| Author | Message | ||
     Xb9rski |
Ok, time to embarrass myself. This happened about a month ago and it was totally my fault. So by embarrassing myself, I hope someone won't make the same mistake. It was a normal monday morning and I was doing my normal 90+ down the 215 when all of a sudden my xb9r dropped down to 60 mph. I was about 1/2 a mile from where I meet my friend that rides with me. So I continued on and met up with him. When I got there I told him I needed to ride straight to the dealer ship and drop off my bike, which was only about 15 miles away. I limped her into the dealership only to realize that it was closed due to it being a Monday. So I drover her back to his house not getting more than 65 mph and sounding like SH$* all the way. Parked her in his garage and we took his car into work. We left work early to see what the problem was. I started by taking off the air scoop and discovered my problem looking straight at me. Where there was supposed to be a spark plug there was not. My front cylinder spark plug had backed out and was MIA somewhere on the 215. Was lucky enough to get a hold of a Harley dealership that was closing at 5 pm and didn't have enough time to get there before closing, but did manage to get a part # from them. Then called a Jap bike place and they crossed the part # with NGK and they had what I needed. Got back to friends garage, installed new plug and she fired up like a champ. Needless to say, when your doing your own maintenance ensure that you read the whole paragraph. The part I missed was "ensure that you apply lock tight to the threads of the spark plugs". I can assure you that, that will not happen to me again. As luck would have it the only other maintenance that I had to do besides replacing both spark plugs was change the oil due to the fact that when the plug came out fuel was able to mix with the oil. It happened about 2600 miles after I had changed my spark plugs during my 10K service. Learn from this and don't let it happen to you. I'm just glad that it was the front and not the rear spark plug. | ||
| Sparky |
"apply lock tight to the threads of the spark plugs" No no. I wouldn't put loctite on any spark plug. Use high temp anti-sieze and torquing to the proper value with a torque wrench instead although you'll have to use a swivel adapter on the rear plug.  Anti-sieze helps prevent galling of the aluminum threads when removing the plugs. | ||
| M1combat |
That sucks... I wonder how much road debris was sucked in and blown out of the vacant plug hole??? | ||
| M1combat |
BTW... Didn't your engine light come on?? | ||
| Buckinfubba |
not lock tight yes anti sieze | ||
| Xb9rski |
BTW... Didn't your engine light come on?? No it did not come on!! | ||
| Fullpower |
did you hear a lot of compression noises? | ||
| Xb9rski |
Yeah It was making a lot of noise, Before the plug actually departed it was spitting and sputtering intermittently. | ||
| Cyclonecharlie |
Im surprized the old sparkplug was not still wedged in there. What NGK plug did you replace it with and did you replace both plugs?.....Later Charlie | ||
| Blake |
Locite on a spark plug??!! No way! Does the manual actually advise such a thing?! | ||
| Fullpower |
blake: the service manual calls for the use of "LOCTITE ANTI-SEIZE" not loctite thread locker.. loctite BRAND anti-seize. SO, IN CASE ANYONE DID NOT HEAR ME THE FIRST TIME: USE A VERY SMALL AMOUNT OF ANTI-SEIZE LUBRICANT ON THE THREADS OF THE 10R12A SPARKPLUGS, THEN TIGHTEN THEM TO 18 LBS-FEET TORQUE. ok i am done shouting, thank you for listening. ride safe, dean | ||
| Captainkirk |
HEAR YE, HEAR YE! Not Loctite is SO correct. Just thought I'd add, while on the subject...first time I pulled off the tumorous appendage known as "Helmholtz" and removed my breather bolts to get to the carb, the rear one snapped clean off! The old threads came out with heat and an EZout easy enough. They had been previously installed with some kind of gasket adhesive. A little antisieze (NOT LOCTITE!!!)on the threads makes it a snap to get off now (pun intended) ck | ||
| Sparky |
Loctite Anti-Seize. I'd vote that as the year's best oxymoron. | ||
| Road_thing |
2nd best oxymoron: Cherry tart | ||
| Xb9rski |
Ok, Ok, If I can get my plugs out now, when I re-install them I will use the Anti-seize (NOT LOCTITE) see what happens when you don't read the whole thing. OOPS  | ||
| Xb9rski |
Cyclonecharlie, I'll post the NGK plug part # tomorrow | ||
| Tbolt834 |
Third best oxymoron: Clinton Gore No wait a minute - their just morons.  | ||
| Prs |
Third best oxymoron: Clinton Gore No wait a minute - their just morons  | ||
| Xb9rski |
Ok, finally found the paper with the part # for the NGK plugs, so here it is NGK # DCPR8E sorry it took so long. | ||
| Cyclonecharlie |
Xb9rski Thanks for the info on the NGK plugs. Do they seem to be working OK for you? ......Later Charlie | ||
| Xb9rski |
Well, I only put the front one in, that was on a monday, ran it for a work week then went back to stock plugs on the weekend. I try saving my maintenance for the weekend if I can. I do think that I'm going to switch to the NGK plugs @ 20k to see how 2 of them work together. It's nice to know that there is a cheaper and probably better plug out there for her. And believe me if you have the service manual read the whole paragraph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Three times if your Polish | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
Xb9rski my polish friend wants to know if your blonde also like her  | ||
| 2bbuell |
4th Best oxymoron: Jumbo Shrimp.  | ||
| Xb9rski |
Wycked.....No, not blond, Just Polish, Italian, German and Cherokee Indian.....think thats it? Just another Crossbred Mutt......Not Inbred....Crossbred...Big difference. |
