Newbie Battery Q's
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Yes, the condition of the spark plugs can vary from side to side, never mind cylinder to cylinder. But that one looks good enough the others should be the same. Send more pics!
My old 1983 is running richer since I fooled with the pilot jets, and it burns some oil.
My plugs looked like that most of the time, so I went to one step hotter to help keep them cleaner.
They were usually #8 so I went to a # 7 which is hotter in foreign plug heat ranges.
And yes the left rear plug gets crustier than the right rear. Same cylinder !
Must be the way the spark flame front flows?
My plugs looked like that most of the time, so I went to one step hotter to help keep them cleaner.
They were usually #8 so I went to a # 7 which is hotter in foreign plug heat ranges.
And yes the left rear plug gets crustier than the right rear. Same cylinder !
Must be the way the spark flame front flows?
The electrode and ground looks good except for the deposit at top of thread. Is that oily or sooty? Based on your other issues I would clean the plugs and reinstall and then check in a few hundred miles. If it is still oily maybe a valve problem and if sooty maybe too rich but for now I think they are great so no problem. With a reasonably well tuned engine I get about 20,000 miles from the original spec spark plugs so I stick with them. Iridium you may get 100,000 miles but I hate to have a spark plug that outlives me.
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These are the front right and back left plugs - the short well ones. I'm having a hard time getting the deeper ones out. I know I have the proper size and depth socket since it took the others out with ease. But I just keep turning and turning the wrench and the other ones aren't budging. Sometime it squeaks a little. I'm wondering if whoever installed these ones possibly stripped them or if the thread is slightly crooked. The others came out with such ease after only a few turns so I haven't exactly figured out what's going on with these deep ones.
FR is for right side of front Cylinder
BL is for the left side of the back Cylinder
FR is for right side of front Cylinder
BL is for the left side of the back Cylinder
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The threads are a but oily, but nothing crazy. The tips are more of a combination, there's definitely some build up of a little soot.
You need a thin walled socket as such in the toolkit otherwise your socket may be sitting on top of the spark plug and just turning.
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I ordered one this afternoon. Unfortunately, the stock toolkit wasn't with the bike when purchased. A lot of what I read online mentioned a thin walled socket being necessary.
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So, brief update. The thin walled socket will be here Thursday, so spark plugs are on hold until then. However, rather than order a new turn signal/horn setup I measured the spring opening, went on Amazon, and ordered a 100pc of 3mm OD compression springs. Cut one down just a bit and works perfectly. Only cost $10 for the pack. Just thought I'd share that, and if anyone wants a couple of springs for safe keeping I would be happy to send them out. You've all been so helpful so far. More to come...
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Finally got the thin walled socket and got the plugs out. Those deep welled ones are on my **** list.
However, here's the photos, the FL one is the front Cylinder and the BR one is the back. The back one didn't look as good as the others. Either way, torque wrench is in as well as new spark plugs so they're all getting changed out. Figure it can't hurt.
However, here's the photos, the FL one is the front Cylinder and the BR one is the back. The back one didn't look as good as the others. Either way, torque wrench is in as well as new spark plugs so they're all getting changed out. Figure it can't hurt.
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If you already bought the new ones, may as well use but I would still pop them out in 3-4 hundred miles to examine just because i don't like that oil/soot. I would also suggest using a top tier fuel (PON 87), good oil and stock air filter.
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Hey, thanks for the advice. I will definitely check them around then. I did put them in this morning and went for a quick ride. Definitely seems to accelerate a little smoother. I can still feel a small something at 20mph, but no way near as bad as before. Maybe it's just me and something I'm doing. Also, the air filter was changed just before I bought the bike. I'm not sure if it is K&N or HiFlo, but it looks to be one of the two. As far as the oil or filter, last I checked the oil looked good, but I haven't checked the filter. The seller said he changed both, but I will most likely do that again when the season starts for my own piece of mind.
Looks like you are on the right track. What did you gap the plugs to? The low end of the specs I hope.
I would definitely change the oil and filter unless you know the previous owner well. If the bike is all stock, no exhaust, intake, or carb mods, I would return to using the stock Honda air filter.
Eric
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I would definitely change the oil and filter unless you know the previous owner well. If the bike is all stock, no exhaust, intake, or carb mods, I would return to using the stock Honda air filter.
Eric
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Hey Phan,
I took the majority of the advice here and gapped the plugs to .28. I do not know the owner at all. I bought the bike used off of Facebook Marketplace. He did provide me the invoice of all the work done to the bike 3 months before I bought it. He said he did an oil change and changed the filter right before I bought it. Last I check the oil looked good, but it probably wouldn't hurt to change it and the filter myself. I havent done that before on a motorcycle. I've watched a couple of YouTube videos and it seems pretty straight forward, but any advice wouldn't be ignored. I attached a photo of the air filter. I can't say whether it's stock or not, but looks it?
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You mention there are service records so if they include a recent oil and filter change then I would not worry, Also that air filter looks good. As mentioned, maybe poor quality fuel was the reason the plugs looked oily as switch to a name brand for a while. The slight hesitation now sounds like gum in carbs so without a full carb cleaning, I would just try Seafoam or Berrymans or just a good fuel like Chevron and see if that clears up the hesitation.
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There are, but there's no mention of an oil change or carb cleaning. The owner said he did the oil change himself. I added a half bottle os Seafoam with my last fill up, but unfortunately it's winter here so my rides have been few and far between. As for the carbs, they were never discussed, so I really don't have any idea of when the last time they received any love is. I have been watching a lot of videos on cleaning them. I'm thinking as long as I don't mess with the sync screw maybe I should be okay. But I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me a little nervous diving into it. I've only even changed a single carb on a moped, never a dual or on a serious engine like this. But it does seem to be the next logical step in getting the bike in better running condition.
I suggest getting a 14mm copper oil plug washer instead of using the factory aluminum variant as they don't fail from wear and being over torqued. Just love the carbs with Seafoam/Berryman B12 if its running well. If it's not broke, don't fix it. One thing you can/should do that's very important, revise the 3 yellow wire stator plug connection with good quality industrial butt splices and shrink wrap them. So many electrical issue's can happen at this plug connection failure.
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Hey man,
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into getting one of those, for sure.
Can you be more specific when you say "love the carbs?" I currently have a half of bottle of Seafoam in my gas tank. Is there anywhere else I can put it? I've seen some videos online of people opening up the drain screws and spraying it in there.
Also, the 3 wires was one of the first things I did at the suggestion of everyone here. Doing that and cleaning my contact points made a big difference.
Even if, for some reason, you split the carbs from each other, or accidentally messed up the sync screw... It's all good. With the carbs out, all you do is fully close the butterfly valve on one, and then adjust that screw until the other is the same distance 'closed' as the first one. 'Bench syncing', it's called. You can do the full sync later with gauges or manometers if you want, but that's really for optimizing. The bike will run just fine with a bench sync.
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