Replaced spark plugs today.
Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2023 4:11 pm
I know, whoop-de-doo. Should be a relative piece o' cake. And the right side was. I know I probably didn't have to remove the cover, but I did for slightly easier access. Start to finish took maybe ten minutes. Move to the left side. More of a pain to remove the cover, but then the real fun began. I lowered the socket into the hole and it wouldn't grab the plug. Try again. Nope. Try the socket from the tool kit. Nope. So I grabbed a flashlight and took a look inside and saw what looked like a rubber ring in the hole, encircling the ceramic part of the plug.
I'm sure most of you are way ahead of me on this. I looked at the end of the spark plug wire and it was missing that fat part at the end. Sure enough, that's what was stuck in the cylinder head, blocking access to the plug itself. After spending a lot of time and inventing new curse words, I was finally able to remove it and put it back on the wire, insert the new plug, futz around lining up the not-so-easy-to-access screws for the cover and button everything up. Grabbed the key, crossed my fingers and it started right up and sounds just wonderful.
It's things like this that are the reason I lean toward having someone else do work on the bike.
I'm sure most of you are way ahead of me on this. I looked at the end of the spark plug wire and it was missing that fat part at the end. Sure enough, that's what was stuck in the cylinder head, blocking access to the plug itself. After spending a lot of time and inventing new curse words, I was finally able to remove it and put it back on the wire, insert the new plug, futz around lining up the not-so-easy-to-access screws for the cover and button everything up. Grabbed the key, crossed my fingers and it started right up and sounds just wonderful.
It's things like this that are the reason I lean toward having someone else do work on the bike.