Peter, I hope the problem is one sparkplug cap, but if not;
Imho it is a Yamaha disease.
My GTS is having the same problem in the rain. I've changed all plug
endcaps and sparkplugs recently, but the misfires are still there in the
rain.
During and just after the winter there is a lot of salt on most Europan
roads to do melt the snow and ice and to destroy bike's electrical
components. The Yamaha sparkplug wires are melted into the coils so you
can't change them in a normal way. When the rubber from the sparkplug
wires gets older there came some little cracks in it. The isolating
fuction drops down and with water, dirt and/or salt you get misfires.
I've had exactly the same problems on my former Yamaha bike FJ1200,
twice!
Bought a new coils/wire set and a year later again the same problems.
When I sprayed some water on the wires in a dark garage it was clearly
wat was wrong, dancing sparks all over the place.
But after mounting Honda CBR1000 ignition coils with removable sparkplug
wires, there was never a problem again. This is top secret, dont tell it
to any Honda rider ;-)
I just replaced the wires after every winter for a couple of bucks, that
was a way better then selling complete ignition coils every year.
So I'm thinking of doing a same sort of Honda-trick at the GTS.
I use tie wraps to be sure that the plug wires do not touch the engine
while routing them.
BTW at the XS1100 site there is a way to rebuild those poor Yamaha
coils.
http://www.xs11.com/tips/repair/repair24.shtml
May be that is worth to try.
John Dreuning
http://home.planet.nl/~dreuning
Peter Maggiacomo wrote:
> Upon returning from a wonderful weekend getaway
> with the GTS, I ran into a horrific thunderstorm.
> Traffic slowed to 35-40mph on a straight road, as
> this was all visability would allow. A few minutes
> into the storm and my ignition was misfiring, running
> on 3 cylinders. Five miles down the road I rode
> through the storm. Roads were dry and the hot sun
> was shinning. In a few miles the mis gradually went
> away. I would like to correct this before my trip
> to the Honda Hoot in June. So what's failing?
> 1 Plug endcaps
> 2 Sparkplug wires
> 3 Ignition coils
> Bike has 46k on it and all ignition is original,
> except for platnium plugs at 30k.
> Thanks
