NGK non resistorized BxES spark plugs discontinued.. what now?

[mattd1205]

Looks like the beloved BxES plugs were a casualty of 2020. NGK discontinued many of their Non-resistor plugs and it seems they left us in quite a lurch for those of us still rocking points. The BR7ES, BR8ES and BR9ES plugs are still being made but I was always told that combining a 5K ohm resistorized cap and resistorized plug makes it really hard for points equipped bikes to create a strong spark. I’m not terribly interested in converting to a Dyna for various reasons but it doesn’t look like NGK makes a non resistorized 120 degree and 102 degree cap either. What to do.. what to do.

[Cipher]

Contact Nippondenso? Query the xrefs of other vendors.
Plugs and caps are not as magical as ad copy writers assert.

[zed1015]

Still plenty of genuine NGK B8ES and B9ES plugs in stock available from various outlets .
They are £1.72 individually from the green spark plug company - NGK B8ES 2411 Spark Plug Copper Core (gsparkplug.com)
I've also just bought a few 10 pack boxes elsewhere for £17 a shot delivered ( £1.70 per plug ) to keep me going a few years.
I also use some Denso iridium's as they have non resistor direct equivalents to the NGKS.
You shouldn't use two forms of resistance in an system but if you do have to run BR8ES resistor plugs and really want to keep the NGK caps then it's an easy job to remove the resistor from the caps or just go buy some Dyna leads that are non resistor.

[LAB3]

You can find them on eBay but they fetch a pretty penny. The alternative is to swap out your old spark plug caps for non-resistor spark plug caps and go with the BR8-ES plugs. Supposedly you can open up your resistor caps and remove the resistor and use a piece of 10ga wire in the space left behind but I wasn't able to figure out a way to open them up without breaking them. If you google "replace resistor in spark cap" you can find some tips.

[rphillips]

The brass part, up in the cap, that slides onto the plug is slotted. A flat screwdriver will screw it out then the resistor & spring will fall out. Done it many many times, never figured it needed any resistance anyway except to reduce static on AM radios.

[mattd1205]

Still plenty of genuine NGK B8ES and B9ES plugs in stock available from various outlets .
They are £1.72 individually from the green spark plug company - NGK B8ES 2411 Spark Plug Copper Core (gsparkplug.com)
I've also just bought a few 10 pack boxes elsewhere for £17 a shot delivered ( £1.70 per plug ) to keep me going a few years.
I also use some Denso iridium's as they have non resistor direct equivalents to the NGKS.
You shouldn't use two forms of resistance in an system but if you do have to run BR8ES resistor plugs and really want to keep the NGK caps then it's an easy job to remove the resistor from the caps or just go buy some Dyna leads that are non resistor.

Fantastic! I never thought these caps were capable of being disassembled. I think what I'll do when spark plug time comes around again, I'll measure the diameter and lenth of the rod and resistor and go down to the hardware store to buy some rod that I can cut to size and put in there. Thanks Zed1015!

[mattd1205]

You can find them on eBay but they fetch a pretty penny. The alternative is to swap out your old spark plug caps for non-resistor spark plug caps and go with the BR8-ES plugs. Supposedly you can open up your resistor caps and remove the resistor and use a piece of 10ga wire in the space left behind but I wasn't able to figure out a way to open them up without breaking them. If you google "replace resistor in spark cap" you can find some tips.

Yeah, I saw how outrageously priced the regular old B8ES plugs have gotten on Ebay. The fact that people can price those so outrageously high and actually sell them tells me there's still quite a demand for the non-resistorized version. I wonder why NGK decided to pull the plug (pardon the pun) on them.

[rphillips]

I'm sure a 10ga wire or rod of the correct size & length will work fine. We just take stranded wire & just wad & pack it down in there a little higher than the height the resistor was, spring back in then screw the little brass thing back in against the spring.

[metalfab]

If the bike runs fine with resistor plugs it can be a plus. An ignition coil saturates with power until the voltage goes high enough to jump the plug gap, that includes the resistance of the plugs air gap and wire/plug cap combo. it all occurs in milliseconds. Controlled resistance in plugs and plug caps can actually create a hotter spark. This can occur because the coil may saturate to a higher voltage to overcome higher resistance. If secondary ignition resistance in plugs and caps causes other problems the potential to build higher voltage becomes pretty mute.

[GregT]

[QUOTE=mattd1205;264025 I wonder why NGK decided to pull the plug (pardon the pun) on them.[/QUOTE]

Because they're old tech. The cars and bikes they were OE on are now supposed to be obsolete. It's become a niche market with diminishing demand.

Comparable to banks dropping the use of cheques.

[bitzz]

What metalfab said
AND a resistor plug will give you a longer spark event.
Longer spark is better.

[rphillips]

Glad ya'll put this on here. We wondered & asked several folks, back then, if there would be any harm in throwing the resistor out & only answer we got was the resistors take a lot of the static out of AM radios. We thought resistance meant slower or weaker & we didn't want any part of that. We also ran non resistor plugs along with the resistor deleted caps. Only resistance was the plug wires, we never replaced them. Good thing it must not damage anything, I never remember us having any kind of firing problems. Maybe I should check my 2 "83" model bikes, not sure, but I probably took the resistors out of them when I bought them back in the early 2000"s. Again, Thanks for this info, very interesting.

[metalfab]

You can widen the plug gap just a bit in an effort to build a hotter spark. Just like everything you can go too far, and you might run into problems widening plug gaps. I have also been looking into Iridium plugs, there is something there. Iridium changes the spark and makes it hotter. Iridium is what plasma cutters use to create electrical plasma to cut any conductive material. When the Iridium blows out on a plasma cutter it produces so much less spark energy. So with Iridium plugs you are creating a super hot hybrid of spark and plasma. I was recently reading an article where a journalist was doing a write up on motorcycle plugs. He stated that iridium plugs don't produce a hotter spark they just last longer, that isn't true. Just like LEDS convert electricity into light, iridium creates a normal spark inside a shower of plasma. Iridium also induces electron flow, or said another way it is easier for the spark to jump the gap, and the spark is hotter. These plugs are not available for everything right now, I did see some at Dennis Kirk recently so they are catching on for motorcycles.

[zed1015]

These plugs are not available for everything right now, I did see some at Dennis Kirk recently so they are catching on for motorcycles.

I've been using Iridiums in some of my bikes for over 10 years now.
You can go on the Denso web page and find the iridium equivalent for almost all sparkplugs in both resistor and non resistor types.
They are the only ones i could find that had a NGK B9ES match in both 14mm and 10mm sizes when i twin plugged my supercharged Kawasaki Z1

[80GS1000]

+1 on the iridium plugs. They are more expensive than the nickel variants but they last a LONG time so you may save money in the long run. I haven't changed my iridium plugs in my GS1000 yet (no need) but I expect them to last for a long while.

As an example of iridium plug longevity, the plugs in my Toyota RAV4 have a 120K mile plug change interval.

Iridium NGK 5044 fits on the GS750/1000 and many other GS models.