Got a question about my motor. I have a hd4000 with single carb. It ran fine all day on wed but on the way home from the water I ran in to downpour.today I went out and tried to start it and it won't do anything but turn over and backfire out the exhaust. I'm wanting to know if any of Yall have had a problem with water going though the prefilter and airfilter and getting water in the carb. That's the only thing that I can think of. If this is the case what have Yall done to stop this. I store the boat out of the weather but I ran into the rain on the way home. Thanks for your input.

I ran into that one mornin on way in from a hunt in a downpour. Once it dried out, it fired right off. Have you tried to crank it without the filter on it? Since that was the only time it ever did it to me, I never looked into it maybe being the plug wires, but that's another possibility.

Yeah I took the filter off and right at the opening of the carb it looked to have a few water droplets but the filter was dry. I turned it over with filter off and no change. I did pull the plugs out after a few attempts to start and they look like they were fouled out. Thats what lead me to the water in the carb and its just get watered down petrol

Have you cleaned or changed the plugs & tried again?

Yeah did a quick clean on the plugs and still no change. Then dinner was ready and I stopped messing with it

I left the plugs out and I'm gonna go get me some more tomorrow

Well, with the filter off, we know it's gettin air, so that only leaves gas & fire. Check to see if it's gettin spark. Those coils are new, but that don't mean they aint bad. I'm thinkin you probably got some water in that fuel, like you said. You know all too well from dealing with cars & trucks, it's probably something simple & easy to fix.

It's getting some spark atleast. When you give it gas while starting it will throw a fire out the exhaust when it pops. I'm thinking that with the motor on the travel lock that rain went through the filter and down in to the float bowl. We know water will go to the bottom and I'm thinking it probably pushed the good gas out. Probably gonna drain the carb and replace plugs after work tomorrow.

If this is the case. I guess I'm going to invest in a engine cover. My old one for my 23 won't fit

Good point, let me know how it turns out. I might wanna buy me a travel cover too.

Next question. I assume that the bolt on the bottom of the carb is a drain for it.

Yeah, you can drain it that way, but it's actually an access port for the main jet.

Well not sure why or how but it seems that some how my plugs just decided to stop sparking on the trailer not even running. I threw plugs in and bumped the key and presto, motor purring again

if you have a rev limiter it will do that also

Glad she's runnin again, but that's kinda strange.

Thats what I thought put I didnt do anything else put plugs. I guess I did it puting it on the trailer, my buddy wasnt quite far enough in the water and I just drove up the trailer and shut her down, so maybe throwing all that gas to them and not blowing out had something to do with it. Oh well running again

sounds like your rev limiter.... happened to me a couple of months ago and once it dried out it started working again.... kinda weird....

Very possible. I always had it in a dry box, so it never got wet. Where is it now?