
Your wheel bearings and swingarm/linkage will all need to be dried and greased too after that much water.
Great point!
Looks like you miss Cambodia?
It was a great experience, Oddvar, but I don't think I'd go back now.... I'm not coping with the heat so well as I get older.
What is the model name of that air cooled yamha? The first one that appears in the video ( 0:10 )
Ttr 225 i thinks
/ttr250? (looks like my ttr250) i.ibb.co/qkZNC3Z/20220215-095157.jpg
TTR250, Jaime. When I rode in Cambodia they had a fleet of them.
@@crosstrainingadventure Looks awesome and capable
@@crosstrainingadventure Is that was where this video was made? You have great riding areas in your videos and super helpful content!
😂
When you drown it....when not if!!
eyup bazza i just stay away from water if i can 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Same here mate. Baths and showers are overrated!
I find it MUCH easier to wear a scuba mask/tank and just go under the water.
And one for the bike 😂
Just buy a snorkel! easy fix
😂
Kiss me, I Ride a KTM.