spark plugs - are they telling me anything ?

[Guest]

Do these plugs tell me anything ? And if so what ?


















?

[7981GS]

This should help: http://www.ngk.de/fileadmin/template...en_code_en.pdf

Eric

[GateKeeper]

Thanks......

that much I actually knew, I wanted to know if the color of the plugs, and the look of the electrodes, etc, are actually telling me anything

.

[7981GS]

1 & 4 are running rich?
It could be any or a combination of things.
Coil weak for those cylinders, rich fuel adjustment screws, plug boots not making good contact, etc.

Some thoughts anyway.

Eric

[GateKeeper]

Thanks.....now that is telling me something.....

only problem, I don't know which one came from which cylinder.....dohhhhh

but the gaps are off on 2 of them, and they are not what the manual calls for...

so today I actually purchased new plugs, and installed them, and made sure the gap is set correctly.

I will run the bike a bit tomorrow, pull 1 and 4 and see what they look like

I am having a bit of a hard time getting the bike started, and to hold and maintain idle, today it stalled 2 times on the road, so something is going on.....

.

[Nessism]

Those are resistor plugs. What kind of coils, plug wires, and plug caps are you using?

[7981GS]

Thanks.....now that is telling me something.....

only problem, I don't know which one came from which cylinder.....dohhhhh

but the gaps are off on 2 of them, and they are not what the manual calls for...

so today I actually purchased new plugs, and installed them, and made sure the gap is set correctly.

I will run the bike a bit tomorrow, pull 1 and 4 and see what they look like

I am having a bit of a hard time getting the bike started, and to hold and maintain idle, today it stalled 2 times on the road, so something is going on.....

.

I only said 1 and 4 by the order in which you placed them for the last pic.
Disregard the coil being in question on those then.
Waiting on new results in correct order.

Eric

[koolaid_kid]

Gatekeeper, just for future reference, both Ed and Eric had valuable information on posting plugs, so if I may assemble it so we can be of better assistance:
When you post plugs for colour, please put them in order, left to right, 1 to 4. That way we can correctly diagnose them for you. The next to last pic is exactly what we need, and the last one is helpful but not required.
Ed's question has relevance for this reason: If you are running straight copper wires, then you can run resistive plugs. If you have the factory-style resistive caps, then you do not want to run resistive plugs. That is why his question is relevant.
Best of luck.

[Steve]

Ed's question has relevance for this reason: If you are running straight copper wires, then you can run resistive plugs. If you have the factory-style resistive caps, then you do not want to run resistive plugs.

Note that there are THREE areas of concern.
The wires can be "solid" or "suppression-type".
The caps can be "solid" or "resistive".
The plugs can be "normal" or "resistor".

You do not need more than one of them to be of the "resistive" type.
Actually, you don't "need" for any of them to be resistive, it will just keep your bike from affecting radios in the general vicinity.

If you still have stock wires, they are "solid".

If you have stock (or NGK) caps, they are "resistive".

Your plugs are "resistor" types, evidenced by the R in DR8ES-L.
By the way, the "L" is probably not necessary, either.

Since you probably still have resistive caps, get a set of new, proper plugs, DR8ES and start over.
Do some proper plug chops so you know exactly which carb circuit is coloring the plugs.
When you take the pictures, put the plugs next to numbers that show which one they are.

.

[Redman]

To emphasise a couple points that has been mentioned before:
- what folks will want to see is the color of the ceramic insulator that is around the center electrode. Will want to see the very end, and will want to see up into the plug a bit. SO position plugs and camera so that the light (Flash) can go up into the end of the spark plug, yah, like your next to last photo.
- and will want to know which plug is from which cyclinder, so keep them in some order, and maybe mark 1-2-3-4 nearby or something.

.

[GateKeeper]

Hey guys....

Sorry about the way I took the pictures, it was more of an after thought, and I should have taken care to pull them, mark them, and know which one was from what cylinder. I only pulled them, as they were the ones in since I parked the bike many years ago, and did not change them after I did the rebuild, I have been having a bit of trouble starting the bike, holding idle, and she will stall at times while out and about riding, unless I keep an an eye on things and blip the throttle a bit while at a light, or coming to a STOP sign etc,,,,while the bike is in motion there are no issues.

So I have changed the plugs, purchased new ones, hopefully I have the correct ones, and added about a 1/4 of a can of seafoam to a full tank of fresh gas, and will see if any of that helps and or gets things to a better state.

coils are original, caps and wires are original, and all seems to be in good condition, I did try to order new caps, but no one had the long ones as the originals so I had to stay with what I had unfortunately, and yes the caps are NGK marked

a few pics








if the combo of plugs and seafoam don't do anything to improve, well it's time for other avenues of diagnosing and trouble shooting, I will be all ears.....

Thanks

DAn

[sedelen]

Those are resistor plugs. What kind of coils, plug wires, and plug caps are you using?

Ed made a very important point here, resistor plugs, if you have resistor plugs and resistor type caps (500K ohms stamped on the cap) that's allot of resistance and voltage drop. Surely could be affecting the spark which I think would me minimized somewhat at least.

[7981GS]

I believe that I have read several members stating that the OEM caps can also be unscrewed and a short section of wire trimmed and re-install the caps for better spark?
Is this a fact or just copying what has been written by a previous poster? (Here-say)

Eric

[Nessism]

Is this a fact or just copying what has been written by a previous poster? (Here-say)

Eric

Fact. There is a threaded post inside the cap.

[7981GS]

Thanks Ed. Now, I KNOW it to be fact.
I have never messed with them myself... yet.

Eric