Hitchcocks Forum

Hi

New to the forum, not long purchased a yellow 535, been relatively OK through summer, but now if it rains over night the first ten minutes is a series of cutting out and restarting, cutting out then restarting, any ideas? Bike has a booster plug, idles at 1100, new oil and filter, and air filter. I've looked over all electrical elements and cannot see any areas to concern. Baffling as there's nothing obviously wrong?

Thanks

Replace the factory plug spark cap with a suitable NGK or Champion plug cap?

A.

Enfield ignition switches can be quite shonky, could be worth a squirt of WD40 down the keyhole. I've been left at the side of the road before when water got into one.

I had an intermttant cutting out problem on my 350 bullet. Every time I applied the brake firmly in the rain, the engine stuttered and started misfiring. It took me longer than I'd lke to admit to work out it was because a pool of water that had accumulated in a fold of my overjacket was slopping forwards and dropping directly onto the pod air filter when the brake was applied.

Cheers gents, after a little research, the spark plug cap keeps coming up as a possible reason, so I've got the ngk on order, will report back, let's see if that works?

When my 500cc Bullet was new, in 2000, it always cut out in the rain. I changed the plug cap and lead, and it never cut out again.

If you start them up in the dark, you can sometimes see sparks arcing from a dodgy plug cap or HT lead.

Side stand switch is very open to the weather as well - worth a look...

Another for the plug, and the sidestand switch.

OK so the plot thickens... off to work this morning, cold dry, a bit of dew on the saddle, gauges & mirror etc, headlight on, off we go... Pootling along, no issues, then on a bend slowing, battery light comes on and the bike dies, annoyed, but restart and away we go, then the engine starts to hunt, and wants to accelerate on a wim. FFS what now I'm thinking, anyway get to work park up, forget about it.

So hometime comes, jump on the bike, all lights off, away we go. Get home without one single issue, never misses a single thump, ticks over strongly, accelerates like a dream brakes, stops, starts as if its just left the factory. I'm totally bemused, it's like two completely different bikes, a bag of nails in the morning and purrs like a kitten in the afternoon.

BTW haven't installed the plastic NGK yet, no idea what's going on, morning shit, afternoon excellent. Surely it's not because the headlight is on, pulling drain on the battery?

Ideas welcome please

Is the battery earth lead properly connected?