| Author | Message | ||
     Flick |
So...here’s the scoop. Last November, I decide its time to prep the 9S for winter storage. One of the must do’s...remove the spark plugs and pour a little oil down the holes. No problem, thinks I. Undo the airbox cover, remove aircleaner cover, air filter, base plate so I can get at the rear spark plug. Try to remove the spark plug wire...well, that sucker won’t budge for anything! Same for the front spark plug wire. Well, hell, these have to come off, or there’s no oil going down the holes! Okay, I get a little peeved trying to pull up the boots...my hands are hurting like crazy trying to get into these tight spaces...so I start pulling on the wires! Finally I get them off, remove the spark plugs and drop in a little oil and finish up the job. Then, I’m reading in the service manual...do not pull on the sparkplug wires, they are “carbon-impregnated fabric core instead of solid wire”, and can be damaged if pulled too hard. Great! I decide I’ll order new wires when spring comes. A few weeks ago I head over to the Buellership and place my order. No problem, sir, that’ll be $17.00 Cdn....should be here in a couple of weeks. A couple of weeks go by and, voila!...your plugs are in, come and pick them up. Get to the Buellership, guy punches in some numbers...the wires now cost $38.00 Cdn! What the hell?!?! Seems they added a letter to the “new” plug wires, it’s now part #Y0204.02ABA (I think the last “A” doubled the cost!). Can anyone out there explain why the wires would double in price? I open the package when I get them home, and they certainly look different than the ones I pulled off! They have these series of bulges on the plug boot end, which the previous ones did not. Then I look in the service manual again. On one page, they have an illustration which looks a lot like my new wires; but skip ahead a couple of pages, and they are testing the resistance (?) in a photo which resembles the wires I originally pulled off! What gives? The new wires also have a fair amount of what I assume is di-electric grease shoved up the plug boot end. So I put the new wires on, which also had me cursing...could they find a more difficult place to install a spark plug?! I’m sure there is some tool out there which makes this job easier, and if any of you know what it looks like, or have used it and it works, please fill me in before my hands cripple-up! | ||
| Mikej |
"I’m sure there is some tool out there which makes this job easier" Find yourself a tool under the part number description of "2000 M2 Cyclone", the plugs are readily accessable.  But seriously, sorry, there is no tool to make the job easier. There are plug wire pullers that look like a home-made pair of pliers with the grip ends curved and dipped in rubber, but the rear plug on an XB would be a difficult reach for one of them. I wonder if you'd pre-paid for the plug wires if you would have still had to pay the price increase. I wonder who else makes suitable wires for the XB's. I imagine the dielectric grease is to help when riding in wet or humid conditions. I am a little curious why you oiled the cylinders prior to winter storage when most folks around down here just use a misting agent in the gas for winter storage, or they use nothing at all. It's the little things like this that make me appreciate my 'tuber all the more. | ||
| Flick |
Mikej, not exactly sure where Wisconsin is...have to get a map I guess (dumb Canucks!). But up here in the frozen North, if you store your Buell for six months, its a good idea to throw something slippery down those holes! Especially if the garage isn't heated! I'd switch to the M2, but I still haven't paid for the XB! I'll check around for the tool you describe, just in case it works. Thanks. | ||
| Flick |
Sorry Fullpower...can't get to Whitehorse early July...holidays don't start until end of July. Say, Edmonton to Whitehorse...bet that's only about a 2000+ mile one-way trip! Actually, I've been threatening to head north for years, but was going to do it on the KLR650...it doesn't go through tires as fast as the Buell, and it's way faster on gravel! I'll certainly give you a call beforehand if I ever get that trip organized/financed. | ||
| Chainsaw |
I changed the plugs in my 9R on Saturday. I used the big flat end of a Red Devil prybar to push the boot off the spark plug, worked like a charm. I also coat my spark plugs, ceramic part and up, in dielectric grease. It stops corrosion and makes removing the boots easier the next go round. YMMV | ||
| Mikej |
Is anyone dropping the front of their XB engine regularly to do any work or mods to them? Just curious as when the XB's first came out it sounded like dropping the front mount and pivoting the engine down on the rear was supposedly an easy and quick way to access and work on engine parts. Just curious if anyone is actively doing this, or was it just a factory joke I'm just now catching on to. | ||
| Xb9rski |
I don't have a Red Devil pry bar, so I just heated and bent the end of an old long screw driver and it works good for pulling the boot off of the rear plug. This was after pulling to hard and tearing it. Black electrical tape works like a champ. Ski | ||
| Jerseyguy |
When I button up my boats for the winter here in Jersey, I spray a fogging oil (made for this purpose) into the carb or throttle body until the engine stalls. I never tried it on a bike but I don't see why it wouldn't work. When you start up in the spring they smoke for 10 seconds or so as you'd expect but they have always started right up. I've used this technique on various outboards as well as a couple of Ford 351 CI inboards with no problem. | ||
| Kaese |
I read on a post somewhere that removing the coil made the deed much easier. Took that advice. I had more problems getting the plugs out than the wires. | ||
| Flick |
Jerseyguy, that fogging oil wouldn't clog up the injectors would it? To spray, wouldn't you have to remove the air filter and spray right down the throttle body? | ||
| Jerseyguy |
Flick - That's right, I spray it right down the throttle body and then kill the engine. Works on my Ski Nautique's Ford 351 EFI inboard. |
