Spark plugs anyone?

[jfeagins]

I read on the Star forum how much of a bugger bear the simple act of changing out the Gen II plugs could be. Even watched a short vid clip on how to help the COPS removal with a blast of air.

All I can say is: they were not exaggerating when they said it was a beotch to do first time around. MOFO! I felt like I needed to close the garage doors down so as to avoid the neighbors turning me in for verbal abuse - and I live in the middle of 10 acres!

I mean seriously - who ever heard of having to remove the f'ing battery and battery box in it's entirety to get at a couple of measly spark plugs:confused2: And that left front plug? My hands still ache from squeezing them into a place where even the smallest Jap hands shouldn't be fit.

If you own a Gen II, and aren't necessarily mechanically inclined: DON"T DO THIS AT HOME. Schedule an appointment at your local Yamaha dealer and pay them to do it.

And Iridium plugs? Who the f''k thought those were a good idea? Tiny tip is so fragile, I'd hate to try re-gapping them. Can't imagine trying to pry a larger gap w/o damaging that tip. I would have liked to go a bit smaller gap with the new plugs to experiment with firing under 'cruise' conditions, but was afraid of damaging that little tip, and so, I made due with the .032-.033 gap they came with.

On the bright side, I do think the new plugs are firing better than the ones I removed, but they only have 4K miles on them. I've never had plugs foul that soon since selling off the last two-stroke bike I owned back in the late 70's.

Sorry for the rant. Had to vent somewhere.

...and now to go schedule the oil pump recall for the bike...

 

[Sonoran6]

With the iridium plugs, I used small needle nose to over gap them, then tap it down lightly with the gapper in place. Broke a couple before trying this.

 

[RaWarrior]

Did you mean it actually fouled one? Wow. There's absolutely zero excuse for an EFI system as complex as that on the gen 2 for ever fouling a plug. What a load of BS.

Normally iridium plugs are fitted since they last, for all practical purposes, the life of the bike. Why bother making them easy to access if you should never have to service them?

I wouldn't fuss with the gap on iridiums. Too easy to damage, and gapping plugs just doesn't really matter. The only reason to play with it is if you think the ignition system is dying, in which case a smaller gap may help it run better....did that to an old quad. Used the precise "tap on a rock" method, which did cure it's tendency to cut out under load.

 

[KJShover]

+1

Spark plug gap isn't as important as it used to be in the past, now companies like Autolite and others claim over 100k miles on them before replacement. My dodge had 90k miles on it before I replaced the old champions. As far as the gap, you can be a little off and still be alright. When you have to start paying attention to spark plugs and gap is when things have been done to the bike. ie higher compression, fuel, turbo/supercharging (you can actually blow out the flame, causing a misfire), and nitrous applications. When I work on my vehicles (Vmax, Dodge) I always set the gap. I'm just particular that way.

Modern day stuff is pretty much plug and play.